Complaints

• Initial Complaint

  08/22/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Product Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  On July 2022 I joined Stellar payment to process payments on my retail website.After signing up with there services, they sent me to a *** compliance company called Matrix which cost me $200. Then Matrix didn't pass the *** "scan" on my website and then sent me emails to complete a "questioner" which is full of technical questions that no normal business owner can answer. After trying for months to complete the "questioner" I called Matrix and they told me that in order to complete the "questioner" I need to buy a templet for another $200, or use there services to complete it for an extra $700. After I refused to buy the extra services, Matrix suddenly pass the "scan" without any intervention on my side, but I found out the Stellar payment charged me extra $320 for not having my *** compliance. When I tried to get refunded, they refused to give me the full refund but gave me an offer to refund half, which I refused. Right now I'm hiring a lawyer to represent me in small courts, and will continue fighting this with various governments and private agencies.

  Business response

  08/28/2023

  August 28th, 2023 
  
  Dear *************************, 
  We appreciate your feedback and your patience as we address the concerns you have raised regarding your experience with our services. We want to assure you that we take your feedback seriously and are committed to resolving this matter. 
  We understand your frustration regarding the *** compliance process and the associated charges. We apologize for any inconvenience you have experienced during this process. Please allow us to provide some clarity on the situation: 
  *** Compliance Process: *** compliance is a standard set by the card brands in order to educate merchants, reduce fraud and increase awareness of handling card data. We partner with Security Matrix, a reputable *** compliance company and one of the pioneering *** compliance sources, to ensure the security of online transactions. While we aim to streamline this process, we understand that the technical nature of the questionnaire can be challenging and that is why we refer our clients to a valuable resource, Security metrics.  
  You opened 2 merchant accounts back on July 5th, 2022, CAVALLI HUB, (Merchant ID) *************** and CAVALLI HUB 2 (Merchant ID) ***************, immediately after the account's approval, we communicated by email on July 6th 2022 with a Welcome email; containing your *** Compliance Agreement (See attachments), which you read and On July 20th 2022 you contacted Security Matrix directly and enrolled   and paid $ ******, enrollment fee and scan was requested   to be performed and passed  in order to become  *** compliance, unfortunately  the scan failed and this was communicated to you by Security Metrics. (a third part approved *** compliance expert) and instructed to fix the issues so you can pass the scan and   become compliance. You received notices about the failing report   through your Security Matrix account, which only you can access.  On October 4th, 2022, our dedicated *** Compliance team sent you an email to follow up on the continued failing scan notice indicating pointers on how to correct the issue (See attached copy of the email). *** compliance is required by the card brands, we were facilitating processes to fulfill your *** requirement by referring you to an expert company in that field. We do this in order to help our merchants avoid potential penalties and fees from the processors and card brands.  Regarding the charges you mentioned, we want to assure you that we have a transparent pricing structure. The charge you incurred was due to the repeated non-*** compliance status which was communicated to you repeatedly. Once you become compliant, the additional charges will no longer be applicable. That is our goal for all our clients. While most other Sales Organizations take a different approach of not even mentioning *** to their clients and leaving them susceptible to penalties and fines of noncompliance, we pride on working diligently to educating our client   and having a very high *** compliance rate amongst our clients. Once you finally completed your *** compliance scan and we were advised by Security Metrics of your compliance we update the processor on July 12, 2023, that you completed the compliance process and become *** Compliance. On that day both of your merchant accounts were updated accordingly, and the $ ***** penalty stopped.  
  Refund Offer: You requested a full refund for the 8 months of the penalty. Our team reviewed the request and extended a refund offer of 3 months per merchant account. Even though our company is getting penalized by the processor for non-*** compliant merchants.  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Legal Representation: We regret that the situation escalated to this point. Our aim is to provide a positive customer experience, and we are committed to resolving this matter promptly and effectively.  
  
