First Data Merchant Services

There are hundreds of reviews across the Internet explaining why First Data is a poor choice of merchant services (and Preston Atkinson of account executives). I’ll post additional links at the bottom of this review.
As you may already have inferred, my company is very displeased with First Data, their Tele Check product, and with unresponsive Account Executive Preston Atkinson. Her persistent unresponsiveness and business practices have prompted this review as well as a BBB complaint.
In brief, we worked with First Data during the formation of a new business venture. Due to changes on our end (things in business often don’t go as planned) the rates they provided proved rather impractical for us and we’d end up paying a very high percent of our receivables back to First Data in high processing fees.
We contacted Preston Atkinson about this in 2010 and she said she would investigate and get back to us. A few more emails later and we had never actually gotten to have that conversation. She dropped off the face of the earth.
Finally we grew tired of paying the high monthly fees (which would not have happened with Paypal or Stripe) and called to cancel our service. At this point they said we cannot cancel because we are on a 3-​year contract. After carefully reviewing our contract documents, we could not find any mention of this. However, First Data insists that all they can do is move us to a lower plan until October when our time is out.
I emailed Preston Atkinson again on 1÷14÷2013 to try and speak with her about the situation and ask for a copy of the 3-​year contract we supposedly signed. As of 1÷24÷2013 there has once again been no response. However, when I asked a friend to email her about setting up new service, she responded to them immediately.
To be clear, First Data is saying they will continue to bill us even if we are not using their service, even though they will not respond to our customer service inquiries or provide documentation of a contract with them. They will release us from this for a $ 500+ early termination fee.
We are finished waiting. We’ve closed our business and resigned ourselves to paying First Data’s monthly fees for another 9 months until our «contract» runs out.
However, fellow entrepreneurs, do yourselves a favor and steer clear of First Data or Preston Atkinson.
Other Sources:
UPDATE: After notifying Preston of our intent to file suit against her and First Data she finally agreed to facilitate an early cancellation. I suspect it is because she knew we had never signed a 3-​year agreement but at this point we are just glad to be finished with them.