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Tell us about your experience with Elavon in the comment section below.
(800) 725-1243Elavon is a Major Credit Card Processor
Elavon is one of the largest merchant account providers in the United States and Canada. The company was formed in 2011 from a merger of NOVA Information Systems and euroConex and is part of U.S. Bank’s (U.S. Bancorp’s) payment services division.
Payment Processing and Merchant Services
Elavon processes all major credit and debit cards for most conventional business industries and acts as a back-end processor for a very large number independently branded subsidiary merchant services providers and reseller partners. The company claims to serve over one million businesses worldwide with a primary focus in North America and Europe. The company’s equipment lease subsidiary, Ladco Leasing, is a major supplier of credit card terminals and other payment processing equipment. Numerous consumer Elavon reviews complain of deceptive sales practices by Ladco Leasing.
Elavon online payments services utilize its own online payment gateways called Converge and Fusebox and can integrate with other gateways such as Authorize.net. For international businesses, the company offers multi-currency merchant services with settlement in 16 currencies, authorization in 85+ currencies, and conversion into the cardholder’s home currency in 48 different currencies. The company also offers its own point-of-sale systems, contactless payment, e-commerce solutions, digital wallets, PCI compliance, Safe-T branded security, and data reporting and analysis.
Elavon Ownership & Location
Elavon is headquartered at Two Concourse Parkway, Suite 800, Atlanta, GA 30328. The company has been active in the credit card processing industry since 1991. Jamie Walker has been the CEO of Elavon since being appointed to the role in 2017.
Elavon Review Video Summary
Elavon Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: Offers a multi-year contract with an early termination fee of…
- Complaints & Service: Has received more than 500 public complaints regarding…
- BBB Rating: Has an “A+” rating despite having received 126 complaints and 33 reviews about…
- Sales & Marketing: Hires independent sales agents and has received a low-to-moderate number of complaints about its…
Elavon is one of the world’s largest credit card processors
Should You Trust Elavon?
Lawsuits, Reviews & Complaints
Complaint Summary
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Total Online Complaints
600+
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Live Customer Support
Yes
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Most Common Complaint
Poor Customer Service
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Elavon Has Hundreds of Complaints
It is important to keep in mind that Elavon is a huge credit card processor and should therefore be expected to have more complaints than a small merchant services provider. With that said, we have found over 500 Elavon complaints in the comment section of this review and over 100 on other sites, with many more filed against Ladco Leasing. This is an average amount of complaints compared to other processors of Elavon’s size. Elavon complaints from its customers report problems with poor customer support, sudden holds and freezes, unexpected fees, billing disputes, and equipment lease problems.
Elavon and Small Businesses
The common theme to Elavon’s complaints appears to be that the smaller a merchant’s business is, the harder it is to get problems resolved through Elavon. This means that Elavon may perform better as an enterprise-level merchant account provider. To its credit, Elavon does offer 24/7 customer support to all of its users. You can read actual merchant complaints in the comment section at the end of this review.
Elavon Lawsuits and Fines
Cisero’s Lawsuit
In 2012, Elavon was sued by one of its merchants, a restaurant named Cisero’s, for PCI compliance fines. The problem started when U.S. Bank (Elavon’s parent company) was fined $90,000 by Visa and MasterCard, who alleged that Cisero’s had not secured its network and experienced a data breach that resulted in fraudulent transactions on a few of its customers cards. In reaction, U.S. Bank debited Cisero’s checking account of $10,000 without notice and then filed a lawsuit against Cisero’s owners to obtain the remaining $80,000, stating that their merchant account contract makes them responsible for such fines.
Civil Suits
A 2019 suit involved a small merchant suing Elavon over misplacing funds and was settled out of court.
Class-Action Lawsuits
Additionally, there is a class-action lawsuit pending against Elavon in California as of the writing of this review, which involves contracts.
Elavon Customer Service Options
We have located multiple Elavon customer service phone numbers:
- (800) 725-1243 – Toll-Free Customer Service
- (877) 938-0317 – Sales
If you a looking for top-rated customer support from your merchant account provider, see our best customer service merchant account provider list.
Is the BBB Rating for Elavon Accurate?
Better Business Bureau Profile
BBB Summary
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Product/Service Complaints
67
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Billing/Collection Complaints
50
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Advertising/Sales Complaints
5
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Guarantee/Warranty Complaints
0
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Delivery Complaints
2
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Customer Rating
1.13/5 stars
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Note: We have adjusted this company’s BBB rating according to our own standards. To better understand why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our Rating Criteria.
Note: We have adjusted this company’s BBB rating according to our own standards. To better understand why we adjust BBB ratings, please see our Rating Criteria.
Over 120 Elavon BBB Complaints
As of this update, the Better Business Bureau is awarding Elavon an “A+” rating despite the fact that the company has received 120 complaints in the last 36 months. Of the total Elavon complaints, 50 are due to billing and collection issues, 67 to problems regarding products and services, 5 to advertising and sales issues, and 2 are related to delivery problems. Only 34 of the complaints were resolved by the company to the satisfaction of the customer.
What Elavon Customers Say
The company has also received 34 informal Elavon reviews totaling a rating of 1.13/5 stars. A recent customer review from the BBB website states:
As I write this review I’m on the phone for the 3rd time with Elavon trying to close my account. When I call them to close it they tell me they need to notify some other department to get the account closed and that they are sending the email as we speak. After telling me they have sent an email to the representative to close the account i get a bill for the minimum monthly charge and have to call them again and get told the same thing. I tell that isn’t working and I’m being charged and their reply is that it is all they can do and that they can not close my account without the 3rd party approval. This is ridiculous. I just want my account closed and for them to stop charging me but they say they cant do it? What a scam. I’m now on eternal hold trying to talk to a supervisor. The last time they put me on eternal hold it eventually hung up on me. DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THIS COMPANY!
A “C” Performance Overall
We have adjusted the BBB’s rating to a “C” for the purposes of this review based on how our criteria would have scored Elavon.
How Expensive is Elavon Service?
Rates, Fees, and Contract Terms
Cost Summary
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Swipe Rate
2.65% + $0.19
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Keyed-In Rate
3.50% + $0.19
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Virtual Terminal Rate
Up to 0.5% + $0.30
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Payment Gateway Fee
Up to $25
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Early Termination Fee
$295+
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PCI Compliance Fee
$29 to $59 Per Month
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Monthly Fee
$10
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Mobile Terminal Equipment Cost
$89
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Countertop Terminal Equipment Cost
$270
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Equipment Lease Terms
48 Month (locked)
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Elavon Fees and Pricing May Vary
The company last marketed two different pricing models in our previous Elavon review. The first quote was for a counter-top point-of-sale terminal and the second for its mobile payment alternative. Both contracts charged a swipe rate of 2.65% + $0.19 or a keyed-in rate of 3.50% + $0.19 per transaction.
Elavon also included a convoluted early termination fee which its contract lists as “greater of the total fees paid by Customer during the twelve months immediately prior to termination, or the total fees that would be payable by Customer during the twelve months immediately following termination.” It is currently unclear if Elavon is still charging early termination fees or enforcing its old contracts. Additional, Elavon resellers may include different terms regarding cancellation fees. We encourage prospective customers to inquire about termination fees and to thoroughly read the merchant account agreement before signing any documents. To avoid early termination fees altogether, see our list of merchant service providers that do not charge cancellation fees.
Elavon’s Virtual Terminal and Payment Gateway Pricing
In addition to its storefront payment processing services, Elavon also dedicates a portion of its website to advertising its virtual terminal and payment gateway, called “Converge.” There is also an additional payment gateway for hotels and restaurants specifically called “Fusebox.” However, pricing is not disclosed on either of those services. Elavon customer reviews indicate that gateway fees range between 0.75% to 3.5% plus $0.30 as well as a $25 monthly fee.
Previous Early Termination Fees by Elavon
Prior to February 2013, the company’s standard merchant account contract included a three-year service agreement with a $295 early termination fee if canceled within the first year, or $195 if canceled within the second or third year. Elavon also formerly charged PCI Compliance fees that varied from $29 to $59 per month; however, the company’s recent promises of no more “hidden fees” would seem to indicate that it has abandoned this practice. Please let us know if Elavon or a Elavon partner has charged you an early termination fee in the comment section below.
Long-Term Equipment Leases From Ladco
As of previous Elavon reviews Elavon offered mobile payment hardware starting at $89 and countertop terminals for $270. However, the company continues to own and operate the equipment lease provider Ladco Leasing for hardware and point of sale leasing. Ladco has an abysmal reputation among numerous Elavon and Ladco reviews.
The standard Ladco Leasing agreement is an expensive, non-cancellable 48-month equipment lease that often costs up to ten times the actual price of the equipment if bought outright. Elavon seems to go to great lengths to conceal the relationship between Ladco and Elavon, probably due to the fact that there are very few positive reviews of Ladco to be found online. In most cases, we recommend that business buy their equipment. In the event that a business needs a complex point-of-sale system with a need for dedicated support, we strongly encourage you to negotiate the terms of your lease to avoid expensive surprises. To find credit card processors that offer low-cost equipment, we suggest seeing our list of low-cost merchant service providers.
Elavon’s payment gateway options
Does Elavon Use Deceptive Marketing?
Advertising & Sales Strategy
Key Points
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Uses Independent Resellers
Yes
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Openly Discloses Fees
No
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Discloses All Important Provisions
No
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Elavon Rate Quotes and Advertising
A merchant services marketing practices can greatly affect the customer experience. Elavon relies heavily upon resellers, sub-ISOs, independent agents, and partnerships to market and sell its credit card processing services. This marketing strategy is common among large merchant account providers and can often prove harmful to a company’s reputation, as it appears to have done for Elavon. Specifically, the company has received a large number of complaints related to undisclosed merchant account fees and point of sale hardware leasing terms.
The Backend Processor For Costco Merchant Services
One of the company’s most notable independent partners is the grocer and retailer Costco. In fact, Costco Merchant Services is often mistaken as its own credit card processing company when it is really acting as a sales and marketing arm of Elavon. Several Elavon reviews regarding Costco Merchant Services complain that they expected to receive the usual wholesale costs for which Costco is known and expressed surprise when they encountered Elavon’s industry-standard pricing. In our estimation, Costco and Sam’s Club do not rank among the best low-cost merchant accounts. We encourage business owners to check out our list of the best merchant services providers.
Elavon Marketing Practices
Elavon does not publicly disclose its merchant account fees or credit card processing rates. This indicates that rates and fees are set on a per-account basis and will vary based on numerous factors including a business owner’s knowledge on how to negotiate low merchant account fees, the industry of the business, and the agent or partner marketing the merchant account. As of our last update of this review, the company had added a pricing page that listed specific rate quotes that promised 2.65% plus $0.19 on swiped transactions and 3.5% plus $0.19 on keyed-in payments; however, these quotes have been removed as of latest Elavon review update. These rates seemed to apply to both credit card terminals and mobile processing. The company also listed a $10 monthly fee on this page. Please let us know what Elavon is charging you in the comment section below. For a list of companies that provide transparent rate quotes upfront, compare merchant account providers here.
Elavon Subsidiaries and Partners
Most of Elavon’s accounts are established by partnered resellers and subsidiaries who use their own sales and marketing strategies. In a few cases, it is apparent that some of Elavon’s resellers are using misleading tactics based on reports from merchants. The company and its resellers are also notorious for signing merchants up for expensive, non-cancellable equipment leases through Ladco Leasing as part of their merchant services packages. Elavon appears to often enforce the terms of the lease agreement even when merchants claim that they were deceived by an agent.
Does Elavon Deserve Your Business?
Review Summary & Our Thoughts
Decent for Large Businesses, Poor for Small Businesses
Elavon, a large merchant account provider and credit card processor, a high number of Elavon reviews complain of numerous things such as poor customer service and high fees. Although the company has numerous complaints, the company claims to serve over one million merchants globally and is bound to have a few unhappy customers. Due to this processor’s large size, we have set Elavon’s rating to a “C” since most businesses processing less than $100k per month would be better served by smaller providers that are able to supply better customer service for their size. Very small businesses are encouraged to check our picks for the best merchant accounts. Elavon can improve its score by enacting more favorable leasing policies and by resolving complaints before they become public.
Troy Normand
DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!! They ROB YOU BLIND, and once you catch them they give you the runaround and try their hardest to not give you the REFUND THAT YOU ARE ENTITLED TO!! This is the second time that my boss has been charged for an entire YEAR when he shouldn’t have been! I am fighting with them right NOW to give him the second refund, but because they just recently gave him a refund for 7 months for a different year, they are refusing to give him the refund that they owe him for 2019-2020!! This is a bullshit ass company and a scam! If you choose to go with this company after reading all of these NEGATIVE ASS reviews then you’re crazy! I wish my boss would have noticed this years ago when he started with this BS ass credit card people!! CLOVER is the WAY TO GO!!!
Charlie McVay
How do I post on this Facebook page about my customer service with Elavon?
Brad
Stayed at a hotel that uses Elavon for card processing. They didn’t charge my card until 2 weeks later and then charged a 2nd time (apparently along with 2093 others after speaking with the hotel) on Sep 2, 2021. As of 9/9/21, only 25 cards in total have been refunded the double charge. 1.2% in 4 days clearly shows a lack of consideration for the customer. How are you still in business?
Pete
They’re a scam. 2 months after returning their card reader I still see equipment charges on statement. Refund is taking forever. Now a new $50 charge for PCI non-compliance, well after I thought I’ve cut ties with them. But no, returning card reader not enough, gotta call them and tell them you want to close your account. They still refuse to refund me the $50 non-compliance. Elavon is a scam!
G. Chaize
Elavon provides extremely poor services and is a risk to small and medium size businesses.
We regret having used Elavon for our market place. Merchant onboarding can take several months! Elavon’s poor performance is affecting our image.
davina
Do NOT use Elavon they can block your account with no notice. They will hold ALL of your funds and not tell you they are doing this. AVOID AT ALL COSTS.
Chris P
Elavon SCREWS THE EVERLOVING HELL out of Small Businesses like mine. I’m a simple house painter. I have tried many times to resolve this “PCI” compliance issue, yet I have no “I.T. Dept” and no officers to sign off on this, so they have me in a product that is not a fit for me, and because I refused to make up BS to complete the hours long task, theyve had me over a barrel, and STOLEN OVER $500 from me in fees! I sent an email to formally cancel my service last month, and today, they stile more!
I’m not backing down, and I’m getting my banker involved, and calling the GA debt of commerce et al.
Robert
“No dirty tricks” isn’t my experience. Elavon advertise with a £29 one-off fee in the UK, plus 1.75% of transactions, which sounds like a good deal. When you sign up however, they drop on “PCI product and non-compliance fees” of £29 per month. After scrolling through page after page of information it’s very easy to mistake this for the one-off fee they advertised and not query it until too late. Foisting this on a very small start-up which may only do one or two tradeshows per year is unforgivable.
Robert
Another “hidden” tactic I’ve discovered is that they charge a £30/month fee if they do not make £30/month as a minimum from their 1.75% transaction fees. In other words, if you do not sell over £1750 of goods every month, you’ll be charged £30. So if one month they make £29.50, they’ll charge another £30 on top. Also, unless you are using their product every month you will be paying a £30 monthly fee when their advert expressly says no monthly fee. This is not a suitable proposition for a small hobby business and has been reported to the Advertising Standards Authority.
jose lapa
the worst company, never do business with this guys
Adam
Worst experience of my business career of 25 years. They overbilled me by literally 5x the amount they were supposed to take out… I only hope to alert others so they don’t make the same mistake and do business with such an unethical company… they just literally just debited my account for $400 10x.. 4k and I have barely processed with them… compare that to wonderful companies that I use where I have processed hundreds of thousand of dollars and they are extremely fair… do not ever think of doing business with this unscrupulous group..
Bahram Forouzandeh
I have been overcharged for several years and every time we objected they had an excuse to justify their outrageous charges which is supposed to be 4 percent of deposits using their device.
Finally we decided to cut off our financial relationship with them because they are not trustworthy.
zachary kelman
Mike Peterson with elavon Out of Montana, Will flat out lie to you
$14 a month 7cents a transaction
Equates to $2000 for 2 years of business.
12k+ in fees later
He’s sorry for the lack of clarification.
DO NOT USE ELAVON.
THEY WILL SCAM YOU TO DEATH!
we are a small business father and son run, we have less than that percentage of mark up, we signed up with him because our bank recommended him as the person.. after researching what he had told me for fees he sounded great.
Usually when somethings too good to be true it is
When you ask for them to explain it to you why it’s raised so much vs what he originally told you he can’t clarify anything. “Will have to ask his processing team”
He is the salesman and knows nothing about the fees associated. He just knows how to line his pockets and make himself look successful and the down fall of small businesses like mine.
He is a horrible person!
Will never do business with them as long as I live.
F elavon!!!!