  
  Thank you for bringing this to our attention, and we apologize for any frustration you have experienced. We look forward to the opportunity to make this right and regain your trust in our services. We do not want our clients penalized and that is why we take a proactive role in encouraging them to become compliant. On a good note, you can use the certificate which you received with any other processor, they are typically good for up to a year unless otherwise noted by the security assessor  
  Sincerely, 
  
  ****************************;
  Stellar Payments Systems. 

  **********

  Customer response

  08/29/2023

   
  Complaint: 20506126
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  This was a setup made by both parties, Matrix and Stellar Payments.
  The fact that they didn't pass the "scan" wasn't my fault, I paid full price to the *** compliance company which Stellar Payments recommended. Even the ******* Payments agent admit that I did my part, which he then changed his mind by refusing to issue the credit for this scam.  At first they indicated a questioner which I didn't understand what it's about, as usually questioners are related to marketing purposes, and none of the parties indicated that the failed scan is related to this questioner, as the word "scan" usually indicates that they made some kind of a scan process on my website? And Stellar Payments didn't indicate in any way that there will be any penalty involved. After I receive another email indicating that I need to finish the questioner, I opened the questioner and found out that it was imposable to answer by the average business owner, as for months I did my best to research this online in order to understand how to resolve this, but than I had no choice and called Matrix, and they told me that in order to continue with the questioner, I have to purchase some kind of a templet for $200, or allow them to do it for me for an extra $700, when I refused to purchase neither, they suddenly pass the "scan" without my intervention, so answering this questioner was not required in the first place, nor the $320 penalty ******* Payments enforced on my account for 8 months.

  I wish I had a screenshot of this questioner, as back than I didn't realize that this was a setup.

  This all thing clearly shows that this "scan" and "questioner"  was a conspiracy between Matrix and Stellar Payments to scam these funds out of their clients.
  I need to get these funds fully refunded!

  I am in touch with my lawyers about it and it will go to Small Courts very soon.

  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

  Business response

  08/30/2023

  Dear Merchant,

  We appreciate your posting and we wanted to clarify that Stellar Payments is not ********************************. Security Matrix is a third-party security assessor (approved by **** and MC) which assists business owners complete *** compliance as mandated by ****, Mastercard etc. Unfortunately, when they scanned your website for potential issues your website did not have the proper security configuration which creates potential risk to card holders that will purchase on your website there for not meeting *** requirements. ************************************* SecurityMetrics provided you with a list of items to correct but it wasn't done. We are proactive about notifying our client of meeting the required security standard and fulfilling them. Stellar notifies each client of these requirements and continuously works toward achieving the highest rate of compliance for our client. Many companies do not inform clients and let them continue working without adhering to these requirements. We are diligent in doing our best to make sure you are happy and, in an effort, to accommodate your request we offered goodwill credit even though your website didn't pass the scan. We also asked Security Metrics to accommodate you and bundle their fee as if it was one account which they did. We are here to serve you and assist in whichever way we can be of help. If you would like to review **** and MC *** requirement posting please click on the links below: For **** ************************************************************************ For MC ****************************************************************************************************************************  
  Remember that the *** requirement was put into place to create awareness amongst business owners, minimize-lower-eliminate fraud and card holder data breaches which are a major factor affecting all of us who use these cards. 
  Regarding the penalties for not been *** Compliance and in your Merchant Agreement as well On the *** Agreement and on your merchant Statements. 

   

  Stellar Pay

  ************

  Customer response

  08/31/2023

   
  Complaint: 20506126
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

   

  Now Stellar Payment are giving false information, they clearly claimed here on BBB before that the "scan" didn't pass because of the questioner, and now they claiming it was the website errors which is false! They never indicated that something was wrong with the website, and they also didn't pass the "scan" on my manual credit card machine which on my second merchant account with ******* ********************, and has nothing to do with the website! The website is up to code, and the fact that they passed the "scan" after I refused to purchase more services from Matrix, and without making any changes to my website, shows a misleading attempt to cover their lies!

  I thank ******* Payments for putting on records these false claims which will be presented in court.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************************

*Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business. ↩