Absolte Air Industries

Hello Caro I am sending you this email to tell you that yesterday, February 23, 2016, I sent you the fax that Mr. [redacted] asked for so that the case would be closed against Appstar, I would like to send you a copy thru this medium but I do not know how. I had called you but I received no answer, thank you for everything and if you could give me a call back I would appreciate  my cell number is [redacted]

AppStar Financial has contacted
this merchant to review this matter.  This
merchant purchased [redacted], a proprietary system which requires that the
merchant process credit cards through a sales office for FirstData.  As the system is proprietary and the merchant
is unable to use a...

standalone credit card terminal, we have agreed to waive the
termination fee upon receipt of a signed closed letter.  This may be faxed to [redacted].  The merchant will need to ship the terminals
he received to AppStar Financial to avoid being charged non-returned equipment
fees.  These can be sent to
AppStar Financial
4619 Viewridge
Avenue
Suite C
San Diego, CA 92126
Attn: MID 741138
We’d like to thank the merchant for
his assistance in addressing this issue.

As I stated I did call to cancel prior to the most recent call and I don't have the date and it was probably some time in 2015 and that is when the said something about early termination and I was still using the service once in a while so I thought perhaps we could stick it out until the early termination they spoke of wouldn't be an issue. Then our use went to zero and the cost was obviously high for something we weren't using so when they wouldn't give on the early termination I started investigating the contract because that was Harry's answer to all my arguments even though there was no mention of early termination in my conversations with the rep. and the conversation as I recall was along the lines of only a small monthly fee of $9.99 and then the small percentage on charges of .400 %.
Once I started digging I realized they changed the monthly fees early on and Harry has an answer for everything, but his answer to this one was I was supposed to log on to their web site and there I would've gotten notice of fee changes and that the contract that I was told was only a simple agreement I was signing so they could access my bank to deposit funds and pull out their fees. So as you can see on this "agreement" Contract Mr. [redacted] conveniently mark the spots for me to sign but the vast majority of what is in this contract was not discussed with me verbally and their own recordings prove this. I think that if you are buying something from someone and the charges are going to be adjusted after the fact and there are any additional charges it must be discussed verbally if it is part of an agreement or contract you are asking them to sign. there are 6 more pages I will need to send additionally.

AppStar Financial has waived this merchant’s termination fee
and closed both accounts.  While AppStar
Financial has a match or beat policy and was in fact able to match/beat the rates
offered by [redacted], this would have required monthly monitoring of the account
to ensure we remained in compliance as they use a different model than
ours.  Additionally, it would have
required the merchant to take on liability for PCI compliance which we did not
feel comfortable with.
Based on these factors, the merchant accounts were closed
upon receipt of the merchant’s signed close letter.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
After reading the response from App Star, They forgot to mention the $50.00 monthly fee I was charged after 2 days of service, they didn't mention the $90.00 annual fee I was charged after one week of service or the $495.00 transaction fees for the 2 weeks of service or the $495.00 early termination fee. In 2 weeks or so of business I was charged over $ 1100.00. I should not be charge these fees especially a early termination fee, I was told from the sales person I would have daily rates which was a lie, They stated they tried to contact me about the return of the machine in all the phone calls made not once was that brought up. As far as the other fees how can a company charge a monthly fee and an annual fee in 2 weeks. My machine that I have been using for 4 years is on my phone line and works great. Not to mention that was not brought up until a week after I received the equipment. I reviewed a lot of other complaints on line about this company and almost everyone I read it was the same complaint. I asked this company for the return of my money and I would let it go, They said no. I lost business and a lot of time on the phone chasing these issues. I feel my time and aggregation is worth more than $ 400.00. The last conversation I had with them , Mr Barton stated he would call me back the next day and did not. When I called him back and asked him why I did not get a call back he stated he forgot, I called him a liar and he said no I forgot. Every time I was told I would get a call right back it took days, then I would have to call them back. This company also stated to me there into this business to make money, that there not lying about. I am looking for a full refund for my grief and aggravation. This could of been all in the past but they refused to comply.
Regards,
[redacted]

Mr. [redacted] is incorrect in his assumption that debit transactions are charged a $.25 fixed fee.  Debit cards are charged a fixed transaction fee plus the debit network fees which are billed on a pass through basis.  These fees average an effective rate of $1.00. For November, Mr. [redacted]’s...

raw cost was $.65 for debit and $.32 for credit.  We have adjusted his fees to bring the effective rate for credit down to $.71 which is below the effective rate of $.96 for debit, which Mr. [redacted] paid in November.     If Mr. [redacted] would like to have his machine prefer debit over credit, we can place him on an older AID.  However he will need to sign a letter stating that he understands that this may result in him paying a effective transaction fee for these transactions. This can be faxed to 866-336-9173.

