First Data Sucks for Credit Card Processing

The first year I was in business for myself I figured out that it was important to accept credit cards and thus began the quest for the best processor.  I scanned the internet for a few days and comparison shopped for the best rates, contracts, fees and equipment. After some deliberation I opted to go with First Data.  This would be one of the biggest mistakes I ever made and I counted down the years until I could dump them for a better, more honest and trustworthy processor.

On the surface First Data looked fantastic.  They had the cheapest percentage rates and they would supply my terminal at a reasonable monthly lease.  When I contacted a sales rep he was all too happy to walk me through my on-line application.  Verbally he told me that my contract would be for two years.  While I was filling out the application the contract magically changed to three years.  When I questioned this the sales rep assured me that he would change the contract to reflect the term of two years.  As you can guess, this was not the case.  No matter how many letters or phone calls I made (all of which were ignored) the contract was never corrected.

After the first year of hell,  I received a letter advising me of rate increases.  The cheap fees tripled in price on batch fees, transactions, and reports.  The letter stated if I did not agree with the new rates I could write a letter of refusal and they would consider keeping my fees at the same rate.  I returned their letter with my refusal and about a 2 weeks later I received written notification that I had not been a customer long enough to be in a position to refuse and my new fees would go into effect the following week.  The following year my fees went up again and my refusal was ignored for the same reason.  I was also hit with a compliance fee for $160/year.  I found out last year that most companies only charge $75 for PC compliance.  


The next point of contention was when the sales rep put me on the line with a leasing consultant.  The lady on the line identified herself with First Data Global Leasing and she informed me that I had to agree to four years for the terminal lease at $27/month.  After the first year I was also required to carry insurance on the terminal at an additional cost of $4/month....even though it was THEIR property.  What I failed to realize was that First Data and First Data Global Leasing were in fact two different entities.  Silly me!  I thought the lease program was a different division of First Data ......just like they hoped I would.  I found out the truth the first time I called to complain about the differences in years on the contracts.  Again, my complaints were ignored.

Being new and inexperienced in this credit card game, I thought $27/month was a good deal.  Now I know that I could have bought a terminal for about $600 new or $300 used instead of spending $1200 and still never owning the piece of crap.  In fact when I went to cancel my contract at year 3, they forced me to pay $430 more to end my contract a year early AND still return the terminal.

I canceled my accounts with both agencies one year ago and began using Ameribanc for my credit card processing.  So you can only imagine how completely surprised I was when I received a letter from FDGL - last week- informing me that I had a "NON-CANCELABLE" lease and my failure to pay would result in a multitude of ugly collections and credit reporting misery.....oh and they thanked me for my "continued business" in another paragraph.  When I called FDGL the rational part of me knew that the person who answered the phone was not the person responsible for screwing me without giving me a kiss, but the pissed off part of me was who dominated this conversation.  I started out trying to be diplomatic but when she told me the reason I received the letter was because I had never returned the terminal.....the F bomb made a grand entrance and the conversation went south in a hurry.  The call ended with my demanding a letter of satisfaction clearing my account once and for all.  I got the letter today and even though it stated that my lease was paid in full and that I had no further obligation to FDGL, it incorrectly stated that I had opted to keep the equipment.   Shocking that they made yet another mistake isn't it?

Four years later and my contracts have still never been corrected, but thankfully (HOPEFULLY) I am no longer associated with these jerks.  I learned a valuable and very costly lesson with First Data.  I hope this blog entry can save others from making the same mistake.