Fiserv Review, Our Expert Take

I wish I had read the reviews before working with First Data. HOLY MOLY is all I can seem to think to sum up my experience with them. I don’t understand how they are still in business. The customer service here is non existent. STAY AWAY!!!

Well as I read these posts I lean something every day, I never realized that First Date was involved with Pivotal Payments. We actually changed over for a period to Pivotal Payments and had similar problems as we we have had with First Data not realizing that they where in fact the same company and an Attorneys letter sorted them out very quickly.

I suspect it was sorted out so quickly because of stronger regulations within the Canadian Financial System, but there modus operandi (method of operation) is exactly the same as First Data. As the penny has now dropped, it will be very valuable information for my Attorney and how he proceeds, he felt that there could be a class action against First Data in his GUT and I suspect that this information will assist him in both his negotiations with First Data and how he proceeds further.

The one thing that online merchants should also be aware of is what damage First Data could be doing to there online reputations by the completely unregulated and unchecked websites like Scambook,,

I would strongly suggest that you watch a Video that every one should see regarding Scambook and here is a link to it https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MfjJEw-UME and make up your own minds (personally I was shocked to say the very least).

I verily feel that we all should be very careful with the card merchant services we choose and this site https://www.cardpaymentoptions.com really is doing an fantastic and invaluable service to both online merchants and small business in general.

Information is power and Card Payment Options are empowering us all to share our experiences and make informed dissensions on who we do business with, personally I can’t thank the owners of this website enough for the genuine service that they are providing…:)

I too am having an awful experience with First Data. When I first contacted someone about processing I “thought” that I was dealing with First Data customer service and had no idea that they worked primarily with resellers.

You see, I had done business with Cardservice International from 2001-2009 and had a perfect history with them – zero chargebacks and 100% fees paid on time! I got out of the business for three years because things were slow and I was burned out, but recently I decided to start-up again and I called who I thought was the same company.

Boy was I wrong!

First of all, they told me that my credit was “very poor” (This was a lie too. It’s not perfect, but it’s good enough to buy a house!) and they were going to have to place a 15% Reserve on my gross sales for six months! This was AFTER I’d already signed the contract! I told the guy that there’s no way I could do business like that long term because they’d be taking more each month than I’d be getting.

I asked what I needed to do to opt-out of the contract and he told me that they’d hit me with exit fees and if I closed my bank account they’d just send me to collection! He told me (in writing) that the Reserve would only be held until the amount reached $12,500.00 or the end of the six month contract, whichever came first. He then told me (in writing) that I’d start getting my money back in month seven as follows, month seven I’d get the Reserve money held for month one and so on until all six months were returned.

Lies!

Anyway, I crunched the numbers and decided that I had no choice but to bite the bullet for six months and then I’d start getting my money back.

Wrong!

My application hit their security department and I received a call stating that the Reserve was to be held for a minimum of 9-12 months. I later found out (by letter) that they’d actually intended to continue the Reserve hold until it reached the entire $12,500.00!!!

Well, since I had the misrepresentation in writing in an email I forwarded it to their Security Dept. and they immediately released me from my contract and waived all fees.

Unfortunately, I also paid the sales representative $200.00 to set-up the account, but found out from First Data customer service that there was NO set-up fee required at all and this representative refuses to refund my money!

To add insult to injury, my credit card company refuses to do a chargeback on them because I agreed to pay them the $200.00 and never actually questioned what it was for. Yes, that was dumb, but I’d trusted the company at that time thinking that it was still Cardservice.

Anyway, I was told to forward everything I had, all emails, the BBB “F” rating for this company in Spanish Fork, Utah, a screenshot of my $200.00 payment to them, etc to their Business Solutions Dept., but I was told today that “it will take as long as they deem necessary to resolve the issue” and then I’ll be notified of their decision by postal mail. No direct number, no direct elevated customer service to speak to, zilch.

To make a long story short, First Data sucks with a capital SUCK!

At least I only lost $200.00. I know that there are many others here that weren’t nearly as fortunate.

Beware of this company!!!

Just don’t use these guys.. terrible interactions, unhelpful call center support. Terrible overall experience. AVOID AT ALL COSTS!

I signed up to First Data when I opened my business. Terrible phone support but the service worked OK. I sold the business two years later and notified them that I was doing so and I needed to close the account. I asked for a pay off and the quoted me LIST for every payment that was remaining. I asked them to prorate that since they would not be doing any servicing. I never heard another word from them. 3 months later I got a call from a collection agency demanding payment. I asked them for a payment and they gave me one I agreed to. I bought out the account and FD turned it into the credit reporting firms as 120 days overdue. I asked them to remove this negative report and they refused and 7 years later I still carry this on an otherwise perfect credit score.

Bottom Line: Avoid First Data at all costs. They deserve the poor rating they get.