AppStar Financial stands by its earlier response. Mr. [redacted] has failed to provide an explanation as to why the termination fee should not apply to him.  Regarding his response, a review of the notes show that the only contacts in 2015 were regarding a terminal issue on November 9, 2015 on the retail account and a January 15, 2015 call regarding a transaction on the ecommerce account.  When Mr. [redacted] called February 24, 2016 he hung up on the rep before she could give him the closing instructions.  Based on his last settlement dates of February 9, 2016 and February 17, 2016 respectively, Mr. [redacted] waited to contact until after he had switched processors, limiting our ability to assist him by either completing a rate review or by advising him to get in writing that his new processor would cover the termination fee. The  termination of the accounts on March 4, 2016 was prompted by the merchant’s bank rejecting the monthly fees at Mr. [redacted]’s direction rather than by Mr. [redacted] submitting the signed close request as he had been instructed to do both over the phone and in the Agreement.  As such, both accounts were closed and the merchant was contacted regarding the termination fee. Over the six years with the merchant, AppStar Financial has followed the terms of the Agreement, which can be summarized as: we processed his transactions, evaluated the transactions for risk and paid the merchant. AppStar requests that the merchant provide a reason as to why the terms of the Agreement should not apply to him as well as to why he instructed his bank to reject his processing fees for February 2016. Barring a valid reason other than he chose to switch processors, the fees will stand and the account will remain in Collections.

AppStar Financial is in the business of selling credit card
and other electronic processing services to businesses who accept cards as a
form of payment from their customers. For this reason we are only interested in
calling businesses and purchase our leads of business-only telephone...

numbers
from a [redacted] vendor. We were provided with [redacted] as
being owned by a business by the name of [redacted]  [redacted] which is why we called it.
AppStar Financial offers merchant’s multiple ways to be
removed from our call list including but not limited to: verbal requests to the
agent during the call, email requests, requests through a third party such as a
Consumer Affairs agency as well as by calling the [redacted].  A merchant calling that number is directed to
enter their ten digit phone number followed by the # sign.  This automatically removes them from our
callable database.
We have contacted [redacted] and, based on his request,
blocked this and an additional number from our calling database.  Additionally, we have addressed this as an HR
issue with the parties involved as our internal policies were not followed.
We’d like to thank [redacted] for his assistance and hope
this adequately addresses yours and [redacted] concerns.

AppStar Financial has spoken with this merchant and believes
this issue has been resolved.  AppStar
would like to thank Mr. Laingor for contacting us and for his assistance in
resolving the issue.
 
Per our conversation, upon Mr. Laingor’s acceptance of this
offer through the Revdex.com, AppStar will issue the following refunds:
1.      
 March
2015
a.      
Monthly Maintenance Fee:         $9.95
b.     
Monthly Minimum:                         $13.27
c.      
Platinum Benefits                           $8.85
2.      
May 2015
a.      
Monthly Maintenance Fee:         $9.95
b.     
Platinum Benefits                            $8.85
3.      
Equipment Fee:                                      ...⇄             $500.00
4.      
Termination Fee:                                      ...⇄ $495.00
All refunds, with the exception of the equipment fee will be
processed within seven business days of the merchant’s acceptance of this
offer.  The equipment refund will be
issued within seven business days of AppStar receiving the terminal back.  A call tag has been emailed to the merchant
at [email protected]
to assist with this return.
Yours,
[redacted]
AppStar Financial

