Dharma Merchant Services

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2014/06/23) */
Contact Name and Title: [redacted], CEO
Contact Phone: XXX-XXX-XXXX
Contact Email: [redacted]@dharmams.com
This message is in response to complaint #XXXXXXXX, which was sent to Dharma Merchant Services on June 9, 2014. The case...

involves a merchant that recently signed for a credit card processing account for their auto repair shop. They agreed to the terms of the contract, which stipulated the ticket amount and the monthly volume amount they requested. Immediately, they began processing over the agreed-upon parameters and in one case split a sale into two tickets, which is strictly forbidden by Visa/MasterCard, but was ignored by the merchant. In another instance, a transaction was run for more than twice the approved amount, so our back-end partner withheld the funds until the sale could be verified. At this time, funds are being held by the Risk Department (as is the inherent right of any processor), and the merchant was advised that their account would be closed in ten days.
Since there is still a $3,000 balance being held, the merchant is understandably upset, but we have been an advocate for the release of these funds by our partner. In short, we believe that every effort was made to ensure that the merchant was made aware of prudent transaction practices and are dismayed that they have chosen to complain to the Revdex.com, which is our very first complaint since opening in 2007. We see this merchant making a complaint against Dharma Merchant Services without taking any responsibility for the actions which caused the funding hold as a means of getting their funds returned sooner. We can acknowledge that all funds will be released unless their customers dispute the charges for the services provided.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 7, 2014/06/24) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
Being a first time merchant, it would help if someone actually explained to us how everything works when the account was open. We were not aware of the limits or any other rules on our account. Everything was explained to us after our account got suddenly closed! That's not how it should work. Both companies feel like it's not their fault, and as a customer we end up with no merchant and money frozen for months! We want our money back, it's been a month, how much longer are we going to wait to get our money back?!!!
Final Business Response /* (4000, 9, 2014/07/02) */
This merchant is insisting that they were not made aware of the proper processing limitations, but we know this to be false based on both company policy and our internal paper trail for this account, where account parameters were agreed upon and shared with the merchant on numerous occasions. However, we do not think it would serve anyone's interests to get into a "he said, she said" match. Dharma continues to be an advocate for the immediate release of the outstanding funds, but we wish to again point out that we do not have any control over the Loss Prevention department's decision (since this is done by an independent back-end processor) to allow the outstanding funds to be released right away. At this time we are being told that it should happen by mid-July. Our staff has offered exemplary service with this merchant every step of the way and feel that this could have been avoided had our guidance been heeded.
Consumer Response /* (3000, 17, 2014/08/09) */
I'm still waiting for my $3000. I haven't received any money yet.
Consumer Response /* (2000, 20, 2014/08/14) */
We have received our $3000 on 7/25/2014.