Community Merchant Services & First Data Disceptive credit card process, terminial lease Burlington Massachusetts

There is no rip off going on here, rather you are making poor business decisions. Did you research any of the terminals or pricing before you signed a contractual lease? It only takes a few minutes to find out on the Internet that the terminal you leased is proprietary. Did you ask to see benefits/features and prices of alternative terminals? If not, do you always go with the first (and only) solution presented to you?

You leased a piece of equipment. Everyone knows that leasing anything is not cost effective in the long run and will end up costing you MUCH more than if you purchased outright. Did you read the lease agreement? If you did, you would know it's non-cancellable. You would also see that the lease you have is with a 3rd party, not your processor.

You made poor business decisions. This is no one's fault but you're own. You're a business owner so do your homework.

Sounds like you leased a LinkPoint terminal. Whoever you meet with from whatever merchant services company, ask who does their processing. A lot of companies out there are merely sales organizations who then have companies like First Data do the processing for them. They have little or not control over policy decisions once the account is signed.

LinkPoint terminals are proprietary to First Data. So if you lease this terminal through XYZ Merchant Services, you'll be processing with First Data. If you get upset and want to leave XYZ Merchant Services and move your accounts to ABC Merchant Services and they can program your LinkPoint terminal, guess what... you're with First Data again.

First Data is the only processor certified to the LinkPoint terminals or the Linkpoint online gateway for web sites.

Instead, go with a Verifone or Hypercom terminal since most processors do support a lot of those manufacturers terminals. That way if you are in a 4 year lease and you want to switch processors, you don't have to break your lease... you can just reprogram your credit card machine to the new service provider and continue paying your lease.

Most people don't understand that the lease company and the processing company are not the same. The processing company acts as an intermediary to sign the lease for the leasing company to provide your equipment financing, but you are only obligated to your processing company for the terms of your processing... not the lease. The lease can continue on while you move from processor to processor if you want.. as long as your equipment is supported on other networks like Paymentech or Nova, etc.

I am going to put this rebuttal to everybody that has been ripped off by FIRST DATA GLOBAL LEASING/MERCHANT SERVICES.

I want to encourage everyone to contact their local news stations and major news stations on how they were ripped off by this company.

One would think we would get someone's attention and something would be done to this company.

I'm a small business owner that really cannot afford to be ripped off by this company. I tried hiring a lawyer but was told it would be cheaper for me to just pay them off.

Which I did but am very angry about it! I work hard for my money and this company just takes it and say's oh well with no consequences. I want my money back plus some for all the stress, mental and health issues I have had because of THEIR dishonesty!

So I am typing up a letter and am going to email to my local news stations and major news stations everyday till I get a response from someone.

Hope you all join me in this quest. More voices are heard than one!