Hello everyone,

There is this lawyer who has responded and here is his information if anyone would like to contact him...

I'm a class action attorney in the process of assessing possible class action lawsuits against First Data. Our fim has already successfully prosecuted claims against other credit card processors for unfair trade practices. Please contact me with more information about your complaints. [email protected]...

FIRST DATA is a complete fraud! AVOID... lie to you about contract... latest problem: They charged me $75.00 extra even though I have a 4 yr. contract, they said they sent out a letter and they can change the fee anytime they want (exact words). If I have a contract they should NOT be able to change the fee to anything they want. Why have a contract????
If you ask for super. they are VERY RUDE, I mean VERY RUDE... keep telling me "this phone call is over" I have never had such a situation! I will fight this over principal !!! I WILL NOT BE CHEATED!!
*********AVOID FIRST DATA*******AVOID FIRST DATA***********AVOID FIRST DATA********

THIS IS NOT OVER I HAVE A WRITTEN CONTRACT AND I WILL FIGHT THEM!

I leased a Credit card machine from this company about a year ago and now sales have turned to mostly checks on a 30 day. I no longer need this machine and I contacted them and they said I had two choices one to keep making lease payments and until it was paid or I could pay 2000.00 plus to end the contract oh yes or I could turn the lease over to some one else and they would charge me 150. for transfer.

I just wanted to return their equipment so that they could continue to put it to use with some one else they were unwilling to help me on this when I mintoned bankrupcy they said that was fine and that it would settle the contract but that was the only way so I guess even though I'm not using it, I'll have to pay the 85.00 per month and keep the thing unless I do file bankrupcy.

I used first data (linkpoint central) for about 3 years. The original monthly fee which was agreed upon was $50 per month. They stated that if I started to make more money through online sales the fee would go up slightly. Well I admit that I was a newbie to all this and very bad with accounting. When I started actually viewing my bank statements I noticed that they were taking out monthly withdrawals of around $400 per month.
Now I could see if I made $20, 000 per month but unfortunately I was only making under $5000. They were constantly doing withdrawals and overdrafting my bank account repeatedly with their overpadded fees. So I called them to try and straighten things out and they tried to fluff it off as chargeback fees. Well I had on occassion a few chargebacks however, 2 per month was the most and most times none. So that was obviously false.
They did agree to take off some of the fees, however they only ended up taking off about $37 which was ridiculous. So I notified first data that I would be closing my account with them. They said I had to send them a fax or else I could not close it so I did. I also requested to my bank that my bank not allow first data to take any more money out of my account. Well that did not work! Even after the account was closed, they continued to do withdrawal after withdrawal. My bank said they didn't know how they got through so eventually they were able to block them since they had already overdrew my account to over $600.
I then fought some of the fees and ended up with a balance of about $195 overdrawn. Well first data continued to attempt withdrawal after withdrawal and in case no one knows this. When they have your account and routing number, It's like your writing a bad check and they bounce over and over. So for every time they attempted to take more money out, I got charged $35 each. Within about a months time after the account with first data had been closed I was overdrawn over $1000 from them!!!

I am now in the middle of fighting this and even though it has been months now they are still sending me chargeback notices??? This company is a MAJOR SCAM so beware! They overcharge you and god forbid if you try and leave them, you will pay!!!

First Data Of Simi Valley CA is currently my credit card processing company and I am writing to report some of their latest scams and deceptive tactics that are misleading the public. While reviewing the September statement we discovered a charge for $119.75 under annual compliance service, this charge was not authorized by me and offers no value added to my business. When I called the company they informed me that the charge was automatic and was not refundable. They also stated that they have the right to bill me anything they want as far as they note it on the statement the month before. I do not think that this is fair and that it is taking advantage of the general public and small businesses. They are hoping that nobody would notice and dispute the charge and their service agreement hides these deceptive techniques in their fine print. This is unethical and deserves and investigation as there may be millions of dollars of these illegal fees at stack, why should small businesses and consumers pay Visa and Master Card system maintenance fees? They get paid commission and service fee on every transaction!

This is another scam that is making Credit card company rich of the hard working public.

There statement is very deceiving, the notification about the charge was buried on bottom of the first page in Grey area and the charge was not included in the fee category, they deliberately put the fee of $119.75 in Financial Advise category so the consumers won�t notice it. See Copy of the first two pages I referenced below. Furthermore, they continue to charge more fees and last month statement showed two more fee and they offered no alternatives to the consumer, pay the fee or the cancellation penalty charge!

Resolution Sought: Refund the fees and revise their billing tactics to become a more transparent Company.

Date Problem Started: 10/10/2008

Date of Transaction: 09/01/2008

Amount in Dispute: $119.75

Invoice Number: 267315553888

Complaint Type: Selling Practices

Product or Service: Hidden Annual Compliance fee of $119.75 that was not authorized.