Hudson
I see these are comments from people who use their services but for me it’s much simpler. Why do we need to make a company rich off of transaction fees? My DMV fees are already high. I work 2 jobs so going to DMV is out of the question so I must renew online. Attached to an already overly charge for new tags is this elavon charge for $6 and change more ontop. Just to transfer money. This charge is a legal scam and just more proof that if you’re legally criminal you can do whatever you want. F elavon and state of CA!
delia small
Please find another company than getting Elavon…i had a client made a payment but it was an error and tried it again but it’s the same error….(i asked my client to pay cash instead because the machine doesnt work) but my client came back to me the ff day that the error we made it turns out that was deducted from her bank account twice…(as a business owner i paid her the money right away, as i will collect it from Elavon…but honestly for the amount of $56.00 Elavon wont even pay me back for the sake that i am good customer for about 4 years…
Rod Foster
Do not ever deal with Elavon. I have been trying to contact someone for 4 months about my account and left NUMEROUS messages. Nothing pisses me off more when a voice message says “I will return your call shortly”, and no one EVER calls me back. Worst customer service I have ever seen!
Steve
Elavon suspended payments to my business because they were hacked and allowed someone to make small deposits to my account as a probe for a stolen credit card number. I’ve tried to call customer service to have my account restored, but have been on hold for over an hour. Contacting them via Twitter gets a “we’re so sorry. Keep holding is your only option” reply. How a company like this stays in business is a wonder to me.
AVA
THEY ARE IDIOTS! MY BUSINESS HAD THEM FOR YEARS, THEN A CUSTOMER PAID A LARGE INVOICE, ELAVON STARTED HOLDING MY MONEY, CLAIMED THEY NEEDED MY CUSTOMERS INFORMATION. IT WAS OVER 14 DAYS LATER , AFTER I CHANGED CREDIT CARD COMPANIES, BEFOR I GOT MY MONEY!
TRUST ME , THERE ARE ALOT! ALOT! BETTER PROCESSORS OUT THERE, CHEAPER, EASIER TO DEAL WITH. DO NOT MAKE THE MISTAKE & GIVE THEM YOUR BUSINESS OR YOU WILL REGRET IT!
John Sheehan
I am surprised you gave Elavon three stars as they do not deserve any and should be minus five instead. From the top, including Jamie Walker, to the bottom they ignore everything you say to them and do not answer the questions. That to me makes them totally ignorant as they always ignore you and the truth. They do not deal with genuine complaints at all and in fact have avoided telling the truth at all costs not to admit their mistakes. They have written, emailed and avoided the truth even on the telephone. Do not touch Elavon with a barge pole if you value service and honesty. Their Customer Services will not treat you as a customer and will not give service!
Dianne
Do not deal with Elavon – they will not treat you fairly. After switching to another service provider, Elavon continued to take funds from our bank account. When I questioned what they were doing, I was told that they would bill in perpetuity unless I called in and formally closed our account. When I attempted to do this, I was put on hold while they ‘pulled my file’ and left there for 75 minutes – until I finally gave in and hung up. Further attempts to contact them have met with promises of callbacks that don’t happen and infinite time on hold. They get your merchant number up front – they know who is calling and why! Beware of this company – they are unprofessional & unscrupulous.
Morad Elkamraoui
This is the worst company you can choose to work for they are cheap for a reason they came to me made it looks good start the process with them they had some problem connecting my equipment to theirs my system crushed because the guy had problems and used something he shouldnt use . i wait it on them to call or come and fix no one want to deal with it and they start charging me fees 2 times a month i dont know why .. When i called everyone passes me to another no one returns my calls no manager had email or try to fix it i lost 5100 when finaly got someone they said they ll only give me 600 what a joke .. They field to provide me a service but they still charge me for it . i am handing to a lawyer just for the principle on it this company is just bunch of theifs stealing people money be aware and i ll always review them so people can know . and i ll never recommend them to no one .
Suzanne grube
Horrible credit card co. Bad head personal if u want to call them that ! Sharks ! Be very carful they are not for small business
morad elkam
thsi is the worst company i ever seen they are taking my money after i told to close the account and i have been charged monthly fees for a year an half with 0 transaction i am trying to get hold of someone but no one give a shit in here i ll never recommend them to any i ll handle it to lawyer because i cant fix it on my own . causing me alot of stress
CPO
Morad,
This article should help: How to Cancel a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee.
-Phillip
Anonymous
ELAVON RUINED MY LIFE! AVOID THEM AT ALL COSTS!!!
I started using Elavon about half a year ago, I decided to switch to them from Stripe because they offered faster payout times. The onboarding process took months and seemed very weird, the customer service appeared to be just as confused as I was and it was very primitive compared to payment providers like Stripe where you could just get going within days. When I was finally able to make the switch from Stripe to Elavon I was running high volume on my store. A few days later I got an email from their risk team asking for some information, I totally understood as I started using them while running high volume and almost all of my transactions were the same amount as I was mainly selling the same product. I submitted the information that same day and even though I thought about switching back to Stripe until it was all cleared I thought “I will just stick with Elavon, all my sales are completely legit so I will be fine”. The review took very long and I found out that the guy that was reviewing my case had gone on vacation! Finally, after waiting over a week while still running ads and processing transactions to Elavon, they came back to me and said they could not verify that my transactions where legit and they would REFUND ALL TRANSACTIONS TO CUSTOMERS WHICH AMOUNTED TO OVER $10,000! I could not afford to lose that kind of money as only a small portion of it was profit and it would instantly put my company I debt! I had no doubt that my transactions were legit as 1) I could see that I acquired them all from running Facebook ads 2) the fraud filter in Shopify, which is the e-commerce platform I used, gave almost all my transactions a low-risk rating 3) my previous payment provider Stripe never raised a single red flag and neither did PayPal which I was using alongside Elavon. I tried to get them to review my account again and give them additional information, but they did not change their mind and they suspended my account and proceeded with the refunds. I had to stop all my ads and completely set my store on pause, I tried to recoup some of the sales by emailing my customers and notifying them about their payment being refunded, but I was only able to get back a small fraction of the sales and I received a lot of bad reviews from customers about not getting their order because they hadn’t seen the email. I later come to find out that Elavon had also registered me into credit card blacklists as a SCAMMER, this made me unable to get a new payment provider and I had to completely shut down my store. They refused to remove me from the list because 1) I had disabled 3DS as it did not properly work with Shopify, 3DS was not a requirement at the time and all my customers were from the US and Australia where 3DS is not a thing so it wouldn’t matter. Customer support told me that it would be no problem to disable it and did it for me, and 2) because I sold product from another category that I told them I would (I told customer that I was selling all kinds of stuff, but I would start off by selling baby products, so they told me to just write that I sold baby products, but I ended up selling fitness products as well). Now I have started a new store with a new company on a new address so that I could get a new payment provider, I just started making money with my new store and I were excited to finally be able to pay off the debt Elavon had put me in, but now my current payment provider found my personal name in the credit card blacklist and immediately suspended my account. THIS MEANS THAT I CAN NO LONGER RUN AN ONLINE BUSINESS PERIOD! Several years of learning about running online businesses just out the window because of Elavon! I will try and contact them again to get me removed from the blacklist and if they refuse again, I will not hesitate to take legal action. I have spoken to my lawyer and he told me that it looked like they had mishandled my case and I could potentially sue for damages. All-in-all this is by far the worst experience I have ever had with any company and I would strongly advise you to stay away!
Chris Stumpfegger
Stay away. Canadian POS talked me in to signing up with promises of cheaper fees. First time I tried to charge a card on line it did not work, so I asked them to close my account. They keep charging my account and I might have to close my bank account to get rid of them. Between Canadian POS and Elavon, they keep pointing the finger at the other. These guys are scammers!
Jeremy Michael Kemmerling
I should have sold my soul to the devil and done business with hitler and i would be a better person than having done business with Elevaon and ladco leasing. They are worse than cable companies and are outright thieves. 20 years owning a business this is the worst experience I have ever had. They will take your money and then some. It never ends.
Meghna
Worst customer service. I just joined 3 weeks ago… and needed some help and I found them to be very unresponsive. I was shuffled one department to another. My phone calls were not responded to. And I said I was looking to move to another merchant service they said sorry we could not help and let me go as if it didnt matter. Overall I’ve had a horrible experience.
Marta
The security department at Elavon’s should be trained in customer service, manners and proper procedures.
A very entitled woman, named Samatha Wyrick, closed my account because she “couldn’t access my web page” and because the street address I provided wasn’t my brick and mortar store but a UPS mailbox. I explained that I’m an online business and, therefore, the address that I provided is my mailbox. Instead of apologising for her mistake, she continued her rant telling me that my business was a “security threat” (very strong words if you consider her explanation) and that it was “under investigation” – LOL they close the account, put you out of business and then they investigate).
She never notified me about this, she didn’t try to contact me, she didn’t read my documents where I clearly say I’m an online business. Nothing, she just silently closed my account and left me to find out 6 days later. Thank god I have other payment options, otherwise, I would have been out of business for 6 days!!! When I asked where to escalate this issue, she told me I can only go through her!!
They are retaining my founds for 90 days for something that wasn’t my mistake… unacceptable! I didn’t do anything wrong, she was just incapable of reading my application to notice that I am an online business, she wasn’t able to access my website… which can’t be true because I have had sales every day on my site, I even had Elavon customer service employees access my store to check if the issue was on their side and they accessed with no issues… she is just illiterate and can’t use a computer or can’t spell my 4-letter website address right!
I should have read the reviews before working with them, there are horrible reviews everywhere. Do not work with them, this is just the drop that spilled the water, I had been considering changing to a different merchant because they never take accountability for anything, they blame the payment processor every time there is a problem. They take over 10 business days to process customer refunds!! This company is just horrible.
I have been trying to escalate this for two days and it’s impossible. Stay away from this company, especially if you are a small business like me, they will have no consideration and will treat you like garbage. Don’t believe me? google “Elavon reviews”!
Excalibur Exasperated with Elavon
We have dealt with Elavon, as our credit card processor, for many years. It is nigh unto IMPOSSIBLE to get a rep on the phone. We had an issue where a certain transaction would not “go through”. When we finally reached someone, were told there was a “cap” on our account. We are a fine jewelry store, and have expensive things to sell – no one told us about any “cap” that was in place. That, was resolved.
HOWEVER, in the last 2 years, we changed the name of the business. We told them to close our old account, and we opened a new one. Due to some unforeseen difficulties, we were not as “on top” of our bookkeeping as usual, and found out almost a year and a half later, that they were STILL charging us for the old account. In total, they took almost $3,000 out of our bank account, for the old account which no longer exists!
To top that, when we log into their “mypaymentsinsider.com” website, to check our account, the account number listed is still the OLD one.
I have emailed them, repeatedly, with no responses. I have been on the phone with them several times, each time getting a runaround. The first person I was able to speak with said she was only authorized to refund us back 3 months – but has done nothing. That was over a month ago. I have spoken with them several times since, and been promised a resolution. As I said – that was over a month ago.
I emailed them more than once, through their “Customer Service at Elavon” email links, and — no response other than an automated one.
We are not happy at all, with the service that Elavon is providing us, and warn others that they will promise you excellent customer service, and deliver – basically – none.
Very, very unhappy with them at this point in time.
George
I own a construction company that does about 1M a year in sales. I do no advertising all referral. This year one of my clients recommended I start taking credit cards. My average sale is 500-10,000. I filled out an application with Elavon…super nice sales people…they explained everything…they checked my credit, credentials and bank account information and approved my company.
I had my customer on one phone and their again super nice support person on the other phone for help with entering my first sale of 6500.00 on line. It was approved and I thought all was good.
The next day received email the funds were being transferred in my account. The next day I received an email from their Loss Prevention dept. that the sale was on hold. They asked me to call and talk to a designated person. (It took 4 days of phone tag to get in touch with this person never at their desk) I finally made contact and they sent a list of items they needed to approve the sale.
Most were reasonable like copies of business account statements etc. The last written request, I felt was totally unprofessional for a bank… they asked for pictures of my work trucks inside and out, and my home office! With all the bank breaches now days…. where are these pictures going? Giving cyber criminal all my bank info, address and pictures of trucks, inventory, tools, and home office etc. is not acceptable request. It borders on being very creepy.
They turned down the sale and I chose to close the account. This is going over line, they have your money but to get it… it they ask you for more information than was asked for in the first application and was verified by them. This asking almost borders on extortion. The loss prevention department and their supervisors could care less they were loosing an account that could make them a lot of money and pays their wages. They did not want to work with me alternatives to keep the account. Very sad!
FYI…I received the sales information from Costco they did take the complaint and apologized but did not do much to get anyone at Elavon to respond.
Take your business elsewhere!
Surengean Curtseit
I tried Elavon and the card processor didn’t work with my IPhone 6. Returned the card swiper and I didn’t received my payment back. Elavon has very unreliable communication, the account manager did not respond to my numerous emails, their software people are just kids that don’t know what they are doing!
This post will help: Best Mobile Card Processing Apps
-Phillip
Rafael K
By far the worst merchant card service company in existence. For a 300 dollar transaction they took out over 30000 dollars out of my account . No that is not a joke. This was all because of one customer who filed a dispute and I had proof she got her services but they did not care. Seriously stay away from them. They are tricky as you do not know you are working with them directly so make sure whoever you deal with does not work with them.
This post will help: How to Fight Chargebacks and Win
-Phillip
Weng
They closed my account without transferring my money to my account. Only use the machine for 1 week, 2 weeks later and has not recieved the shipping tag. Funding department seems to know nothing on how to tranfer money. I was advised to wait 5 to 20 days!!!!
If you have a small business , dont even consider to do business with this company!@@
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
-Phillip
Weng
July 16 , 2019 i started using Elavon machine. July 23, 2019 i closed my account because i did not receive the money that was processed at their machine. Until july 31, 2019, all the person i talked to said i provided the wrong banking information. The fact is i provided all the necessary documents including a void cheque. August 1, 2019 they charged my account with all fees and monthly fee, application fee, transaction fees etc. Amounting to $185.65. That is for using their machine for six days.
Still the funds were not yet transferred. Last week i was told my money will be transferred today August 12, 2019. I just emailed them and the reply was they misinformed me and i should receive my money next week, August 19, 2019.
The email also mentioned there’s nothing they can do to accelerate the process.
So please people in Canada with small business…stay away from this company.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
Krista Schmaltz
Elavon has been nothing but a headache since they convinced me to transfer from my existing merchant. They have shut down my machine twice within a week stating they cant continue service unless I sign a second lease for another machine as I can not run a business that provides a service and a retail product without running the service through one machine and the retail product through the other machine. They state I will be fined for not doing this, just to bully me into leasing another machine. I have one business, under one name, do my taxes and banking under one account… under no circumstance should I be forced to have another machine due to their reasoning. Its bad business on their part and I will never recommend to anyone looking for merchant services.
This post will help: Best All-Purpose Merchant Account Providers
-Phillip
Casem
Company is garbage! After opening my 8th location with them, they hit my credit 3 times on the last location, even after paying in full for the machines.
Debit machine wasn’t up for my grand opening and they had a week to get it up and running. Customer service is CRAP along with their rates. This company doesn’t give a sh*t. Save your money and time!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
Doug
My first transaction was a failure. To many Elavon staff involved and failure in paper work. Asked to return now. Going to regular banking now.
This post will help: Best All-Purpose Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
Erwin
Just had this payment process company for a week and still has not transferred my company’s sale to our account. I found out they mess up my banking routing number. Left messages to customer service and president voice mail but still no call back. Business owners in Canada stay away from this company!!!
This post will help: Best Payment Processors for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
Steven C Skwarkowski
A complete mixed bag of ****!
I wish I could say great things about Elavon so Ill do my best. This is like the most toxic relationship you have ever had that ended in bitter divorce and you’re sitting wondering what you could have possibly done wrong to have to deal with people this incompetent.
The Good:
1. When things worked as expected, it all worked great.
2. They seem somewhat capable of resolving basic problems
The Bad:
1. They had the wrong legal business name on the account. No idea how that happened when I setup the account through my Bank which owns Elavon…
2. In the middle of the Christmas season where retail sales are almost always much higher, my account was “flagged” by there computer systems. That’s understandable, stuff happens even if it sucks. The issue couldn’t be resolved for nearly a week as they were snowed out of the office….We lost nearly $10K in sales since we couldn’t process.
3. They don’t actually do anything to help you during a dispute process. They simply hand off info, don’t actually do anything
4. The last and single most incompetent issue is a refund was supposed to be issued, which Im sure on there end shows it was issued. Yet, those funds never once are in my possession or even in my bank account. This took over 12 phone calls, multiple emails and countless hours of complete and utter butt-fuckery! Here we are now 75-days later and my last attempt to get anyone there to do there actual there fucking job….
This post will help: Best All-Purpose Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
KELLY CHOI
Bad customer service our e commerce account was blocked out due to non compliance security verification on the account. we have attempt to call several times only getting voicemail blocking e commerce is shutting down your business without advising customer with any circumstances. what kind a processor is this and they are affiliated with US bank card processor No one is trying to take responsibility just tell customer to call back.
terrible service this people needs to be aware it’s serious legal matter to close out someone’s account without default..
