Absolte Air Industries

AppStar Financial has reached out to Ms. [redacted].  We would like to apologize for the delay in the refund, the equipment was received 2/7/16.  Unfortunately, a refund email was not sent causing the delay.  As an exception (and due to the delay), AppStar has agreed to refund the wireless fees the merchant was charged after her last wireless transaction.  As the account is closed, a data request has been sent so that we can determine the amount of the refund.Regarding [redacted], AppStar does not have the right to alter [redacted]’s leases once they have been approved and we ask that that part of the complaint be sent to [redacted] to be addressed.We have spoken with Ms. [redacted] and she is aware that she will receive to refunds via ACH with the second arriving no later than May 5th, 2016.We’d like to thank Ms. [redacted] for bringing this oversight to our attention and for her assistance this morning in resolving it.

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.I am currently on vacation and don't know if they sent the information. Prior to my husband and I leaving they contacted us telling us they weren't paying for the full repair. They are trying to tell me the appraiser said my car was missing emblem on hood prior to accident and it wasn't. As of today I am not happy with the communication and service. I should get the full repair cost not partial and I didn't receive anything but a message prior to leaving for vacation.Regards,
[redacted]

AppStar Financial stands by its earlier reply.  It should be noted that Mr. [redacted] was given a 30 day trial period as an exception to try the service.   This was later extended to 60 days. The applications was approved on December 21st, 2015 and trained on January 6, 2016.  Mr. [redacted] called us on January 14, 2016 asking for assistance with FirstView, our online reporting tool.  He called us again on March 7, 2016 asking us to reset his password and then on May 5th to discuss the PCI fee.  The May 5th call is the first one where Mr. [redacted] expressed any dissatisfaction with the fees.  His account was then closed on June 9th as a result of his monthly billing rejecting, resulting in him being contacted by our collections group.  On June 25th, after being contacted about his breach of the Agreement, Mr. [redacted] files a complaint with the Revdex.com. At no point did Mr. [redacted] contact us asking for a rate review or for his fees to be reviewed prior to the PCI fee being charged. Nor did he contact our office asking for assistance with that fee.  Additionally, he did not file a complaint with the Revdex.com until after he was notified that he would be held to the terms of the Agreement he had breached by having his bank reject the ACH.  Based on his call history, he had the correct information at hand to make those call if he had felt them necessary. Reviewing the complaint and the rebuttal to our response, Mr [redacted] states he has an issue with the monthly fees on the account.  It should be noted that, with the exception of the PCI fee, which is a passthrough fee, the fees mentioned by Mr. [redacted] are listed on page 2 of the Agreement along with the other rates and fees in the “Other Fees” section.  Unlike other processors, we do not hide our fees.  The PCI, again noted in that same section, is explained in the Terms and Conditions of the Agreement. AppStar Financial works to assist merchants with these issues as they occur.  However, we cannot address them without the merchant letting us know that they have an issue.  Mr. [redacted] failed to provide us that opportunity. In regards to the termination fee and Mr. [redacted]’ belief that that is how we make our money.  First, a minor correction, Mr. [redacted] misquotes the termination fee as $600.00:  the actual fee is $495.00 as is written in bold above Mr. [redacted] signature on page 4 of the Agreement. AppStar Financial incurs our costs upfront and recoups them over time based on the merchant actively processing.   If Mr. [redacted] had contacted us in the first thirty days of service, we would have been forced to accept those costs.  He did not do so andhe termination fee was attached to his account.  The truth is most merchants stay with AppStar long past the initial three year term, and we would be operating at a loss if we relied on termination fees to operate our business. Mr. [redacted] has given no explanation as to why he did not contact us after his first or even his second billing.  In fact he never contacted us asking for a rate review or a fee adjustment.  His compliant was only filed in response to us holding him to the Agreement.  Based on these factors, the request to have the termination fee waived is declined. If Mr. [redacted] has information as to why he did not contact us to assist him, but rather chose to have his bank reject the fees, we would be happy to review it.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find...

that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
I submitted a complaint last month against Apstar. They have handled and remedied the situation right away. I just want to you contact you and get the complaint removed. I have attempted to from my online profile but was unable to get the complaint deleted. Thank you [redacted] Roofing AZ 623.434.3900Complaint#[redacted]

I have been unable to reach this merchant at the number provided to address this complaint.  We request that he call me at [redacted] so we can address this complaint.

