Everest Merchant Services Review

2.8/5
full star idicating a 2.8 out of 5 star rating full star idicating a 2.8 out of 5 star rating empty star indicating a 2.8 out of 5 star rating empty star indicating a 2.8 out of 5 star rating empty star indicating a 2.8 out of 5 star rating

How did they treat you? ▼

Updated 1/24/2019: The website for Everest Merchant Services (ems-merchants.com) appears to no longer be an active website, and unanswered BBB complaints seem to suggest that the company is no longer functioning. At this time, Everest Merchant Services appears to be a defunct organization, and third-party sources support this. If you have any knowledge of Everest's status (whether it is still active, operating under another name, or no longer in business), please leave that information in the comment section below this review.

Everest Merchant Services (ems-merchants.com) is a nationwide merchant account provider providing credit card processing services to merchants for Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover, Diners Club, signature cards, customized gift and loyalty cards, and debit cards. The company initially began operations on September 8, 2010, with business offices located at 261 Madison Avenue, 2nd Floor, New York, New York. Several reviews indicate that EMS relies on Cynergy Data (now Priority Payment Systems) for its actual credit card processing services. The company also does not publicly list an acquiring bank. Arnold Olshanesky is listed as the CEO of Everest Merchant Services.

Key Points

  • Sales & Marketing: It's unknown whether Everest Merchant Services hires independent sales representatives, but the company has received a moderate number of merchant complaints about its sales practices.
  • Costs & Contract: Everest Merchant Services appears to offer a multi-year contract with a $495 early termination fee.
  • Complaints & Service: Everest Merchant Services has received more than 15 public complaints.
  • BBB Rating: Everest Merchant Services currently has an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau based on four complaints in the past three years.
  • Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With Everest Merchant Services

Everest Merchant Services Customer Reviews

Here's What Their Clients Say

Customer Reviews Summary
Total Online Complaints 15+
Live Customer Support Yes
Most Common Complaint Poor Service

We’ve located over 15 Everest Merchant Services negative reviews on non-BBB consumer protection websites (including the comment section of this review), most of which cite an inability to reach any customer service representatives from EMS to resolve the stated problem. Other complaints mention unexpected fees and nondisclosure of contract terms, as well as internal issues at the company. The company’s website provides an email form and a telephone number that may or may not be related to customer support; it’s also possible that the company relies on Priority Payment Systems for its customer support in addition to its payment processing. Regardless, EMS does not appear to have a very responsive or readily available customer service team.

Everest Merchant Services Online Ratings

Here's How They Rate Online

Online Ratings Summary
Product & Service Complaints 1
Billing & Collection Complaints 2
Advertising & Sales Complaints 1
Guarantee & Warranty Complaints 0
Delivery Complaints 0

As of this update, Everest Merchant Services (EMS) has been assigned an “F” rating with the Better Business Bureau and is not accredited. Of the four complaints filed against EMS, one was related to the product or service, one was related to an advertising or sales issue, and two had to do with billing and collection. All four went completely unaddressed. In light of the company’s complaint total and resolution ratio, we agree with the BBB’s rating.

Everest Merchant Services Fees, Rates & Costs

A Closer Look at The Contract

Cost & Fees Summary
Swiped Rate Variable
Keyed-in Rate Variable
Early Termination Fee $495
PCI Compliance Fee $185 Per Year
Equipment Lease Terms Variable

Because EMS appears to resell the services of Priority Payment Systems, the standard EMS contract is likely to be very similar to the standard Priority Payment Systems contract, which includes a $495 early cancellation fee and PCI compliance fees of up to $185. One complaint does mention that EMS offers interchange-plus pricing, although this particular merchant did not end up receiving the appropriate rates.

EMS advertises a number of different guarantees and promotions, so it is reasonable to assume that the terms of an EMS contract will include provisions addressing these promotions. Even so, merchants are encouraged to carefully review any contract they are given, regardless of a sales agent’s guarantees.

Everest Merchant Services Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs

Should You Work For Them?

Jobs & Marketing Summary
Employs Independent Resellers Yes
Advertises Deceptive Rates No
Discloses All Important Terms No

As of this writing, it is unclear whether Everest Merchant Services primarily utilizes in-house or independent sales agents to market its services. There are numerous complaints about nondisclosure or misrepresentation of contract terms at the point of signing, and there are also a large number of negative reviews filed by former employees of the company. These employees consistently cite an unprofessional work environment, inadequate training, and delayed or incomplete compensation. The company’s $500 Best Rate Guarantee appears to be the source of some confusion amongst merchants, but the Better Business Bureau has investigated this guarantee and determined that it is a valid advertisement.

The BBB page for EMS formerly noted an issue with EMS incorrectly implying on its superpages.com profile that it has obtained BBB accreditation. This issue appears to have been resolved and is no longer listed on the company’s BBB page. It will therefore not count against the company at this time.