This post will help: Best E-Commerce Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
Jason Decker
This company is a scam & uses unethical & illegal practices. I have filed complaints with the BBB & FTC against them. Their rep Ian is a piece of human garbage & insults you over the phone, degrades you & feels like a real big man behind that phone.
He is clearly an incredible loser who only has a tiny ounce of importance when he is bullying people behind his phone.
This company stole money directly from me. Stay away from them & hope the BBB & FTC can take action to prevent others from having to deal with them.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
Hyo Lim
They promise one thing….and deliver another!!!
We were excited to finally find a decent Merchant Account, we loved what we heard and we decided to make the switch. The first three months everything was fine, then after that, our rates changed and our fees were just as high or higher than our bank. PLUS we still had to pay for this expensive machine, locked into it for four years….We would leave messages for Carlton, with often no call back, finally we were able to get hold of Carlton’s manager David Williams and we had a conference call, and how did that end…it ended with nothing being changed. This is NOT the merchant for you until you want to pay more, wait two days to get your money, and never have calls your returned. We are currently looking to change again, but we had hopes that Elavon would call and explain what happened for the HIGH increase and make it right, but so far…..NOTHING. This is very disappointing especially because we only tried this because it was from Costco….HUGE DISAPPOINTMENT!!!
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
-Phillip
Alexandra Glenn
Horrible customer service with rude and incompetent employees. i have been in the set up process for over a week, they have no sincerity to my situation and when they don’t like what you say they just hang up on you. This kind of service is detrimental to small businesses.
I will never recommend this company to anyone!!!!!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
Gregory Sims
My whole account is messed up, no customer service. Their fees are ridiculous. Stay away.
This post will help: Best Nutraceutical Merchant Accounts
-Phillip
Doug Davey
I have been in business over 30years and never dealt with a more inept company than Elavon.
We recently changed to a different provider and Elavon continued to take charges out of our account. I have spent at least 5 hours on the phone trying to get the money back with all sorts of excuses. 6 months have gone by and still no help. I highly recommend using anyone but Elavon as your provider. They will only cost you time and money.
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
-Phillip
Shaun
Where do I begin. I have only had this processor for around 5-6 months then one day was notified that any cbd related products accounts only had 30 days to process and we were terminated after that. So since day 1 they knew what we were processing but months later they are terminating all accounts processing for cbd products. On top of that they have charged me a non pci compliant charge to my already over priced fees. We had 1 sale for the months and in return they charged us 107.00 in fees! So they also charged us a fee for only 1 charge for the months. A minimum monthly fee they call it. Biggest corrupt sh*t I ever have seen. This is why other companies are putting these guys out business due to their fees! I am and still waiting on a call from their customer service department. Wasted a lot of my time and it makes me sick. Stay away from these sharks
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for CBD
-Phillip
René Martinez
Elavon is the worst company for credit card process…don’t ever trust them because they’re very big theft…I run out of my restaurant almost 2 years ago then Elavon is making pay them monthly for a credit card process which l don’t have nothing (sent all equipment about 15 months ago) but they told me that my credit score will get screw then send it to collection, if l didn’t pay them so imagine paying more than $500 dlls for nothing…we must stand all together against these abuses, not fear and very disgrace
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
-Phillip
Monica
I agree. I was verbally told I would be under contract for three years. I guess it’s four and I didn’t read the fine print. Every year I get a new surprise from this horribly unprofessional and shady business. How do they get away with this??
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
-Phillip
Michelle
Horrible. Very, very bad customer service and experience. Nobody is on the same page, they call without knowing things & they just are so repetitive they don’t hear anything unless you want to buy then it all goes to crap!
This post will help: Top-Rated Merchant Account Providers
-Phillip
Paul needham
RIP off con merchant services more like.i ended up paying stealth charges for a service I didn’t, use, they suggested I take it up with the ombudsman who they clearly knew would be bloody useless, so robbing me of half the money they should have refunded me and then added a further fifty pound plus stealth charge to that, disgusting and clearly business is so good they don’t give a shit about their customers. As soon as my contract ends I will be changing suppliers so I do not have to continue using these clowns
This post will help: Best UK Merchant Services Providers
-Phillip
Ross Grishin
ISHONEST COMPANY WILL LOCK YOU IN A NON CANCELABLE CONTRACT IN A SCAMMY WAY WITHOUT LETTING YOU KNOW
Please… Do yourself a favor and stay away from this scammer
I’ve been caught in their scummy trap
Some crook name christian called me and started offering me the best ever deals and prices with a different messages saying that they work in a different way… and that they don’t lock their clients in a contracts so they can feel free… so he said
After i decided that working with elavon just with a different virtual “resellers” (Eswipe) (before i was with Canadian POS which is a complete joke) is not going to be any different, i decide to close my account and stay with the best Merchant POS – “Square”
when reached out to Elavon (because Eswipe are no body and just a virtual reseller of unknown service) i found out for the first time that they signed me without ever mention for 4 years contract of 55$ a month for a primitive device that sold for 100$
they told me that i cannot cancel this and i am stuck with them for 4 more years even though i realized that i don’t want to deal with them after 2 months, they still insist that i will pay them even if i don’t use their service in no way
i wish i did more research before got in a trouble with those dishonest companies (Elavon, Eswipe)
don’t do my mistake and trust the guy on the phone that sell you stories and then after you already signed with them he will not even answer your emails
The most negative customer experience i had for a very long time
be sure that you not going to get any more new customers if that’s depends on me
Ross Grishin
1120017 B.C LTD.
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
Xiang DeWitt
Worst experience with merchant service company. They will not put in timely effort to correct issues (if it’s your money they don’t care). Customer service, especially the department that handles refunds and risks, it’s like impossible to get things fixed unless you do all the work and push them with a call everyday!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
Mitch W Salyers
Elevan account representatives will NOT return calls so that we can cancel the account. I have been trying for 3 months to cancel and have yet to receive a call, despite the “submitted requests” by the customer service representatives. This has cost us 72.99/month and is adding each month. I would not recommend Elevan for this reason.
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
-Phillip
Alan
My card reader stopped working. For three days my account manager has failed to return repeated phone calls, and each department I talk to gives me a different story and refers me to another department. There doesn’t seem to be anyone here who will take responsibility for anything, or who can help me receive what I’m paying for.
This post will help: Best EMV-Enabled Credit Card Terminals
-Phillip
Gary Hicks
This company needs to be investigated, I have been using Elavon to process my credit cards for my business. I regularly have problems with them not depositing it into my account. Last month it took over 2 weeks to get my deposits, this month currently over 1 week I am waiting for my money. Call every day with nothing but rude customer service agents telling me my money should be there. But it’s not!!! This company is criminal!!!!
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
Samuel Fang
I chose Evalon because I trusted Costco (not anymore) and after spent so much on terminal (lied to me $200 rebate) and then comes endless nightmare. It is so difficulty to deal with them. Just make some small change takes forever! It is been few months and still not able to fix our simple problem. We are doing business and cannot afford to play with them. That Fxx company supposed to help us and make our lives easy but instead they enjoying making our lives miserable.
This post will help: Best EMV Terminals
– Phillip
Firyuza Gazizova
The worst service we ever had! We decided to sign up with Elavon thinking that Costco always provide good value at a good cost. Well, not with the merchant services. We cancelled our services with Elavon after one week. You are virtually left to figure out everything on your own, the moment you sign your contract. Our account manager never contacted us, despite our numerous attempts to get a hold of him. It has been over two weeks that we can not receive our money. They can not figure out how to transfer $7,000 to our account. Seriously? Every time I call, it’s a different story from a different representative. They do not know what other person is doing. I could add many more details about them, but I don’t want to waste any more of my time. I can not even express the feeling I have about this company. Absolutely disgusting.
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
– Phillip
Jimmy
If I can give you one piece of advice as a small business owner is. Do not, under any circumstance, do business with this company. From the very beginning it has been a complete nightmare. They will sign you up real quick and once you are in the contract…forget about it. Good luck on getting help. Nobody knows what the heck is going on. My account manager doesn’t have a clue, my rep who set me is doesn’t have a clue. People they transfer me to can’t help me and not sure why I was transferred. I absolutely regret signing up with their service. My rep even admitted they provided me with incorrect information as they were unaware and would pay my fee’s. Haven’t seen a dime for it yet. I’ve received collection letter for God knows why. As their is sufficient funds in the account. I should have known from the moment the rep called in to their customer service and how oddly rude they were to her that I should’ve of walked away. It was too late at that point. I had already signed up.
Don’t do it people. For the love of God don’t do it. I should have paid attention to the reviews as they are absolutely accurate.
From The Editor
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michael bowman
Worst customer service I have ever experienced. Leaving the company after they screwed us for the last time. They update your equipment and screw up the terminal and then it is a huge huge huge waste of time IF you can get hold of anyone. I have been on hold and no one even comes on line. We had to give up last night because after an hour of them making the situation worse! Now we are on an with an idiot who has no idea how to fix.
From The Editor
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Two Whales Coffee Shop
Ladco, eSwipe and Elavon
eSwipe (Flash Payment Solutions) contacted me late August claiming that Elavon had asked them to so that they could give me better rates than Costco. They are a third party ‘front end’ to Elavon. After much clarification I was told that I could run their account alongside my current Costco/Elavon account (which I have had for 8 years and have found their service/support to be excellent) with an agreement to cancel at any time if I don’t like it. I was also told that the Ladco leasing agreement was not what it says and that I would not be held to it; that I would only be paying $20 per month for the equipment, not the $34.50 in the lease agreement and a few other fabrications. The support at eSwipe is virtually non-existant, with no one answering emails and most calls. I asked them to cancel the account.which they have not done so far (5 December).
I turned out that the eSwipe sales people made numerous false statements. Currently Ladco is being very helpful and suggested that I file a complaint against eSwipe with them, which I have just done.
I learned that Ladco paid the lease capital ($1400) in my case directly to eSwipe so this is presumably how they make their money. They seem to have many more sales staff than support staff. As soon as I signed up communication virtually ended.
I have been able to sort out some problems directly with Elavon – their support staff are are always friendly and helpful – but they say they can not close the account, as yet.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
Ashley
Our company cancelled our account with Elavon Merchant Services in July 2018. Since then we have still been getting Merchant Services charges even though we do not do business with them anymore. When customer service was contacted the first time I told the individual to make sure both accounts we had with them were closed. This was back in September 2018. Come to find out they only closed one of the accounts so we were still being charged. They said that the fee would be refunded but never was. I contacted them again in November and found out that they had only closed one account so at that time I closed the other account. I was told again that I would not be charged anymore and the fee be refunded, just like the first encounter with them. Come December 2018, there was another charge. When I spoke to someone yesterday, they stated that the fee that showed up this month was for November, and after this month we will not see anymore charges. The last individual I spoke with also stated that there was nothing in the notes about a refund of charges. This is not good business practice.
From The Editor
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Excalibur
After several years of satisfactory service, we are NOT pleased with Elavon, at all. In the first place, it is almost impossible to get anyone on the phone. We used them with our business for years, then changed the name of the business and opened another account with them, closing out the first one. Little did we know – they did NOT close the first one, but continued to charge us for over a year and a half, for the previous account.
I happened to stumble across the fraudulent charges, when catching up on paperwork that had been required to “sit” for awhile, due to a shortage of help at our business.
When I tried to reach them, via email, no response. I emailed twice, called, was put on hold, etc., etc. The first time I called, I was told there would be a 2 1/2 to 3 hour wait. The next day, it was an 8 to 10 minute wait. I waited. Explained the situation, and was told we would be refunded immediately for the last 3 months, but the rep could not do more than that without going to a higher “tier” in the company. That was just about a month ago – no refund. The charges added up to about $3,000 – a bit amount for our small business! When I called again, after no responses to emails and no refunds, I was told they would refund 2/3 of the fraudulent charges, and that they would send via UPS, a form for me to sign – a release form.
No form has arrived, and we simply do not have hours and hours to “sit” on the phone to rectify things.
Elavon is quick to take your money, but not quick to correct errors. We were also charged $59.99 a month for PCI non-compliance, although no one contacted us about any non-compliance.
We rectified that, but have had no fees refunded to us. For a credit card processor that takes hundreds of dollars in fees and processing charges from us every month, we would expect better customer service.
NOT pleased with them one bit, and warn others to stay away!
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
Donisia Trujillo
this company is a joke!! it’s been nothing but problems since day one!!! we were supposed to get a cc machine we got charged $50 something dollars and never received it!! then we get a large deduction out of business account when we didn’t expect it!! now to booth my small business can not have access to any of my money because they are holding it from me!! WTF!! now i have to submit documents to them to PROVE i have my own business so they can release me my money!! please tell me why you set up an account first then want to verify after the merchant is already expecting their deposits!!! this is absolute BS!! SMALL BUSINESSES JUST STAY WITH SQUARE!!!!!! less hassles!!
From The Editor
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Adel Khechana
for the mediocre quality of service such company would be bankrupt if it want for them rubbing themselves against Costco making people imagine they’re affiliated with them. the key to judge a good company is whn things goes wrong. in regular circumstances all they do is collected high fees and selling you overpriced equipment . we were victims of fraud and we lost over 10K is merchandise and Elavon instead of assisting us and helping us while we were trying to understand what happened; and after they back charged which i didn’t mind as the transactions weren’t legit , theu slapped us with over $600 in fees and closed our account and flagged my company ! which added insult to injury the lady handling my case was very very rude and belligerent and she was the judge and the jury, no recourse, no way to talk to her supervisor, no was to get removed from that flagged list. they dont deserve to be in business as they behave like a dictatorship. let them go under . Elavon, the house mediocre overpriced service, come sign in !!!
From The Editor
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Jennifer Peat
Not only did they grossly overcharge me monthly, they did not transfer sales $$ into our account – and then one day after absconding with our money, they terminated the agreement immediately. We feel totally scammed and are looking into hiring a lawyer to retrieve our funds.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
Raoul Benjamin
Hey Jennifer,
They have done the exact same thing to us! They didn’t transfer money to use for over 1 month and then we called and immediately put $400k on hold.
Maybe we could exchange contact details and discuss this? They never warned me we had any problems – and the craziest thing is that we only had 4 chargebacks out of 5000 orders!
Did you have any luck with the lawyer?
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
nas
Extra minimum monthly charges were not included in the contract, and so i am disputing it even if i have to hire a lawyer…scammy company
From The Editor
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Joyce
I had the same thing happen to me, their prices are NOT what they claimed!
Daniela
This is by far the worst company I’ve ever worked with, 0 costumer service the worker TOM PHILIP is very unprofessional and has 0 consumer service, this company does not care about its costumers, they cut my credit card account on a Friday night without any notification and it’s now Tuesday still no answer from the company all becusse I changed the name of my restaurant and the IRS did not have the new name change so instead of giving me a notice that they will cut me off they just drop you and send you to hell, like I said this company deserves 0 starts
From The Editor
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Eliza Moreno
If you ever need to speak to someone for assistance, their customer service is terrible. Unhelpful, Rude, and the supervisor is the worst. She wouldn’t even listen to anything I had to say. When I asked for her name she wouldn’t give her name just a reference # C3337234. will never use this company again. They will take your money and refuse to refund or back. They are thieves!
From The Editor
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Lester Baskin
Laure Djiepmo in customer service provided prompt, efficient, informative and polite assistance over several contacts. If this is an example of the quality of Elavons customer service, I’m a lifelong client.
Phillip CPO
Hi Lester,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
LISA BIRD
The poor reviews of Elavon continues and Costco continues to ignore their unethical practices. So very disappointing!!!
From The Editor
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gladys lynch
I switched to Elavon 3 years ago the sales rep came to my store told me their debit provider had lower fees and no leasing just pay month to month. Also buy out of my contract with the other company I did sign a paper saying that i would it did not say leasing i felt great.At the time i was just starting chemo and radiation and was at work off and on. These pays few years the economy took a turn for the worst and slow times I’ve decided to take out the debit do cash or e transfer they told me i was locked in a lease i owed them 2200.00 and when i checked my band acc i will still paying the other provider call them 20 times no return calls when i did get one she told me i only took theirs out to go with someone else which i did not. the leasing company sends me a bill i answered the phone one day told them the sales rep said i wasn’t in a lease that month i blocked them from my bank acc . they were also suppose tp pay me my money from the other provider he said thats what salesmen did to get a sales. well the leasing company can call all they want and can come and put me in jail for their money i’m not paying dam robbers
From The Editor
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deborah hoopes
I cancelled with this company 2 years ago and just
recently moved to a new bank . I though my merchant
service company that i have now was still taking money our of my other bank account even though I have already switched it to the new bank… come to find out Evalon continues to take out over 100 dollars a month in fees after I had cancelled them. never sent me my paper statement which I had usually received and since the debit just said merchant service fee I assumand it was from my current merchant service. I contacted them and they tried to say I had two accounts and looks like I only cancelled one?? Of course I had only one account and one terminal. They finally tried to at first say they would refund 3 months and I was livid and said I will take them to court then they transfered to and the person said they could refund 6 months but they stole thousands and thousands from me and I will take them to court even if it ends up costing me even more. If this has happened to anyone else please get in touch with me. at ncpetstarz@gmail.com this is out and out fraud. Deborah
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
Judi Parsons
I have been waiting for months to get a refund of $2000 dollars that they said I owed then later said I don’t.I have had my own business for years beware of these crooks
From The Editor
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L
Please watch out for this company. I regretted it so much that I was talked to signing up from US Bank. They have a lot of hidden fees and non-cancellable LADCO equipment lease, After seeing all the fees that wasn’t in the contract I tried to contact the agent but I got more headaches from her. I tried to cancel the service but because of the lease for 48 mos. I was forced to keep the service. After about 5 mos I found Clear Pay offering free equipment and very low fees so I finally cancelled Elavon. I still have 37 mos of $33.56/mo to pay for my lease and $25 yearly administration fee that wasn’t even disclosed prior to signing up. The agent that US Bank sent to us told us that our monthly payment was only $31 lease fee for 36 mos plus %fees. This was all a lie. The contract came for us to sign after a month with 48 mos lease when I asked for it because I was shocked with all the fees they charged our bank account. Overall, Elavon with US Bank and LADCO leasing is a scam! Read and research before signing up. I’m saving about $100-$200 a month from Clear Pay even after still paying my LADCO lease.