I submitted a complaint against Appstar on 12/11/2015, (ID# 10991897) on 01/08/2016 I received what I considered an acceptable resolution from Appstar. As it turns out Appstar has not followed through with reimbursing my account $795.00 which they owe me for a faulty credit card reader and they continue to charge me $45.00 a month for a wireless terminal that I no longer have an their sister company called [redacted] Lease continues to charge me $43.48 a month for a credit card reader that was rendered useless in November 2015 due to the new chip readers. I call [redacted] they tell me they are a sister company of Appstar and will give me no other information other than I need to call Appstar, Appstar says they have no control over [redacted]. I sent my letter to discontinue service with Appstar when my contract was up which fortunately is April, 2016. I realized they were charging me for a wireless terminal that I returned in December 2015,because I failed to submit a deactivation form, which I would have no way of knowing such a form even existed as no one @Appstar ever bothered to send me a form to accomplish said task. On 03/01/2016 I spoke with an Account Specialist who supposedly is an account specialist for Appstar who " I can't do anything to help you, I have to switch you over to Appstar" I have been given nothing but a run around from this company since October 2015 and I continue to have to deal with them today because of their shady ways.Desired Outcome: I want a total reimbursement from this company for every penny they have stole from my company. I want $795.00 back for the faulty credit card reader, I want 5 x $45.00 for the bogus wireless terminal fee they hit my account for and I want 5 x $43.48 which Appstars sister company continues to debit my account for every month and I want [redacted] to cease taking money from my account for NOTHING

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.The company Appstar called to go over my complaint yes. The gentleman that called said that there was not going to any negotiated reductions in fee's and also stated that the first original account was going to be charged a cancellation fee as well. I was told that I do not do enough processing with them so they are not willing to negotiate with me on any of the Fee's. Any and all small business should stay clear of this Vendor as they send you invoices with one number and the ACH Deductions to your account are much higher than on the invoices. They do not work well with small Business and get nasty when you want to cancel them. I have moved on to a new Vendor for my needs and expect Appstar to move on as well.
Regards,
[redacted]

AppStar Financial provides the merchant an analysis based on
processing statements provided by the merchant showing the savings we would be
able to offer them over their current processor.  The merchant is incorrect in stating that we
only provide the rates, i.e. the methodology for achieving those savings to
merchant’s who agree to process with AppStar. 
The rates are written on the Agreement prior to the merchant signing the
agreement. In this case, the merchant took our rates, provided them to her
previous processor and is enjoying the benefits of our work product while attempting
to avoid payment for our work.  The
savings we provided to the merchant are approximately thirteen hundred dollars per
year.
In regards to the high ticket, AppStar notifies the merchant
on the Agreement that “The Ticket Size and Monthly Volume amounts are subject
to credit approval.”  This is our
notification that we may not be able to accommodate higher ticket sizes.  Merchant’s are notified in the Welcome Letter
of their approval amounts.  Merchants
requiring higher than normal ticket sizes and monthly volumes are provided two
additional options: to submit additional financial data showing that they are
able to support the higher amounts or to have their higher transactions
evaluated on a case by case basis by the [redacted], who decide
based on that transaction’s specific risk level as to whether the transaction
can be approved. 
In this case, Ms. [redacted] has changed the topic of her
complaint from the credit line mentioned in the original complaint “He then informed me they could only give me a $5000 credit line.”
to her high ticket.  Ms [redacted]
was approved for a twelve thousand dollar high ticket on May 12, 2015.  The previous response assumed that she was discussing
a cash advance rather than her high ticket and hope this paragraph explains our
confusion on that point.
We again advise Ms. [redacted] to ask her current provider
to cover the termination fee as we had offered to do previously for her.  Barring new information, the request to waive
the termination is declined.  If the
merchant decides to proceed with the account, two years profit and loss and
balance sheets or, in the case where the business is less than two years old,
two years personal taxes would be required to review the high ticket being
raised to ten thousand dollars. 
At this time the account remains open pending receipt of a
signed close letter. Ms. [redacted] may fax this to ###-###-#### or submit it
via the Revdex.com website.  Upon receipt of
this letter, the account will be closed and any applicable termination fees
will be assessed.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. Termination letters have already been sent and should have been processed already. This business should be avoided. I disconnected the calls because they continually told me that they would not work with me on any of the fee's. No further reason to talk.
Regards,
[redacted]

