Merchant Acceptance Corporation

Please see the attached documents confirming the validity of Gold River Distributing LLC.  The company was registered and formed with the CA SOS on 8/22/2016 and dissolved on 6/5/2017.  Also provided is the confirmation of the company's Tax ID information and their sellers permit filed...

with the board of equalization.  Gold River Distributing was a legitimate and properly registered business at the time that Mrs. [redacted] purchased her Kirby Vacuum from them on 3/23/2017.  The financing for this purchase will not be cancelled and no refund will be issued as there is no basis to do so.  If Mrs. [redacted] should need assistance or service with her Kirby Vacuum she needs to contact Kirby World Headquarters at 800-437-7170 and they will direct her to the nearest service center in her area.

Merchants reports to all three major credit bureaus on the 1st business day of each month.  This account was updated to Equifax, Transunion, and Experian on 11/1/2016; just a few days after you submitted the Revdex.com complaint.  We received the bankruptcy discharge paperwork on 10/14 and the account was updated to report correctly on our very next submission to the credit reporting agencies on 11/1.  All credit reporting after 11/1 will be identical to the reporting provided previously.  Please contact me directly at [redacted] if you have any further questions on the reporting of your account the credit bureaus.

I can not speak to what other companies have done with you in the past.  I have no knowledge of the circumstances surrounding those situations.  There have been plenty of opportunities to have this worked out before getting to this point and our policy is that once the garnishment is in place we do not interrupt the legal process.

The contract that Mrs. [redacted] is referring to was entered into during the marriage.  The divorce decree does not warrant her removal from the account and discharge her from a debt that she legally owes.  The divorce decree is simply an agreement between to two parties on who will be...

responsible for certain items.  The divorce decree does not change your financial obligation to your creditors, if one party does not pay you are both still responsible.

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I think it is unfortunate that it takes a complaint to the Revdex.com for Merchant's Acceptance to be willing to work with me. I am completely ok with speaking to a manager to see about suspension of past due balance and a reduced payment plan that I can continue with from now on. Sincerely, [redacted]

All call recordings with the customer have been reviewed, including the initial verification of the loan terms on 2/8/2017 as well as a courtesy call placed to the customer on 2/10/2017 to make sure that the customer was satisfied with the purchase.  At no point was it ever discussed with the customer that the payoff date on the new loan would be the same as the already existing loan.  The customer has never indicated that she has not received a DVD that was promised by the seller, we will contact the seller and make sure that the DVD is delivered to the customer.  The customer did communicate that a part for storing the cord was not working properly, a new part was sent to her and was fixed to the satisfaction of the customer.  We do apologize that Mrs. [redacted] feels like the terms of the contract were misrepresented, however they are very clearly indicated on the contract that she signed and also very clearly disclosed upon verification of these terms with the customer.  In my many years of doing this business I have never encountered a situation where the customer would get a brand new product and only pay what was owed on the initial product that was purchased, in essence getting a brand new product for free.

We have reviewed the account for [redacted].  After reviewing the file it was determined that the autopay schedule that was setup on this account was setup outside of the customers 10 day grace period causing the late fees.  We have waived $82.50 in late fees on this account.  We...

hope this resolves this complaint to the customers satisfaction.

Merchants Acceptance Corp. (MAC) has completed an investigation into this complaint.  The contract for financing that Ms. [redacted] entered into did not contain a Same-As-Cash option as claimed by the customer(see attached).  MAC purchases these contracts from the businesses that sell...