From The Editor
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Michelle Rondeau
This service will charge you if you do not fill out their “survey” Make sure you read the fine print because my monthly rate went from $10 to $55! all because of a survey!!??
When I get another credit card processing service it will NOT be this one.
From The Editor
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Julia Park
I had hoped to reduce my processing fees in 2018. Elavon promised, lied in fact, to help with this. In every way this company is to be avoided.
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Yining Chen
The sales of credit service can never be trusted, I trapped with a lot of hidden fees. problematic machine, and a non-cancellable Ladco lease (the worst rank of the industry) agreement. The equipment leases are unreasonably expensive, unfairly structured, and deceptively sold. I regret that I did not check the reviews before signing the contract.
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
lisa
Be very careful if your a user. I was linked with a user number on this terminal along with my bank info& s.s# to use this terminal. When our company returned and canceled this service they continued to charge my bank account $34.95 per month for 3 months. When I called to see why they said they had no info on the terminal being returned and that I had to cancel this as a separate service. They could see I had NOT used this device in months but that they were keeping my hard earned money. I say skip this confusing way of doing business and use PayPal or square. They are both cheaper to. What a scam Elavon is
Debra
Costco needs to ditch this company and get a real one with decent customer service. The hardwired terminal has mostly worked well for several years, but many people no longer have landlines, so when I travel I needed a mobile app. There the horror began. They waived the initial fee, which was nice because I’d be even angrier if I had paid $149 for this useless app that freezes on the iPad (“there must be something wrong with your iPad, you’d better have Apple look at it”), won’t let me in to the website on the computer despite having all the right passwords, wants you to change your password every 90 days and you can’t use any of the past 13 passwords, as if you would remember them anyway, and takes an hour and a half of one’s precious self-employed time to process a single credit card payment. I am calling Costco tomorrow to give them feedback and urge them to find another company. Meanwhile, I will need to find another mobile solution.
Clive Greenwood
Elavon Terminals, must be reading my system, exactly the same, the terminal locks up, transactions get “lost” simply to anyone ditch this company, I have, BTW what ever you do dont use Talech from elavon, it cost me 100s of hours trying to fix their bug filled softwere
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Julia Atwell
What I found out the hard way with Elavon is READ THE TERMS OF SERVICE !!!! We have been with them for 4 years with no problems. We have no chargebacks and average anywhere from $25k to $50k in one month until May of this year ( 2018) when we had 2 large sales around 20K each. Without knowing it we triggered Elavon’s fraud department to hold the payments and place them in a “reserve” account. We only found out when a letter came ( no calls, no E-mail) a week later from Elavon that they would not put through any further transactions and could hold the funds for 270 days before releasing them. We are not a large company and a $50,000 cash flow shortfall hurts. After many calls between Elavon, the customer (legit purchase) and VISA ( who processed customers purchase with no issues), they are finally considering releasing part of the funds. Now after reading the service agreement I realize they clearly state they can set up a reserve account for basically any reason they deem necessary and can hold funds for 270 days if they wish. Huge learning curve for us. We are going to discourage credit cards for the forseeable future.
Twila
This exact part of the Terms is why I am looking at the reviews. This is my worst fear!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
ana moca
Elavon is the worst company I have ever worked with they are thieves and it is nothing but a headache every time you call in.
Melissa
Signed up with Elavon services for my new broker/wholesale business and after using for just over 1 month got a call to have a ‘review’ and ended with closing my account. (not my choice, THEY SHUT DOWN MY ACCOUNT!) After explaining to them some of my charges they responded with “you cannot use your terminal for accepting sales of product that isnt yours” .. THATS LITERALLY MY JOB/BUSINESS! ..as they knew considering when I signed up for my account I had to describe my company. I buy from manufacturers and resell to people. What terrible customer service… way to damage the ease of my business and lose a customer. Makes zero sense. Screw this company!
Traycee M McDougald
Absolutely awful experience. The amount of fees this company charges a small business is absurd. We eventually found a better company to use, only to be continuously charged by Elavon for services WE HAD CANCELED. I have called numerous times and it is always a run around, you can’t ever speak to someone who is of actual help. The last phone call I had with the company, they admitted charging me when they shouldn’t have and are willing to refund me 50%. Refund me 50% of my own money they had no right to withdraw from my account????
Patrice Smith
On March, 2018, I completed enrollment with Cardx for a credit card processing account for my small art gallery, Art Imports, located in Boca Raton, Florida. I chose Cardx for the attractive rates they offered for credit card processing, and because they touted Florida as one of the states they can offer their technology platform and services.
Cardx works in conjunction with Elavon Merchant Services. Elavon merchant services is the bank that performs the credit card processing, while Cardx supplies to interface and virtual terminal for transaction processing. Cardx’s website is extremely friendly, with an easy, straightforward application process.
During this application process, there is no mention that the bank that will actually process your sales will be Elavon Merchant Services.
It turns out that Cardx is nothing more than a well presented “recruiter” of clients for Elavon. Elavon has a well documented reputation for freezing deposits at whim, without any reason or excuse, and to keep the proceeds of the sales you have processed in a “hold” account that bears no interest and you have no access to. Trying to get in touch with them is an exercise in frustration: you can spend hours in the phone ultimately leaving messages that are never returned.
Cardx simply tells you “there is nothing they can do for you” and they provide random contacts within Elavon that always turn up to be phones and emails from data entry clerks that have no say on your deposit hold. They toot themselves as only “the technology providers” and leave you with a financial loss, moving on to the next unsuspected small business applicant that, most certainly, will lose several days of sales to this well orchestrated theft.
I lost over US$1000.00 that I know I will never recoup. My processing history with this company was brief and untarnished: no refunds, no disputed transactions, every sale within the limits declared at the time of application.
The Internet is ripped with statements form former Elavon merchants that have suffered severe losses due to this ruse. Since Cardx does not disclose the fact that they team up with Elavon, you do not even have a chance to do a proper due diligence and avoid the future loss.
Cardx is advertising his services especially to Floridian Small businesses: https://www.cardx.com/compliance#statesweserve. This mean that there will surely be other businesses like mine that will fall prey to this theft, businesses that might be severely damaged by the loss.
Dr G Baytug
Elavon are cavalier in our opinion without adequate governance nor adherence to their own protocols. We have referred their conduct to the FCA (London) which has referred the matter to The Central Bank (Eire). Without disclosing further details, we believe this organisation cannot be trusted to provide a reliable service for its commercial retail vendors.
We believe this organisation has the power to disrupt business, damage SEO ratings of your eCommerce business and junk both your goodwill.
DAVID HEBERT
Total Scam, should have known the sales pitch was too good to be true. They will nickel and dime you to death. Too many hidden fees to count. They will sign you up and not complete any of the paperwork and then charge you for it. Then will loose the paper work that you resubmit and charge you again. Be prepared to be put to the test if you sign up with them. Can not tell you how many times have been put on hold and dropped when trying to fix a problem, then they will charge again for something else, just hope you read this and don’t sign a contract with them
Bryan Laws
A complete scam ! I was in process of signing up, and cancelled my account, since they sent me a mobile device for a android phone, I called the rep, told him I have a iPhone and I would need to go buy a my own device to connect, so I cancelled my account before I ever used it and they have billed me before I got my card device in mail, and now it’s been a year and still trying to collect my money….Square is better ! Don’t sign up, the CEO should be fired for allowing this shit to go on…
Annette Oh
Never n Never get Elavon, I need to talk to Costco Head Office regarding my all issues from begining to now but No Time n Lots lots frustration….
I transfered from other credit card comp . even has to pay penalty for early termination to go Elavon.
When I ordered first, according technician, will be ready to set to start but when I got terminal, nothing was ready, has to spent 2 days to set up and lost Credit n Ebit card sales.
Other day , had issue and spent 2hours but had not resolved issues, lost credit card sales again again.last issues so far, called and talked but they said , fax all info so faxed n emailed to;Elavon but No replay from Elavon for month so has to call again and spent 2hrs again
I think these reasones is enough n enough for No Elavon.
Tracey
Scum of the earth I have never dealt with a low and dirty company as this, They send all these sales people around that promise you low fees and 19 cents per swipe.. then you start to see these charges in your bank account, they charge you for many fees then on top of it they charge you $99.99 for investment in security fee, they say they tell you before they charge you… I did not see anything and i was told the company changed name to Payment insider.. and to check my statements there which 1/2 the time in the month i could not get on to the website…These people are a bunch of crooks and will screw you out of of your last cent… i am so sorry i did not check the reviews first, Now with square and it just clean cut and dry.. And a message for Evalon greed will be the end of you…
Amanda
Been okay with Elavon:
I have been using Elavon on an iPhone 6 since 2015 for my one-chair barber shop, which is still primarily a cash business. So only 20-30% of my sales are with a card, so my fees are lower–only $0.09 per transaction. The percent of total sale fees are the same as stated above. I haven’t had any problems really and have a good local agent. (I went through the credit union holding my financial accounts.)
My one complaint recently is the recent requirement to use a more complicated app for mobile transactions. About 1/3 of the time it won’t process the swiped card and I have to manually enter the card which takes up time and costs me more!
The new payments insider website is a little easier to navigate and understand. Aside from new/annual charges by Visa or MC, I have not been charged any more than expected.
Thank you for independently reviewing these companies. I may look into other options given others’ negative reviews.
My business is still growing, but I doubt I will ever have more than $5k/mo. in c.c. charges. Is there a better company for numerous small transactions?
Jason Lee
This company’s service is very poor. They charge you hidden fees. I used their service for many years. I cancelled my account with them back in June. They were still charging me fees in November even I did not use their service for several months.
Dave
Garbage. Bad customer service, slow, useless, double charge people on our behalf. Hate them.
Jane
My experience has sucked too. I haven’t even started processing payments and have been charged $300.00. They did not disclose fees, and when I call they really don’t give a shit and pass me on to someone else. I only hope I can close my account without getting gauged again and then I can stay the hell away from them
Bashir Khoury
This is the worst company I’ve ever dealt with customer service really lousy ,
Without any notice they shut my credit card Terminal so I can’t Process any credit cards
for my customers
The good think out of this I closed my account and
I got the Square credit card reader
I have no Idea how Costco Recommend a lousy company
Gina Brockinton
Easily the worst customer service. You cannot reach them or you are on hold for hours. My mobile terminal never works I have to enter my credit cards manually which costs more. They had the audacity to say that they are aware of issues with the new iphones and that I probably need a new reader. The one I have is only a year or two old. As soon as I can get set up with another processor I am gone.
Jon Park
Elavon’s processing time for changes takes forever and denies request without reason. I prefer to set everything up the right way the first time. When you want to change something it takes forever.
Dawn Stephens
My partner died tragically in January and I let Elevon know and sent death certificate. Tried to find out where to send machine back to. Since then (10 months) they have constantly sent letters via debt recovery companies, for all sorts of amounts of money. They have not listened to me, Death certs been sent to Debt recovery companies, broken down on the phone the this has continued. Today yet another debt recovery company. They cannot tell me an address to send machine to, (not allowed to). There appear to be loads of unsafe and potentially bogus Elevon links on web. This company is disgusting beyond measure. My partner was intestate. He owed for one month of machine, the month he died! I cannot get this resolved as they do not listen. I am sickened to the core with this despicable company and wish to report them, where?
Mahmod alashqar
I will never do business with elavon , I just start my business and did not make any sales , they charge me 1281 $ , when I called them no one answer and my money is gone , that’s fraud and they’re thiefs
Steven
Elavon is by far not only the worst Merchant service company, but probably the most dishonest and unethical company currently operating on planet earth. They said whatever they needed to pull our business from our former merchant provider of 7 years.
Within our first 3 months, they processed $1.3m which is our standard. Then without warning their Risk team decided to hold our funds without provocation or reason for the past 3 weeks holding over $70k and let us know unless we provided a $700,000 Line of Credit our account would be canceled?!? NO Warning, NO ability to other options, nothing—and we’ve never had a chargeback or return in 7 years. No chargebacks, no fraud, no reason whatsoever to warrant this action. They would only respond after multiple follow ups, only agreed to release funds after multiple follow ups and incorporating attorney involvement. They lost a client for no reason and we’ll certainly do all we can to warn others to not get blindsided by this corrupt company. Costco should be ashamed this is their preferred partner.
David Bledsoe, SR
Why does costco endorse Evalon services thru their Executive membership, if it is so bad?
Lisa Bird
Costco must be getting a huuugggeee payback to endorse Elavon and Ladco Leasing.
Despite the obvious horrible deceitful business practices of Elavon, Costco
Continues to back this company.
Have experienced the same rude behavior from this company.
Greg
Seriously the worst company in the world. During 2015, I had to pay $300 for two credit card processors that were no longer good in 2016. So, then I got to buy two more for $300 and have had them replaced twice. Additionally, they started charging random acct fees. In 2016 I got one for $50. In July, I got one for $99? for what because they do such a great job? Never again
Brian Goode
This company is sneaky and underhanded. They notify you after the fact that they will be raising your rates or adding new fees on top of their already large pile of fees. I was just notified about a $99 security fee effective the beginning of the month, whereas I received my statement on the 13th. Rest assured that this is just the tip of the iceberg with them. Over 30 days ago they offered to “do a rate review”, and I never heard from them again. When I cancelled they said that the rep had spoken to me and I had declined his request for a rate review.
M.Pierce
Brian, we noticed a $115.44 debit from Elavon in our bank account on 10/2. I called their customer service department and was hold for 30 minutes before getting a rep. We were told that the $99.99 fee notification was on our August statement, and it was for technology and service compliance. We immediately asked for them to close our account and to refund the $99.99 fee! We were told we would receive an email, and then a second email to confirm the closure. Once we received the second email we would have to call to request the refund. Seriously? We had recently called to cancel our account, because we transferred our services to Square. Elavon was charging a $10 monthly fee for a service we have used twice! We have have been a customer for TWO YEARS!!!!! Square has no monthly service fee. They offered to do a rate review, and to call me back to see if they could waive the monthly fee for my company. We never received a call back. I also just read that we may be charged an early termination fee!!! I tried to call Elavon back, and there is 55 minute hold time to speak to a rep. I don’t have the time to stay on hold or to wait for a call back. This is absurd! I know the long hold times are due to every customer freaking out over the $99.99 fee.
SUNSET07
I have had the same thing, i keep getting charges for pci compliance that is now 10.00, statement fee 12.95, emv fee 5.50, account fee 99.99!! I get no statement, only online that i have to print and it is A PAIN TO GET INTO, takes hours to login, as u have to change id info every 30 days and cannot use any used before! U cannot get a hold of anyone in office or any management, PCI is only 25.00 to certify and now the fee is 10.00 a month! HIGHWAY ROBBERY its disgusting they can get away with all these new fees with no recourse to be protected under any contract.
Rob
Outrageous waste of time on PCI compliance and problems with unilateral automatic enrollment in a subscription based product by Elavon called “PCI+”. Elavon purchased TrustWave clients that process Elavon clients and did not capture the PCI compliance certifications, call customers to advise that they need to re-do the compliance questionaire that was just completed a few months ago ALL OVER AGAIN, then, in an almost passing comment, they mention that when this migration of clients from TrustWave went over to Elavon, Elavon automatically, and unilaterally subscribed customers for a fee based service WITHOUT NOTIFICATION and WITHOUT PERMISSION from the client. Elavon just bills you this subscription fee without any notice to the client. How is that possible? ELAVON IS THE WORST to deal with and we are so sorry we ever left our previous processing partner. Elavon is a nightmare at all levels; multiple and convoluted “Customer Service” departments that do not have answers and place on hold dozens of times after waiting in long ques to reach someone. I spent over 80 minutes on the phone replying to Elavon’s request for me to call, then was transferred to 3 departments, with four different individuals and this is the commercial equivalent of the Keystone Cops and their out of control Firetruck.