AppStar Financial has reviewed this merchant’s
complaint.  This can be summarized as two
issues, the need for next day funding and high ticket issues.
Next Day Funding is based on credit approval and is limited
to certain industries of which auto repair is not one.  These criteria...

are listed in the Next Day
Funding Terms & Conditions, which the merchant signed she had received and
read. In this merchant’s case, an exception was made on July 9th
allowing them to enroll in the program.
The second issue is the merchant’s high ticket.  The high ticket is based on a review of the
merchant’s industry, personal and business credit, forward commitment as well
as other risk factors.  In this case the
merchant was approved for an initial high ticket of $700.00, which was raised
to $2000 on July 8th.  Please
note that this merchant trained on July 6, 2015 and this changes were made
based on her contacting us on July 8th within twenty four hours of
the request.
When the merchant stated she had not experienced these
issues with [redacted], we explained that [redacted] already had
access to her financial data and that they had the ability to freeze all of her
accounts including the business checking in the event of a chargeback or
default.  In AppStar’s case this is not
an option as we do not control the merchant’s banking and as such our
evaluation of risk factors may be different than theirs.
The merchant requests two items, that the termination fee
for the AppStar account be waived, which we are able to do as an exception and
two that the lease be cancelled, which we are unable to do.  Please note that the merchant signed a non-cancellable
lease with [redacted] and later affirmed to them in a recorded call that
she understood that the lease was non-cancellable.  As AppStar Financial is not a party to that
lease we are unable to amend or alter it. 
Furthermore it should be noted that the equipment that the merchant leased
is not proprietary and she is able to use that equipment with whoever she
processes with in the future.
We ask that the merchant submit a signed close letter via
fax to [redacted] stating that she understands and accepts this offer.

It appears to me I only have the first 10 pages and the copy of our blank check. The rest of their contract pages only provide more proof of how crazily extensive their contract is and how deep it goes into covering them in any and every way to over charge and change the agreement at their whim. I'm fairly confident that if the verbal conversation covered every aspect of this contract they would sign very few customers due to all the unknowns in the contract that as I recall they referred to as an agreement that I could get out of at any time with out a problem. I don't recall any conversation about the $495.00. I think this company trains their people to be very slick/slippery sales people. WATCH OUT!

AppStar Financial contacted Swipe for [redacted]. From
the response, it was clear that they docover these fees based on a merchant’s
volume.  We have attempted to contact the
merchant to assist her further, but have been told she was too busy and have
not received a call back. 
The language that [redacted] stated she was “clueless”
about reads as follows:
The first bolded setoff paragraph on page 4 above the
merchant’s signature:
Early termination of this Agreement shall result in an Early
Termination Fee of no less than four hundred ninety-five dollars
($495.00).  Also, see paragraph 23 of the
Merchant Processing Terms & Conditions.
This second bolded section of paragraph 23 reads as follows:
Merchant shall pay on demand, an early termination fee of no less than
four hundred ninety-five dollars ($495.00) for each MERCHANT location.
Rather than being hidden in the fine print as the merchant
attests, AppStar makes every effort to highlight that the merchant will be
charged a termination fee if they do not fulfil the terms of the contract.
Given that, and again, given [redacted] specialty in
reading DOT regulations as well as the fact that she is familiar with the use
of Terms and Conditions as evidenced again by her website (http://www.lobdock.com/terms-conditions/),
we stand by our earlier response.  The
offer to refund fees was made in an effort to resolve this matter and was made
prior to AppStar having a full understanding of the merchant’s expertise.
A copy of [redacted] Terms and Condition, referenced above
has been included.
To date, this account remains open as we have not received a
signed closed letter.  This may be faxed
to 866-336-9173.  If [redacted] has
any additional questions, I can be reached at 858-712-0146.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted] , and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved.
Regards,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me.  I will wait for the business to perform this action and, if it does, will consider this complaint resolved. I do not agree that fees were adequately disclosed but nevertheless will accept the $180.25 offer and consider complaint closed once I receive this money as it is better than nothing. I do not want to deal with this company after that. As there was a choice of two options to select from (one to do business with the company again and the other an offer for $180.25 refund), please let them know I chose the refund.  Thank you for your assistance. I really appreciate it.
Regards,
[redacted]