AppStar has spoken with Mr. [redacted].  Mr. [redacted] has two accounts with us: one in [redacted] and the other in [redacted].  In reviewing the accounts, we determined that while the [redacted] location was closing, the [redacted] location was still open (ttps://www.facebook.com/iplay[redacted]/).  When...

asked, Mr. [redacted] explained that he was going through a change of entity at that location.  We offered to waive the termination fee on both locations contingent on Mr. [redacted] opening a new account for the [redacted] location and that location remaining open for the full term of the agreement.  Barring this, we advised Mr. [redacted] that he would be charged the termination fee listed on each agreement. Mr. [redacted] understood but repeatedly asked if he could negotiate a lower termination fee, which was declined.  We did advise him to approach his new processor [redacted] Card about covering the termination fee, which is standard practice in the industry and would allow him to avoid incurring this cost. Mr. [redacted] stated he would think about this and get back to us. He later responded that he wanted the accounts closed and submitted a signed closing letter. Although Mr. [redacted] switched processors due to rates, it should be noted that AppStar Financial has a match or beat guarantee.  In this case, we could have saved him additional savings beyond what the new processor offered him and this would have allowed him to avoid the termination fee on these account.  Mr. [redacted] contacted us in May 2013, September 2014 and October 2015 and took advantage of this guarantee. While Mr. [redacted] declined the rate review offered January 2, 2018, that offer remains open to him through June 30, 2018.  In the event that he chooses to accept it, the terminations fees would be refunded after 90 days of active processing on the new account. Mr. [redacted] can reach me at [redacted] if he would like to accept this offer.

AppStar Financial requests that this matter be closed as the
portion, which is under AppStar’s control has been addressed, namely the
termination fee, next day funding and the high ticket issue.  The remainder of the complaint
regards the lease to which AppStar Financial is not a party. 
Please note that [redacted], the leasing company, states
in bold on their lease that this is a non-cancellable lease.  Additionally, [redacted] requires that the
merchant verbally affirm in a recorded call that the merchant understands that the lease is
non-cancellable.  Without the merchant
agreeing in that recorded call that they understand that the lease is
non-cancellable it does not go into effect. 
This is important as only new equipment may be deployed in fulfillment
of a lease and this is one of the reasons that the agreement is
non-cancellable.  Per the merchant’s
response, the equipment has been used and as such cannot be deployed as new: “PRODUCT WAS USED ONCE AND IS ALREADY BACK IN THE ORIGINAL
PACKAGING.”
Ultimately the decision to amend the lease would lie solely
with [redacted].

This customer has submitted a claim for the diminished value of his 2014 Ford Explorer as a result of a minor rear end accident. The insurance company has paid to repair his vehicle to its pre accident condition. The customer is now asking for more than the amount of damage that was...

repaired for the diminished value of his vehicle. The vehicle is a 2014 year model and as such, has diminished in value based upon the age of the vehicle. This was considered when determining a potential diminished value claim.The insurance company hired an independent firm to determine the diminished value of the vehicle as we recognize that an accident may cause a resulting loss in value. The independent firm that completed the diminished value considered the actual repairs that were done - structural versus cosmetic, and based the value on a percentage of the actual cash value of the vehicle. This complaint involves a dispute as to the amount of the value and this specific vehicle. It should also be noted that a recent carfax report on the vehicle indicates that there was only minor rear end damage to the vehicle and no airbags deployed as a result of this incident. We believe that a fair offer has been made for the potential yet unrealized diminished value claim. The customer has submitted no further information that would affect our offer of settlement.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.Appstar REFUSES to give their rate UNLESS the client signs a contract. This prevents the customer from shopping around or getting a lower rate from their current provider. It does not matter if the rates are or are not lower! The stated savings might have been based off a HIGH charge month and is not reflective of the true over all "savings". My business REQUIRES the need to charge OVER $10,000. By not providing a high daily amount, limits my ability to sell to my customer. Appstar should have stated to me that they are unable to provide that request. My years in business, lack of a charge back history and credit rating all should have indicated that I was a safe customer for their service. IF THEY can not provide this to my company, they need to say so. It does not matter how much they can "save" my business... providing only a $5000 limit would KILL my business. Having to get ADDITIONAL approval for purchases over $5000 is a waste of my time and resources. My current provider happily provides as much as my customer requires.
Regards,
[redacted]