Alysa
Extremely terrible customer service! Ordered a new processor and they delivered to the wrong address and have been trying for a week now to figure this out. Been talked down to and told it’s my fault. Been in business with them for 4 years now and quiet because of the terrible custromer service. Extremely disappointed
C
Elavon is a JOKE! I am furious right now. I have been processing credit cards for 2 years now through my bank (who started with one company and ended with Elavon and has now cut ties with Elavon for what I can only assume are these types of issues, and gone to another merchant services provider). I had a couple of customers over the years “question: the charges on their cards”, not due to fraud but the fact they did NOT examine the receipt and recognize the charges, I have never had to “pay” for the customer’s error before! This just happened again, only this time I WAS CHARGED $25 (more than the profit I even make on the item!) because my customer called his card company, not recognizing the charge, but 5 minutes later saw what it was for and called back to say it was legitimate. DESPITE his doing so and his bank guaranteeing him it wouldn’t be an issue and they would pay, it wasn’t. Elavon withdrew the funds from my account, asking for proof of the charge, despite the fact the customer had already said it was legitimate. I of course provided the invoice for the items purchased as requested and after a few weeks Elavon put the monies back in my account. BUT a month later they charged ME $25 because the customer did this, claiming it was to cover “paperwork” fees on their part! This was NOT my error, and I am the one having to pay… well Elavon can take a flying leap I am going to another merchant service provider, they refused to budge on this charge, so bye bye Elavon. The company is a greedy rip off as far as merchants are concerned, as if the 3.5%+ they keep in merchant fees isn’t enough, they are now going to charge YOUR account for every “questioned” charge, even if it is $3.95 and legitimate, they will charge YOU the $25 EACH TIME! RIP OFF!
S M C
I am in the middle of a Huge potential litigation with Elavon – they “lost” all my transactions for a 40 day period which equalled roughly $60,000. Once they found them it was 3 months later!.
As they started manually entering the CC Transactions, the customers & their Banks flagged them as fradulent charges, because the “transactions” were now showing up 90 days AFTER the Customer was at my Establishment. Plus it was coded as a”Manual Entry – No Card Present”.
I now have thousands of dollars in Chargebacks.
It caused me to close my business! Not to mention the negative impact on my reputation in this small town, because everyone feels like I was stealing from them & manually entering sale amounts on days they weren’t at my place of business.
Its been the worst nightmare!
Gerard Wilson
For a web based company I find their merchant services website incredibly poor. It is not at all user friendly, and incredibly slow, I feel like I am back in the 90s with dial up connection and some primitave windows system. Only laziness has stopped me looking for an alternative provider so far but I have had enough.
Elly
This company have just taken out the same card payment 3 times instead of one! Payment requests were made 2 months apart – they ‘stole’ my money and left me with not a penny to my name and no reason as to why they had ‘messed up’ and deprived me of £3000 ‘ in error’ – No apology, no reason, no excuse….. Disgusting all round
Maikel Aslanpour
This company are a joke. My account was set up wrong as the trainee made several mistakes. They then decided to say they would not release the money from payments which I had taken for 4-6months which is embarrassing. Santander my business and personal bank recommended them I don’t know what they was thinking. Do NOT Join this company as you can be transferred all over the world to resolve an issue. I will be going back to my previous card provider for card payments. I would not even give them a 1 star rating.
S M C
Maikel,
I notice you said they did not release the money from payments for 4-6 months?! Were you able to final get these “lost” transactions?
I am in the middle of a Huge potential litigation with Elavon – they “lost” all my transactions for a 40 day period which equally roughly $60,000. Once they found them it was 3 months laster. As they started manually entering the CC Transactions, the customers & their Banks flagged them as fradulent charges & I now have thousands of dollars in Chargebacks!
It also caused me to have to close my business!
TOM
These people are crooks, I have fought for my money almost at every occurrence. I used them for over a year. If you get a couple of chargebacks they will try and cancel your account. IF you use your terminal for another transaction that you did not sign up for they threaten you. STAY AWAY FROM THEM!!
N/a
Horrible horrible customer service. One of the worst places I’ve had to deal with. Basically accused someone of stealing when there was a charge on their card.
Cheryl Graham
I would like to say that Evalon and associate Victoria have redeemed themselves …I am glad to say the service has been quite good and as a four year customer I will be staying with Avalon for my debit and credit service
CG HAIR
Philip Warmbrodt
We are new owners of Seaside Oregon golf and restaurant. We meet with Melisa of Elavon on Dec 2016. Its been 2 months of horror. She promised so much and has failed to deliver. Do not give these people access to your bank account. they have taken unauthorized money, promised to refund, promised to help set up our POS , Promise after promise and have not come thru. Gavin, her boss in portland oregon has indicated she did not have the authority to make such promises. Our bank, recommended these people and now they are even shocked by them. We are having to close our account to stop them from taking more out.each of the first 3 months they have taken out different amounts and a has caused us to be overdrawn. In Feb I put a stop payment on AUTO WITHDRAWAL and they changed the amount and so it slid by the bank. I can’t believe I didn’t check them out first. DO NOT GIVE THEM ACCESS TO YOUR BANK ACCOUNT. Our system is still not up and running and they have thousands of our money.
Cheryl Graham
Very poor service Account person”Victoria’ who processed my new debit machine did not know what she was doing..
I have been with this company for four years and had to get t a new machine cause the other was obsolete..
Decided on wifi because it is faster…Account specialist processed my request and a few days later I received my new machine.. Unfortunately could not use it because she forgot to add the debit feature to it…Contacted her and she needed me to sign a new agreement which I did and sent back ….Then she had to make up another agreement because she put the wrong percent on the credit and debit …If this wasn’t bad enough I find I have also been charged the startup fee of $150.00…Now I was to have this waived because I had been a loyal customer for four years..I was also not explained to about an insurance which I would definitely have purchased..Instead I was charged an additional $20.00 for not taking it..hmmmm. This lady was to get back to me after she spoke with her manager..When I didn’t hear back I phoned in to find she had gone home.. Also find it hard to get ahold of a manager to help me with this problem…. Very very dissatisfied customer..Would never recommend this company to anyone.
Cheryl Graham
CG HAIR
Steve
BRUTAL company. Terrible customer service.
We were put in touch with COREY JOHNSON and he was rude, disrespectful, and completely obnoxious.
AVOID THIS COMPANY!
Deanna Amsterdam
Two weeks ago I began the process of changing my banking info. After navegating throught the sight I finally found the forms {( it was not easy to find them) I printed them off and emailed. After three days I called in because I didn’t get a response. Customer service told me to resend them which I did. Two days later I received an email stateing I hadn’t sent in the proper forms, however they neglected to send me the appropriate form . I had to call in again to have the forms sent. I’ve completed these forms and have resent them 3 times now each time it takes days to get a response. If there was a problem with the form I had to resend all the forms rather the just this missing information. The last email asked for information I already sent in the first email!! Its been two weeks and I haven’t been able to process any payments I’m moving my business over to TD
Jill Male
Month in and Month out I have to contact Elavon as they do not seem to update their systems with information from Trustwave etc. I have numerous emails from Trustwave confirming our PCI complaince then to be told today that they do not believe Trustwaves explanation just about topped it all. I am now looking for a new Merchant Bank to host our payments. I have had enough !
Donna
Signed up to SagePay and unbeknown to us Elavon handle the payments. Their staff are the most unhelpful ever. They dont inform you of fees coming off and you have to try and negotiate their horrible online system, which apparently will NEVER accept a user password to download a really bad statement which gives no information at all! Always take off more than the documented “fees” from payments but no record of where they money goes so accounting is a nightmare! Stay away from Elavon, SagePay if you can afford their monthly scheme are absolutely great but if you are a small business like us… AVOID!
Kimberly
Elavon has no morals they make the rules up as they go along. They charge you what ever they want and it makes no logical sense. My rates are as high as 6% with other hidden fees of up to $80.00 a month. We are a very small business and it is ridiculous when you process less than 10 transactions a month that their fees are no less than $200.00 a month. We have had the same terminal for 12 years . Why is this kind of gouging not illegal??? Do not recommend them at all !!
rebecca mork
I had cancelled my services with Elevon. They did not cancel it and instead continued to charge me. I didn’t recognize the name on my bank statements and assumed it was from a different company, so I unfortunately did not check into it. I called Elevon to complain that here they see I have not used their services for over 1 year, and they would not refund me. I would not recommend them to anyone.
Yotshee Willie
Our company used Elavon service for our check and credit card processing and they over charged us and they ruined our business almost put us out of business. They charged us over $40,000 for service that we have already performed for our clients. They caused us to lose a milti million dollar deal. They lied and did not deposit our money in our account like they stated in the contract. I would not recommend them to anyone.
gong
Elavon’s rate and fee are higher than others’.
Equipment’s price is also extremely expensive.
I was silly I have trusted them because they work with Costco.
Timothy Stolz
Had nothing but trouble trying to revolve a merchant issue. I’m sorry I ever did business with Elavon. Six days now still no resolution. Customer service folks need more training. Keep getting different answers to my problem. Not happy!
IAN EMBERTON
Absolutely disgraceful. These idiots never even managed to set the account up never mind process any payments, yes they felt it their right to take money from my account, despite canceling the direct debit FOUR times.
This was 3 years ago
Now theyve set a debit collecting agency on me for £47
MY PERSONAL OPINION IS THAT ELAVON SHOULD BE AVOIDED AT ALL COSTS
Amy
DO Not USE ELAVON! I have used this company since i opened 15 yrs ago, never 1 chargeback, void, or refund! The customer service is horrible and will never amswer you! Jason Ross does not answer emails, phone calls, voicemails, and when asked to speak to his boss, he refuses to give that information. THE HIDDEN FEES THAT ARE TACKED ON MONTHLY AND RATES ARE SHOCKING!! I now have 5 NEW monthly fees that stay on and no statement! Its the biggest headache our company has! The cost is OUTRAGEOUS!! Ghost fees!! Customer Service is an F! Have not had problems with terminal because i bought mine from another company outright, rather than spend $4,000 for lease!!! Now the new EMV software they use is HORRible! Tech support is a waiste, no one evers answers the phone or concerns EVER! they have no care of my business and soooo glad to be rid of these SCUM BAGs! when i did finally get a luve person, they told me i had no account, it took a senior manager to find it because of my name has a & symbol in it! lol. really! Stay far away dont fall for no fees! I will glady join a clasd action for these fees i was never notified on, and who knows the issues i will have next month when i see if my account was actually closed and what fees they charge, no terminal, no contract, no transactions???
Amy Galan
Same thing here, 15yrs now, jason is my rep, never answers any contact. Tried to get his boss, wont tell you! Cant find my account because i have a symbol also in my name!! What a bunch of incompetent ass*** ! fees upon fees upon fees, login is a joke to their online portal! Never works! Now i have to buy a new emv machine and need to change merchants but am reluctant to use any of these merchant scam.companies. have you found a better company? I cant believe they are allowed to operate and take any amount of fees they choose!
Sharon Herrmann
I am a small business that just does a few shows, was set up many years ago with elavon and was this was the way to process cards, had many months with no shows but pais the 41.00 with modern tech ways to process stayed with elavon until it was just to much out of pocket, well my last bill no charges so no income they up it from 41.00 to 101.00 what is wrong with this company, never use them, customer service is awful, I closed my account so no way to refund me, like you would so disappointed, have a 800.00 machine you told me I needed that is worthless how much of my small income can you suck out of a person. Sorry but you are not customer friendly and sure you will delete this but customer beware
Rhonda K Hill
I rate Elvalon as a “F”. I had Fraud money that was deposited into my account by a credit card my compnay took. After the money was in my account we realized it was fraud money. I contacted Elvalon ASAP and told them which they confirmed it was fraud. Elvalon charged me $274.00 on fees for that money that was fraud. I believe that I did what was right by telling Elvalon. They still charged me a fee! I dont believe that was right to charge me when I was the honest one. Elvalon could have been out $8100.00
Last time I work with them
Pissed off
I was suddenly charged $59.99 and they refused to refund $49.99 of it because they said they had uploaded the new fees to their website and it was up to the responsbility of the customer to log on to view the new fees but I had never received that website or option for a paper statement so I had no way to know that this was happening. Customer service ignored me and like a broken record stated that my account was open after the deadline so the fee was incurred. I explained that the representative that I had never explained this outside website or paper statement option and only said that I would be charged $10 a month if I didn’t swipe $500 worth of credit card transactions through the card swiper.
When I went to change my account in mid-December so it would be free again the US Bank rep said everything was done and I wouldn’t be charged the $10 merchant fee anymore. Again the customer service rep ignored me and refused to refund the $49.99 nor send me to anyone who may be able to.
I explained that they are punishing the customer by doing this and that I am left to write a bad review on my experience. She apologized and was quiet. Nothing more to say so I hung up.
Trip
Same happened to me. 49.99 charged with no explanation. Complain to the FCC>
… and no warning from the PCI compliant fees to remind me that had to be done for a new account. Where do you even find out about these changes?
Jon Acord
Horrible scam artist, I am am AMAZED Costco goes they them. I called to get info, they took some info from me, and then charged my credit card $150, I keep telling them I dont want this, now they are charging my card every month, I never wanted this, just info, I have told them repeatedly please cancel this, they refuse, to the point I have to close my bank account. Seriously stay away. They just called me again last week to help setting up processing on my end, I tell them I dont want this, and they keep on some sales pitch, I tell them please cancel this, and quit charging my credit card, they have refused. they just ignore what I tell them and start on a sales pitch again. STAY AWAY FROM COSTCO CREDIT CARD SERVICES, there not run by Costco
Wyndham Worldwide Franchisee
With the “upgrade” to the Sabre-owned SynXis POS (in both senses of the term) we were FORCED to use Elavon by Wyndham for our credit cards. The integration is poor into very buggy software and there are crashes and other problems all the time. We’ve also received charge-backs, and trying to search via Elavon’s “Fusebox” is, frankly, a sick joke. Previous to this we had a separate CC machine that rarely had trouble and was pretty reliable–NOT ANYMORE!
I’m personally glad I’m not a Wyndham franchisee having to pay exorbitantly for this garbage and only have to work for the franchisee. I have yet to hear of a single good thing from ANYONE about Elavon. It’s no surprise they keep getting hacked.
pinman
It sucks! no one monthly statement for 5 years and charged 40$ for seurity test without notification. the rate is much high than any other company. the sales man cheated and push me to buy a very expensive terminal machine and refuse to return. I felt i was cheated by them for past 5 years!
Ellen Mogensen
Elavon is good IF you do not get a chargeback. If you do get a chargeback they do NOTHING to support you. Worse, they automatically assume that you as the merchant are at fault. Even when your customer withdraws their chargeback (like mine did) they let things slide until you are at the pre-arbitration stage where either you agree to accepting the chargeback or you risk incurring a heavy fine for not doing so. Of course, there is NO mechanism to complain to management… which is why I posted this review.
Timothy Stolz
There are legal options for all of us to use. We need to band together and sue Evalon for their own good! What an unpleasant experience it has been to deal with these people.
Kevin
I agree if enough get together and bring a law suit against them . They are scam artist at the best . Cancell your debt machine saying it is not to standards anymore and leave you hanging with the lease.
Gavin
We’ve experienced the exact same problems. Elavon staff could not be less helpful. I was asked to send them chargeback statements from our last year with our previous processor. After spending several hours compiling and sending statements that showed zero chargebacks, they decided to disregard the reports and close the account, then be intentionally unhelpful when we need to refund customers. I don’t appreciate my time being wasted and being treated by a criminal by someone who answers phones for a living. I can’t say I’m surprised to see so many bad reviews of this joke of a company. We will be keeping a close eye on our accounts to make sure they don’t try to screw us over even more.
Shana White
If I could give ZERO stars I would! Triple the fees and total rip off! How they can get away with doing this to small business is beyond me.
Matthew Johnson
They charge you a crazy high lease that you cant get out of. It makes no sense. You can go get a credit card plan where you don’t pay a $4,000 lease to pay off for them lending you the credit card machine. Its a waste of money if you compare to other companies.
Cory
One word. Disaster. I recommend you stay clear of this company. after only two weeks of service they claimed false accusations about my company and decided they want to discontinue service… over the course of 24 hours. No merit, no justification. leaving me and my business high and dry in time for the weekend. I mean if you don’t want my business that’s fine, but to make false statements about my company that is not. rude, disrespectful and otherwise un businesslike. I will be pursuing defamation. Beware.
Steve
We had the EXACT same experience.
The compliance manager COREY JOHNSON refused to let us know what we had done wrong.
