Plastiq, Inc.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2016/01/29) */
Hi [redacted],
I am very sorry to see that you have not contacted us directly to resolve this issue before contacting the Revdex.com. I would be happy to explain how your information is on our site and how we are a bill pay service like Chase or...

Wells Fargo.
Our company is a new consumer-facing model for credit card payments, we get many inquiries from businesses like yours wondering what exactly we do and how our service works. Hopefully this information will help answer any questions you may have.
Plastiq is an online service that allows cardholders to initiate check and ACH/EFT payments from their credit cards rather than their bank accounts. Customers cover the cost associated with processing cards by paying a service fee to make payments through Plastiq. In turn, Plastiq takes each payment and sends it in a form the business already accepts, either via check or bank transfer. Businesses do not need to sign an agreement or contract to be paid through Plastiq, just as they don't require agreements with the customer's bank to accept checks or ACH/EFTs issued from them. In this way, existing credit card processor relationships are not compromised and there are no costs or risks associated with accepting a payment sent via Plastiq.
We have purchased a list of reputable businesses like yours that are a part of the bill pay system, that you signed up with your bank, and added them to our database. This ensures that your customers' payments are being sent to the right place in a form that you accept. We also offer the ability for businesses to sign up with Plastiq and customize their business page, receive payments faster, and opt in to our payment reporting options- absolutely free. If you'd like to learn more about this offering or our service in general, visit plastiq.com/business or reach out to [email protected].
Above all, we value your trust, and the trust of the cardholders across North America who use Plastiq for their life's important payments. If you'd still like to be removed as a payee in our system, please let me know what the link is, and feel free to reach out with any additional questions you may have.

Made a payment to the city of Brampton , Ontario on 22 Aug 2016. Once the payment process was complete, the message displays that it will take 3 to 8 days to remit to the city. My due date was 24th of Aug. When asked plastiq about this, they wrote back saying we will cancel your payment and make the refund. Two days later the payment is posted on my card. Payment not reflected with the city. Now plastiq says the payment went through without their knowledge. Wow...what a horrible service. So much trouble. They don't have customer service number to call. Only email. I am mad and in no mood to let this go. I want my refund made along with the fees. I will contact my attorney too. This is a cheap online cheating business.

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. Sincerely, [redacted]

Hi there,
 
We do not allow prepayment of rent as we have told the customer when he reached out to us. The customer can go ahead and scheduled each month in the system if he like.
 
customer also stated that his roommate got his to go through and this was because he got pass our review...

and this will not happen in the future.
 
The customer can go ahead and scheduled the rent payment for each month and we will process them each month.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 2, 2015/07/14) */
Customer's payment has a problem during sending as our partners had an outage. Explained to the customer what the issue was. The customer could not wait forthe payment to be sent, after to refund payment. The customer did not want that since the...

payment was due. Told him we need to work with the bank to see when they could process ACH payments again. Once we heard back, I explained it would arrive in 2-3 business days. Customer called every 5  mins during this timeframe. Emailed every 5 mins. His payment did arrive on time during the time quoted after the delay. Was very transparent with the customer during this whole process. Customer has been refunded the service fee and told not to use our service in the future since calling every 5 mins and emailing every 5 mins is harassment and we will not tolerate any kind of harassment.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 3, 2015/07/15) */
7/15/2015Hello,The information sent back from this business is totally inaccurate and false.  Never was I told that there was a system outtage.  This customer doesn't have a real good customer service contact number and I had to keep speaking to the same indivdual on the times I was able to reach someone as they don't have a direct number to call.  I did in fact open up several tickets with what I understand to be a call center, but each time I was told that a ticket would be escalated and someone would get back to me.  Well, I received a call from a person by the name of "[redacted]".  He never provided a last name.  [redacted] told me on several occassions, that he was looking into the situation and that he would call their bank to get an update.  After 5 days of asking for information from his bank, he finally told me that the money was being sent out and that I would receive it the next day.  This was 10 days into the original transaction and indeed on the 11th day I did receive payment.  The payments was 8 days later than originally date quoted and after several calls, emails and even an email to to the CEO of the company, who basically told me that if I didn't like the process, he would urge me (exact words) to use a different source next time.  This is just anohter example of their proffessionalism.Regards,[redacted]Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # XXXXXXXX. Please add your rejection comments below. [If you are rejecting the business's response please enter your rejection comments here.]Regards,Derrick Chapman  Â

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2015/12/07) */
Please note that Plastiq does accept all mortgage payments and has no issues accepting them. We did notice with the type of payment and cards being used that are historically associated with very high risk behavior that we do not wish to accept....