AppStar Financial is in the business of selling credit card and other electronic processing services to businesses who accept cards as a form of payment from their customers. For this reason we are only interested in calling businesses and purchase our leads of business-only telephone...

numbers from a [redacted] vendor. We were provided with Mr. [redacted] number 203-987-[redacted] as being owned by a business by the name of [redacted] Inc which is why we called it.   We have attempted to contact Mr. [redacted] to review this with him, but have been unsuccessful.   AppStar Financial offers merchants multiple ways to be removed from our call list including but not limited to: verbal requests to the agent during the call, email requests, requests through a third party such as a Consumer Affairs agency as well as by calling 877-549-5884.  A merchant calling that number is directed to enter their ten digit phone number followed by the # sign.  This automatically removes them from our callable database.   Prior to receiving the Revdex.com  complaint, Mr. [redacted] number had been removed from our call database per his request.  Mr. [redacted] may want to contact [redacted] as well to be removed from their business listings.     [redacted] AppStar Financial

AppStar Financial has reviewed this with the merchant.  In reviewing the two accounts, the merchant
agreed that he negotiated a two hundred ninety five dollar termination fee on
the initial agreement and signed for a full termination fee of four hundred ninety
five dollars on the second...

agreement. 
Please note that on both agreements (attached) the termination fee is
listed in bold above the signature line.
We contacted Mr. [redacted] to discuss his reasons for
renegotiating the agreement, but he was unwilling to discuss this.  He began swearing and disconnected the call.
In his complaint he also raises the issues of July fees for
the close account, upon receipt of a signed close letter, AppStar will close
that account and suppress the fees for the month the letter is received.
Unfortunately, the resolution offered by AppStar to resolve
Mr. [redacted]’s issue is no longer available to him as it was based on his
continued processing and he has stated that he switched processors.
A copy of the offer made to Mr. [redacted] has been
attached.  This offer is now conditioned
on thirty days active processing.
AppStar Financial is more than willing to work with
merchants as is shown by the reduction in the termination fee on the original
agreement.  However, that ability is
based on the merchant’s willingness to work towards a fair resolution to both
parties.  Unfortunately, in this case the
merchant was unwilling to work towards a resolution or to stand by the
agreement that he negotiated.Barring a clear explanation as to why Mr. [redacted] feels that the agreement should be renegotiated from  what he agreed to, the fees as signed for by Mr. [redacted] will stand.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
The responder to my complaint says that my business is to interpret DOT regulations.  That is indeed true...for DRUG AND ALCOHOL TESTING!!!  I have very specialized knowledge in DOT compliance for interpreting how the government wants certain people drug tested for the purpose of public safety.  If you ever need to know anything pertaining to that, I'm your person to ask.  I do interpret the fine print for my clients.  The fine print on ONE 104 page document that has remained the same for the past 5 years.  And, any change that is made to that document, I am personally informed by phone call from my agent at the DOT.  The REASON I'm in business is because normal people are not able to do this with every government regulation.  The same is true with credit card processing.  As for disclaimers and terms of contracts that are written in 6 point font and 30 pages long and contain jargon about banking and other types of compliance...I'm clueless.  All I know is that if I were to expect a certain term length of a contract for a client of mine, I would make it CRYSTAL CLEAR what those expectations were.  I would not hide that term deep into the outrageously long contract.  The agent at Appstar asked me to settle my compliant by refunding me the upcharges they added after my contract went into effect.  I believe I'm also owed those upcharges.  I have NEVER received any statements from Appstar and never received any notice that he claims I was given.  Apparently, I was expected to log into some secret portal to view this information.  I was never notified of this.  AND...in order for them to collect this money, they encouraged me to ask my new processing company to pay it.  I asked them, they said "no".  Which is good with me because I don't see why anyone should have to pay this silly fee.  You can close this case as me being completely unhappy to have worked with Appstar.  They are going to autodraft the $495 from my account.  I would call that embezzlement, except it won't be secretive or hidden.  Appstar is a crappy company who will go down on my list of bad companies...for whatever that is worth.  
Regards,
[redacted]