AppStar Financial spoke with this merchant on October 20,
2015.  During that conversation it came
out that she had met with another processing company after signing with AppStar
and they had offered her lowered rates based on their review of her agreement
with AppStar Financial.  It...

should be
noted that AppStar Financial signed her up at raw cost with a .25% markup on
volume and a $.10 markup per transaction. 
The other company, who would have known she was in an Agreement when
they reviewed our rates, countered with a .20% markup on volume and $.05 markup
per transaction.
When we spoke with her we explained that AppStar Financial
has a match or beat policy.  However as
she had not attempted to cancel until after the account was approved on October
12, 2015 she was told that the termination fee would stand. In an attempt
to resolve this, we offered two solutions:
1.      
We would lower the termination fee to the
$279.00 she had already paid or
2.      
We would waive the annual fee and lower the
rates to raw cost with a .05% markup on volume and $.05 markup per transaction.
We have since been notified that a stop payment was placed
by the merchant on the check we received and are awaiting [redacted] to
accept one of these offers.  It should be
noted that [redacted] has made use of our work product by providing our
rates to the other processor and this, along with the costs we have incurred in
setting up this account including shipping in both directions are the underlying
reason for the termination fee being charged. 
In truth, as the fees rejected, the full termination fee of
$495.00 should be charged, but as the offer had already been made as settlement
we will stand by it.
We ask at this point, that [redacted] accept whichever
offer through the Revdex.com so that it becomes part of the record. A copy of the email sent to [redacted] has been attached for review

AppStar Financial is
currently working with Mr. [redacted]’s son to resolve this matter.  As we are
not party to the [redacted] agreement, we have requested that he submit the
requested items as a series of statements such as "Rates will be
...", rather than "Rates will match [redacted]'s."  The...

reasons
for this are twofold: one we cannot agree to something conditional on [redacted]'s
agreement as we are not a party to that and would not receive updates which
could lead us to be in breach; second, a review of the [redacted] agreement shows
several cases where they reserve the right to move the merchant to a different
program based on actual versus expected processing.
 
Finally, upon receipt of
these items, AppStar will require Mr. [redacted] to indemnify us against him paying
more on the "[redacted]" program than he would have paid with AppStar.
 This is based on [redacted] charging a higher rate than we most commonly see
with merchants in this industry.
 
We ask that this matter
be continued to allow Mr. [redacted] to submit these items.

AppStar Financial has contacted this merchant.  In speaking with him, the issue was that the
original close letter was declined due to a signature discrepancy. AppStar
Financial.  This caused the account to be
closed in April instead of March.  This resulted
in the merchant being...

charged fees for April 2015. 
AppStar has contacted the merchant and agreed to refund
these fees as resolution of this matter.
AppStar Financial would like to thank Mr. [redacted] for his
assistance in resolving this matter.

Mr. [redacted] contacted us in December 2014 asking to close his
account.  At that time, he was advised of
the termination procedure including that we need to receive the thirty to ninety
days prior to the anniversary.  This is
also stated in the Termination section of the Terms &...