As stated in our terms of service when a user signs up, we do reserve the right to refund certain payments, 5.8 of our terms of service. Below is a transcript of the customer's interaction with Plastiq. Please note that Plastiq considers this issue closed, as we have told the user that we could not reprocess the payment and explained our terms of service.
Emails with Plastiq and the user.
IMPORTANT: Your recent payment with Plastiq
[redacted]
NOV 16TH, 2015 AT 11:36AM
To: [redacted]@hotmail.com
From: [redacted]@plastiq.com
Hi [redacted],
I hope this message finds you well. I am writing to you regarding your recent payment with Plastiq to Wells Fargo (ID XXXXXX). I wanted to let you know your payment has been refunded because we do not support this number of different payments towards one payee.
Your funds should be returned to you within 3-5 business days. Please let me know if you have any other questions. We do hope that you use our service for any other bills or invoices that you would like to pay.
Best Regards,
[redacted] NOV 16TH, 2015 AT 1:54PM
To: "[redacted]@plastiq.com"
From: [redacted]
Hi, I don't understand. Why wouldn't my payments toward my mortgage be accepted? Did I miss an FAQ that limits the # of payments??
[redacted]
[redacted] NOV 16TH, 2015 AT 2:49PM
To: "[redacted]@plastiq.com"
From: [redacted]
Attachments: Mortgage - [redacted] ...pdf
Hi, I chatted with Online Chat today. They said that these payments would be fine as long as I provided documentation.
See attached for my mortgage statement. I am paying some toward my monthly payment and some toward principal.
Please let me know when you will stop cancelling my payments. Thank you!
Henry NOV 17TH, 2015 AT 9:59AM
To: [redacted]
From: "Account Services"
Hi [redacted],
Thanks for sending that in.
We carefully reviewed the documentation provided. We are, however, unable to support this payment. I took a look at the chat you had with [redacted], our representative. I'm sorry if that led to a bit of confusion about our process. We do often reach out for documentation. However, even with documentation there are some payments we are unable to support.
While we aim to support all payments, there are some instances where we are unable to do so, whether it's for regulatory, compliance, financial, or business reasons.
Best,
[redacted] NOV 17TH, 2015 AT 4:16PM
To: Account Services ,
From: [redacted]
I'm confused. I thought the whole point of the service was to be able to pay bills like your rent or mortgage.
What am I missing??
Henry NOV 18TH, 2015 AT 11:05AM
To: [redacted]
From: "Account Services"
Hi [redacted],
While mortgage payments are a supported category we are not able to support all individual payments within an individual category. As 5.8 of our terms of service states, we do reserve the right to refund certain payments.
I am sorry for the inconvenience this caused you.
Best,
Live chat with Plastiq and the Customer.
Interaction with [redacted]
To: [redacted]@plastiq.com
From: [redacted]@hotmail.com
Location: USA ([redacted])
On page: https://www.plastiq.com/help/
IP address: 144.160.98.94
NOV 16TH, 2015 AT 2:45PM
Talked with: [redacted]
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:29 my payments have been rejected
[redacted]
02:29 hi
02:29 How can I help you?
02:30 do you mean refunded by our account service team?
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:30 yes
02:31 I was trying to pay my mortgage and it took a few payments and ALL were rejected!
02:31 very frustrated
[redacted]
02:31 is there a reason you're making multiple payments? gift cards?
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:31 yes, trying to earn some miles
02:32 I didn't see anything in the FAQs about it
[redacted]
02:32 one moment
02:36 I have asked our accounts services team for an explanation and will update you via email. do you have a mortgage statement available if they need documentation to support the payment?
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:36 of course. i'm paying down principal. my email is [redacted]@hotmail.com
[redacted]
02:37 so these are specifically toward principal?
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:37 it will be however wells fargo decides to code it
02:38 they'll apply it toward the next payment, and then the remainder will apply toward principal usually
[redacted]
02:38 ok. Thanks for your patience.. I will follow up with the team and get back to you with what they will need for documentation
02:38 those payments were already refunded
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:39 thanks. frustrating experience. I wish someone had reached out to me rather than refunding everything. Took me an hour to enter in everything.
[redacted]
02:39 sorry this was a bad first time experience. we normally ask for documentation and usually see one card for payments
02:39 I'll get to the bottom of this
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:40 is there any way that if I provide the documentation that you all can just charge the same cards again, or do I have to go through the whole process again?
[redacted]
02:41 we cannot reprocess sorry
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:41 why not just have me submit the documentation before I can complete a 2nd payment?
[redacted]
02:41 you are welcome to submit documentation directly in response to the email you received and it will go to that team
02:41 I will alert them
[redacted] ([redacted]@hotmail.com)
02:42 ok will do, thanks for the help
[redacted]
02:43 my pleasure. sorry again for the experience
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 10, 2015/12/08) */
(The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
The terms of service are buried on their website for such an important reason to deny service. I also provided the requested documentation (my mortgage statement) that Plastiq specifically requested in order to support my bill payment. After leading me on that Plastiq would accept my bill payments after providing documentation, and then reversing that position even when I followed through, is not clear and is deceptive.
Plastiq needs to spell out upfront that they will not accept all mortgage payments even if the end user provides documentation. That needs to be in large font on their website, not buried in terms of service. Plastiq also needs to warn users each time they submit a payment that their paymeent will be rejected.
It is clear from the response above that Plastiq is not accepting the feedback in a spirit of clarity and transparency. Plastiq wishes to entice users into paying bills, only to reject a number of those payments later without thorough explanation upfront that those payments may be rejected, even if user provides thorough and complete justification.

