Certegy Target Admittedly "Profile" innocent people and deny checks even though sufficiant funds! St. Petersburg Florida

I apologize in advance for the copy/paste but I am reporting tonights events EVERYWHERE I can. So please read the email below which is word for word what I sent to Target regarding my "rip-off" experience with Certegy. PLEASE contact me if anyone has a class-action suit in the works. They admittedly profile people as well as abuse our civil rights with unwarranted public humiliation. Thank You.

"I hope there is no character limit to these emails because I have a lot to say. I know you probably get hundred of these every day, but I can't stress enough how much I LOVE your company and how upset I would be to get a form reply. Even if you just take half a second, please write to me like I am a person and not "email #4354823597". You will have my ever-lasting devotion if you do! Tonight I went to my new neighborhood Target to make some ordinary purchases (tonight's dinner, a dress for the horse-races this weekend... nothing suspicious or out of the ordinary). The total came to $158.68 which was fine with me as I currently have well over $2000 in my account. I am waiting for my new check card to be sent to me in the mail and in the meantime have been having to write checks for my purchases. As I wrote the check to the cashier I even joked "wow, I haven't written one of these in so long I wonder if I still know how". When she put my check into the scanner, it came back denied. I thought there was a mistake since I had just checked my bank balance before leaving the house. I wondered if the newer check scanners required you to be at a certain balance to write a check so I called my husband from the store and had him a deposit enough money to bring our balance to the nearest thousand-mark. The cashier re-ran the check and it was still denied. I was upset as now I looked like someone trying to pass a bad check in front of the entire line of people. The cashier could see I was upset and gave me the number of certegy so I called them. I spoke with associate Derion who told me that he could see that I had no negativity associated with my account but that because of their guidelines on fraudulent activity, my check fell into a gray area of possible fraud. I am paraphrasing because he recited a long script that I cannot remember word for word. I told him that I appreciated the fraud protection but that I had my valid drivers license with my picture proving I am who I say I am and was more then willing to give my blessing for them to call Bank of America to verify that I had sufficient funds to write the check. He said none of that mattered. I asked him what I was supposed to do and he told me to use alternate payment. I explained that I was waiting on a new check card which is the only reason I was writing a check to begin with and he said that was probably why I was flagged. He said I should create positive check-writing history by making smaller purchases before trying to make such a large purchase. (I feel sorry for Derion if he considers $158 a large purchase- before this fiasco I would drop three times that at Target without batting an eyelash). I asked him if I should just cancel my sale and then make several smaller sales to Target so my checks were for smaller amounts and he became very angry and brusque with me so I asked for his manager since I refuse to be spoken to rudely when I have done nothing wrong. At this time quite a line has formed behind me and with the cashier holding my check and me looking distraught on the phone it looks to them as if I am some deadbeat writing bad checks or worse- a fraud! I am beyond humiliated. I can handle mad. Or sad or even embarrassed. But no honest, kind person should have to feel humiliation while simply trying to write a check for dinner and a dress. I felt myself beginning to cry so I apologized profusely to the cashier and left the store, still on hold for Derion's manager. Halfway home he finally came on and I calmly explained the entire situation to him only to have him read the same script that Derion had. When I probed deeper as to why I was flagged he told me that their system creates "profiles" of fraudulent activity and that my check- although he admitted there was no negativity associated with it- fit that "profile". I told him I was fairly disgusted that because I was wrongly "profiled" to be a fraud that I had to endure public humiliation. I began to cry and ended the phone call. I was so upset returning home that my husband thought I had been in an accident. He urged me to write to you even though I just wanted to cry and forget what had happened. I am a mother of two. I am honest, have good credit, and am a LONG time Target shopper. I would gladly let you scan my bank card to bring up my purchases the way they do at customer service sometimes when I forgot my receipt for a return. You would see that I literally spend thousands of dollars at your stores each year. (I know everyone probably says that- but ask my sometimes grouchy husband- he loathes to hear that I am off to Target'). I am a regular person and very much a picture of your customers at large. And I have been wrongly embarrassed, humiliated and shamed by a company that you choose to do business with. A simple google search shows that I am one of hundreds, if not thousands that have had this very same experience (not just at target, but wherever this nefarious company is contracted). I don't ask you to fire them or find a new check-clearing company as I know that refitting the stores with new equipment and the legalities of whatever contract you have with them would prevent that even if my one email were enough to change your mind (which I don't pretend it to be). But I do ask you to TALK to them. Ask them- no, you are probably one of their biggest clients so- DEMAND that they find a back up plan for people like me. If I were really a fraud or writing a bad check, I would not have taken the time to call and put myself on recording with them. My license and SS# and bank info should have cleared this check. The fact that you (and yes, unfortunately I now lump you with them as you chose them to do your check-clearing) sent a young mother home in tears when she did nothing more than attempt to spend her money in YOUR store is unconscionable. I write this hoping that I will be that 1000 email regarding this that triggers you to actually DO something about this Certegy company and the horrible way they treat your customers. "

Twigg17
richmond, Virginia
U.S.A.

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