Jackie's freelance hairdressing services
Never go with Elavon, I ended my contract back in April 2016 I carried on paying my monthly fee for my pdq terminal until October 2016 despite me informing Elavon I’ve terminated the contract due to faulty machine. I stopped the direct debit at the end of October 2016, now got an unexpected bill in from greedy thieving Elavon for £83. I don’t think so let’s have this out in court shall we and let the judge decide at what point was I aware of this ghost fee. Look forward to seeing you.
alexander milinovich
i cancelled the company more than a year ago and they were still taking money out of my account , when i called them they told me they would cancel it right away. what happened to all that money they took, i demanded a refund and they told me they cant do it because i just cancelled. what a rip off don”t use them they do not honor anything.
lisa Chiodini
Having had Elavon/ Costco since 2004 I never had a problem until the new Chip Card Terminals came out. The ability of their team to program and solve problems is poor and the Management has been equally frustrating. They are giving you products that have a lot of error and illegal spacing for signature protection. They have no regard for waisting your businesses time. Literally I have over 8 hours and the problems are still not resolve. They refuse to restitue or make the damages correct. They also keep failing to get my autobatching correct and I have not had funds deposited as contracted due to their error. They don’t seem to care. The receipts for a standard visa charge are 10″ long the used to be 3-4″ so each sale I am using 20″ of thermal tape. Very disappointed in Randy, manager.
Kim M.
I have been trying to cancel my Evalon services since June 15, 2016. Customer service took all my information and informed me I would receive a call to confirm cancellation in the next three hours. No one ever called after I left 5 messages trying to cancel. I then was able to get Roshina to email cancellation forms (Its Now August)! I returned the forms cancelling both merchant services and data insure. On Sept 2, $199.60 was deducted from my bank account listed as “data insure closed”. Then on Sept 28 another $1,169.00 was deducted from my bank account listed as “data insure closed.” I was told the $1169.00 was for equipment ($475) and Quickbooks ($199) that I had received, the remaining $495 charge couldn’t be explained . Evalon has NEVER sent me anything because they didn’t even have my correct address on file! I was able to get a $475 refund for equipment that I never had, but can not get ANYONE to return calls from this business to be refunded for the remaining $694 owed to me. In addition Evalon is still charging me monthly merchant service fees! I had to alert my bank of fraud and place a stop payment to this company! I think Evalon owes me $694 plus all the monthly charges they have charged since I tried closing with this terrible company in June. Evalon is a scam and the WORST company I have ever dealt with in my life!
Martin
NEVER NEVER trust Evalon or let them have access to your bank account. Customer service is the worst I have ever dealt with. I have been trying to close my account for over 4 months and have been told over 10 times that someone will call me back within an hour. NO return calls (and yes they have the correct number). I finally got data insure closed and got charged over $1300 in closing fees and equipment that was never used (closing fee was stated to be $195). Currently still trying to recoup $600 that should not have been charged! Still getting charged merchant service fees! This is the most unprofessional dishonest company out there!
G.F.
Leaving Elavon after many years. They now charge me for a declined card, only a small fee but why am I paying for a customer presenting a card with no funds on it! Also the provider I am moving to supplies an up to date contactless machine for less monthly rental and with fees almost two thirds cheaper than Elavon, my estimated savings are over £1000 per year! dont know why I stayed with Elavon for so long.
Silvia Hernandez
Don’t use ELAVON, its a big fraud, they are the worst merchant service ever, I have been in business for more than 30 years and a sales rep convinced me to switch to Elavon, big mistake, worst service, ghost fees, and not to mention the customer service I was on hold for more than an hour to resolve nothing, Please Please don’t even consider them even if it sounds like a good offer do not be tempted.
Silvia Hernandez
amit mishra
Please do not ever work with ELAVON, ITS REP Pierre Stehlik and Northern Leasing company.Its a such a big scam to trap your life and take away money from your business. Learnt it hard way.Its a scam to trap you with leasing companies for years and years …thank to Mr. Pierre Stehlik.
Taylor dietz the compliance manager who sits in Knoxville is of no use and work on behalf of ELAVON agents.Big SCAM and syndicate…Keep your self away
jeff lacombe
I Made The Mistake Of Leaving Heartland And Going To Elavon . i had one large swipe and they will not release my money .first they said send me a copy of the invoice and i did now they want more information which i provided i call the repeatedly and they dont even answer the phone . heartland im sorry for leaving
Tina Davis
I left Heartland too for Elavon. It has literally cost me thousands. I canNOT believe that Elavon/Ladco are still in business!
D. A. Land
After 5+ years of continually escalating costs and unhelpful service, we quit Elavon last year and immediately saved over $1000 the first six months due to the lack of “junk fees” that Elavon routinely tacked on. It seemed to us like they invented a new fee almost every month, and the rates they quoted never matched the rates actually charged. They even want to charge you for a statement!! Also, the company they contract with for PCI scans cannot produce accurate, consistent results we had to hire another company to perform this function…so it is no surprise to us that they have problems with the Credit Card companies. Beware of this processor and verify EVERYTHING they tell you.
Sebastian Kim
Do not work with this company. Their customer service is horrible and will just give you the run-a-round transfering you from one department to “someone who can assist you”
Back in June a gentlemen Michael Watts from “Smart Card Merchant Services” with the title of Senior Account Executive to try and have us change over to their merchant processor. We had a contract drawn up but the deal ultimately fell through. He told me don’t worry the contract will be cancelled yet for the past 3 months I’m being charged $15.95 on both merchant accounts that I do not use.
I follow up with Michael, he says he is no longer with the company and gives me the information to someone at Smart Card Services. They tell me they do not see any charges, I have the merchant statements in front of me and we are charged $15.95 for 3 months even after I’ve told them to cancel.
I finally find out the correct person to speak with, after being transfered and hung up on for about an hour only to find out that I will not be credited for the charges because someone at Smart Card did not notify Priority Payment of the cancellation.
Why am I being charged for services that were supposed to be cancelled before even taking effect?
And now I won’t be reimbursed because of an error on their end?
This company is horrible with communicating as well as their customer service.
Sebastian Kim
They now want me to fax over my bank statements to prove that the $15.95 was taken out of our accounts for a total of 6 times. They say nothing shows up on their end of the ACH Payment regarding these charges. So I guess the money debited from our accounts for the past 3 months just disappeared into thin air after it left our accounts?
Adreena
Elavon is the most AWFUL AND I MEAN AWFUL company that I have EVER worked for. They are so EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL and they DO NOT care about there employees. Today I got fired because the ONE trainer said I was acting some type of way towards her. Like seriously? And when I asked what I had done to her that had bothered her I was given NO ANSWER. I’m not sure if these two white women were racist and trying to intimidate me but I felt EXTREMELY threatened and I had a very bad anxiety attack to the point that they had to call the ambulance. I was COMPLETELY blindsided. I would have felt that if another ADULT (Which I assume Lisa McLain Anderson was not) if they would felt I did or said something they made them feel some way they would come to me and tell me because I did not mean to anything if I even did anything! I will tell everyone I know not to do business or work for this AWFUL unprofessional company and I would love to talk to the director of HR and complain to the correct person! I don’t want my job back but I would love for the company to know what kind of employees they have.
Darla Green
After three times in six months of my credit card terminal going down and causing me HOURS of aggravation in on-hold wait times, never being able to talk to a human and having to hand run credit cards that cost me a MUCH HIGHER FEE. I am finished with this company. If there is a class action lawsuit, I would gleefully join. Disrespectful of small business and ones time. Save yourself the hassle and run away from this company as fast as you can. a NEGATIVE ZERO rating from me.
mike
Do not use Elavon.
If you switch from them they will not put your terminal back to programming before you used them. They are absolute S***.
M
Araceli N Ayala
I sign a new contract with Elavon (I used to work with them for almost 10 years before). This time I ask for a Mobile device service. When I read the cost I already knew that I was going to pay 149.00 for the new equipment. Well I was charge $312.95. That overdraft my account. I called them and they told me that is a charge for the software, which a download myself and is free. I just call them because I never received any letter with my user name and password. I try to cancel and they say that if I cancel I have to pay anywhere. That totally illegal. Because they do not tell you the real cost in the beginning so you can decide to go for it. I don’t know what to do. Call the corporate office and nobody answer the phone. Somebody please HELP!
Ahmed Ismail
dont work with elavon any more they only looking to stealing your money i dont used any services from them also i didnt receive any services and keeping charges $10 and they are bigs liers please dont work with them thanks
Erika F.
I own a small business. Swatched to Elavon thru US BANK because of the rates they were offering. They did not follow the contract that we signed for over a year – the time frame is my fault, I should have been watching much closer. At any rate, they owe us a LOT of money back. Just got an email a week after they promised a refund saying they were still trying to figure out what they owe us as the number is large. Please be extremely cautious of this company!!!!
Ashley
How did you get them to refund your money?
Kacie
I felt this was something needing to be done by myself as I thought the issues we have been having all stemmed back to Elavon. We were wrong, and with that let me say that emailing customer service is not same as speaking to a real person but it was very prompt replies, with very insightful and helpful information. I am not sure they are getting a fair shake when it comes to some of these reviews, how many others realized they were pointing the finger at wrong Company, but were to embarrassed to retract or admit?
Steve Watson
THEY CHANGE RULES -DON’T TELL YOU -THEN PENALIZE YOU. We can relate to all the horror stories here. We were trying to launch a new business, where we needed to make a splash. we were not therefore advertising through the usual channels, but needed to cement a deal with a large industry player. The upshot of this was that we did not expect to see any transactions ‘dribbling through’. This was explained to Elavon.
Every couple of months, or after any code change, we would run a test transaction.
Three times in the first two years we discovered that they had closed the account. We had not been informed. They had our telephone numbers, postal address and email address, but not so much as a one-liner to tell us.
This most recent time, we were actually speaking to a concern who could offer us a foot in the door, only to discover that Elavon had closed it again!
When we contacted them – they hadn’t advised us of their actions, of course – it transpired that they had changed the way fees were to be taken.
Previously, they were taken at source, and we had received the reduced sum into our account. Without telling anybody, they had altered this procedure so that the fees would be taken out of the FOLLOWING month’s transactions.
Clearly, in our situation, there would be no following month fees. They had closed our account because of two outstanding fees due, each of 68p. We kid you not!
Had they told us of this change, as even the slightest professional body should have done, we would have made diary notes to pay. Unbelievable.
Here we were, after years of trying, finally speaking to somebody who could change our lives only to find that our website (the absolute core of our business) had been broken because of an inactive payment gateway.
Elavon told us we would have to re-apply, which we did and three weeks later they said they could not offer us an account. Nothing had changed at our end at all.
At no point was there any apology or embarrassment shown by them. We have never dealt with a more Mickey Mouse operation.
We are now with Braintree. Like chalk and cheese. Their customer service – both in terms of knowledge and attitude – is the best we have ever experienced.
Don’t trust your business to Elavon. Why risk it, when there are so many alternatives?
Bob
Elavon, formerly known as Nova Information Systems, partner with Costco and is a subsidiary of US Bank. Watch out what they would do to your credit card processing account.
1) They used no-exist excuses to hold your money in the credit card processing account.
2) Suspend processing account before send you any notice.
3) Suspend account even from an customer’s inquiry. (They cancel my account even the customer cleared the inquiry)
4) They don’t let you contact the department handle your case. ( I have to find the US Bank investor relation to contact them)
4) Apply non-exist and undisclosed processing amount limit. (They asked you monthly average and then they said it is your monthly limit)
5) Even inquiry was resolved, they still apply suspension and withdrew money from bank account.
6) Multiple huge withdraws to empty your bank account without legitimate reason. (Think about 5 time of $4600 – $23000 in total )
7) Charging fee without reason or explanation.
8) Their employees are rude and ridiculous.
9) Charging service charge after cancellation ad making up excuse. (They charged on Sep 1, and Sep 3, after they received cancellation Aug 2)
10) Even you sent cancellation 30 day in advance, they still say not enough 30 days. (Their assistant legal counsel said Sep 3, is the 30th days from Aug 2)
11) They change the term of the contract without sending any notification. (They totally changed the contract and applied it 14 days later but send you no notification at all)
12) Making up non-exist document. (Sending a printout to proof they sent you email, but the printout does not have any email address)
13) Lied to authorities and Costco.
If you are a victim, try contact OCC, FTC, FBI, States Attorney, Canadian Authorities.
They should be punished.
Webmaster
This company shut down our credit card account without any notification after we’ve been in business with them for 4 years without any issues. Imagine coming to work and not being able to process credit card transactions and not knowing why. Once we figured out what happened, we contacted Evalon to find out what the issue was and simply stood behind their actions and wouldn’t even consider opening our account back up, even if we removed the item from our website. They wouldn’t tell us which item, they basically just blew us off. We pushed millions of dollars worth of transactions through their company and never had an issue for four years. We are simply sick to our stomach over this. DO NOT PUT YOUR BUSINESS IN THE HAND OF EVALON!
Lyndsey D
Small based business. Switched to Elavon thru Costco Canada to save some money.
Elavon is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with (for any service) the sales rep thru Costco’s website was quick to “sell” me on saving money. Much of my email discussion with him was completely false. I emailed Costco Canada with my concerns as Costco usually is good. I have not even had a response from them or the sales rep that was 4 months ago….I would not recommend changing to Elavon at all as there is no customer service, information is misleading and they will not fix anything. I am spending more money but because I paid a “fee” to open my account I will loose with whatever processing company I go with for another year.. I guess I’m just too small a business since reading how big they really are.
Just yesterday got a email stating to update my Androids or my processing will not work not even 24 hours notice. So if I didn’t do right away all my Andriod’s I wouldn’t be able to process any credit cards…Nice!!! What company gives under 24 hours notice…Elavon!
Al Waxman
Caught them trying to charge us for “hidden” fees, not listed on the contract. When I called them on it they credited my account. “Just an unfortunate oversight”, they said. Cancelled our account after 30 days. SCUM BAGS
Robert R.
What can i say about ELAVON, i’m in Canada, running online sales business for clothing and electronics. Recently got couple of chargebacks – usage of stolen cards, completely because of Elavon, they do not verify the address of payment before processing your transaction, it is same thing as running manual sales with keying card number. Address and the card number didn’t match, basically they are not verifying anything. I try to solve it, and got extra 400$ charged on my account, when i asked why, they replied – This is the Arbitration Commissions… Dispute Resolution department is not helpful and very rude. Long story short, after i tried to settle this, Elavon went into my account and reversed back all the transactions processed within 6 month = $ 25,000. I spoke to Resolution Dpt again and they told me that they are going to hold funds for 6 month to verify my account… I have all the evidences, if anyone wants to sign-up with Elavon i will not recommend doing so, i understand that 0$ cancellation is that makes people go and sign-up, but trust me, you will have more hassle than service. My feedback to Elavon is Negative.
B
Hey I’m in a very similar position atm was wondering if we could speak further on the subject..
ECO RENT A CAR INC
We have been in busniess for over 10 years. we were with bank of america and switched to ELAVON ( WICH IS THE BIGGEST MISTAKE DONE ON OUR PART)
WE HAD 8 charge back’s. elavon held our funds that we needed to return to customers. and after faxing the needed proof to the elavon dispute department of they released 7 out of 8 chargbacks. when we called elavon risk solutions and spoke to Mr PARKER.JONES AT EXT 8170 he said that the total amount of chargebacks are 7% so he is going to keep the hold in place for 30 days and then re evaluate . we mentioned that 7 out of 8 were leases in our favor and it couldn’t be 7% anymore becoz of the initial 8 chargabacks = 7% then 1 chargaback can not = 7% .
this is RIDICULES!!!!! ELAVON should be facing a class action law suit by now. i am going to speak to a attorney ASAP and taking them to court. if any other small business owner has the same issue please email me at [REDACTED – personal contact information] so that we can look into a class action law suit against elavon.
PLEASE DO NOT USE THIS MERCHANT SERVICES FOR ITS -C rated for a reason .
course of action
1. flooding all reviews with nagativne reviews
2. initiating a complaint/dispute with BBB
3. Contacting a attorney for a law suite for loss of income, inconvenience, illegal activity etc.
4. small claims court for Mr Parker him self .
stay clear from this elavon…. unless you wanna easy way to close up your business!!!!!!
Angie Dairou
I can honestly say that dealing with Elavon has been the worst customer service experience of my life. For the first couple of years, they were great. When the chip reader cards came out in the states, the hold times went up to 90 minutes. I had multiple machines that didn’t work, and was talked into purchasing a new machine outright, which I did. It went down within 2 weeks. I was promised a refund within 2 weeks, it took 2 months. I closed my account 4 months ago, and they are still charging my bank acct a machine rental fee. Please save yourself some trouble and stay away from this company. I used them through my Costco Canada membership and will be taking the time to write to the head office of Costco.
Robert Spiller
I am a consumer, not a merchant. Elavon processes credit card transactions for Virginia DMV, but not mine. When I entered the correct numbers in the demanded format, Elavon falsely replied: “The Credit Card Number supplied in the authorization request appears to be invalid.” The number did not appear to be invalid, as confirmed by the issuing credit card company. Elavon’s published telephone number was answered by a person who said they did not respond to consumer complaints, “You need to call the number on the back of your card.” Which I did, and was told that the card is fine, number right, this charge never sent to them.
Please do not rely on processing companies that falsely call credit card numbers “invalid”, but refuse to answer inquiries about them from the consumers affected. Elavon inconveniences customers, but ducks the job of responding to the squawks. This will hurt your business, if you trust them.