Hi [redacted],Thanks for your message, and apologies for delay in response.  This Dan Choi, one of the co-founders of Plastiq, and I'm happy to address your inquiry personally.It appears your payment was part of a batch of checks that our bank partner, [redacted] (SVB), unfortunately...

failed to send out despite our instructions. What made this case particularly troublesome was that SVB followed all protocols as though the file succeeded, so we had no indication that the checks had not been sent until valued customers like yourself began to inquire about checks not being deposited. We sprung into action at once to identify the extent of the incident, and messaged our customers as soon as we could, offering to either refund their payments or issue their checks. If they chose the latter, we would also completely refund our fee for these botched payments plus give free credit toward a future payment. Though this unacceptable issue was not a result of Plastiq's actions and we were not required to by our terms, we recognized the great inconvenience for our customers and so were willing to make this offer to re-affirm our commitment to providing as best an experience as we can.Plastiq is not a financial institution, and in fact we never touch nor take ownership of your funds en route to your recipient. Card authorizations are funded to a bank account owned by our bank partner (SVB), and they issue checks and other transfers based on our instructions. This arrangement, while ensuring the safety of our customers funds in all events (including Plastiq's dissolution), unfortunately hampers our capabilities with regards to sending checks. Despite our repeated requests over the last couple years, we have not been able to obtain check tracking capability from SVB, who retains full control over the issuance of Plastiq checks as they are written from SVB's bank account. Despite the obstacles we've encountered, however, we are not deterred and are still working to do what we can to offer tracked checks in the near future.Regarding the two important aspects of this scenario that you felt Revdex.com ought to know about:"1) It is not clear at all that Plastiq will cover late fees incurred as a direct result of their incompetence.""Our delivery guarantee is mentioned on our homepage (screenshot attached), and is covered in detail within our Terms of Service, Section 8.4 Delivery Guarantee (plastiq.com/terms). It may be worthwhile to note that we are willing to – and have already offered – to honor this Delivery Guarantee for your payment despite the fact that this issue arose through no fault in our actions or inactions. Our service agents also refer to this delivery guarantee any time a user inquires about a potentially late payment. If you have feedback about how we might make this part of our service more clear to customers, it will always be welcome and you can reach out to me directly at the email below my signature line."2) Plastiq has no means of directly contacting the company to resolve issues like this. ie - they have an email option but no phone number. For a financial institution, that seems awfully suspicious."Plastiq has many channels of direct communication available to our customers in addition to email, which include a support ticket service and live chat available from our website.  We also actively monitor and respond to any reach-outs via [redacted] and the Revdex.com. My sincerest regrets if you feel that offering phone support is a requirement for your usage of our service. We had offered phone support in the past, but after an extensive testing period concluded that the quality of support we could provide actually increased when our agents were able to engage with multiple customers at a time via multiple channels. That said, it is possible that we may try to offer phone support again in the future, depending on continued feedback from our customers.[redacted], regarding the "desired outcome" identified in your Revdex.com complaint, we are absolutely willing to refund your payment plus fee, as well as cover any late fees you incurred due to this issue. In fact, I can see from our service tool that you reached out on the same day this complaint was filed to confirm the refund back to your card, and that you would "reach out about the late fee at a later date". As such, may I suggest that we resolve this Revdex.com complaint and await your further advice regarding the late fee you were assessed? If there is further action you feel we should take, please just let me know.In closing, I'd like to once again offer my sincerest regrets about the issue you experienced. We work hard to provide a great experience for our customers, and unfortunately sometimes things fall outside of our control. Despite this fact, however, we're willing to take full responsibility for any shortcomings in our service offering, and I hope that our conduct in this case is befitting of a business that may once again earn your trust.Thanks for your time, and please reach out if there's any other way I can be of assistance.All my best,Dan [email protected]

