Appstar Financial Customer Reviews

In late 2013, a merchant service agreement was signed with AppStar Financial. We have used merchant services from our primary bank provider since last century. We used AppStar from 2013 until our primary bank provider offered us a better offer for Merchant Services through an improved version they had before. When signing the agreement with our primary bank provider in 2019, we sent a fax to AppStar to cancel, and we also emailed AppStar to make sure we didn’t owe anything for the merchant terminal. We learned that we owned the terminal outright in a reply email from AppStar. With all that said, AppStar tried to recover the account shortly after we terminated the relationship, and they stated they would waive fees and beat our primary bank provider rate. AppStar sent a new agreement (30 plus pages) to recover the account the day after, titled AppStar Application 2018, which I did not sign or reply to as I was content to use our primary bank provider once again. It was at a much later point that I discovered some charges that even our primary bank provider Account Manager could not identify as the source of charges to our merchant account. He then realized we had two MIDs, one for our primary bank and the other unknown but very strangely similar to our primary bank provider’s number. Oddly, at this point, AppStar called about something almost inconsequential, but it was then we found out they still considered us a customer and still charged us without authorization years later. Then, we started to uncover years of ambiguous charges that looked like they were from our primary bank provider (with charges like “annual bank fee” “monthly bank charge” and “PCI non compliance fee” and none of these fees were legit or authorized and none of the charges included the name AppStar. They were all from the closed AppStar account. In total, monthly, annual, and PCI compliance fees were almost $6,000 in unauthorized charges from AppStar. Flabbergasted, we called our primary bank provider agent in the fraud department who was able to block the charges from AppStar. Since this fiasco was uncovered, I have attempted tirelessly to get this rectified. Our primary bank provider has attempted several times to communicate with AppStar, and they have been unresponsive. Just look, and you will be able to see several similar claims in BBB. I think there is a real problem being revealed. In recent communications with AppStar have been given various conflicting responses from AppStar, including that the fax number we sent to does not exist, according to the Retention agent, Kyle. A year later, Harry Mort, the Director of Risk & Compliance, found the fax number, but mysteriously has no record of receiving our fax.

The fact that they have changing stories from different representatives raises a red flag. We have provided AppStar with our cyber/digital evidence as best as possible. I’ve sent several screenshots that show the file properties of the fax letter, the file content of the fax letter, and even a cancellation reminder in my calendar, which are the best possible digital provenance we have. The fax was sent on a V.34 FAX SERVER, MultiTech FaxFinder from Raynham, MA 508-XXX-XXXX, which has been our fax number for over a decade. The fax device had an End of Service notification from the manufacturer, and we switched to another cloud service a few years ago. With all due respect, collecting money from a customer not using the service is not very good business ethics. I would certainly feel guilty if I were taking thousands of dollars from someone that I knew didn’t want to do business with me. AppStar knows very well that we did not want to use their expensive tiered rates any longer. Even their own representative Kyle Hagele wrote acknowledging we left AppStar, saying “come back with us” then he sent a new 31 page contract which I wasn’t going to sign. They lost our business by being greedy. This appears to be a simple case of being a sore loser and taking money that is not theirs. In seeing the contract he sent in 2019 and after knowing how they charged us steep rates behind this tiered rate structure and seeing that our very own bank was going to offer us better merchant services, the change was necessary to save us money. On another business ethics point, if I were AppStar, I would have had the courteousness to follow-up a lot sooner than 4 years to ask how business was going, seeing ATP wasn’t even using their services. I am sure AppStar records show no transactions in our account for ATP and also sure that since 2019, there have been no communications from AppStar representative, Kyle. It is evident we did not engage with AppStar as we never signed any further agreements after they acknowledged we went to another provider. We sent the fax and have provided ample cyber evidence. AppStar has a bad track record of similar issues, and I wouldn’t be against researching more their commission basis for accounts and if someone benefits from keeping our account open all this time.

Hi! This is Randy with Muffler Man of Holly in Michigan. Stephen Murphy is our account representative and he is excellent. He is responsive and has made sure our account is well managed. When we needed help with technical support he made sure that we were three wayed with him so any problems could be resolved. We have had no problems with timely deposits or unexpected charges.

Appstar is so so so so bad of a company ? to start off, I applied for clover on their direct site but later found out a company named Appstar picked up the sale, unsure how that was possible. Clover site says you have 30 days to return product if you don’t like the service. After two weeks I tried returning the device thinking it would be better to go with bank of America’s pos system since I a am a member there. Appstar said I could not return the device and that I had to pay over $5,000 to break contract. At that point I said for get it I’ll keep it. Random withdrawal amounts of $300+ $400+ multiple times monthly taking from my account when it was agreed upon to only have withdrawal amounts of around $100. After so many un agreed withdrawals I blocked all ACH holds due to fraudulent activity. I have money stuck on my clover pos system that they refuse to transfer to my bank. They will not transfer the funds nor will they give me a straight answer as to what will happen with the funds. At this point they give me a list of requirements for them to deposit the funds into my account. I completed everything they requested and I still can not get them to deposit the funds. Lastly they ask my bank to sign a bank letter which the bank says it’s illegal for them to do, so at this point Appstar is saying they will not send me the funds, however they are still billing me for a service I cannot use! I’ve never been scammed so bad and I couldn’t tell you how much headache and pain they have put me through just to scam me. No on will give me a straight answer as to what happens next. They stole all my money and this should definitely be illegal!!! I cannot open my restaurant or take any point of sale orders because they will bully me for every dollar that enters the pos. This company is extremely dangerous, should be banned, doing business. Clovers reputation is bad for allowing Appstar to take advantage of business owners. STAY FAR AWAY AND PAY ATTENTION TO ALL THE REVIEWS!!!

I noticed last week , $119.92 every month abd annual fee $92 automatic took out my business check acct . I resurch about this automatic payment. I found out it was appstar. I never used credit merchandise and never connected. I try cancel and returned merchandise.

10/2018 to 12/2023 appst took out money for almost $7,000.00

No contact no tex information send me . Unfortunately I did know automatic payments from appstar.

They said even I don’t used still charged fee and annual fee without any letter and phone call.

This appsta is very bad company. I have a credit card company. No cancel fee no contact paper.

Please do not use this company

I have used app star for 8 years and their rates got higher and higher and once I got a legal person to investigate this they were charging hidden fees so I just needed to save money and I chose another company and I tried to cancel. I’m not under any contract mind you ,and they want to charge $ 595.00 to close the account I’m hiring a lawyer to bust them so I wanted millions to know this and avoid this company to help fellow Americans so they don’t have to deal with this company

AppStar is terrible. To any small business, I highly recommend going with another company. Do yourself a favor an avoid the headache. They held a $4k transaction for fraud, then returned the money to the customer while we were left to pick up the pieces of their broken system. They will not let you out of the contract even though they are at fault. They dive into your business via accounts, transaction history, and everything in between. Crooks is all they are, and they don’t want to see your small business succeed.