I was contacted by Merchant Referral Services in October of 2009 by phone. It was first presented to me that this company represented Visa and Mastercard. I was told that they were looking for someone to cover the northern ‘half’ of Michigan and that if I signed up I would be given that territory exclusively.
I was told that the registration fee for me to do this would be approximately 0.00. I signed up with the company on October 26th, 2009. as an affiliate. There was also an additional ongoing fee of .00 monthly taken directly from my checking account.
In my home office, I was unable to get into the companies’ ‘back office’, the website/address where I could check on referrals I had submitted to the company. When I called the company, no one answered. I thought the problem was my home office computer, but tried from other computers/internet connections and still was unable to reach the companies’ ‘back office’ to check on referrals.
When I spoke to a company representative about referrals I had submitted, I was told that I had faxed the form to the company with ‘errors’ and would not receive credit/payment for the referral.
When I spoke to different representatives from Merchant Referral Solutions about the problems I was having with access to the company’s’ ‘back office’, and not being able to track referrals, I was told something completely different by each new person I spoke to.
I feel I was lied to about who/what Merchant Referral Solutions really is/was. I know I was mislead about their relationship with major credit card companies and how the process actually works if you do sign up as an affiliate with them.
I did speak to someone from Merchant Referral Solutions about a specific business that I turned in as a referral/lead that had later been contacted by someone else for their business. I asked this man if Merchant Referral Solutions had a sister company that referrals were submitted to. I believed my referral was sold or given away to someone else by Merchant Referral Solutions.
I have been unable to reach a solution with this company. I would like a full refund of my initial affiliate fee of 5.00, as well as the .00 monthly fee being taken from my checking account since October of 2009.
I take care of my husband, Bob, a disabled veteran, full time and was hoping this company would be a solution to financial struggles we’ve already had, not something else we would have to worry about.