Bye
Elavon is not your card issuing bank.. therefore any response Elavon recieves comes straight from YOUR bank. Elavon does not decide whose card is “invalid” or not. Elavon is not authorized to make decisions on an individual’s credit card account. Elavon ONLY services merchants.. NOT cardholders. We have no information about a cardholder’s account.. therefore, we are instructed to tell you to call the number on the back of your card. Clearly you need to do some research on what a credit card processor is. If you were a merchant.. you would know this. Bye.
Sue
This is the most unprofessional response by a business I have ever seen. BYE
Kacie
Agree 100%! So when you become a huge business as Elavon, you no longer need to be concerned with customer service or how your employees represent you? Yuck
Chris
This company takes payment from customer then delays funding yuor account and investigates your business to see why your company is being paid. I don’t get it this company will keep your accounting destroyed . I regret this decision. Please be aware this company will aggrivate you to no end .
Jason Wolf
The terminals garbage chute way overpriced huge scam just the way to sell terminals then about a month or two later they’ll close your account.
Sarah B Lovan
High fees, Im on the 3rd POS (which also stands for Piece of shit) in less than 2 months. They do not accept CIBC cards and the machines they send us are constantly failing. Customer service? Dumb people who cannot figure anything out, expect to wait over 20mins every time you call for customer service. I own a tax office and this company has so far lost me 8 clients this year because they were fed up with our machines EVERY YEAR. This is is our 3rd year with them and last!
Nicole Phillips
We were a customer of Elavon though Mindbody. Their customer service is the worst I’ve even seen. I had a customer dispute a charge she made online. I refunded the customer her money back and let Elavon aware of this. They proceeded with the charge back anyway. I called them several times on the same issue. The first time the rep actually said “get the money back from the customer”!! I finally spoke with a manager who said she’d take care of it and to call back. I did call back and she refused to get on the phone and the rep refused to give me her name. The rep said the case was closed and there is nothing they could do. So I called Mindbody and switched merchant providers which I didn’t even know was an option. I will never do business with Elavon again and I’ll make sure to read reviews prior to signing up with any company.
Nicole Phillips / Inner Me Studios
Dennis
This company almost our small cafe/food truck out of business. We were promised in our contract next day deposits only to find out after our bank started to tack on late charges for late deposits that we expected to be there on time. The late charges began to pile up after missed and late deposits. After months of continual requests to resolve the deposit timing issue we finally had to bring things to head. Elevon has admitted their mistakes but we are still waiting to reimbursed the $10,000 in fees. Stay away from the processor. It will take us months to recover from these incompetents. They pretty much admitted that they are on breach of their contract.
bruce b
OMG…in my 45 years of doing business and working with 5 other merchant service credit card processors, i have NEVER seen a WORSE merchant service…Their rates are ok, but their customer service/tec h support is a NIGHTMARE. In my 2 years with them, i have never had a wait/hold time of less than 20 minutes, and often it is 30 to 60 minutes! With the other processors, the wait time has always been in the seconds, or max 1-2 minutes.
But, when i have a line of customers waiting to pay, and the credit card machine goes on the fritz, i LOSE THOSE SALES, as hardly anyone pays with cash anymore.Their reps are good and knowledgeable, but again, my biggest complaint is the INSANE length of time we are put on Hold to speak with tech/customer support
Susan
I am a small business owner who understands the need for short hold times. I am also a logical woman in knowing that there is a reason there is a long hold time. Elavon has been nothing but great to me and my business, great customer service. Their hold times were bad for a couple months and now they are great again. i was advised their hold times shot up because people ignored the notifications we were given to update our machines so they all did it around the same time, granted i was one of those people. I just don’t think hold times are something to complain about because it’s out of a company’s control.
Mike Figurski
Terrible customer service. They take an hour (or so) to answer calls, and don’t allow for call backs. I went with another provider last Fall and cancelled my service. They told me my account was closed and that I did not need to send the (now very old) terminal back and that I would not be charged any more. After 4 months of monthly fees ($33.60) per month, and several promises to stop the charges, they have still not done so. I can’t tell if they are corrupt or just incompetent. Either way, stay away. I am surprised that Costco has ha relationship with such a poor service provider.
PRISCILLA TEAGUE
I have dealt with Elavon for over 4 years. The last 6 months have been a complete nightmare and am happy to say that I have finally terminated any further relations with this company.
In September 2015 I called Merchant Support to order a new credit card swiper since the one I had was shorting out. They convinced me that I had to upgrade to a chip enabled terminal- which was not the case.
In October 2015 my charges increased significantly and after hours and hours of time spent with your IT department they agreed to refund $138 in overcharges.
In November 2015 I spoke to your Merchant Connect IT department again because my charges continued to increase and after many hours of being on hold they admitted that they had a glitch in their software and that all transactions that I swiped that did not have a EMV chip on it was being processed as if I “hand-keyed” the transaction. They agreed that I was due a refund of overcharges and it doesn’t take a rocket scientest to LOOK at the statements to see that I have been overcharged ever since I started using the Ingenico reader. Since then-they have not refunded these overcharges nor have you, but I do appreciate that you were able to cancel the lease on the Ingenico reader.
And here we are 4 months later – Now Elavon tells me me that all I am due is $74 some dollars. I first spoke to them 4 weeks ago and we are still having the same conversation and I am still out over $400. I have asked to speak with someone that can make decisions on this and all they say is you have to rely on your research department. This is definitely unacceptable and they leave me no choice but to seek legal counsel, file in small claims court which will include time & labor plus all the charges above and also file a complaint to the Better Business Bureau.
Lease Payments $104.00 (4 months x $26 October thru December)
November overcharge: $148.45
December $109.00
December Processing Fees $15.50
January Processing Fees $59.99
Total: $436.94
DO NOT GET INVOLVED WITH THIS COMPANY. THEY WILL TAKE FUNDS FROM YOUR ACCOUNT AND IT WILL TAKE HOURS & HOURS OF PHONECALLS PLUS MONTHS AND MONTHS TO EVER SEE A REFUND.
PRISCILLA TEAGUE
After 4.5 months of begging, pleading, crying, threatening, nearly having several mental breakdowns -Elavon has finally refunded the overcharges. Of course this was after a complaint was filed here and also with the better business bureau, bank accounts had to be changed, payroll accounts had to be changed, all automatic withdrawls from this bank account had to be changed. IT is not worth it- do not use this company. They will not treat small businesses fairly and you will waste alot of time dealing with them.
Tony Gomes
In over 20 years of dealing with different merchant services ELAVON was by MILES the WORST I’ve ever dealt with.
After having a point of sales machine breaking down I requested a new machine just to find out the rental charges almost doubled, their excuse was the old terminal had been discontinued so I had to incur the extra monthly charges. After receiving the new terminal I noticed they didn’t sent me a returning label for the broken one, after requesting a couple times and being on hold for over an hour every time I finally decide to close the account and requesting return labels for both machines. To my surprise they only sent me one label, so I phone them again waiting another an hour on hold just to request the second label. When FEDEX showed up to pick up both machines they had a box and the second requested label. To my surprise again they only received one of the machines and kept on charging me for the second machine so again back on line for another an hour to find out what happened. I phoned FEDEX three times they were not able to tell me where the machine was since I forgot to write down the tracking number. Five months later and about numerous calls and being on hold from 45 minutes to an hour and 15min they finally told me that they received the second terminal but wouldn’t refund for the extra five months only for the last month because the rep I spoke to didn’t bother to put on the notes on my first call that the machine was broken and I needed a return label.
This was not a BAD EXPERIENCE it was a NIGHTMARE!! . STAYYYYY AWAY!! from ELAVON they will ROB YOU BLIND!!
Raffi
Elavon should be a terminated Co. After my client”s card was charged and I received approval and sent all information requested, It was still denied by Elavon. Waste of time and money dealing with robots. Go elsewhere !!
JoAnn Schmidt
Our business has been a customer with Elavon for many years. We started out directly with them through our bank, then switched to processing through COSTCO because the fee structure is dramatically better. I have had many CC Processors contact me, or stop by our business, trying to see my statements because they would swear they could “save me money” even after I told them I was processing through COSTCO at a great deal. On the few occasions I would let a sales rep see my statements, even my new bank rep, they all came to the same conclusion that they could not beat the rates I am currently getting.
For example: For the month of JAN 2016 my statement shows a total of 73 items, for $24,359.35 and a total for Charges and Fees of $405.96.
If you do simple math, that equates to an Average of 1.67% for ALL items. That includes all card types, (10) were DEBIT for $2,523.91 and fees of $22.97, or Average of .91%; and $21,835.44 of Qualified and Non-Qualified cards for VISA, MC and Discover.
However, it is important to know that only (4) cards were commercial non-qualified and only for a total of $370.99 at a rate of 2.65% and $.29 per item. (1) was a Discover Non-Qualified for $342.19 at a rate of 3.35% and $.29 per item, (1) was a Visa Partial-Qualified for $40.93 at 2.65% and $.29 per item. Nearly 1/2 of the items (31) and amount of $11,962.71 were at 1.99% and $.19 per item, the rest (26) were $9,118.62 and at 1.22% $.12 per item.
I certainly cannot complain about these rates!
I think the real differences are for businesses who accept phone payments and online payments that are not completed with face-to-face contact. You do not really know who your customers are, whether the payment forms are truly legit, and the processor is definitely going to charge much more for assuming a dramatically higher risk.
Our business is an auto repair facility in WI and we will not accept payment or release a vehicle after repairs without customer visit and payment on site. We make an exception for regular customers we personally know over the years and we tell them up front that we will add a 3.5% special handling charge to the total bill because our processor will charge at least that much for key entered non present card charges – due to the higher risk they assume. We have NEVER had any holds, chargebacks or other fees assessed over the years. Our credit card charges for each day arrive promptly in our bank account within 48 hours.
You have to be diligent with any and all business transactions. You are responsible for tracking you activity and for balancing you entire days work – every day! You bear that responsibility, not the processor.
Yes I do agree with the many complaints about the slowness of getting to talk to a live person. That is something that the company needs to address, especially during peak call periods during the day. But if you need assistance that is not critical at the moment, you can help yourself by waiting and calling during lower peak call times. They are staffed 24 hours and you certainly would be less inconvenienced if you would choose to call during lower peak call volume times.
BTW I just called them today to ask about replacing our terminal. Yes I am not a fan of the current terminal prices, $389 for a VX520-CTLS when I can buy one reputably online for $199. That is why I have waited so long to take care of this. But I talked to Tech Support and they were very helpful in giving me the correct product/part numbers that I would need, to be sure that any terminal that I would buy would work, and they told me to make sure it was a NEW and Unlocked Terminal. Then I could call back any time and they would work with me to complete the process of switching out my terminal and installing/upgrading the software required for the new terminal. They said to allow 45 minutes and recommended calling when our business was closed, off-hours to complete. All-in-all a good experience for me.
I will be ordering my new terminal soon…
Phillip CPO
Hi JoAnn,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
Phillip CPO
This comment has been successfully authenticated.
Jill
Hi JoAnn
Did you order your VX520 online yet? Is it works?
Please reply coz I plan to get one too.
Hari
This company has offered services thru Costco network. We have been in retail business for over 15 years and switched to Elavon last year with hope to save money. We audited the statement for last few months and realized that the debit card transaction are processed as credit card and are charged at higher rate. Upon asking the rep I was told that debit card offered by banks are credit card even though people punch in pin for transaction. When I challenged the argument, I was told that the processor does not have capability to process pin bad debit card hence change all debit transaction as credit card withou notifying merchants ” what a fraud this company is playing” we are auditing how Uhc money we have payed extra to this processor due to their limitation. We are waiting for reply since last three week, and ready to place legal call as class action law suit for this processor for committing fraud with merchants. Sure it’s at large scale since many merchant has had time reconciling their statements.
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Tax Service Company
We use this merchant and have had NOTHING but problems.
Months and months of figuring out problems with the company. Lost many clients and business, asked the representative on around the 13th time calling them that they will not refund us fees charged due to their faults and problems.
To top it off? they do not accept CIBC, Island Savings, Coast capital Bank cards. Was told that CIBC is too small of a company thus why they do not service their cards.
What a load of shit. Changing companies after being with them for 2 years. Should of done it a lot sooner to save the headache.
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Lori
Big F for being on hold!! 27 minutes and counting!!! how am I suppose to run a business with this kind of response time!!
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Daniel Kerrigan
Grade of F- on hold for 1.5 hour’s only to get a unknowledgeable service rep who could not answer my questions, he did try to transfer my call & I got a dropped call sound, so tried to get online after another hour with passwords I gave up, AMAZING !
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Alan Snapp
This company is horrible. We have been with them several years and their mistake and solution is just unacceptable! We recently had our merchant account transferred to another business checking account. After about a week we noticed that we were not getting the deposits into our account. We spent 2 days talking to several people at Evalon trying to figure out what was going on. The first day they told us that a couple days of deposits were sent to our old account and the rest to our new account. We were told that there was no problem on their end and we would have to contact our bank. We contacted our bank and they told us that there was zero deposit activity from them…so we called back and tried again. Finally got in touch with a supervisor and we sent over our paperwork(again) that showed the request to change accounts. This time they realized that THEY had transposed the account number and the funds went to a different account. Then we asked about the deposits that were suppose to go to our old account….they said they all went to the other (wrong) account. How these people can have different stories about where our money goes is unbelievable for the business they are in. When we asked them what they were going to do, they told us that it will be a minimum of 2 weeks for them to recover the money and send it to us. We told them this is unacceptable because it was their mistake and not ours. After arguing with several people they would not budge on trying to resolve this problem. They all told us that it will be a minimum of 2 weeks to resolve this. This is thousands of dollars that we need for our business cash flow and now we have to struggle because of their mistake! This is not the way you do business or take care of customers. It does not make sense that our business suffers because of their mistake. Stay away from this company…they lie….have incompetent people and will not make any effort to correct their mistakes.
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A Nas
Elavon is bullshit and garbage, Elavon employees are piece of shit, i had bad experience with elavon. they don’t deposit your transaction money, and when you try to do refund, they take refund money from your account, So you don’t get transaction money plus taking money from your account for refund without deposit anything.
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Kendra
I’d not recommend Elavon. Their customer service is third rate and in general I’ve never had the help I’ve needed when calling or emailing. I’ve been hung up on when routed to the wrong person and asking to be put to the right person. I’ve had to deal with people not sending me the right forms as well as not having things explained to me in a way that is understandable making things take weeks instead of days.
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Leslie
I have been sitting on hold for over 20 minutes now with a customer staring at me waiting to make a purchase… which she can’t do until my issue gets resolved…. which won’t happen until someone answers the phone. Seriously? This is the worst customer service ever, and it is directly affecting my ability to do business. When this customer walks out (which I won’t blame her for), I will have lost a $60 sale… because a) your machine is not working and b) you won’t help me with it. Thanks.
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Catherine Chow
ELAVON IS THE BIGGEST RIP OFF !
We were forced Elavon by our new bank.
After the signing of contract they charged 489.00 from our bank account.49.00 for card reader and 369.00 for third party software CONVERGE ! Not mentioned anywhere in contract. After disputing they reversed card reader charges but not Converge fees.
In two months they had to replaced card reader several times . As after week 10 days card reader were failing. Sep 15 2016 Elavon gave us notice of termination ! We switched to paypal and returned all their card readers. Guess what Elavon started STEALING from our bank account 139.92 every month from OCT,NOV,DEC,JAn.Their excuse we didn’t gave them notice of termination ! Loadging complaint with DOB Cal, FFIEC,and Small Claim Court ! Elavon ARE SCAM and THIEF ! Will be contacting Costco !
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nancy ferrero
Since most of my problems with my machines are eventually corrected, I cannot comment on the machine. BUT the process to correct any problems, the extremely long on hold times ( ONE HOUR +) is very frustrating. They might be the worst at customer service. After your Long on hold time, you get to speak with a condescending person that should not be in the customer service industry.
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Kathy
I too am very dissatisfied with their customer service. No willingness to help and very rude. Never again. Once contract is up, if not before, I will be terminating.
ben wanono
Elevon is far the WORST company out there. they play games all day dont take there job seriously. i spend on hold 45-1 hour on hold trying to talk to customer service. there machine keeps breaking and i have to pay for it out of my pocket. they wont reimburse you back. when i first signed up with them they put $3000 in my account for no reason, i paid back of course but i needed to see proper documents, alot of Admin work on my end. they transfer you to Atlanta and half the time the people are not there do to bad weather. Costco is going down for doing business with people like this, i will not be a costco member anymore! they also have hidden fees!
DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THESE PEOPLE THEY ARE LIARS!!!
