Complaint Review: First Merchant Services

I have an online store and had a merchant account with this company. Recently a customer made a purchase with my store and apparently used fraudulent credit cards. I was unaware that they were fraudulent. My operations manager got a call from a man named Anthony, who works in the security department for First Data. He received the phone call on June 3, 2009 at 2:55 p.m. According to Anthony the customer who used these credit cards was being investigated for fraud. He wanted us to send him a copy of the customers invoice, which we did, and we were informed he would call us back as soon as he received it. We never got a call back from him. The next morning I noticed that First Data had taken $214.13 out of my bank account. My operations manager tried to get in touch with Anthony and all he got was voice mail, so he called customer service. After being put on hold, transferred to six different people and departments, and also after spending two hours on the phone with this company trying to get a clear answer on why we were being charged, we were finally told by a customer service representative that the $214.13 was processing fees that Visa and Master card charged for processing the customers cards, even though the cards were not supposed to be processed until after the investigation of the customer was complete. We were also told that due to the fact that the customer was under investigation, and the transaction from the customers credit cards to my bank account had not taken place yet, I should never have been charged the $214.13 to begin with. I should have only been charged when the funds were transferred to my bank account. I was told I could receive a refund, but had to discuss that with Anthony. When my operations manager finally was able to get in touch with Anthony, he said that we would not get a refund for the $214.13 and that my merchant account was being closed, due to the cards being processed and turning out to be fraudulent, even though my company did not process the cards, First Data did before the investigation of the customer was complete. I was also told by Anthony that since my account was going to be closed I would not be billed the monthly fee. On June 4, however, I was billed $51.95 anyway. And was once again given the run around when my operations manager inquired as to why we were being charged that fee. I have a dispute filed through my bank on these charges and I also had to close my bank account and open a new one and got fraud protection to keep this company from helping themselves to my bank account anymore in the future. First Data had also informed us that the money taken off the fraudulent credit cards would be returned. This was on June 5. Then on June 8, 2009 this company once again pulled $47 out of my closed bank account. Once again I contacted my bank and they reversed the transaction. On June 24 and June 29 my operations manager received two separate phone calls, one from one of the credit card companies pertaining to the fraudulent cards, and the other was from one of the card holders stating that they had never gotten a refund from First Data. We called First Data to find out why the charges had not been refunded and got the usual run around. Their first story was that the credit card companies were rejecting the refunds. Then on June 29 we were told that a security representative, named Pete, had put a hold on the transactions from being refunded. The lame excuse was they were worried about charge backs. We were told that the funds would be released within 72 hours. Then on July 1, 2009 this company once again decided to use my bank account as their piggy bank and pulled $401.15 out of my closed account. My operations manager contacted First Data and talked to the operations manger, Sean. He stated that there were no records showing that this transactions had taken place and actually wanted us to fax him a copy of our bank statement showing this transaction. We aren't that stupid! We contacted our bank and were informed that criminal charges will be filed against this company. Later in the day we got a call from Sean saying that we were charged the $401.15 for account closing fees since the credit card charges had been refunded and that the $401.15 would be refunded in 7-10 business days. Due to the run arounds and the out right lies this company has told to us, just to obviously save their own skin, I'll believe that the money will be put back when I see it!

Michelle
Highlandville, Missouri
U.S.A.