Complaint Review: First Data and Express Merchant Processing Solutions - Melville New York

I have been a customer of First Data for my credit card processing since 2011. In January of 2014, they "upgraded" their platform for 3dcart which is where my website is hosted. We were unable to make their new "technology" work despite numerous calls to their tech and customer service lines. Eventually, I was ready to cancel my service with them because it was unusable and we were losing sales.

In March, 2014 I spoke with a customer service representative Alicia Bonnick who promised me a lower interest rate to stay with First Data if I simply renewed my contract with them for an additional two years. She also assurred me that after I resigned my contract, their tech would make sure the platform was functioning on my website.

I signed the "renewed" contract and spent several more weeks trying to get the service working, to no avail. I contacted them about wanted to terminate my service and wanted my money refunded, but they flatly refused saying they "had a contract with me." I had no chioce and kept paying the monthly fees.

In August, I contacted First Data about concelling once again and they allowed me to cancel my contract. After reviewing my statements, I saw I was being charged TWICE by First Data Merchant Bank Services. After speaking with my bank, I learned that there were TWO FIRST DATA accounts withdrawing funds from my bank.

Since I had used neither serevices, I contacted First Data to find out why they were double-charging me. It seems that my three-year-old account was with First Data/Ignite and that was linked to my Merchant Account number in my legal business name that was opened in 2011. But, there was a second First Data Account/EMPS account opened in my WEBSITE name in March, 2014.

Realizing that there was an error and an additional account had been created rather than just my existing contract being renewed, I contacted First Data. After a long period of time trying to figure out how this could happen, I was eventually connected with First Data/EMPS. This is a company within First Data. (My initial account was with First Data/Ignite). All correspondence received from them, contracts, etc, all bear the same First Data logos, company address and email addresses so it is virtually impossible to know you are speaking with different companies.

I spoke with Joely Garcia who said that "they had a contract" with me and were going to charge my accounts even though I explained that Alicia Bonnick had created a duplicate account for me and I had the emails to back up the correspondence where she proposed a renewal of my contract in order to give me a better interest rate and keep my business. Joely Garcia said that it didn't matter that there were two accounts, and it didn't matter that neither of them had ever been used, that they would not return any of the double billing. Moreover, since I had contacted them AFTER the 15th of the month, I would be billed for an additional month and if I didn't pay it, she would, "immediately report me to a debt collector."

I asked to see the contract they had on file. Joely Garcia sent me an encrypted email and did not send any sort of password  for me to access this contract. She didn't respond to my emails asking for a password, but nonetheless, I found the contracts in my own files.

I attempted numerous times to contact the initial sales representative Alicia Bonnick, but she does not return emails. I spoke with another customer service representative who said that since it took me longer than 45 days to find the mistakes, I would have to pay the fees. I don't know what company can overcharge you and then require you to find their errors within 45 days or else they keep the money. It seems to me that there are alot of intimidation tactics going on to defraud people out of a lot of money.

I exlpained that the contract was NOT made out to my legal company name, and they had never sent me any bills for their services. I DID receive a monthly bill from First Data/Ignite for the origional account I had since 2011 -- which is the one I believed to be the ONLY account and if I had recieved two bills for the same service, clearly I would have found the errors sooner. The customer service representative then told me another lie and tried to say they emailed me statements. My business does not allow for electronic statements and all emails are backed up for 3 years, so this is an additional lie I was told.

FIRST DATA/EMPS also charged me a "TERMINAL" fee of $99.00+ tax for a terminal I never recieved and in addition to representing this contract as a renewal of my existing contract, Alicia Bonnick also added a $94.00 "ANNUAL FEE" to the second contract. I paid $560.31 over four months for this "second contract."