the product, we do not employ salespeople who sell the product, we merely provide the financing.  If there was a separate document containing the written agreement to offer a Same-As-Cash option, MAC has never received it.  We have requested it several times from the customer but have not received it.  The initial verification of the terms of the financing at loan setup was reviewed via call recording and there was no discussion of a Same-As-Cash option to payoff in 18 months with no finance charge.  That call took place on 8/6/2015, 5 days after the date of the sale on 8/1/15.  After that call we had no contact with the customer until 5/23/2017 at which time the customer was sent a statement of account and payoff letter explaining the balance and transactions on the account.  The customer was also provided a copy of the contract showing that no Same-As-Cash promotion was contained in their agreement and the customer agreed to provide documentation they claimed to have regarding the Same-As-Cash agreement.  MAC to this date has not received any documentation to that affect.  In all contacts with customer they were never informed that they do not owe any more money or that they were paid in full.  As a resolution to this matter it is clear from the large payments that customer made in the first 16 months of the contract that they were under the impression the contract did contain an 18 months Same-As-Cash option and MAC is willing to close the account as PIF and waive the remaining balance of $316.24.  We do not believe there was any wrongdoing on the part of MAC to service the written agreement that we received of which there was no agreement of this Same-As-Cash option.  The account will be closed as PIF with a zero balance.

Merchants Acceptance Corp.(MAC) has completed the investigation into this complaint.  Mrs. [redacted](Customer) purchased a Kirby on 1/3/15 and financed it with MAC.  The terms were for $1200 financed over 36 months at $46.62/mth..  Customer made payments on this loan and then on...

2/8/2017 she traded in this Kirby to upgrade to the newest model.  The contract that she entered into on 2/8/17 was to finance $1080 over 36mths at $42.92/mth..(See attached contract).  These terms were verified with the customer on 2/8/17 over the phone on a recorded phone line; the customer agreed to these terms and was informed at the time of signing the contract.  The seller did make the final payment on the old account to payoff the loan for the Kirby taken as a trade in.

Merchants Acceptance Corp(MAC) has completed an investigation into this complaint and determined that the negative marks incurred on this account are reporting correctly and exactly as the customer has paid the account. 
Mrs. [redacted] provided a credit card at loan setup to automatically make...

the payments on the loan each month.  The card information provided by Mrs. [redacted] was entered correctly into our system.  The first payment on 6/24/2015 declined.  On 7/5/2015 a late notice was sent to the customer.  At this point we attempted repeated phone contacts with no success.  Mrs. [redacted] finally contacted our offices on 8/13/2015 to provide new card information for her automatic payments, Mrs. [redacted] explained the previous card information provided was compromised due to fraud.  On 8/24/2015 the new card information provided declined.  On 10/27/2015 we contacted Mrs. [redacted] and she informed us that she was unemployed and could not make a payment.  On 11/3/2015 Mrs. [redacted] contacted our office with new card information for automatic payments.  She made increased payments in November 2015, December 2015, January 2016 and February 2016 and finally on 2/29/2016 Mrs. [redacted] made a large payment of $300 to get the account current. 
Mrs. [redacted]’s statements in her complaint are not consistent with the facts of how this account was paid.  There was not a data entry mistake on behalf of MAC as suggested by Mrs. [redacted].  The account is reporting to the credit bureaus exactly as it has been paid, therefore no adjustment to the reporting is warranted.

Please see attached apology letter and explanation.  Merchants Acceptance Corp.(MAC) representative improperly quoted the status of customers account.  Customer is current on the loan payments and is not in default. 
 
Dear [redacted] & [redacted],
I sincerely apologize for your...

recent customer service experience on March 3, 2016. I have reviewed thecall that took place with [redacted] and a representative at Merchants Acceptance Corp(MAC). The MACrepresentative did not properly quote the status of the account, your account was current and therepresentative advised your were past due. This resulted in an unnecessary bad experience for you thecustomer. Our goal is to ensure quality customer service on every call and the service that you receivedwas unacceptable to our standards.We have taken all possible internal actions to rectify this and ensure that it does not happen again. Thesteps we have taken:1. The representative received a serious infraction and formal write up.2. This call was used as a group training and learning experience with the representatives peers.3. Even though your account is up to date and not past due, I had accounting department do athorough review of your payment history to confirm that all payments were correctly posted toprincipal, interest and fees. They confirmed that everything was posted correctly and that nochanges were necessary.4. I confirmed that both accounts are correctly reporting to the credit bureaus as current and paid asagreed. See attached to confirm this.Once again, I sincerely apologize for your experience. We value you as a customer and I hope that ourresolution and action taken are to your satisfaction. Should you need anything further please do nothesitate to contact me directly at 425-974-7257.Thank You,Jarod Y[redacted]
 
