NoChex ~ No Thanks

[Punched]

Hi Guys

I didn't really want to rabbit on too much, but hey thats what we're here for so here goes.

In June of this year, i set up my Online store, selling Punched decking, now for you that don't know what this is, its a non slip surface used for Car transporters and recovery trucks!! believe me people buy it

Anyway I set up my store, and had Paypal as my card provider, August saw a new influx of customers and a few of them asked me if i took Nochex, I told them that i would sign up for a merchant account with them, The more the merrier or so i thought.

I told the guy on the phone i wanted a merchant account like paypal, where people pay me, they get their fee and the rest is available to me to transfer to my account, Sure no problem, just pay the £50 Merchant fee and we'll get your account opened.

So i did....

The first couple of orders went through, Great, saw on line what i had, nochex took their fee out of the transaction, next week a few more orders, Wow this is the way to go, Built up my balance to about £1100 then one day i tried to transfer that sum to my bank account, they wouldn't let me. I complained and they then told me they were holding back £1000??

Another month passed and i was no sooner to getting my money back from Nochex, I cancelled my account and now they say i need to wait 160 days for my money (6 Months)

So Please don't do as i did, avoid Nochex 100%, They are a bunch of crooks, if anyone benefited out of time they had with me its definately them.

So in essence, i had to fork out money twice, Once for nochex and again for the material and labour for the actual items i sold.

Can they legally do this?? I sure Mastercard and Visa won't be too happy when i tell them what this particular merchant is doing.

I can't be the only one this has happened to?? anyone else have this problem

Gerry

[That Guy]

I was looking into Nochex at one point and when I was emailing one of the sales team they said they like you to keep your account balance around £1000 which is what put me off. I think its something to do with charge back protection.

Its a really crap system.

[Punched]

I was looking into Nochex at one point and when I was emailing one of the sales team they said they like you to keep your account balance around £1000 which is what put me off. I think its something to do with charge back protection.

Its a really crap system.

I agree with the crap system, Chargeback protection??? how come paypal don't do it?? Its based on trust, You trust them with your customers details, but they don't trust you to deliver the goods, the right goods etc...

The dangerous thing being is they don't like you to keep your account at £1000, They do it for you, and hang onto it for a further 6 months should you leave.

Avoid at all costs guys

[consultant]

to be fair, they should have told you about this and the holdback value should have been stated on their agreement.

If it isnt on their contract that you signed, go after them!

[Punched]

to be fair, they should have told you about this and the holdback value should have been stated on their agreement.

If it isnt on their contract that you signed, go after them!

The guy told me that it would be just like paypal, Great, i've got no reason to doubt him, Until i find out afterwards

Then when i asked them to send me the recording of the conversation i had with the guy, knowing full well what was said, they told me they didn't have it any more?? To me that was as good as a verbal contract, Otherwise i've been mis sold a financial product, which i guess i could try and go via the small claims??

Any ideas

[Mike Seddon]

The guy told me that it would be just like paypal, Great, i've got no reason to doubt him, Until i find out afterwards

Then when i asked them to send me the recording of the conversation i had with the guy, knowing full well what was said, they told me they didn't have it any more?? To me that was as good as a verbal contract, Otherwise i've been mis sold a financial product, which i guess i could try and go via the small claims??

Any ideas

What's in the written agreement you have with them?

Surely thats the place to start.

[Punched]

What's in the written agreement you have with them?

Surely thats the place to start.

Unfortunately their 15 page contract was nothing like what i signed up for and, when they keep emailing me to sign it and return it, one of the emails clearly states that the quicker i signed it the quicker i can start withdrawing funds into my account.

Once we have these, we will enable your account so you can withdraw money from your Nochex merchant account to your nominated bank account.

The contract was totally opposite to what i wanted and what was agreed verbally.

This whole setup stinks of deception and i'm currently looking at the "Unfair Contract" laws to see if i can get out of this mess.

I was never told either by Verbal or email that they would keep £1000 of my customers money for the time i'm with them or for 6 months afterwards, in their words incase of clawbacks, but exactly how do they think i was going to pay for the material and labour to get the work done??

I think nochex have go to the stage where Paypal, now becoming more professional and popular have left them standing way back, and the only way for them to make money is by scamming and tricking people like this.

I know i should of had the contract checked over as it was a bit complicated to under stand, but when a guy says to you for example, It'll be the same as paypal, then thats what you expect, not the opposite, contract or no contract.

Strange that they have lost my inital recording of me telling the guy that i wanted a service just like paypal. I have written to them as for an explanation and have still not heard back.

I have also contacted Visa and mastercard to Complain about what they are doing, keeping my customers money and enablabling me not to complete the orders (Although i had to use £1500 of my own cash!)

People, just be VERY carefull.

[openmind]

I'm afraid it is stated in the terms available before you sign up in para. 8.9 about retained balances:

https://secure.nochex.com/%28bzylgu5...ction=Q&ID=290

WorldPay do a similar thing for traders with no history. Saying that, it should have been made clearer to you by the sales person but I wouldn't bother fighting this, you will most likely lose and it will end up costing you more.

It looks like it is a 12 month contract so I would just sign it, get hold of your funds and then switch to another provider.

Unfortunately you simply cannot rely on verbal agreements and should always read and understand the contract before entering into any binding agreement.

[consultant]

Punched,

regardless of what was agreed verbally, if you signed a contract, you have to accept a majority of the blame for being in this position. NEVER sign a contract without at least scanning it!

As for a 'it'll be the same as paypal', operationally, it is - people go from your site to their payment page and then back to you.

The best thing to do is learn from this and move on.

BTW, how was the contract opposite to what you wanted? Nochex have to be applauded for making you sign a hard copy - I bet when you set up your paypal account, you just clicked the 'I accept the T&C's' button without reading any of them. You might be shocked by some things that are contained in them.

[QuikShop]

In the OPs defence, NoChex are notoriously awful at communication whether its on sales, customer service or technical support. They even withdrew their own user forums because of the amount of abuse their own customers where giving them

How many of us here read through the fine print of a 15 page document? It is of course buyer beware and the ultimate responsibility falls to the OP to know what he's agreeing to but any legitimate business would be up front about costs and processes.