Clearent LLC

After 5 years on Clearent, we were forced to close our hotel. The Clearent rep said since we were over the 3 yearinitial contract period and were closing we would not be charged the early termination fee. Not only were we charged the early termination fee, we were charged monthly fees after we stopped the service. Calling the customer service, they basically said their representative lied. We tried to reinstate the service to get our early termination fee back and then give them the "notice" to avoid the fee. They refuse to reinstate us.

I have been on hold for over five hours over the last few days. No one I speak to seems to know how to help with my very basic request (transferring tokenized, saved credit cards to my new processor). This company clearly invests as little as possible in their support staff. When I finally get through to their call center, I speak to yet another rep who does not know how to solve any problems.

We were a Clearent customer for 5 years. Our hotel was forced to close due to Covid and other issues. We were told by the sales rep that if we closed, we would not be charged the early termination fee. When we were charged the early termination fee I called the customer service at Clearent. They indicated the sales rep lied and suggested I read the fine print of the contract that gives them the right to charge the early termination fee. Then a few weeks later, we were charged. monthly fees for an account that had been closed for months. Not sure when they will stop charging us fees even after they closed the account. I am glad I don't work for Clearent taking money from people that have been forced out of business by covid and then continue to charge fees they did not earn. I could not be part of that type of behaviour.

During my time using Clearant services my monthly fees were higher than my contract expectationsI paid between $40-50/month just to have the service when I was anticipating paying between $10-15/monthThey continued to charge the higher fee for several months until I found a more affordable credit card processing service for about $15/monthClearant was largely unresponsive when I tried to get in touch with my customer representative I terminated my contract in writing with Clearant in 10-20-and secured services with another companyOn 1-24-Clearant charged me $termination fee, clearly out of my contract time with themThis fee is also excessive and unreasonable considering the overcharges I already paid with my time with Clearant Predatory business practices should not be allowed in this industry

In order to use [redacted] as a payment gateway for our website, we were also required to create an account with Clearent who process and distributes funds on behalf of [redacted] After months we removed [redacted] from our website as a payment gatewayFor the last months we have attempted to close our account with Clearent to no availTwice we were left on hold for over an hour just to be told that an account representative would be notified to contact us to make sure the account was in good standing before closingWe were also advised to email [email protected] requesting our acount be closed, this was done on August 1st and again no follow up from ClearentWe have no equipment, no contract obligations, please close out account and stop debiting our bank account monthly

Horrible company - would not help with customer lying about fraud - had their signature, copy of their ID, and them on video - [redacted] said too bad Stay away from Clearent, they will RIP YOU OFF!

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/09/17) */ Will refund merchant Early Termination Fee, due to being months short of fulfilling their obligation

The complaint is resolved and the customer received their refund on January I apologize for the late response."

Clearent’s Response: Clearent is one of the most trusted payment processors in the industry and takes customer complaints seriouslyWe are truly sorry that this customer has had a negative experience with our company, but we cannot accept responsibility for their negligenceBy the time the customer contacted us, after not settling their credit card transactions for days, it was too late for us to interveneBy then, many of their patients had disputed their credit card charges, which resulted in the customer receiving chargeback fees from the Card BrandsA quick explanation of credit card processing: if a terminal is not batched (automatically or manually), it does not settle the card transactions that have been enteredTherefore, the cardholders are not charged and the business cannot get paidHere is what happened according to our call recordings and email communications with the customer: The terminal was set to auto-batch per the customer’s request.For an unknown reason, the terminal was not auto batchingThe sales representative tried to help and advised the customer to purchase a battery backupThe customer did not follow the recommendationOver the course of the next days, the terminal produced multiple “batch error” messagesThe customer claims she was unaware of the batch issue during this timePer the terminal’s records, it printed receipts that said “batch error” and “batch full.” Many people in this medical office were using the terminal during this time, and the customer claims that no one saw the error messagesSeventy days later, the medical office’s accountant found that they were missing a large sum of credit card paymentsThe customer contacted Clearent’s customer service departmentClearent’s team gave her guidance on how to manually settle her terminal, and warned her that she might receive chargebacks from her patients who might not be expecting the charges so long after their appointment or serviceClearent’s team spent numerous hours on the phone with this customer to help her resolve the chargeback requests with the Card Brands.Our CEO even spoke with the customer to see what he could do to help improve her experience with ClearentThe customer refused to accept accountability for her office’s negligence and misrepresented what our CEO said in her Revdex.com complaintWe have done everything possible to help this customer, but we cannot take responsibility for her negligence with her patients’ credit card paymentsThe merchant agreement that she signed clearly states that the merchant, not Clearent as the processor, is responsible for making sure that the equipment continues to operate in compliance with the Card Brand RulesIf someone in her office would have responded to one of the many terminal error messages, our 24/technical customer service team could have helped the customer prevent this situation

