New Business Card for Power users

To Whom this may Concern. We are a Mom and Pop Garden Supply Business online. We started this business on a wing and a pray, in hopes that the people would embrace gardening and become self-sufficient growing Non GMO wholesome food for their family. Little did we know, The Cost of doing Business, Merchant Service Ripoff.

We wanted to be different and offer our products to our customers for less than they could find it somewhere else, along with truthful, honest stellar customer service. We found in our two years of doing business that the system is against all that we stand for. Making it almost impossible to live in honor and truthful service.

I am going to share a Secret with you. What most people don’t know. Is that there is something called MAP pricing. (Minimum Advertised Pricing.) That any manufacture can fix on their products. We Doowans call this price-fixing. Meaning we can’t sell the product for less. Better said, we can’t advertize the product for less. Without advertizing, How does one sell the product? Some of the companies we represent don’t have MAP pricing and we thank them for this. Whatever happen to free Enterprise?

However this is not all. To accept Credit Cards. One needs what they call a Merchant Service. This service represents Visa, Mastercard, all the Credit Card Companies including American Express.

Let me explain. When you make a purchase using your Credit Card. The Merchant Service keeps track of the transaction and moves the so-called funds to the proper accounts. For this they charge the business that has their service a monthly fee. But they also take a percentage of the transaction from the top. Most of the time these percentage and fees are non-negotiable. The larger the business, (More transactions), the fees may go down. But again this is up to the Merchant Service. As one can see the small Mom and Pop Company doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell. They pay the maximum fees. Shouldn’t the small guys get the break? Not in this system.

Reality Check.

Nowadays nothing of value ever changes hands where commerce is concerned. It just a bunch of digital numbers they call money. Take these numbers here move those numbers there. Visa, Mastercard and the likes, create this money out of thin air. Just like the Federal Reserve. Then charge you interest on your payments of money they state they loaned you. You pay their statement with your hard Labor, paying back the money they never gave you.

Ever wonder why it’s called a statement and not a bill, or invoice?

Some may say. What’s the difference? That’s bookkeeping. True! But let me ask you? If by Maritime law, I am able to create something from nothing. This something is nothing but numbers on a computer screen or bank statement. Does that give them the right to charge you interest on the nothing they gave you?

If your answer is yes. Than just keep living the American Dream.

However if your answer is NO or even hell NO! There is more to this story and how these Companies are ripping us off and how they steal from us, every chance they get.

Let’s go a little deeper into the Rabbit hole but not so deep that we can’t see the light.

The Rabbit Hole

Deeper and Deeper we go. Into the Rabbit hole.

Let’s say I fill out an application for a Credit Card that I got in the mail. Mind you this is just an application and not a contract.

Sometime later you receive the card in the mail with a credit limit on your account. One may ask where did this credit limit come from? Did the Credit Card Company place funds in my account to use? Well in a sense. But in actuality NO. Your signature on the application gives them Power of Attorney to open an account in your name. They become the manager of your account in this commerce reality they have created. Your signature is your bond. Meaning your name in all CAPITAL letters has a bond associated with it, that was created by your birth certificate number. Look this up, if in doubt. Google A4V.

Because of this bond,  which contains a large number of numbers, you lent yourself this so-called money, on your signature from your bond account. I bet you didn’t know this. Yep, best kept secret. This makes you the Creditor and the Debtor at the same time.  Cool scam they have, making you believe you owe them. Forgive yourself!

The UCC codes state that Credit Card Companies can not use their assets to back up these Credit accounts. So they have given you nothing. You, your signature, gave yourself this credit. Backed by your labor. And your willingness to play their game. Called your Credit Score. Shall we play a Game? Great Movie!

Step into the light and shine

I can see the light!

But, we don’t what to get to deep. Look up, can you see the light? So here’s what happen to us. In opening our business we needed a Merchant Service but before we could get one. We had to have a bank account that they have access to. Called a Business Account. Makes sense but wait, there’s more. This means they can go into this account and withdraw anytime they see fit without your permission. Plus, we needed a Credit Card Gateway. A Gateway is another service that we needed to get access to Credit Cards. So now we have to pay Gateway fees on top of our Merchant fees and bank fees. That’s three Companies involved in one transaction that our small business has to the pay fees for. Before we even receive the digital numbers into our account. One might say, The Cost of doing Business, Merchant Service Ripoff.

The American Express Exposed Ripoff.

We had a sale come though our website. That’s great! Weeks before I had closed an account with one of our Credit Card Companies called American Express. Simply because we didn’t receive that many transactions using this card. As a matter of fact this was the only transaction in two years. And their monthly fees were hurting our business. We are all having to cut back. The key word here is Closed. Wouldn’t you know it. As soon as I did this, somebody used an American Express Card to purchase an awesome Seville Gazebo we have on-line. American Express reopened my closed account so that they could process this transaction. One might think that this is good, because we can now receive the funds. NOT!

Not only did they not contact me that they were doing this. They took their fees from this transaction right off the top and deposited less than the full amount of the transaction into our account.

Being the honorable person that I am. I contacted this individual that purchased the Gazebo and explained that I was going to refund their American Express Card. Because this Item was out of stock from our supplier until Aug. 15, 2013. I didn’t want to sit on his money for two months, not knowing for sure if the Gazebo would even be in stock in August. Which I did as directed by our Gateway and Merchant Service.