Conditions.
As AppStar retains our calls for quality assurance, this
interaction was retained.  Barring an
explanation as to why he was unable to submit in that sixty period, the
termination fee, as outlined in the Terms & Conditions would 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.
Regards,
[redacted]
It sounds like we are going in circles here.  I simply disagree that there termination fees were clear.  Attached is the original agreement so you can see what I am talking about.  The termination fees are listed on page 4 of this agreement, the 4th box down.  But, on this page, it does not say that the length of the contract is 3 years.  You can find the 3 year term information on the 14th page in item number 24.  There are no signatures required on this page or anything.  Additionally, I found the termination fees on page 4 difficult to find, but was pointed out those fees when I was terminating my contract.  Not to mention the "extras" that I paid for that I believe my salesman just added after I signed up.  You can see that none of the "extras" require a signature or initials, just a check mark.  I was signed up for a service to get free printer tape for the duration of my contract.  I think I paid $10/month extra for that.  I don't even use printer tape for my credit card transactions.  I never have.  I would have never signed up for that.  As far as [redacted] paying the termination fees, my new processor.  I did reach out to them to see if they would pay it.  Below is the text of that email and I'm happy to send you the entire email if you'd like.  They said they do not pay those fees.  Additionally, the response that the Appstar guy got from [redacted] was that they would pay early termination fees based on certain volumes.  What are those volumes?  I'm a small business, we don't do that many transactions.  I don't think I would qualify for that.  Also, I left a previous processing company to switch to Appstar and there was no termination fee that Appstar had to cover.  AND if they are going to be unclear about their termination fees and lengths of their contracts, then I really don't care if my new processor would pay the termination fee...I don't believe anyone should have to pay it!  REgardless, here is my email to [redacted] and their response...Hey [redacted],
Thanks for reaching out and for considering [redacted] We really do appreciate
it. 
We typically don't offer to cover early termination fees when someone switches
to [redacted]. That's not to say we're not very honored when someone makes the
switch. We definitely are! It's just not part of our standard practice. 
That said, I'd be happy to waive our fees on the next $1,000 you process (and
I'd love to send you a [redacted] as a welcoming gift if you want one). 
And, of course, if you have any other questions or if I can provide more
information, please don't hesitate to reach out!
Cheers,
[redacted]
On March 28, 2016
at 6:02 PM Scott <s[redacted]> wrote:
Hello,
Thanks for reaching out to us!
I'm having this looked into and will be back with you as soon as possible.
Let me know if you have any other questions or concerns.
Best regards,
[redacted]
On March 28, 2016
at 5:48 PM susan <[redacted]> wrote:
I am getting
charged $495 from my other credit card processor for terminating our contract
early. They told me that new processors often will pick up this fee. Will
[redacted] pay this termination fee for me?
________________________________________________________________________________...⇄ /> So yeah...I disagree with how Appstar is trying to handle this.  I don't like when they call my office because i'm busy and don't feel like going in circles with them.  
[redacted]

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.I do believe a $495 termination fee should have been topic of discussion and was not Appstars own phone log will show that. And as for the contract I was not made aware of it being anything more than permission to access my bank accounts leading me to believe I just had to sign and that was that. And I noticed in the Appstar response there was no mention of me having to log on and check for updates to the account and they certainly didn't mention automatic fee increases
. As I said before even if we agree I should've read the contract and known then about the early termination I was still over charged based on said agreement as I was told not a contract and the minimum over charge was $934 nothe counting annual fee of $95 that I'm fairly certain was not mentioned verbally or in the agreement plus the PCI charge of as I recall $125. The only way to make this right is pay back at minimum the over charges of $934 Appstare made their money and has been over charging and I only caught it because I did a check of the contract they want to go by.
These funds were taken from our checking account count electronically and the increase didn't get caught until I audited the account detail. The contract clearly states the fees and they charged more than the agreement by probably more than double. I am not in the office so I can't currently give exact numbers on the fees charged but the bottom line is on the agreed fees alone they over charged $934 plus and I am willing to forget it for that amount otherwise I would like to take this as far as possible to get it reconciled including legal council if need.Regards,[redacted]

AppStar Financial and First American Payment Systems, our
acquirer, are charged fees on transactions run as sales or reversals.  AppStar Financial, unlike most processors,
covers the fee on the reversal, only charging the fee as part of the sale.
In an effort to resolve this matter, AppStar is willing to
cover the $84.00 fee as a one time exception with the following provisions:
1.      
 Merchant
understands that this is a one time exception as AppStar is charged this fee by
the card issuing banks and cannot be paying for the costs incurred in the
merchant’s processing.
2.      
Merchant acknowledges that transactions over his
high ticket of $3,000.00 will need prior approval to prevent them being subject
to reversal.  He can obtain this approval
by contacting the Risk Management group at ###-###-####.  Most likely, Risk Management will require
additional documentation to be able to decision the transaction.
This refund is conditional on the merchant accepting this
offer through the Revdex.com as we have been unable to contact the merchant at the
number provided.

Our investigation has been completed and a check in the amount of $1,029.12 for the repairs to this vehicle was issued on May 5, 2015. A copy of the appraiser's repair estimate was also provided with the check. The check and estimate were sent to the home address that Mrs. [redacted] provided to us. A...

telephone message has also been left for Mrs. [redacted] providing her with the same information.