Initial Business Response / [redacted] (1000, 5, 2015/07/09) */ Mr [redacted] signed a year agreement dated April 23, through one of our Agent Bank Partners [redacted] National)In the agreement section there is a day written notification clause meaning, if we received a cancellation notice to close his account in days merchant wouldn't have received an Early Termination Fee Mr [redacted] sent us a notice to close statement "Close Immediately" which is why Early Termination Fee was chargedIf Mr [redacted] asked us to close in days no Early Termination Fee would have been charged The signature on the cancellation form matches the signature on the application If need be, we would be happy to provide all supporting documentation

This matter was resolved April 10, 2017 when merchant called our office to close his account. Merchant was informed on 4/10 that he would not incur an Early Termination Fee. When this e-mail was received, I again call merchant to inform him that he will not receive an Early Termination... fee .

Clearent who process and distributes funds on behalf of ***After months we removed *** from our website as a payment gatewayFor the last months we have attempted to close our account with Clearent to no availTwice we were left on hold for over an hour just to be told that an account representative would be notified to contact us to make sure the account was in good standing before closingWe were also advised to email [email protected] requesting our acount be closed, this was done on July1st and again no follow up from ClearentWe have no equipment, no contract obligations, please close out account and stop debiting our bank account monthly

Our account was originally set up with Payment Alliance before the Clearent takeover earlier this yearSince the acquisition, we have had several issues with funding from the credit card sales that happened in our store being funded into our accountAs of today, we have not had any of our payments funded since this past Thursday (7/19/2018)We have made several phone calls to customer serviceWe were told that funding would be processed today and as of this morning it is still missingWe have been attempting to deal with this company since 6:45am this morning and cannot even get a person to answer the phoneThese practices are unethical and are detrimental to small businesses!

This has affected MANY businesses that do their credit card processing with ClearentClearent recently bought out PAI, who I had worked with for years, without significant issuesOn Sept10, without ANY notification, Clearent withdrew an additional fee of that they labeled "annual regulatory reporting fee"I only discovered this by finding a far larger amount debited from my business account than should have been for the cost of processingI immediately called in and talked to a custservice repShe said she thought this was a very poor way of doing business, agreed with me, but told me that the company would not take any complaintsThis was a completely unannounced fee, simply withdrawing from my account without any notificationThis is a SCAMIt involves bankingThere should be some recourseIn general, the credit card processing industry is known for their scammingBut this is so blatentI noticed that the address you had for this cowas incorrect, and tha

Was charged monthly fees for a device and service I didn’t use asked to refund and cancel company ended up charging me an additional $dollars just for good measureThey don’t offer services like other merchants (instant deposit) but charge a ridiculous monthly fee instead of charging by client for a lesser quality serviceThey are work more like a scam then a legitimate business I definitely don’t recommend please stay far away use Square or even PayPal business

The merchant account with Clearent/Veteran Payment Systems was canceled and our bank account was debited for $early termination fee We specifically made sure there would be no cancelation fee prior to signing the contract
Product_Or_Service: MERCHANT SERVICES
Account_Number: ***

In order to use *** as a payment gateway for our website, we were also required to create an account with Clearent who process and distributes funds on behalf of ***After months we removed *** from our website as a payment gatewayFor the last months we have attempted to close our account with Clearent to no availTwice we were left on hold for over an hour just to be told that an account representative would be notified to contact us to make sure the account was in good standing before closingWe were also advised to email [email protected] requesting our acount be closed, this was done on August 1st and again no follow up from ClearentWe have no equipment, no contract obligations, please close out account and stop debiting our bank account monthly

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID*** ***, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me
Sincerely,
*** ***

Clearent purchase PAI and transferred contracts in JuneJune 1st was the effective change and I received a letter on June 28th stating that fees may be changing with no description of what and how they will be changing My previous contract was a month and it jumped up to a month with no new agreement or noticeI also was charged some sort of annual IRS fee or something with NO Notice of the charge including nothing on a statementThe total for that was 108.98, Some of that was the monthly fee and card processing fee The only annual fee that I would have through PAI was not due until after November and it was for a decryption feeI cancelled my account and was told there would be no termination fees, which is the only thing that Clearent has honored from my contract with PAI

I am trying to close/cancel my merchant account with Clearent/ClearPay and am being given the "run around" and miss-information, if not outright lying
I know for a fact that I signed a merchant agreement that can be cancelled with written notice with no fees Per my memory, and what the actual rep who signed me up just told me, I believe I am required, per the terms of cancellation, to give Clearent days written notice to avoid an ETFCleant refuses to confirm this or even offer the information as the think I am unawareI am not and will have proof tonight
To confirm I could close as I thought, I called Clearent and was then directed to the local office who began lying and sending me documentsI told them I just wanted to cancel and need the form they use and a copy of my merchant agreement/terms of cancellation faxed to meI've asked times, and so far they have not sent me a copy of what I signed, but instead, sent me a mainvoice (per my old rep) and tha