Overview:
Apex Merchant Group was established in 2008, in conformation with their profile on BBB and is based in Plano, Texas. They are quite younger in this business but the count of complaints filed against them is much more than what’s expected from a beginner. You can look into their common complaints section to see the similarities that I found amongst most of the complaints. That really adds to their downside.
As the payment processor they are using First American Payment System. So those of you who have worked with Apex might be aware of the name First American.
I have scored Apex Merchant Group 2 out of 5.
Date Established:
2008.
Location:
Plano, Texas.
Domain Name(s):
www.apexmg.net
Parent/Partner Company:
Doesn’t look like Apex has a parent company.
Type:
ISO/MSP.
Acquiring Bank(s) (Acquirer):
Fifth Third Bank.
Payment Processor(s):
First American Payment Systems.
Payment Gateway(s):
Authorize.Net or FirstPay.Net 2.0.
Trust Symbols:
You can find the Apex Merchant Group BBB profile here. They have a “D” rating and106 complaints as of this update.
Negative Reviews/Complaints:
Despite the fact that they have only been in the business since 2008 you can find lots of complaints and negative reviews against them on RipOffReport and BBB.
Common Complaints:
Below I have discussed some of the common complaints which are noteworthy in my opinion:
- o Expensive terminal lease contracts through Merimac Capital: A terminal lease usually lock you in a contract of 4 years, cancellation of which can cause serious repercussions. Processors who have embraced leases can surely make a lot of money forcefully and Apex Merchant appears to be one of such processors. Fortunately, nowadays most of the processors have abandoned them since leases are quite unfair on the part of the merchant. But large organizations require number of terminals and if they lack spontaneous finances to make the purchase only in that case leases sound reasonable.
- High cancellation fee: You can surely cancel the contract but on a very high price. The least they charge you for an early termination is $495! For more info about their contract cancellation terms you can look into section #23 of Apex agreement, here’s what it says:
“MERCHANT agrees to pay bank/processor early termination fees established by Bank, but in no event less than four hundred ninety five dollars ($495.00) for each MERCHANT location, plus any and all losses (including consequential damages and loss of profits, costs, expenses, and liabilities) incurred by Bank in connection with termination.”
- o PCI compliance fee: Merchants who intend to accept credit cards for business purpose are undoubtedly required to have PCI compliance. Apex Merchant Group is charging a high amount on annual basis for providing PCI compliance to merchants which is very unreasonable. According to section # 21 of Apex agreement the PCI compliance charges are $124.74 per annum. As a matter of fact it’s not mandatory for the processors to charge any kind of fee for PCI compliance.
- High number of complaints from former sales reps: A high number of complaints from sales rep implies to the fact that the respective company is working on the philosophy of “burn and churn”. Apex seems to inflate their own commission rather than the profit of their clients and in the process their preference is to hire domestic or commission-only independent sales rep. This policy has always been a bad deal on the part of merchants and they end up stuck in non profit deals due to lack of professionalism of such sales agents.
Verifiable Testimonials/References:
No verifiable testimonials on the Apex website.
Security/Privacy:
No on-site security features (i.e. McAfee, Security Metrics etc…).
Customer Service:
According to my knowledge they don’t provide customer service for 24/7 but I don’t have any personal experience with their customer service team, so can’t tell you much. So, your experience with customer support team of Apex can be really helpful.
Contract Duration:
3-years (auto-renewing).
Cancellation Fee:
The minimum possible charges for an early termination are $495.00 but that’s not fixed; they can surely exceed go beyond that. $495 is fees for every single location together with the damages and loss of expenses profits, costs and accountabilities that result from that cancellation. For more info you can look into section # 23 of the Apex Agreement.
Interchange-Plus Pricing:
Interchange-plus is offered by Apex.
Seasonal Downtime:
Seasonal downtime is also offered by Apex.
Product/Service Offering:
Retail (Credit/Debit), Online/e-Commerce Payments, Mail Order/Telephone Order (MOTO), Wireless, Check Processing, Gift & Loyalty, EBT.
Product/Service Specialty:
None.