Is there anyone that has take their FDIS salesman to small claims in Chicago, IL. The salesman
was my bookeeper and did a switch and bait, He emailed the application to me with the service agreement.
Then behind my back he signed my name on a two year contract. The i.p address on the bottom is from his
place not mine and FDIS accused me of telling him to open the account just because I used the service.

if anyone can help me figure out how to sue salesman and company in IL please contact me at [email protected]

If you hate the service do what I did get a police report and then fax it to the FDIS business solutions Group to
get out of your contract, they will cancel on spot. I was promised 3 months of fees reveresed but they did not do so. i requested a two month hold to stop the fees, but I had to call about 30 people to get some decent advice. I did get 400.oo back in excessive fees, and my banker said I was lucky. He has had many clients complain about excessive fees.

My bookkeeper is a total scum bag he as embezzled a few thousand dollars from me by detroying my QB in areas that I wouldn’t see to gain billable hours. Worst company ever I can’t believe they have not had a class action yet. Horrible company.

So glad I found this website. I’m starting a small business that will do primarily online sales so I’m researching merchant account providers. I talked to a First Data rep this morning. He wanted to sign me up immediately but being as this is my first foray into credit card processing, I want to comparison shop before I agree to anything. He said he would email me more information. The email looked like something a 10 year old would send-it was exceedingly short on specifics but had lots of highlighted words about free things. I sent a polite response saying that I wanted to see the fine print before I agree to anything. Based on all the other comments, I don’t expect a response as providing complete information upfront seems to violate their business practices.

I understand that disgruntled customers are much louder than satisfied customers, in general. However, I already had doubts based on the conversation with the rep. He repeatedly demonstrated that he was following a script instead of actually listening to my responses. At the beginning of the conversation, I explained that I was starting a small business, etc. The business name (which he knew already) has the word ‘Jewelry’ in it but he asked me what type of business it was. Duh! Then when I got his email, that sealed the deal that this is a company I don’t want to do business with. It mentioned the transaction fee, the rates and the monthly maintenance fees. It gave no information about anything else, such as length of contract, termination fees, etc. And there was nothing professional about it whatsoever. Unless you do business with a lot of Nigerian royalty, then it might pass professional muster for you.

When I was first starting my business I knew very little and went with the recommendation of my bank about leasing my credit card terminal from First Data. Now 2 years into the 4 year lease I am a little wiser and have realized I am going to spend $2280 to lease a machine that I could purchase for $408. Because it is a lease I am stuck. Being a small business $50 a month for the lease is a large chunk. The people at First Data have been less than helpful and basically tell me I owe over a grand to get out of the lease for a machine that is worth less than half that. I strongly recommend anyone considering a lease with them closely analyze the figures and research themselves before getting screwed like I did.

I just read the review from a First Data Agent. I can assure everryone that she does not know her company very well. First Data held over $300,000 of our money for no really good reason. I was dealing with their Risk Management Department. We have never had bad credit card returns or bad credit. The issue was they did not understand the Vacation Rental business. My Sales Representative, did every thing he could to try to get us our money. So it is not the Sales Representatives.

First Data needs to look at their over all business and make improvements to customer service.

The worst company you can deal with, they have access to your bank take any money they feel like.
They play different games to cost you more money at your bank by blocking your batches at the end of the night. Siply small business can’t survive working with first data.

Don’t Trust them! They are awful. They have lousy follow up and customer service. The sales reps lie, and do not give you copies. They have you sign on a terminal and you don’t get full disclosure. If you change companies they hit you with a $500 early termination fee, that they didn’t tell you about.

we have used their service since 2008 with a lot of difficulty. they will not send us a replacement unit until we agree to a four year extension on our contract. i strongly urge anyone thinking about using their services or products to look very closely at your contract and agreements. once we closed our account the bank was willing to reopen our account and send us a new unit with free rental fees for one year. do your due diligence here, this company isn’t for everyone.

I work for a Small Business Owner that relies on credit card transactions to provide services to Her customers. We have been in business 18 years and have had no problems with charge backs or fraudulent transactions. However this fall our credit card processor First Data, decided that we were a risk. At that time they demanded that we get a Letter of Credit from our bank for $50,000 to protect them. Once we got the Letter of Credit they would not accept it because they required the bank to allow them to renew the Letter and to be able to transfer the Letter to someone else. Our bank would not do that. Our Bank was protecting us. Until we did they held $127,000 of our money.

I am a Vacation Rental Agency. This money does not belong to us, it belongs to our owners that we manage properties for. We provided them with Escrow statements showing that we had more than enough in the account to back up these transactions. This escrow money is in this account until guests come for their visit. Legally we cannot use that money until the guest arrives. The money we get from the Credit Cards was the balance of the money guest owed and we needed it to pay the owner of the unit. First Data put us in a position that we would have to break the law. We sent them financial statements showing we were a reputable company. We sent them our balancing reports and procedures. None of this made any difference to them. By holding this money they could have put us out of business. Luckily we found a Credit Card Processor that understands Vacation Rentals and have changed companies, but this should not be allowed. Most Small Businesses would not have the luxury of having that kind of money to back this up.

