Retail Merchant Services

"AVOID Terrible customer service when things go wrong which they will. My area has virtually no mobile signal so I cannot receive One Time Passcodes via my mobile. So I cannot access my Retail Merchant Services account that I have had for 15 years plus. I have spoken to Michael on 01224 007774 this morning, he just kept telling me to install Google Authenticator App on my mobile phone!... I kept telling him that I spent all day yesterday 9.00 am until 9.00 pm at least and at least 2 hours the evening before trying to do this but NO SIGNAL so would not work! I also tried 2FAS app Michael is the third agent that I have spoken to Ayani and Jake tried to help but Michael cut me off! I need to issue an online customer a refund which I cannot do because of this awful Company. I have paid a fortune over the years for this rubbish service. Businesses are required to provide an alternative method of access if customers are in an area with a poor signal. RMS seem to think that they are exempt. I am beyond upset and angry. What on earth do I do?"

"Rms have sold a debt i didnt know i had to shire debt recoveries regarding a card machine, rms waited one whole year then sold the debt with out getting intouch with me, i sent the machine back and after a month i assumed they had recieved the machine because with not having any letters or emails or even a phone call saying we have not received the machine, which by the way is no use to me.. the debt is about £480 for a machine worth about £80. i have tried by phone call and emails to rms and shire they both dont want to listen to what i have to say , i get phone calls and emails at least 5 times a week which is harassment, i will be seeking legal advice on the grounds the rms never tried to contact me at all for 1 year about this debt and yet they sold a debt i knew nothing about. Ps i dont like leaving bad reviews but i have waited 7 months before leaving this review hoping common sense would prevaile"

"I had a couple of questions when setting up. Questions were answered making set up very easy. A good customer service experience was provided. Here at BMS Solicitors we have been using RMS for many years now and haven't had any problems."

"One of the worst experiences they send me debt collectors after 5 years contract and it’s not true they make thousands from our company but when we finish the contract they try to rape our money"

"Continuous Maintenance problems. processing delays. also received an email saying that my old machine would shortly be unable to process payments - too old. They sent me a new machine that would not work, and renewed my contract for 18months with my out knowledge, with the new machine., and a £1500 penalty for early closure."

"My company is called Dapper Dudes. We have been with retail merchant services for more than five years. I cancelled with them in February and they kept taking money from my account. I then contacted them again to get a refund and they said I didn’t send the correct email. I then done this and they are still billing me so what I have done by has went to watch Doug rip off Britain to take my case on. These credit card companies need to be taken to court as this is a common practice. It’s sad as you will never go back to them. This does not make good business sense. I am also taking a small claims court as well as I have one case in the past against World Pay. I will also do the same with this company. It’s a complete disgrace that you are allowed to operate."

"We applied for Amex card on 20/6. We were told it would take 3-5 working days: the initial call was good. Elevon actually approved the Amex to our card service with in that period. However after 5 days the system did not work and we had told customers to try. I had to speak to Elevon to find that out that Retail Merchant Service should have added the approval merchant number to our account. I have emailed Retail Merchant Services perhaps 5 times over a week and no response. After no response I finally got them on the phone they told me they needed the Amex merchant number. No one explained this to me and they do not do it automatically, which is surprising. They are now saying it will take 24-48 hours just for them to add the number. I asked to speak to the manager who was unavailable and they said they would phone back. I have phoned back put on hold and now receive a message on another line. They say they will phone me to confirm this has happened, so lets see what happens. I will update the review. Update I get an email 16:50 saying the card has been added: we have customers who have been loyal and waited, they tried and it did not work. So today I phoned the customer service and they tried to put me back to Elevon who approved it on 24th June: I would not have it. ~Why would the Customer Service Manager from Retail Merchant Services send me an email saying they have approved it? I have asked again for the manager who is going to phone me before 12. We started this process on 20th June just to add Amex. It's now 4th July. RMS have phoned us back 4th July and explained that it should be working. Quick update waiting to hear back, spoke to RMS yesterday on 7 /7 and they said it should be working. We have an issue and although they have been very polite on the phone, we are still waiting for the Amex to work. They said they will phone me back today 8/7 and look into why we are still having issues. Today 9/7 it has worked. Staff at the call centre were very nice, I can't fault that. They do need to get the communication checks between Elevon sorted so no one need go through this extremely long and embarrassing wait with customers."

"I closed my business down 10 months ago. Cancelled my contract within the time frame. Thought I'd sent all the equipment back to RMS. Yesterday I received a call out of the blue from a debt recovery company demanding £499 plus VAT for a card machine now worth less than £80. I had no emails, calls or letters from RMS saying I'd failed to return this one item. I found the unit in a box in my garage, but they wouldnt accept this and I've had to deal with the debt recovery company. Appalling service. Telling me I should have read the smallprint. A friendly reminder would have been more professional. Robbing scumbags."

"Absolutely appalling. Having been with this company for ages and ask about a rate review, due to rising costs etc - they have quite simply offered a cancellation. I am out of contract but absolutely no effect at all to keep custom. Shocking."

"Ridiculous charges 2 years after closing my account due to non-return of machine that was never asked for. Never had any emails, letters or calls saying it was meant to be returned. Literally had it sat in my office for 1.5 years before I recycled it, as I never heard back when I left. To stop them taking money when I left, I had to block the payments from my bank. Completely out the blue now demanding £500, and I can see other people have had the same experience. Don't be tempted by the decent looking offering - their service was average at best but the worst comes if you ever try to leave them. Awful, sneaky business."