The sale amount of this Gazebo was $1580.00. American Express deposited into our account $ 1,528.50. Taking $51.50 from one transaction. Then Charged us $7.95 for a monthly Statement, mind you, on a closed Account. It takes three to four business days for the digital numbers to be processed into our bank account. Everybody has to get theirs first. The refund takes one day to be taken out of our banking account. So in may haste to do the right thing and refund this customers card.

American Express entered our bank account and took $ 3,160.00 for the refund. Then told our Merchant Service that we were double credited. Which of course was untrue. Again mind you not one Service we pay for has connected us with any information, concern, or any action taken. Thank God we have a good Bank. This caused problems with our bank Account which again fees were involved. Because their deposit hadn’t been entered into our account yet. Stellar Customer Service.

It’s taken three months to get this worked out with all these people involved. With me doing all the work and faxing bank statements to the parties so they could get their books right. Phone call after phone call with each saying it’s the other services problem. But wait it even gets better. American Express credited our account $3,160.00 than turned around and took $1580.00 for the refund. Do you see the ripoff here?

Looks good so far right?

Think again.  The sale was for $1,580.00. They deposited $1528.50 into our account. Taking their fees off the top. Then turned around and withdrew $1580.00 from our bank account to refund the customer’s credit card. Not only did they get their $51.50 on the front side of this transaction on a closed account they took another $51.50 on the backside to refund this Credit Card. That’s $103.00 for one transaction where nothing changed hands. Not including fees which yours truly had to pay. Just Imagine if they did this to 1000 customers. Yep, you guessed it that $103,000.00, for nothing. Oh, and don’t forget the Gateway got their fees and the Merchant Service got their fees and percentage off the top of this transaction as well, where nothing ever changed hands and this transaction was never supposed to happen. The account was closed. Oh, you can bet I called them on this. It took them two months to respond. Than American Express turned around and charge me another $7.95 statement fee on my closed account for their mistake. Hence the reason for this article.

True Story! I have all the Statements and emails.

To top this all off. Our Merchant Service charged us $173.00 for the handling of this transaction. Nothing like kicking someone when their down. They said, they processed the transactions and that they should get paid. True to a point. But nothing ever exchanged hands. I told them to connect American Express for their fees, as they were the cause of all this by their fraudulent actions in reopening my closed account. Without my permission the owner of said account.

Yea, right. It’s easier to screw the small guy.

Don’t kid yourself they know what they are doing. They hope you aren’t smart enough to catch them. If you do. Oh well. It’s just a numbers game. Next! Your turn, roll the dice. Maybe the next guy won’t catch on. Nothing even changes hands. The customer never got the Gazebo, I had to pay the fees and American Express just walked away without even an I”m sorry! Damn my ass is sore.

Welcome to my world. The Cost of doing Business?

The truth is, small business in America is doomed with this behavior of greed, thievery, and fraud. Where everybody is in your pocket taking what they want before you receive anything from anybody, because they control the numbers. And of course they never tell you what their going to do. It’s up to you to call them on their thievery and the small guy has no recourse but KY jelly. Even the government is in your pocket for non-services rendered. They won’t watch your back. All the time they’re reaching into your pocket taking want little you have left.

DoowansGardenSupply.com would have a net profit of less than $100.00 on the sale of this Gazebo. The Fees cost us more than that on a sale that never happened. Plus, the shipping to the customer was included in the sale.

Bad Business Man. Maybe your right. We shouldn’t be in Business. So raise the price! Well, nothing from nothing leaves nothing. Nobody benefits from nothing, do they? Remember our goal was to offer our products for less than you can find it somewhere else. I need to step away from the bong. Damn that’s right, I don’t have one.

The American Bong. Put that in your pipe and smoke it. Need a Rip-off?

We are a Mom and Pop and wanted to offer our customers the saving. We wish to live in honor, and truth. Sharing what we have. We love Gardening. We were hoping you would too. Where we all benefit. We are in service to others. I just wish we could pick and choose the others.

The Cost of doing Business. Merchant Service Ripoff. Watch your Back!

Oh, by the way. Found this.

HAVANA TIMES — American Express was fined $5.2 million dollars for violating the US travel ban on Cuba for ordinary citizens, DPA reported on Monday. The settlement reached involved the sales of 14,487 plane tickets that would be business as usual with any other country. The US Treasury’s Foreign Assets Control Office accused the corporation for selling the tickets to and from Cuba that were not for US citizens with special permission to travel to the island. The Cuba travel ban is part of the US embargo policy that for over a half century has tried to debilitate the Cuban government through commercial, economic and financial sanctions.

You don’t think American Express was hoping, I would help pay this fine for them do you? Oh that’s right they can say or doing anything they what. It’s up to me to stop them. Is your bank account an open book to them?

We no longer Except American Express on our Website. I would think twice before offering American Express on yours.

We are considering Bit Coin. But Hey, that’s just digital as well. No Internet, no Bit Coin, No Credit Cards, or so-called money.  It’s all an Illusion. Nothing from nothing leaves nothing. It’s all smoke and mirrors. Gone in a flash.

For us gardeners, Non GMO Heirloom Seeds have true value. Ever try eating a Bit Coin?

Flying on the Wings of Consciousness. With Creation under our Wings. NOW, that’s Freedom!

Knowledge is Power

Experience is Wisdom
Take your Power back

or just bend over
Thunderbird

I am not an Animal. Or Bit Coin for that matter.

The Cost of doing Business, Merchant Service Ripoff, just bend over and take it.