Signed up for First Data,Rep H.H. never said anything about 4 year lease and exorbitant fees what he talked about was the 2.??%,after 4Hours of listening him talk signed up under Sams Club returned under 3 month trial clause cause of all fees taxs and such April,29 2011 shipped date to mellvile NY was to arrive on May 3 2011 by end of day,just got this months statement and low and behold $328 +$ 21 fees charged by First Data for missing equipment!!

I agree with what most of them are saying here. First Data is the worst company to work with if you are an online business. I was introduced to these guys through Citibank where I have my business checking. They charged me a huge set up fee, a min monthly fee, and a maintenance fee, all the day I opened my account with them. and guess what, they dont provide the payment gateway. I was asked to use Auth.net to set up my payment gateway. So I really did not understand why I was paying FirstData so much when they really don’t provide even a payment gateway. I was just looking for something like Paypal to take transactions on my website and put the money in my checking the next day. Apparently, FD has a whole separate price schedule for that, which is separate from what I already paid.

I think FD’s business model is to partner with banks who dont have their own merchant services and get free clients from the banks, and then charge them with fees that no one has ever heard about.

We’ve used First Data to process credit card transactions since 2006. The account was setup for a prospective business that we created on the internet, but the business has not done $1 worth of income since its creation. However, every month since 2006 we have been paying First Data $62.95 per month for the opportunity to process a credit card. In October of this year 2011, I discovered First Data had charged us $12 for the monthly paper statement we get. So, I called around and discovered we could get the same credit card processing service for $30 per month from Authorize.net and they also charge a lower percentage % on credit card transactions, if we ever have one. So, I called First Data to inquire about a better rate, a reduction in the print fee for monthly paper statements. They had nothing to offer or the desire to negotiate. I was forced to leave them for a better deal, and First Data instructed me on how to send a letter for cancellation. They didn’t tell me the letter had to be post marked by the 15th of the month to not get charged again for monthly fee, and they did not tell me they would charge $75 for closing the account. First Data has not justified why they need to charge $75 to close the account. But sure enough, going back to our contract we found the paragraph that calls for closure fee. So, First Data has collected 60 months of regular fees at $62.95 per month, and addition annual fees for members and more fees for PCI compliance, and we have paid more than $3,777.00 for the opportunity to precess credit cards and we have done no business. Its not their fault our business failed, but charging another months fees because we were not told to submit a closure letter by the 15th and $75 to do the closure is real, low down, greed. People, this is a BIG bank and once you let them have access to your checking account, they can take out any amount of money without previous notice to you, and you will play hell to try and get it back. I still have not received call about my complaint and demand to return the $75 to my account.

Our only recourse to spread the word about First Data to warn the prospective merchant to look elsewhere for a safer and better business deal in regards to opening a credit card processing merchant account.

We’re going to the local banker on Monday to be sure the account will no longer give access to First Data because First Data is not to be trusted to stay out of the account.

This is an excellent example of BIG bank GREED with their mantra: MONEY, MONEY, MONEY!
Just like the radio ad. And it is our money they are taking away from us.

WARNING!!!!

DON’T DO BUSINESS WITH FIRST DATA!

They cost TOO much and they will take your money without cause and warning.

FIRST DATA is very GREEDY.

Go to another merchant account system if you have to process credit / debit cards.

make sure you read fine print before you sign any document because i have worst experience in my 15 year carrier as retailer i call one of rep in first data center for processing for credit card trans and i ask for term and condition for aggrement for service and rep says month to month and no early termination fee so i did it and after five month of service i seen my statement there charge is so much i can’t believe it so i call for cancelled my service and rep ask me why i said to them too much charge and rep says do you no there is early termination is $500.00 and i ware shocked i have an argguement and i was so angry i told rep just take and don’t ask me any question and i hung up my phone

After 10 years with Elavon, I was approached by a First Data salesperson and after numerous conversations, decided to switch to reduce my fees. Elavon’s fees were very high. Everything was fine for three months. Then I got a call from risk management. They reviewed my account and told me I needed to open a collateral account and 20% of our deposits would be held back indefinitely to cover charge backs. We never had a single charge back in 10 years with Elavon.

Meanwhile, they held all of our deposits and made us miss payroll. Now I am in the process of reopening my account with Elavon. I’d rather pay the high fees and have my deposits than be the victime of extortion.

First Data is about the worst company I have ever dealt with. I purchased a very expensive POS system through my bank and the service went through First Data. A couple of years later I no longer had need to that system. I contacted First Data regarding selling it to another business. I was first told I had to sell my business and if the POS system with it, they would allow a new customer to sign up and continue to support the system. I argued that point and was then told that an ISO for First Data could re-assign the system and again set it up with First Data if I sold it. I did so. Now First Data says they are not taking any more new customers on that system and will not allow the customer to sign up and use the system. What a racket this company. Stay as far away from them as possible if you are a small business person. They will screw you.

One of the very worst customer service experiences I have ever had. Not a single person I spoke to even pretended that they cared. Poor customer service personnel, training and management.