Do not do business with Plastiq. I used a $500 Visa gift card to make a Principal Payment to my mortgage. Despite guaranteeing the payment would be made within 5-7 days, the payment still has not been made after 20 days. Customer Service claims they will cover any late payment fees; that does not apply in this case, this is to offset my principal, lowering the amount of interest I owe. Thus, it is important that it is received promptly so interest does not continue to compound.
Customer Service has provided NO good solution to stop the payment. They refuse to issue a stop payment, which means that if do cancel the payment and the check does eventually make it to my mortgage co., then I will incur a bounce fee. I have contacted my mortgage vendor multiple times asking if they have received any payment, but they have not. Customer Service from Plastiq alerted me that they do NOT use tracking, despite sending a check for $500 :(. I have now had 5 unanswered emails and do not know if this will ever get resolved. In the meantime, I could be using that $500 towards other things (i.e., Christmas gifts etc.).
Don't use this to convert unwanted gift cards into payments... just go out and spend them on things you normally would buy. As a new homeowner, I am obsessed with paying off principal but I made a mistake in judgement using this company to accelerate my progress.

This payment has already been resolved and refunded back to the customer outside of the Revdex.com

Complaint: [redacted]I am rejecting this response because: As it was stated they do not accept prepayment of rent, the response does not specify, nor does it identify, how to inform consumers prior to signing up and paying fees if they are allowed to prepay for certain types of goods and services. If aforementioned service is preceded by legal documentation, and Plastiq does not identify in their Terms of Use Agreement that a prepayment of specified good or service is not allowed, would conclude Plastiq is not upholding their end of the contract. Thus, it could be argued that Plastiq could be legally responsible for providing that service.  
I will only accept if they a) allow consumers to prepay for goods and services or b) they identify in their Terms of Use policy that prepayment of goods and services is not provided, and identify and outline reasons why this would be considered high risk monetary activity if provided with legal documentation.
Sincerely,[redacted]

