Absolte Air Industries

In regards to complaint # ***: 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 customersFor this reason we are
only interested in calling businesses and purchase our
leads of business-only
telephone numbers from a *** * *** vendorWe were provided with **
***’s number ###-###-#### as being owned by a business by the name of * *** *** ***, which is why we called it
On April 2, 2015, Dr*** was contacted in response to her
complaint for additional details. We
explained to her that the calls in question were being reviewed with the
Telemarketing Manager and the Telemarketing representative to ensure *** ***’s issues are addressed. A follow
up call was placed on April 8,
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 ###-###-####. 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
In our April 8th call *** *** stated she
believed ###-###-#### was the only line she had received these calls on. She also provided an alternate number: ###-###-####
which has also been blocked in our system
We hope this adequately addresses yours and Dr***’s
concerns. Please do not hesitate to
contact me directly should require additional assistance
*** ***
AppStar Financial
###-###-####

Ms*** contacted our office on July 16, and
addressed these issues with a supervisor.
As a result of that call, the original call was reviewed and it was
determined that the customer service representative did not follow procedures
and advise her as to the two year
extension.
While the extension is outlined in the Terms & Conditions, AppStar
has an internal policy that requires this be reviewed with the merchant prior
to any rate adjustments being submitted.
As this was not done, the
extension was rolled back to the correct anniversary date of September 16,
2016.
Ms*** understands that this has been completed and
accepted this as a reasonable resolution.
After reviewing this case, we have decided to close the account at this
time and waive the fees for August 2015.
Ms*** has been contacted regarding this revised resolution and has
accepted the revised resolution

AppStar
Financial has reviewed the merchant’s complaint. It can be summarized as follows:
1. The merchant wanted to be set up for
daily
discount. Daily discount is available only
to merchants on a tiered program. Mr
*** opted for the greater savings offered by being on an on interchange
program This program offers the
merchant access to the raw rates provided by the card issuing banks and is
dependent on the card program that the card was issued under. There are currently over programs under
which cards can be issued, each with its own parameters and pricing. As such, daily discount was never available to
Mr***. Mr*** was offered and
did opt for Next Day Funding, the depositing of his funds the next day, which
we believe was the source of the confusion
2. Mr*** felt that the machine was
slow. The speed of the machine was adjusted,
but Mr*** has digital phone lines.
As such, the speed of his phone lines can be incremented and decremented
based on the available bandwidth of the phone provider. The only solution for this is to switch the
machine to an ip connection
3. Finally the merchant requests a
refund for fees charged. AppStar is
willing to refund the cost of the machine and the termination feeThe other
refunds requested are the cost of the service and are non-refundable. Mr*** may send the machine back to
AppStar Financial Viewridge Avenue Suite C San Diego, CA 92123 Attn: ***.
The availability of the refund is dependent on the machine being
received in new condition. Please note
that this offer is non-separable
Please note
that AppStar Financial attempted to contact Mr*** and did not receive a
response. We believe that the underlying
issues with the exception of the daily discount were resolvable

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, 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 resolvedI do not agree that fees were adequately disclosed but nevertheless will accept the $offer and consider complaint closed once I receive this money as it is better than nothingI do not want to deal with this company after thatAs there was a choice of two options to select from (one to do business with the company again and the other an offer for $refund), please let them know I chose the refund Thank you for your assistanceI really appreciate it
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, 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 ApstarThey have handled and remedied the situation right awayI just want to you contact you and get the complaint removedI have attempted to from my online profile but was unable to get the complaint deleted. Thank you *** *** Roofing AZ 623.434.3900Complaint#***

AppStar Financial would like to discuss this with Mr*** If he could provide us a number we can reach him at, we believe this could be resolved in a short call We have attempted to reach him at the number provided but have not received an answer