"As a small, family-run restaurant, we were absolutely ripped off. They made it incredibly difficult to leave, then hit us with huge surprise charges nearly two years after switching providers. Total crooks. Steer well clear. Trust me. I wish I'd listened to their bad reviews, but I was trying to save costs as they seemed reasonable and took my chances anyway. RUN."

"DO NOT TRUST THESE COWBOYS. I gave my notice as requested to leave the company in writing then never heard anything back from them, until over a year later a debt collectors letter lands on my doorstep demanding £478.80 for the card terminal that is still here waiting to be collected. Contacted RMS to see if this was a mistake and to complain, they wouldn't even acknowledge my complaint as they had sold my account to the debt collectors. All I was told is that an email had been sent requesting the return of the device, but whether that went into junk, didn't get opened or deleted doesn't matter to this company. To my knowledge I had no email and I check junk regularly! No follow up call or paper letter to request it back, just straight to debt collectors! This is not a company in it for small businesses! Disgusting way to be a business."

"I do not recommend this company ,unreliable, unhelpful .My machine did not work properly for two weeks as it took this long to sort out the issue.Endless calls to technical support ,going over and over the problem And they do not adear to there own terms and conditions ,when ending my contract"

"exsesive charge for a card not returned within 30 day they have not sent any invoices at all I have ask for a brake down and have been refused."

"The set-up process was overly-complicated, but I persevered as I wanted to use their payment gateway on my website. Eventually got it sorted after many emails and telephone calls. However, a couple of years later (roughly September 2023), I moved to a different provider so cancelled the agreement withe RMS, Elavon and Worldpay (I think) - total faff. Fast-forward to today (22.4.25), and I've just received letters saying they've sold my 'debt' of £478.80 to Azzuro Associates. What debt? I don't owe them anything, and all payments were taken via Direct Debt. Upon speaking to the debt collector, I'm told that it relates to the 'non-return of equipment' which is odd since I signed up for e-commerce ONLY and neither requested nor received any 'equipment'. I've disputed the debt with the collector, and have sent a letter of complaint to RMS, but the disturbing things are: * They've falsely alleged that I requested and received equipment; * They've falsely alleged that I failed to return this imaginary equipment at the end of the term; * They've applied a charge to the account which has no ground in law; * They've then sold a debt that doesn't exist; and * I've heard nothing about this alleged debt until today when I received the letters via post. RMS' record keeping is clearly incredibly poor, and I am disgusted that they could fabricate something like this. This is not just a case of, for example, failing to note an account to say that equipment has been returned. Rather, RMS has actively and dishonestly recorded that equipment was supplied AND that it wasn't returned AND that a debt has accured AND that the debt can legally be sold to a debt purchaser. Now, rather than concentrating on running my business, I need to spend time unravelling the lies of RMS. Update 30.4.25 RMS have confirmed that there is no debt. There's no explanation for how this error occurred, but at least I have written confirmation that there was not, and is not, any debt. Hopefully that's the end of it, but I could have done without all that extra work."

"I received a letter from RMS & a Debt collector last week demanding a payment of almost £500.00. Almost two years after we cancelled our contract with them.Sent an email to them and they replied that it was because we did not return our card terminal. When we signed our contract with them, the RMS rep offered us the chance to purchase the terminal rather than pay the monthly fee. Which we did. A few years later the card terminal went into 'tamper mode'. I googled this and it could no longer be used and most likely be destroyed. When I tried to contact RMS by phone and email on numerous occasions, with no success, I found out that they had been hacked. I had to contact another company to get a card terminal so my business was back up & running. I eventually received an email confirming the end of my contract. On the bottom of the email it stated that we had to return the card machine, which I ignored as we had purchased it & also it was unable to be used. It also stated that an invoice for the card terminal would be issued 7 days after the last transaction. I never received this invoice (almost 2 years ago). I am in the process of fighting this with the Debt collectors and RMS. If I did not buy this terminal, my next move will be contacting Consumer Rights for being miss-sold an item. Please do not use RMS."

"Absolute disaster of a company. Cancelled service with them over 2 years ago as the customer service was non-existent (multiple 2 hr holding on the phone to not get connected repeatedly). Took almost 2 months to get the service cancelled. Sent back the credit card machine and now, 2 YEARS later with zero communication from them, they charged me £500 for the machine they say never got sent (via debt collection company). Too old to find the proof now so out of pocket. Would NOT recommend them to anyone at all. Money grabbers especially waiting 2 years to charge me knowing full well a printed 'Return/Delivery note' isnt going to be kept of found. Stay well away."

"RMS provided me with a card machine which didn’t work. They chased me for sevice payment with no communication then sold the debt for the value of nearly £500. I would steer well clear of using this company at all, wish I’d never met them."

"Simply a Curse. They are not really a company. They just try to get all they can from you. I noticed from the beginning that they are a dodgy company. They don't assist you and they make your life very hard. I don't wish anyone to have an account problem as it could take years to resolve (happened to me). I decided to let the contract finish and make sure everything was in order. I double-checked with them that the dates were correct and that any outstanding debt was cleared. I returned all the equipment and I have always followed their guide to close the account. After a few months of confirmation of my account's closure, I got a letter from a debt collector claiming over £2000 for who knows what?. I have always done everything by the book and have paid for everything. I also never received any prior communication from them regarding any problems. They literally are becoming a scam."

"What a stressful situation, continuing to charge after cancellation, first rang to cancel , they acknowledged send email about it stating date of cancellation requested, said to reply to their email,replied, bounced wrote a letter to them cancelling all within days and still today they won’t acknowledge I wanted to cancel. Evalon whom they worked with cancelled immediately. That was 2023. Still back and forth sending bills for 2025! Avoid!"