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 2, 2015/07/14) */
Customer's payment has a problem during sending as our partners had an outage. Explained to the customer what the issue was. The customer could not wait
id="1886" data-gr-id="1886">forthe payment to be sent, after to refund payment. The customer did not want that since the payment was due. Told him we need to work with the bank to see when they could process ACH payments again. Once we heard back, I explained it would arrive in 2-3 business days. Customer called every 5  mins during this timeframe. Emailed every 5 mins. His payment did arrive on time during the time quoted after the delay. Was very transparent with the customer during this whole process. Customer has been refunded the service fee and told not to use our service in the future since calling every 5 mins and emailing every 5 mins is harassment and we will not tolerate any kind of harassment.
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (3000, 3, 2015/07/15) */
7/15/2015Hello,
The information sent back from this business is totally inaccurate and false.  Never was I told that there was a system outtage.  This customer doesn't have a real good customer service contact number and I had to keep speaking to the same indivdual on the times I was able to reach someone as they don't have a direct number to call.  I did in fact open up several tickets with what I understand to be a call center, but each time I was told that a ticket would be escalated and someone would get back to me.  Well, I received a call from a person by the name of "[redacted]".  He never provided a last name.  [redacted] told me on several occassions, that he was looking into the situation and that he would call their bank to get an update.  After 5 days of asking for information from his bank, he finally told me that the money was being sent out and that I would receive it the next day.  This was 10 days into the original transaction and indeed on the 11th day I did receive payment.  The payments was 8 days later than originally date quoted and after several calls, emails and even an email to to the CEO of the company, who basically told me that if I didn't like the process, he would urge me (exact words) to use a different source next time. 
This is just anohter example of their proffessionalism.
Regards,
[redacted]
Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response submitted by the business and have determined that the response does not satisfy or resolve my issues and/or concerns in reference to complaint # XXXXXXXX. Please add your rejection comments below. 
[If you are rejecting the business's response please enter your rejection comments here.]
Regards,
Derrick Chapman
 
Â

Hi [redacted],Thank you for your message. This is unfortunately the first time I've been made aware of complaints via the Revdex.com channel, so my apologies for not being involved sooner. I'd be happy to provide some more background on our policies regarding prepayment of rent, as well as indicate the specific clauses in our terms that provide us the rights to choose not to support these types of payments.In order to support card-initiated payments to any recipient (in exchange for a good or service), Plastiq takes on liability associated with the successful delivery of the goods or services provided – in this case, your tenancy. As the amount of time between payment and month of tenancy increases, the chances of anything going wrong (e.g., eviction) also increases, which subjects our company to greater risk associated with supporting pre-payments. Section 8.3 of our terms (located at plastiq.com/terms) outlines our ability to evaluate payments for regulatory, risk, and other reasons, and also grants us the right to choose not to support a payment at our sole discretion.  Specifically, the first sentence of the third paragraph reads, "At its sole discretion, Plastiq reserves the right to cancel any Payment. In such cases and as permitted by applicable law, your funds will be returned to you via the original Payment Method, or if necessary via other means."I've personally looked into your user account with us, and I can see that, per our terms, the full amounts of these rejected payments were refunded back to your card. Furthermore, it appears that you subsequently (on [redacted] and [redacted] – after this complaint was issued on [redacted]) submitted two additional payments, which our review team deemed supportable and whose associated checks were cashed successfully by your landlord.  I hope this may serve as evidence that we endeavor to support every payment that is submitted via our service, but that unfortunately there are simply some cases that we cannot support.[redacted], I'd like to offer my sincerest regrets about the inconvenience that you may have experienced, particularly where our communication could have been clearer or more definitive. We are constantly working on improving our service so that we can better serve our loyal customers. I hope that we can retain your business for the payments we are able to support, and that perhaps this more detailed explanation of the factors at play in our risk review provides you better context (if not satisfaction) about our policies.Thanks once again, and please let me know if there is any way I can be of assistance.All best,Dan ChoiCo-Founder

Hi there, please note the Revdex.com is all about providing opportunities for the business to resolve this without reaching out to them. I have take a look at your account and I do see that you both have FFDs. In the future please reach out to us via live chat on the site or submit an email request.

Hi there, Plastiq considers this issue resolved. This user has disputed these funds and lost the dispute and we refunded it at a later date per the users request. We no longer have the funds and they have never bounced back to us. We can not assist this customer any further as we do not have the...

funds and they are with their bank and this is a bank issuer that needs to be resolved with her and her bank. I do apologize that we can not assist any further then we have already. We have been clear on this stance and have spent over 2 months investigating and working with this customer and will not spend anymore resources as we no longer have the funds and can not investigate any further. Plastiq will not respond to any further requests.