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
I had trouble trying to log into your site to answer emails looking for response, I have also had a considerable amount of contact with *** *** representing App StarIn my contact with *** I listened to some recordings regarding our purchase of service from App StarI am certain I didn’t hear all conversations however what I did hear had nothing discussing an early termination fee though it was on the service agreement that I signed as their rep had askedThe way it was presented to me verbally was the thing I was signing was mostly to get the funds collected on my behalf via credit cards was to get the banking info correct not a contract and I recall him mentioning small monthly fees that are on the contract plus % on all charges run through their serviceIn the end *** did offer to refund half of the $up front and I declined feeling I have been mislead big time by the phone solicitor and upon my further investigation I found that they had raised the monthly charges from even what their agreement said and his answer was that they had incurred additional cost and raised the charges accordingly and this was done without notice to me, he claimed it was my obligation to log onto their site to get these notices regularly something I was not made aware of and seems a bit shady to meThere were also charges that I didn’t agree to in any way that I can see $annually $PCI charge
The monthly charges on the contract added up to $and change and in fact they charged my account an average of $over mosI told *** as I saw it if we went soley by the agreement as I signed it they over charged me approx$not including the early termination or the separate charges they added aboveeven if we say sorry *** *** you signed this agreement and it said early termination $they breached the agreement when they started raising the monthly charges without notice so honestly I think the $495 should also be returned but I'm going to rely on your knowledge and expertise to tell me what we should do going forward. Regards,*** ***

AppStar Financial has spoken with this merchant In speaking with him, it appears as though the Agreement submitted to AppStar differs from the Agreement left with Mr*** AppStar Financial has explained o Mr*** that provided the equipment is returned in good working condition and
that his paperwork supports what he explained to us over the phone, the termination fee will be waived

AppStar Financial has spoken with Mr*** and he has told us this complaint was resolved We'd like to thank Mr*** for his assistance in resolving this matter

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 customersFor this reason we are only interested in calling businesses and purchase our leads of business-only telephone
numbers from a *** * *** vendorWe were provided with Mr*** number 203-987-*** as being owned by a business by the name of *** Inc which is why we called it We have attempted to contact Mr*** 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*** number had been removed from our call database per his request. Mr*** may want to contact *** * *** as well to be removed from their business listings *** *** AppStar Financial

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
The terminal we have is a virtual terminal so it doesn't need the same connections that the other terminals need. It is simply an online website. Again we are not set up to use the terminals and it should have been caught when the representative from Appstar was in the clinic the first time, instead of rushing me to sign a contract
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and find that this resolution would be satisfactory to me. Appstar was very helpful in resolving the situation, and apologetic. Thank you
Regards,
*** ***-***

AppStar Financial has spoken with the Independent Sales Consultant and with Mr*** as well as ***, his secretary, who he delegated to address the complaint. Please note that AppStar Financial takes these issues very seriouslyWe are 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. This is a very competitive industry and AppStar Financial manages to distinguish itself through its combination of service and value, while ensuring merchants are compliant with all current card issuing standardsMr*** mentioned several issues in his complaint as well as during our initial call. We have attempted to address these with ***, his delegate and believe that we have resolved the issueThe primary complaint and the basis for our decision to waive the termination fee was the merchant’s desire that the terminal allow him to decision whether a particular card would be processed as a debit or a credit card transaction. On the current AID for the processing platforms, this decision is pushed to the card issuing bank to determine. We would need to place the merchant on an older AID to do this and as this would raise compliance concerns, we would not be able to do thisSecondly the merchant raised the issue of the cancelled refund and the termination fee. We clarified with the merchant that that is not a true refund, rather AppStar Financial pays the fees for merchants who install late in the month as an investment in our long term relationship. As the merchant was cancelling that investment would not be appropriate and they opted to accept the refund of the termination fee in lieu of that first month’s refundThe merchant also addressed the issue of “hidden fees” and their belief that there was no termination feeWe showed them how the Agreement was designed specifically to draw their attention to all fees and that the termination fee was separated from the rest of the Agreement on the signature page by being placed in its own box and bolded. As AppStar Financial works with Independent Consultants, we have designed the Agreement for readability as well as to highlight these items. The Consultant in this case stated that she had relied on them seeing the bolded paragraph and had not explicitly covered the issues as most merchant remain with AppStar Financial long past the initial term and that this would not be of concern to themAdditionally as AppStar Financial guarantees to match or beat other processor’s rates most merchants who are affected prefer to stay with AppStar as a result of the pricing guarantee and the ability to access personalized serviceWe also reviewed with the merchant how we differentiate ourselves from other processors, not only in offering competitive pricing through our match/beat guarantee, but also through our Corporate Care Group, which is available to assist all merchants regardless of processing level and effectively act as their advocate when processing issues occur. It is this same group which contacts merchants after they have been with us thirty days to ensure that they are fully satisfied with the service we are providing. As far as we know, we are the only processor in the country that proactively reaches out to merchants to identify and address any concerns they may haveBased on that, we asked and the merchant agreed that when a new AID is released which allows them to select Debit over Credit that we would be able to contact them regarding returning to AppStar Financial for their credit card processingWe’d like to thank all parties involved for their input in resolving this issue. As we stated to the merchant, the refund of the termination fee is pended for their acceptance of this offer through the Revdex.com. A refund of the fee will occur within ten business days of the Revdex.com notifying us that the merchant has accepted our offerIn a call on October 31, the merchant stated that this had resolved their issues and that they would be open to speaking with us in the future regarding processing provided we were able to support their requested changes