Our Everest Merchant Services Review Summary

Our Final Thoughts

EMS rates as an average merchant account provider largely because of its BBB rating and complaint record. The company’s rating may improve once more is known about its contract terms, but the known details are not especially competitive. As always, merchants are advised to carefully research the company before signing any contracts.

If you found this article helpful, please share it!

Which is Most Important for You?

If you had to pick one, which quality would you say will be the most important with your next credit card processor? Tap or click your selection to register your vote:

  1. Low Transaction Fees
  2. No Monthly Fees
  3. No Contract
  4. Reliable Customer Support
  5. Quick Signup

Testimonials & Complaints

How Did Everest Merchant Services Treat You?

11 User Reviews

  • Florence Devilliers

    I have been with Everest for the past 2 years and I have to say that service is wonderful!
    I had a special request this past summer to add our own restaurant gift cards to the credit card program but it could not be done through the terminal the restaurant had at the time, so after checking which would work for both credit cards and gift cards, EMS sent another one that was already set up for both.
    Thanks to Mila Torres who answered quickly to all of my questions and concerns. Now, the restaurant is saving money by having both on this new terminal.
    I am very grateful, thanks again!!!

  • Ms.J

    I worked for Everest merchant services I just did their training last week and the office was very unprofessional they yelled and curse and even smoked and made announcements while the reps were on the phone. Yes i was a customer service rep so many of the angry customer may want to know some insight and I will be glad to share with you because it was wrong of them to use and scam people. For some customers reps such as myself was told that Everest merchant services is a very legitimate company and they honestly help people not really knowing the full story of what really goes on I started noticing things when I read the guidelines to their policy if the customer services reps do not get at least 10 client’s a week that we would get fired and if we get more and more transfers we will get rewards additional 200 dollars toward our pay check which I felt that was alarming because we can’t force client’s to say yes. Another thing that caught my eye was everything was about persuading the customer reps with money such as fax statements are worth 75 dollars that is the reason why the customer service rep urge the client’s so much into doing it not because they know the client will get scam but they will get paid. What really put them on my radar when they had us say that we will help save 30 percent of the client’s rating off and is not asking for them to switch their services and then just last week gave us a paper saying to stop using that line because in all reality they were switching people over. When I read these people rules I was ready to walk out now I find out they are scamming people. I due apologize for their wrong doing sad thing is the company is still in business and still getting innocent people in their organization.

  • Tim Johnson

    I was contacted by Everest about switching. They guaranteed they would save 30% or they would pay me $500. I told them I was not interested unless the credit card processing would be integrated with my software. They said they would fully integrate with my software. They also indicated savings. A portion of the savings was from elimination of all my monthly fees and would only be charged for the % transaction fees. I received notice of monthly fees being charged. I called Everest again and they sent me the comparison of my current processor and the proposed fees. The comparison did not show any of the fees they were starting to charge me. I contacted them again to cancel. I’m in the middle of the battle. Apparently I have to cancel with all these people they’ve scammed me into. WOULD SUGGEST YOU HANG UP IMMEDIATELY IF THEY CONTACT YOU!