We are in
receipt of the complaint from your office from the above merchant dated December
10, 2015. Prior to being contacted by your office, AppStar Financial had reviewed
this matter at length with the merchant. 
On November
18, 2015 Ms. [redacted] as well as the other independent...

stylists at Devine
Designs met with [redacted], an Independent Sales Consultant, and signed
a Merchant Application and Agreement for credit card and gift card processing
with AppStar Financial.  As part of this
Agreement Ms. [redacted] et al signed that they had received and reviewed the
Agreement.  They also affirmed that no
verbal commitments had been made. 
Without these signed affirmations, AppStar Financial would have rejected
the Agreements.  The accounts were
approved on November 24, 2015 with the exception of the Agreement signed by Ms.
[redacted], which was pended for additional documentation regarding her FTIN
number.
On December
7, 2015 Ms. [redacted] contacted AppStar Financial and requested to close the
accounts.  During this call, the merchant
stated she had not reviewed the Agreement at the time she met with the
consultant, but had relied on verbal statements from the consultant.
In her
complaint, Ms. [redacted] states she was told certain fees would not apply.  It should be noted that AppStar Financial clearly
groups our fees on the Rates page for readability, specifically to avoid these
issues. All fees questioned by Ms. [redacted] were clearly listed on page 2 of the
Merchant Application and Agreement. Additionally, changes were made to the
Agreement by the consultant and Ms. [redacted] altering the Discount Rates, Breach
Protection Program, Monthly Minimum and Monthly Maintenance Fee demonstrating that
the fees had been reviewed and agreed upon.
However, after
further review, the Merchants’ accounts have been closed and all fees have been
refunded to the Merchants in accordance with the Merchants’ request.
Ms. [redacted] has
been contacted and apprised of this decision.  [redacted]
[redacted]Director of
Operations
AppStar
Financial

Mr. [redacted] doing business as Special Equipment Co. LLC met with an independent sales consultant on February 24, 2009 and signed a Merchant Application and Agreement, a commercial contract, for credit card processing using both a dial up and a wireless terminal.   He then contacted us a...

year later on February 9, 2010 and added the debit service to this account.  At that time he opened an additional account for ecommerce transactions.  He continued to process on both accounts through February 9, 2016 and February 17, 2016 respectively.  Both accounts were closed in March 2016 due to Ach rejects.  The rates and fees he questions are listed on page 2 of the Agreement.  Page 4 of the Agreement, a signature page, references the early termination fee of $495.00 per account.  The autorenewal is listed in the Termination section of the Merchant Services Terms and Condition, which the merchant signed he received in 2009 and again in 2010. Without the autorenewal clause, we would have had to terminate Mr. [redacted] service on the initial account on March 2, 2012 – four years prior to his final transaction and Mr. [redacted] would then be justified in complaining about the resulting interruption this would present for his business.  This is why accounts are set up to auto renew.  This is common in any service industry such as credit card processing, cell phone service etc.  It should be noted that the merchant had called in previously: in 2010 when he asked to have the monthly minimum removed and in 2016 when he called in to tell us he had switched processors and he wanted the early termination fee waived as a result.  In the first case, we were able to lower the monthly minimum to fifteen dollars and in the second case, the request was declined.  It is common practice in the merchant services industry for the new processor to cover the termination fee for the merchant.  AppStar Financial regularly does this for merchants and we advise the merchant to contact his new processor to see if they would offer reimbursement.  Alternately, he can reopen his account with AppStar and the termination fee would not apply as long as the account remained open per the Terms and Conditions. A copy of the Agreements signed by the merchant as well as the Terms & Conditions has been attached to this response to address his concerns regarding rates.  It should be noted that the card issuing banks ([redacted], [redacted], [redacted] and [redacted]) raise their rates every April and October.  AppStar Financial reviews these increases and makes a decision as to whether or not to pass the increase on to the merchants or to cover it for them as a cost of doing business.  In the majority of cases, AppStar Financial has chosen not to pass this increase on.  However, over time, these build up and we are required to pass the cost on.  When this occurs, a notification is included in the monthly statement for the three months prior to the increase taking effect, providing the merchant ample opportunity to contact us for a rate review. Finally, we cannot honor Mr. [redacted] request to not contact him as he is in Collections for the owed amount which would include the final month’s fees, the return fees and the termination fees for both accounts.  Per the Collections Manager, the merchant has not responded to attempts to contact him.  If he wishes to address this, he can reach me directly at 858-712-0146 or the Collections Group at 800-633-1702 between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern time.