Consumer Law, Warranties Need Help With Contract Asap!

[JoshDriver]

I am 18 years old and recently bought a small country gas station, (daily gross sales average $600.00). A representative from a large corporation visited my first day as owner and, talking very fast, convinced me that I needed to sign up for his services. He works for First Data. He convinvced me to sign up for the Telecheck services for the checks I take in each day and to also take credit cards. He told me that I would pay only one set fee (for equipment rental) per month and then a small charge per transaction and that the money would be deposited into my account within two business days from those transactions. I signed on the dotted line, but he called within a few days and, based on the fact that I had no previous credit history, the company won't desposit the transactions into my account until four business days. Stupidly, and naively, I agreed. The package was delivered and all my equipment and "merchant agreement's" were included. While reading the fine print in the book, I realize now that I will be charged enormous fees each month, far in excess of the fees stated to me when I signed on. I will even be charged for not using the machine. I have to pay the gas company for the gas pumped from the station on Mondays and Thursdays. Right now, there is virtually no capital built up in the business account. If a lot of customers pay with a credit card each day and the money won't be in my account for four business days, I won't even have enough funds in the bank to pay for the gas on the scheduled days. And if that happens, the gas company will lock down my pumps. According to the contract I signed, it is valid for 48 months! I will be bankrupt in 48 days! Example: I make .05 cents per gallon of gas pumped. Thus a $20.00 purchase at $2.00 a gallon would be ten gallons and .50 cents profit for me. According to the fine print of the contract, I have to pay 4.3% of the total purchase to swipe an American Express card. Meaning I will pay First Data .86 cents. I will lose .36 cents on that purchase. How can I stay in this very small business losing money? Right now, there is not even a tiny profit margin based on the daily gross sales and the monthly bills, (rent, electricity, water, insurance...) I am sick of myself for getting into this contract with First Data, but according to the fine print, it is unbreakable. I NEED HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[NYClex]

Yikes, this is really bad, I am sorry to hear that.
I cannot say if there is an easy way to get out of the contract, because that depends on the details of the contract and what you signed.

It is not impossible, though. But you probably would have to go and see an attorney and have him review the whole situation and see if there is something he could base a claim on, like unconsciability or something else.

Alternatively, you might want to contact that company, not the guy who you dealt with before, but someone higher up that company and ask them to modify the contract. The reasoning would be like: I won't make any profits this way. Either you have me declare bankruptcy within 6 months and lose a customer and all your profits, or you modify the contract in a way that I can live and you still make some money off me. May be they will listen. But before you sign any modification you should then have a lawyer look at it first.