  • Mark Momchilov

    received a call from a Deryn Riggs. Wanted to see my current merchant statement. Faxed it to him. Called back and said he could save me $50 to $100 a month. I was hesitant, did not want to hassle with switching
    over. No problem Deryn says. We just send you out a machine and you get a free 30 day trial. If it doesn’t
    work out not harm done. So they sent me a machine. First one would not process ebt cards. They sent me another one. It did not work at all. Third one again, did not process ebt cards again. At this point, I was dealing with a technical support gut name Rick. I wanted to cancel, they practically begged me to keep trying
    their company and wait for my first full months statement to prove that I would save money and it would be all worth the hassle. I replied that by the time I get a statement that my 30 day free trial would be up and they would charge me a termination fee. He promised that this would not happen. I decided to give them another chance. After downloading the terminal by myself, which I didn’t want to do in the first place, I started processing through Everest merchant. By this time 2 weeks have already passed. After a couple of weeks of processing, I noticed that my American Express transactions were not getting into my account. I called this Deryn guy. He did not respond. I called this Rick guy, his mailbox was full. I called the sales department, their mailbox was full. I e-mailed Deryn, no response. I continued to call 3 times a day on a Mon, tues., wed, and finally on Thursday someone picked up the phone. I told them that I needed to talk to Rick or Deryn. They said they will have Rick call back. Rick called back an hour later. I told him of my problem, he would look into it and get back with me. Well, I called on following Monday, Tues., Wed. and on Thursday someone answered the phone. He said he was VP of sales and Rick would call back. Rick called and I had to explain to him again about money not getting into my account. Of course, I wanted to cancel my account by now, but was hesitant to do so until all my transactions were into my bank. Finally, I suggested to him that maybe they do not have the correct merchant number for American Express. After reviewing number we found that someone did not put wrong number. Missed it by one number. I voiced my displeasure of this problem taking so long to get corrected. Of course he disagreed and said he was right on top of things all the time and he would get this corrected right away. I had to call him about this again on following Monday. He told me that I had to re-enter all the transactions again. I finally did this. When I saw that the money finally made it into my account, I sent off an E-mail and sent a letter canceling my account. Tried to call this Deryn guy to make sure that I would not get charged a fee. I called him and his company at least 25 times in next two weeks and left message after message- e-mail after e-mail without a response. Finally I called a customer service number which was hard to find. I got a hold of someone and ask if my account was canceled yet. She saw that it was still active, even though cancelled it weeks ago. I told her of my problems with Everest. She said sorry for your luck but their would be a $495.00 cancellation fee because I went past my 30 day trial period. I could call my salesman and try to get reimbursed. Of course, I told her that I have been trying for weeks and do not get a response. She said that her company ,Cynergy, is the processing company and she could not help me.
    The only thing that she could do is send Everest an e-mail about my problem and they would have to call me within 48 hours. That was a week ago and no one has contacted my. I had the bank reverse the termination fee and maybe someone will contact me now. By the way, I called this Deyrn guy again two days ago. someone answered his phone and said that he was on an extended leave of absense. I tried to explain the situation to this guy but he interupted me and said that he would have to call me back. Again, no call back. If someone from Everest Merchants should call you, hang up. By the way, I got my first statement and Everest is charging more than my current company. So they were full of falsehoods at every step of the way.

    • Dan S.

      I wish I read your comment before using EMS. Similar story here.
      Sales from EMS lied me about their lower rates and no hidden fee. I ended up paying more than my previous processor, with $200 annual fee, $185 compliance fee (never mentioned), monthly charges.
      I called EMS numerous times for cancellation, no one picked up. Called the sales agent who got me signed the contract (lied me said it was an application), he said he no longer work for the company.

      I wonder why the hell they’re still in business. They should be regulated and investigated by lying to their customers. Stay away from Cynergy and Everest Merchant Service.

  • Robert Schumacher

    Follow up to post on 10/5/12. After filing a complaint with the NY BBB, I received reimbursement of $490.00 (early cancellation fee) from EMS within a few days. Although we have not been reimbursed for the $25 (total of $50) for the minimum discount fees due.

  • Ellen Drake

    This is a followup to the review that I submitted on 9/12/2012. I filed a complaint with the NY BBB. I finally received the refund for $10.89. In Oct., $505.00 was deducted from my account. When I called, I was told that it was for an early termination fee. For a service that I never approved! Also, the application that I originally filled out had the ETF crossed out. The Merchant Service had taken it out “by mistake”. After 5 phone calls to the customer service number on the statement, I was told that I would get a refund check. In the meantime, I had racked up over $100.00 in fees from my bank for insufficient funds. I received a call from Osiris (operations manager) of Crescent, after I did a followup complaint to the BBB. He sent a check overnight mail for the early termination fee and bank charges. I received the check Saturday afternoon of Columbus Day weekend. I have had 2 bank charges since and called again with no response yet.

  • Robert Schumacher

    We were initially contacted by Jeff Bess in Jan 2012. Our initial concerns were that our website is custom built and that the process of switching card merchants had to be a smooth process so as not to interrupt business. We were assured that it would be a very simple procedure, and as it appeared it would cost effective we moved forward submitting the paperwork, with the understanding that we would not be charged any fees until the transition had been done without any complications. We received approval from Everest in mid March to proceed with the transition. We requested to a Ms. Thai that they speak with our IT department to make the transition, upon which we learned that it would not be a seamless transition and that in order to adapt our shopping cart to fit the parameters that Everest Merchant Services would require would actually cost us $2500-$3000. We attempted to contact Mr. Bess by both emal and phone, with no sucess. We continued to receive emails stating that Everest Merchant Services was ready to move forward and to contact them for the transition. On April 23, 2012 we emailed Ms. Thai and explained the situation that we were unable to contact Mr. Bess, and that since he had misrepresented the ease of being able to switch services and that it would not be cost effective that we were no longer interested. In April we also received merchant statements for our 2 accounts with a minimum of $25 deducted for each as the discount due. We contacted on 5/7/12, and explained that these accounts should NEVER have been established until service was actually up and running successfully. We canceled the service and asked for the monies to be refunded. In June 2012 , we received 2 more statements both deducting $220.05 for a cancellation fee of $195.05 and a minimum discount due of $25.00. We contacted Everest Merchant services on 6/8/12 to speak with Mr. Bess and was told he was no longer with the company. We asked to speak to his direct supervisor and was transferred to Daniel Meade. After giving Mr. Meade the details of the situation and asking for a full refund of the $440.10 due to Mr. Bess not representing the facts correctly, Mr. Meade stated that Mr. Bess had left the company under unusual circumstances, implying that he had misrepresented the services of the company. Mr. Meade promised to look into the situation and get back with us, regarding a full refund. On 7/30/12 we called to speak with Mr. Meade, after having no response from him since the 6/8/12 conversation, and was told he would call us back. After several more attempts to reach Mr. Meade, there has been no effort by Mr. Meade or anyone at EMS to contact us regarding our concerns and the mishandling of the entire situation, or the monies that were deducted improperly.