 
[redacted]Documents redacted by the Revdex.com[redacted]

We completely understand your frustration with this situation.  Upon learning of these types of Cash Advance transactions we immediately contacted our credit card processor as our company had not made any changes or requests in regards to how credit card payments were processed.  They...

informed us that VISA and the Payment Card Industry (PCI) have instructed them to change the classification in which they process our payments, without notification to us or authorization from us, which is resulting in these being charged as cash advances.  We have no interest in processing your payments as cash advances, the credit card companies do.  They are the ones reaping the benefits of additional cash advance fees and higher interest rates, meanwhile our company is still paying them a processing fee on each payment we process as well, they are double dipping so to speak.  We find this whole situation to be an abusive practice by VISA and Payment Card Industry and we are just in the beginning stages of disputing this with them, which could take months.  I would be more than happy to refund the payments processed as cash advances assuming that a new payment method is used to replace these payments.  We will also be willing to refund you the $10.59 from the additional fees and interest charged to you as a result of these transactions.  We have not issued a refund as of yet as our goal it to have VISA who made this change rectify these situations.  But as stated before this could be a very long process and we are unsure of the timeline in which this situation will be resolved.  Please contact me directly at [redacted] to discuss this arrangement so that we can handle this timely and to your satisfaction. We highly recommend to avoid future cash advance fees and charges that the payments be made via a debit card or with a routing and account number. As a financial institution we have certain regulatory requirements to protect your personal information and we apologize to you if you were under the impression that we advised you to send your bank statements without redactions via email.  When requesting this sensitive information it is our policy to make very clear that the consumer redacts all personal information if sending this information via email.  I have listened to the call that you had with our representative and he did not stress the importance for redaction if sending via email.  We have reviewed this with him and completed additional training on this matter. Jarod Y[redacted]Director of Account ServicingDirect Line: [redacted]

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.Yes I would accept this response this is what they wanted. They wanted to pay the amount they had agreed on.
And their response which if I understand correctly states that they will close the account as pains in full with the payment made on 07/21/2016 being the last.Sincerely, [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because:
I have received a late payment notice and a returned payment notice. All of the fees they said they would wave are still applied in these letters. I also have not received the documents they said they would provide. Finally I don't agree with everything in Merchant Acceptance Corps response. They are failing to take responsibility for the situation and have not followed through on their stated commitment in order to actually resolve the issue. Sincerely,[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: the account was brought up to date as well as being told by an agent that a card was supposedly entered incorrectly. I never received any phone calls from the agency. I only got a late letter in 9/18. When I spoke to an agent in 5/27/16 he mentioned I had changed my card after the fraud twice which I did not ,I told him maybe a card was enteered  twice ,therefore appearing to be another card when in fact the card was entered incorrectly after the fraud incident. But again the agent told me that the previous agent hadn't put anything into notes as to my card being typed in wrong. I understand that the payments were late,there's no question about that,but the reason for the late was because of a fraud and an incorrectly entered card stemming from the agent u spoke with to fix the fraud. All I am a ski g is that the negative remarks be removed from my credit as they have been made up and corrected as soon as I found out. AAs far as being unemployed , I'm not sure when that info became into the picture because I have been employed by the same company since December 2014. Please reconsider removing these negative remarks , as being a business you should want to help your customers not ruin their credit because of a measlery 300$.
 
