Tilting at Windmills

Sometimes I feel as if I am Don Quixote, tilting against the windmills of beaurocracy time and time again. On my current agenda has been monthly charges assessed to my company bank account since 2006 (yes, that's not a typo, 2006) from a firm that we never really accepted doing business with in the first place.

 Over the years we have used several different credit card processing firms. Back in the early 2000's we were using US Bank as our processor. Apparently they subcontracted out to this firm called Elavon . When we ceased using US Bank for our processing in mid-2006, we thought we had submitted all of the appropriate paperwork necessary to close their processing and start our next one. Apparently Elavon wasn't notified. BUT the account was inactive - not used from that point only.

Unknown to us, they were assessing us a $5/month charge to our account for year, after year, after year. Then they increased their amount to $30 per month in mid 2009. At that time I tried, along with the bank, to find out what was causing this monthly charge on our account. I got nowhere. But then, in June this year, that fee increased to $85/month. The proverbial S__T hit the fan.

I started calling people - many people. I called everyone I could think of. Finally I found out that it was Elavon putting this charge on our account and that, unknown to us, the original contract with them stated that they could charge our account forever until we formally notified them that they could no longer do so.

I mean - shouldn't this be illegal? To charge on an inactive account for five F___King years????

The day I found out who was charging us I had them fax me the appropriate paperwork which I filled out, signed, faxed back to them that day, and waited for their confirmation response by fax which I was supposed to receive between five and seven days. After giving them eight days, I still hadn't heard from them, so after phoning them yesterday and talking to a supervisor because I was getting nowhere with standard customer service, I finally got my fax confirmation from them that the account is officially closed. Now I'll meet with my bank this morning to inform them that additional charges from that number is not permitted and maybe I'll be through paying money through a hole in the floor. What a PAIN! There should be a law......

Is there a website where I can post this crap?  To let other people know that these are BAD people who take advantage of their customers?  I'm more than ticked off that we lost hundreds of dollars to these crooks and that we have no recourse to recover any of it.