  • Ellen

    I received calls 3 times a day for 3 weeks from the supposed Sales Manager Wholesale Division, Gerardo, trying to convince me to change credit card processors. It took a long time to sway me since I have been burned once before by Crescent Processing and by my current processor with a non-cancellable 48 month equipment lease. He sent comparison sheets and when I said that I would consider it, he sent a letter stating that I should fill out the application and that filling it out was NOT a commitment on my part to change and that he would call me when I was approved to discuss moving forward. I never heard from him again. One week later,I got a cc machine delivered by FedEx and a phone call 5 minutes later from a tech to set it up. I refused, stating that I was not switching companies until I heard from Gerardo. That was Aug. 16th. Like I stated above, I have not heard anything from Gerardo. Last week, $10.89 was taken out of my account. Then I received an August statement. I immediately called the number on the statement to cancel the account that I never opened and to get a refund for the $10.89. I had to fax that letter from Gerardo to 2 different departments. Yesterday, the FedEx driver showed up with a shipping label to pick up the machine. I refused and said that once I received my refund, I would gladly return it. By the way, the “new” machine looks like junk. I called again today and was told that the account was canceled and that they are still working on my refund.

  • Susan Reiter

    I initially was contacted directly by an individual named Christian who was very personable and very helpful in going over my existing contract w/another provider and provided me with what appeared to be a very direct and clearcut proposed processing contract in addition to informing me that they would pay any cancellation fee by my existing contract, etc. The initial process went quite smoothly & I really thought this was going to be a great company to work with. But once I tried to go through the process of changing over my terminal to their system it was a nightmare. Numerous issues with their equipment, missing cords, etc. and working with someone from my telephone provider and with their tech support for over two hours on the phone during a very busy coffee hour in our shop was extremely frustrating. Their tech support individual was very pleasant, but having the issue in the first place was infuriating. The process of getting reimbursed for my cancellation fee has been long and arduous and I cannot get any of their people to return an email or a phone call or give me a satisfactory response as to why I have not been reimbursed. I’ve sent numerous emails to the original person I worked with – Christian (VP of Sales), to Elizabeth Thai who is supposed to be my direct contact for such a thing and also from Tom Hale who is supposed to be some sort of upper management. The sad thing is that I actually contacted another cc processing company via internet this morning that had Everest in their name and emailed them to complain and they called me within two minutes of my email to correct the problem. Too bad I wasn’t doing business with them instead. Give them a call if you want great customer service at [redacted – violation of comment policy] instead – they were great!

Tell Us How They Treated You

Sharing your experience influences our rating and helps other business owners make informed decisions. Please take a moment to tell us if they are serving you well. Your email address will never be published, shared or sold. We only use it to authenticate that you are a real person and, if you select the option for it, to let you know if someone replies to your comment. Required fields are marked *

Comments must contain details about your experience. Please do not use ALL CAPS. Self-promotion, marketing content, or contact information of any kind will not be published. By submitting a comment, you are agreeing to our Comment Policy

Copyright

Copyright © 2024 CardPaymentOptions.com, Inc. (Digital Fingerprint: 0d38c6720f0d78a701b74d58653af608). Getting paid to re-write this page? Click here to earn a reward.

Any unauthorized copying and reproduction of the content of this page, including all meta data and computer code, is strictly prohibited. While the information in the above article is believed to be accurate as of its publish date, the author and publisher make no representation or warranties with respect to the accuracy, applicability, fitness, or completeness of the contents. The author and publisher shall in no event be held liable to any party for any direct, indirect, punitive, special, incidental or other consequential damages arising directly or indirectly from any use of this material, which is provided “as is,” and without warranties. Any and all use of trade names and/or marks are for identification purposes only and shall not be construed as a claim of affiliation, or otherwise, with CardPaymentOptions.com, Inc. ("CPO") in any form. The sole purpose of the material presented herein is to alert, educate, and inform readers. It is not intended as legal or financial advice. We may earn revenue if you obtain services from a provider that we recommend. See this page to learn how we support our operations.