Sincerely,[redacted]

Mr. [redacted] entered into a retail installment contract for the financing of a Kirby home cleaning system on 8/15/16 from World Distribution Inc..  Merchants Acceptance Corp. (MAC) provided the financing for this contract.  Mr. [redacted] was afforded 3 business days to cancel the purchase without...

obligation.  He claims to have mailed his cancellation notice on 8/16/16, however nothing has been received by the seller listed on the contract.  MAC verified the terms of the contract with Mr. [redacted] on 8/18/16 and ensured that he was in possession of the merchandise, received a copy of his contract, reviewed the terms of financing and ensured that he was satisfied with his purchase.  Mr. [redacted] agreed to all terms and confirmed that he had the product, a copy of his contract and was satisfied with the purchase.  He did not mention at all that he had mailed a notice of cancellation or that he was intending to cancel. MAC then contacted Mr. [redacted] on 11/23/16 regarding the payment due on the account and Mr. [redacted] stated that he mailed in the cancellation notice on 9/16/16, over 30 days after the date of the purchase.    MAC has requested any documentation that Mr. [redacted] properly mailed a written notice of his intent to cancel this transaction within the 3 business days that were afforded to him, we have yet to receive any documentation that corroborates his claims and the seller to this date has not received a written notice of cancellation.  The cancellation notice can take any type of written form and it does not necessarily need to include a copy of the contract as Mr. [redacted] states in his complaint.  The seller claims that the only contact he has had with Mr. [redacted] is a text message from him in early December 2016, demanding that the Kirby be picked up.  The preponderance of the evidence shows that Mr. [redacted] did not properly cancel this contract and will remain liable for the performance of the contract.

Merchants Acceptance Corp(MAC) has reviewed [redacted] complaint.  [redacted] account is setup on automatic payments directly from his checking account, not his debit card as indicated in his complaint.  The lost debit card had no effect on the automatic payments setup with...

MAC.  [redacted] payments for 8/11/2014, 9/11/2014, 10/12/2015 and 4/11/2016 were all returned NSF by his bank.  On 4/27/2015 [redacted] asked a MAC rep to have the payments put towards the end of the loan; however the customer did not have time to set this up and was to call back at a later time to finalize the arrangement.  We have been trying to contact him since then with no success.  We would be glad to talk to [redacted] about deferring the past due amount on his loan to the end of the contract, however he would need to contact our offices to setup this arrangement.  Please call [redacted] opt.1; Mon-Fri 8am-9pm PST.  In the mean time no adjustments have been made to the credit bureaus as the account is reporting accurately based on how it is being paid.

Merchants Acceptance Corp.(MAC) apologizes to Mr. [redacted] for causing any frustration or confusion and has completed an investigation into this matter.  MAC assumes that Mr. [redacted] is referring to the recent payment he authorized on the account in the amount of $106 to be processed on...

2/21/18.  MAC setup and processed the payment for the amount and date authorized by the customer.  The payment was made with a debit card and when MAC processed the transaction, was declined.  This transaction would not appear in pending or approved transactions on the customers bank statements as it did decline and did not process.  It is standard procedure in these cases for MAC to request documentation that funds were available to process the transaction in order to waive any fee’s created by the declined transaction.  It is not MAC’s intention to have this implied that we think the customer is lying and we are simply following good business practice and procedure in requesting validation to support the claims as the initial investigation determined that the payment was setup as agreed upon and authorized by the customer.  Unfortunately we are unable to agree upon Mr. [redacted] desired settlement of returning the Kirby and getting his old one back as the cancellation of the purchase is well passed and the current contract will need to be honored.  As resolution, MAC is willing to waive the recent return payment fee charged to the customers account associated with the 2/21/2018 transaction.  We recommend that Mr. Gate make his future payments on our website and receive immediate notification that the transaction is approved or declined, he is also welcome to mail in future payments.  If Mr. [redacted] should need any further assistance in this matter or at any time in the future please contact me directly at 425-974-7257 (Jarod Y[redacted] – VP of Business Operations).

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Once I receive confirmation it has been removed, I will be satisfied. I still do not see how the company can legally talk to consumers the way they talked to me. I thought scare tactics were illegal. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
I would like to not do business with this predatory company. I would like to hear the 2 courtesy calls. The only time my contract was discussed was the day I received it. What information did I receive from during these courtesy calls? ,
[redacted]