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, 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,
*** ***

In an attempt to resolve this, AppStar Financial is willing
to lower the termination fee to $to cover the costs we have incurred to
date. As we stated previously, the
merchant is processing in a manner which exposes card holder data in violation
of PCI requirements from the card issuing banks. If she would like the termination fee waived
in full, she will need to provide a signed letter from her processor stating
that piggybacking their terminal into the computer and accessing the network as
a pass-through device is PCI compliant for their terminal. Please note that the Self Assessment Questionnaire
would not suffice
The merchant’s argument that it is an equipment issue is
as they are refusing to set it up in a compliant manner. The fact that the terminal works does not mean that they information is secure We ask that the merchant advise us via the
Revdex.com as to which of these two options they intend to pursue

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 11529187, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
Hi, Jackie I wanted to contact you in regard of the case ID: 11529187 I did not have a chance to respond with in the days because I wanted to get some documentation for the fee that I was charge on 4/26/from appstar and today its the only day I have time to go to the bank. Now I do have it on and I will forward a copy to you.On the last message they mention things and I wanted to respond to each one -- 1.- They never told my that I was going to have a yearly fee in first place and on April 26 on my bank account I see I withdrawal of $ (sorry I was not a $as I mention on my complain) and they did not put this information on the statement that I got from them the only reason I find out is because I went and check my bank account statement. I will attached a copy of the bank statement 2.- I went and check and I did not find fees for application, programming, encryption, anuel imprinter but every month I was charge with this fees. ACCT MNTC FEE $BTCH HDR CREDIT $PLAT BENEFITS $REG COMP FEE $NTWK FEE FOR VS $NTWK FEE FOR MC $$50K BREACH PRG $PROC FEE FOR MC $PROC FEE FOR VS $that I have no idea I was going to be charged. 3.- When the Sales man show up on my store they wanted to sign the contract without any time to check the service I had to tell them that If they did not give me at least month with out cancellation fees they told me that they could not do that but at the end they end up giving me day trial.( I made them write it down on the form) I sign the contract on 12/15/and end up receiving the credit card reader on the 12/29/so I did not used it on December at all I used the credit card reader all January everything was fine by February I have gotten any of the statements so I called and they told me how to access the statements online went and check and find out that for the month of December I was charged $and I did not processed any payments on December I was really Mad but then my trial period was expired they never never told me that the trial period was extended other ways I would just cancel it the service right then 4.- I do have the terminal I did not wanted to send back till this its resolveI have no intention to keep it. As soon this is resolve they will get the credit card reader. They are asking more then $dollars because I cancel I guess this is how they make money stilling other person's money.
Regards,
*** ***

AppStar has spoken with the merchant regarding this complaintOur response is attached for her review and signature

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, 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,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
Regards,
*** ***
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 of this agreement, the 4th box down But, on this page, it does not say that the length of the contract is years You can find the year term information on the 14th page in item number There are no signatures required on this page or anything Additionally, I found the termination fees on page 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 *** 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 *** 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 *** and their response...Hey ***,
Thanks for reaching out and for considering *** We really do appreciate
it.
We typically don't offer to cover early termination fees when someone switches
to ***That's not to say we're not very honored when someone makes the
switchWe 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,you process (and
I'd love to send you a *** *** 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,
*** *
On March 28,
at 6:PM Scott 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,
***
On March 28,
at 5:PM susan wrote:
I am getting
charged $from my other credit card processor for terminating our contract
earlyThey told me that new processors often will pick up this feeWill
*** 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
*** ***

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 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 issueThen 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 repand the conversation as I recall was along the lines of only a small monthly fee of $and then the small percentage on charges of %
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 feesSo as you can see on this "agreement" Contract Mr. *** 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 thisI 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 more pages I will need to send additionally.