Is ipaymentinc.com Safe?

Briefly: IPayment Inc. is an online merchant service provider that I agreed to use to allow me to process credit card payments on my website. They have taken $920 of funds that my customers paid me for my services and refuse to release them to me. They literally have stolen money from my own customers. I started using them as a gateway provider for my ***** account so that I could accept credit card payments on my website. I started noticing a problem after a few days. I had several customers purchase products from my site, but no money was being deposited into my account. They kept telling me to wait another day and it would come, that everything was good and I needed to be patient. I gave it some time, about a week, figuring it must take some time to get up and running, but nope, no money. So I e-mailed my rep (3 times), no response. Then I started calling. They told me there was an issue with the voided check that I sent them. They never bothered to tell me this before. So I rush ordered some new checks as the one I had given them was my last one. Got the checks and sent them over. Called to verify. They then claimed the check I sent was not good enough and that I'd have to get a banker to write a letter for them with the account information. I went to the bank and got the letter. I had the bank fax it and I even had the banker speak with an Ipayment rep. To be safe I e-mailed and faxed the letter and my check myself. I called to verify and was told "Yes, everything looks good; you should receive your money in 1 to 2 business days". Well, needless to say, that didn't happen. After a week still no money and no correspondence from the company so I called again. They said I didn't receive the money because they had decided to close my account! No notification, no call, no e-mail, just shut down my credit card processing account. When I asked why they informed me because I didn't get them the bank information. Then they said that there was a "chargeback" on one of my transactions so that's why they closed the account. A chargeback is when a customer notifies their bank that they didn't make the charge and it may be fraudulent. I found it odd and investigated. The customer said that on her bank statement iPayment Inc had taken the money from her account and posted it as an ATM withdrawl from Cottage Grove MN, so the customer didn't realize that charge was for my product. I had the customer call her bank to let them know the charge was valid. I gave all this information to Ipayment but they didn't care. They simply refuse to open my account or give the funds to me. They won't even refund the money back to the customer! Sounds like fraud to me. My customer pays for my service, I deliver the service, and Ipayment keeps the customers money. It is obvious that this was a setup, they are trying to make me look at fault to keep money and told me that they would invest it and do “whatever they want with it”. There is no way that is legal.

iPayment Inc/ ***** STEAL from small business owners Please do not do business with this company. Read about all the horrible things they are doing to small business owners here: ***** The list includes: Shutting down your account without notice Holding your funds indefinitely for no valid legal reason Charge you hidden fees Taking money from you bank account without your authorization If you have been a victim of this company, please help get the word out and to prevent other business owners from being cheated by these crooks. They use a company call ***** to sign up unsuspecting businesses. Stay away from them at all costs.