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CHARLENE CALDOZA
I co/own a small family restaurant that in a very small town. A customer service rep contacted me regarding switching to Elavon and there it began. He gave wrong information and did not supply us with all the details, or false details in a way that it could be read either way. After we realized he lied to us we contacted the company and I was told that he no longer works there, and they did not disagree when I suggested that his actions and deceit to customers was the cause for his dismissal. We had difficulty with getting the entire matter straightened out and are still dealing with it months later. They promised that they would pay for half the cancellation cost from our old supplier and after we paid $500 to cancel they said that the manager who promised this action was misinformed and that they will not help with the cancellation cost. Had there employee not lied to us in the first place we would not have had to pay this at all. The nightmare with this company has been great, and today I received another bill from them to cancel their account. We were told there would be a no charge cancellation fee. People often think that because you own and run a business you are rolling in money. They do not realize that we have bills as well. I also know that you need to read the fine print and we do. What do you do when the fine print is not done truthfully and the actual employee lies and those above him can’t be bothered to right any wrongs? We have had a tough time in the almost four years that we have been open. I believe that this will be our last year and it is not that we do not like our business but as a ‘small’ business every single dollar counts and when there are not many dollars left to count due to a large company like ELAVON taking advantage or not caring for the small fish in the sea then what are we to do?
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Lisa Padgett
How many Evalon customers were affected by the October 19, 2015 crash of hypercom models including the T4205?
I am searching for answers to this event. These devices today can still be found online for sale. Is not the word out to the public that these are useless. December 7th, 2014 was the first occurance of hypercom models crashing. Does anyone know if Evalon was continuing to lease hypercom devices after this event? These devices contain a cryptographic certificate which expires the device on a certain date without the merchants knowledge. Can this be legal? I never heard of this practice until this happened to us. We have been leasing this model for over 4 years.
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Denise Darby
I work in the Information Technology Department for Marion County Oregon. We have approximately 17 VISA devices throughout the County. We changed over to Elavon VISA devices last year and it has been an absolute support nightmare!
We first started with the VISA and pin pad devices attached to computers. We had nothing but problems with the Equinox and Elevon software crashing and constant calls to our Service Desk because the VISA devices wouldn’t work. I ended up knowing more on how to “temporarily” fix them (they would always crash again) than the people I spoke with at Elavon technical support. It was basically a COM port issue with the software that would reconfigure itself randomly and render it incompatible with the COM port settings on the pc. After several months and countless hours trying to get these devices to work, we decided to abandon the pc attached devices and go with standalone network VISA devices.
The issues did not go away on the standalones. We use static IP addresses for the VISA devices for security and for some reason they quite often change back to DHCP (automatic IP address assignment). We don’t allow DHCP on the VISA network for PCI compliance so when the devices switch back to DHCP, then they have no network connectivity and again we get Service Desk calls. I have spent countless hours supporting these VISA devices since we switched to Elevon. Each time this happens, I call Elavon support to make sure the file on the affected device reflects the static IP address that I have configured on the VISA device, and each time I call, the file has been set back to DHCP; so when the VISA device does a download, Elavon’s file overwrites the network configuration on the device and sets it back to DHCP and then it doesn’t have network connectivity.
I finally got fed up one day and asked to speak with a manager at Elavon. He admitted there was a software glitch that when a new device is ordered, it resets the Elavon’s files of each of the VISA devices on that account back to DHCP. So if we have 3 devices on that account, all of a sudden none of them work! I told him what a support nightmare this was causing our IT department and asked when it would be fixed. He did not know and we continue to keep having these issues.
I cannot tell you how frustrated our IT department and our customers are with Elavon! I would not recommend Elavon to any larger scale operation due to the frequent and repeated support issues.
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Lydia M. Castillo dba La Mano Mask Shop
Elavon Equpment did not work properly- poor quality!!
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Will Howard
ELAVON Customer Service is horrible! I wasted an entire hour today and requested a supervisor, as the original person could not figure out a solution, and then was on hold another 15 minutes before I hung up. The rep kept wanting to transfer me to the Costco Merchant Services without resolving the primary issue. Very poor behavior.
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Stephen
I’ve never left an online review (good or bad) for any product or service in my life. But, after dealing with Elavon for the past 5 months, I have to vent a bit. The communication from this company could not be any worse. Literally, their follow-up is almost non-existent. Their idea of communicating with their clients is to send a letter that arrives 2 weeks later. This company is caught in the stone ages. I’m very happy that I moved to a new processor recently who actually wants to partner with me as I grow my business.
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Rafael Villazon
These people are the Worst Service that I have ever encountered. They do not know how to handle a claim and they do not communicate well with either the customer or themselves. They keep sending out the same thing over and over via mail and fax. And when you call them you are on hold forever and its back to the same thing. I would never use them again
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Stephane B
I have been using Elavon for more than 10 years. Everything was great when they had a local representative. He closed shop an moved to Florida. Elavon never notified me about it. My Equinox card processing machine had an error message making it unusable. I tried to get help from their support services. I had one voice mail and return the call. Nobody called me again even after several email and attempts to talk to somebody on the telephone. I waited sometimes for more than an hour. When I was finally able to talk to someone, they told me that they no longer had a local representation and referred me to their regional representative. I called that office several times and left messages but nobody returned my call. After 3 weeks of being unable to process any cc, I decided to call [REDACTED – promotional content]. I am delighted by their prompt response and good rates. Now I am facing with the problem of closing my account with Elavon! Stay away from this company.
Ray
Elavon contacted me via email and snail mail letting me know that I needed to upgrade my machine to be able to accept chip cards.
Okay so I called them, finally got through to a real person and they said the upgrade required a 45 minute software download of two packages. I did not have the time for that so I needed to do it all over again. So I took time off my day-job to call them again, wait 20 minutes, finally connect to a person and begin the software upload. 40 minutes later….I had completed both and the agent said I was good to go. I arrive back at my shop on Saturday ready to accept customers and the machine says “call maintenance”. What? So I call and 20 minutes later I get a real person and she informs me that, well, some of the machines do not have enough memory to handle the upgrade and I need to buy a new chip-compliant machine. But they can’t get it to me until Monday. Um, but customers are coming any minute, can you help me set it back to factory settings? She said, no your machine is permanently disabled. So I downloaded the square app to my iphone and was up and running in 30 minutes, just in time for my first sale of t he day. bye-bye elavon.
uta
There’s NO customer service,,. I don’t call that “customer service”.
They put me on hold forever.
Don’t waste your time, time is money.
Sedge Garden Florist
For everyone’s information….Evalon is not going to answer the phones or emails….They are in serious trouble….
My bank Suntrust has contract with evalon and even Suntrust is telling me they can’t contact Evalon either……..
Don’t waste your time even trying…they are probably going out of business….and they should go out of business…..anyone who stays with them really need to examine their thought process………
Jan
So, now that I am going with another provider – how would I cancel my service if they are not answering calls? :(
Thanks!
Chuck T
I have a T4220 terimal…same problem, can’t contact anyone, it has been two weeks now. I am trying to cancel my account, I sent several emails,,,,no reply. I read in the terms and conditions to send in a termination form. I couldn’t find it on there web site, but a internet search I found this ( I tried to FAX the form to 2 different numbers. There Fax machines don’t answer either. I sent it to customer services via email……no reply. Next step will be to send it registered mail with receipt.
Jan
THANK YOU CHUCK T. WHAT ADDRESS(ES) DO YOU HAVE?
I DOWNLOADED THE FORM. THANK YOU FOR YOUR HELP.
Bobbie
Call the corporate office # 1-678-731-5000
Ray priestley
Totally agree, our terminal has been down for almost 4 weeks, elavon have done nothing but fob me of, lied about who our contract is with and they have failed to show any customer support. Bye bye elavon and Ladco. Rubish, rubish, rubish…
JAN MORSE
It started with upgrading my Costco membership to Executive to get financial breaks on the Elavon/Converge processing. Sari Rivers was the salesperson and Linda Jones was our Manager and I was very impressed with them. Well, that was the one and only time I was impressed with anything/anyone about this entire situation and by the end neither was helpful.
We were sent the wrong equipment int he first place, so when it was time to activate the system, after an hour, Marvin told us we needed to mail that equipment back and they would send another one. We waited.
The new equipment came and we finally got set up with a tablet and software and PC access, but we soon found out the Converge reports were horrible and we could not get nearly enough information from them to balance our bank statement at the end of the month. Repeated calls to Elavon yielded nothing useful to us. What was the $5.00 charge for? How can I access good reports? How can I find a breakdown for the charges on my statement??? Call to Delona on 8/7/15, at 11:10am – transferred to Chris, transferred to Michael (Manager), Email to Sari Rivers 8/7/15. Call to same number at 11:20am same day – Clinton, transferred to Michael (again) . 8/1/15 Sari Rivers – finally answered her phone (I was feeling like she didn’t want to speak to me after she signed me up!) I asked about purchasing a terminal since we were having difficulty with the tablet and PC software – she ended up hanging up on me. I left messages with each person to have someone call me back – but no one ever did. No help here.
8/18/15 talked to Amanda – she was helpful but could not solve my tablet/PC software problems. And no one had called back letting me know how much it would cost to just purchase a terminal after all the tablet problems.
Out of the blue, on 8/19/15 Linda Jones called back. I told her about all the problems we were having and she sympathized with me and would ask how much a terminal would cost and call me right back – to this day 11/4/15 – i have not heard back from her.
So, we are switching again to a bank sponsored system. Twice in less than 5 months. It will cost more, but I have a person to contact about ANYTHING!
I wish I could complain to Costco since they partner with Elavon – but, alas, no one at the Costco store knows anything about Elavon. I am very, very disappointed. I will certainly think twice about partnering with any company Costco advertises.
Francis Cabalfin
I am trying to contact them and I wait for 2 hours already and still nobody is picking up the phone. They just play the music over and over again.
Sedge Garden Florist
Francis, Don’t waste your time. They will not answer…I tried for 10 days…all hours of the day and night..was on hold one evening for 4 HOURS AND 22 MINUTES.
My bank, who has Elavon under contract, can not get in contact with them……they will not answer phones or emails…..have sent many emails over the 10 day period and get not response
You would be better served to stop dealing with elavon and select a better provider for your business…
mark
I am currently sitting on hold for customer service. It has now been over an hour. Tried resetting my password and never received the reset code via email. I plan to switch services as soon as possible. Terrible support.
Sedge Garden Florist Kernersville NC
DO NOT USE EVELON FOR ANY PURPOSE.
They overcharge merchants with hidden fees, bill you for equipment you never receive and are extremely slow in making any adjustments to the merchant even when they are in the wrong. Will not answer phones or emails. DO NOT USE EVELON FOR ANY PURPOSE. THEY ARE TERRIBLE.
Richard Talbert
Totally agree with above….Evelon de-activated my current machine so that it would no longer work at 1:27pm on a Wednesday afternoon with no advance notice. Received a terminal message to call them when I tried to run a sales transaction. They informed me the old machines were no longer being supported and I would have to get a new Chip Reader card processor. I would be charged $570.00 for the new machine, but it would be a week or two or perhaps longer before I could get one programmed and shipped due to the backlog of customers that they did this very same thing to………….And you are correct, they will not answer phones or emails……..anytime of the day or night……..Many years ago I saw one other company like this that was bad..really bad…but not as bad as these people. STAY AWAY AT ALL COST…………..
Mike M
Unbelievably horrible customer care. They’re super slow answering the phone. 30+ minutes on hold is BEYOND unaccaptable. Cryptic machines that seem to have been programmed by a child. Now tip adjustment is a thing of the past because of EMV but everyone else somehow manages to do it? I’ll be done with them within a few days. I waited two years too many to get rid of them.
John Ray
Worst merchant company i’v ever have. Customer service try to make money on me. The terminal broke down without warning. When i call them to ask for help, they know that i got stuck in their trap, so i need to pay a lot of money so they can pullme out. I decideto switch the service. Bad people. I lost lot of money, but that is ok, i am not going to be poor because of them. Do not work with Elavon or you will be cooked.
lan
I have a small restaurant and i am Elavon’s customer over 10 years. Today, they cook me to dead by putting my machine out of date without notification. Before i had asked the sale rep Gary Bell if it is ok for me to keep the old machine; his answer is “Elavon is not guarantee for any tpye of fraud” but he did not mention about the new program to push my machine out of date. I am a little bit mad with Elavon right now, because i am losing a lot of business and getting frustrated, i decide to switch the account to other company today. If you guy are new customer, don’t sign up with Elavon because you will be cooked like me in one day and they try to get your money. Good luck.
Amanda
Oh my, that must be what is wrong with ours. We are getting a sign app requested error, and I have been on hold for 2 hours waiting for them to answer and help me.. We have machines that are years old and were not notified of any changes either. This is BULL!!!!
Ken
I used to have First Data. Their fee structure and they way were charged between individual transactions and more charges at the end of the month, it was worse than a used car contract.
Elavon gives you every dime of each transaction then pulls all fees at the end of the month making much more sense and much easier to track and know what you’re paying.
June Berdine
Elavon is not a good merchant. I have problems with the chip reading, and you can never get ahold of anyone.
Sinisa Dimitrijevic DDS
When we contacted Elavon to upgrade our terminal to chip accepting one we were given the price of $500. When called to cancel the service they drop the price to $250. We still decided to cancel the service but they continue to charge us monthly fee.
We found very difficult to reach them on the phone or by e-mail so we gave up complaining to them. This is a rip- off company.
Tom
Card reader went down this morning so unable to process payments. Stuck on hold for 2 hours, then told I had to be transferred to another line. On hold 3 hours more…. Finally hung up. Now on hold another 2 hours but still nothing. Losing tons of money. WORST customer service of any company I have ever worked with. And we have paid them ALOT of money over the years. Hard to believe they can stay in business when they are such idiots. Wouldn’t they want to expedite service if it would bring them more revenue? These guys will be studied some day as an example of why businesses fail.
NIck Sawyer
ChergEtoday—-Elavon Merchant Account
This seems to become a new sickness in the payment processing industry. If you have a chance to select a payment processing provider, stay away from ChergEtoday. They have been OK, buggy unrefined interfaces and single-currency only but reliable for many years now and have recently begun to withhold funds from merchants unannounced and unexplained, for no reason.
They withdrew $28000 without asking me or my consent and then they could not find the details that why did they do this for 3 weeks and kept ignoring my calls. After 3 weeks when i sent complaints to senior members faxes and emails, they replied that they took this money out just to secure their business and keep in reserve for 9 months not 6 months. So had very bad experience with them. Be careful and keep your business safe.
They evade questions, don’t respond to any means of contact and withhold funds in order to get merchants to sign new terms which grant them liberties to suspend or withhold funds unannounced and without reason. At the same time they are trying to lock merchants into a new 3-year contract term in the fine print of the terms document. They use the withholding of funds in order to pressure merchants to sign this deal. We’ve had great relationships with them for many years, but as sad as it is, it looks like a fraudulent company now all of a sudden.
Phillip CPO
Hi Nick,
Did you intend to post this comment on our Elavon review or on our ChargeToday review?
Katherine
Is any one still alive over there at Elavon??? My machines are crapping out on me and I cant get any one on the phone?
Maria
Elavon is a thief!!! Period! Not sure why I didn’t do my research on them but I just believed MindBody Online Software where I registered my spa. They recommended me to a guy from Bluefin Payments (Edward Ferko). Because they were referred by a company I trusted I signed up with them. Next time I will do my due diligence regardless!
Too many incidents to mention but these 2 made me decide to let them go. For a few years they charged me extras on my monthly rent of the machine. It started with $30/month and increased to $97 in just a couple years! Yes the PCI Compliance was also another bullsh*t charge they added, but I didn’t sign up for that.
I had a client who came back for another high-end treatment, thank goodness she was honest and asked me why her credit card wasn’t charged the $550 she paid for a month and a half ago. I was so stunned! Elavon said they had a glitch and eventually sent the money to my account, charged my client’s and I got the money a few days later. This made me wonder how many of these instances have happened the past few years that I didn’t know about right? I mean why would a client tell me they didn’t get charged. I was lucky to have one honest enough to let me know. My fault yes I know but to trust a system like theirs is really hard to forgive! Why then did we bother getting a machine??? I could’ve stuck with Paypal, taken cash, do e-transfers or gone with my bank’s.
Since then I was on my account like a hawk. And just a few days after that incident, $175 didn’t go through my bank account and they promised to fix it within 10-14days and debit the money to my bank account but it has now been 21 days and it still hasn’t shown up. Then they threaten to charge me if I don’t send their machine back? Well I’m not sending it back if I’m not getting my $175. Small amount yes but it means a lot to a business owner.
After this I’m also going to Small Claims to sue them. Curious if any other small business have sued them? I don’t care if I lose $300 to file a claim against them, I just have to try. If any small business has sued them, please come forward and help me! And in return I will help future victims of this corporation as well.
Thanks in advance and good luck to us all.
Dr. Cassandra
Be careful about not returning their machine. They have access to your checking account and will just zap you for it. When I gave them 7 months notice that I intend to cancel, I told them that I would return their machine in advance, also, via registered mail. They told me that I did not have to return the machine as I had obtained it from my previous processing company that got absorbed by Elavon. I did not trust that and said that I would ship it back, anyway. They told me to keep it as they will just destroy the machine, anyway. So, I documented all of this, just in case. So, that being said, don’t mess with them while they have access to your money. Just get the heck out, ASAP with more than minimum notice. Or, just close your checking account on them, if you don’t need it for further transactions from them. (If you don’t give minimum notice, they will zap your account for that, also.) None of this has happened to me because I read all previous complaints and was well armed. PCI compliance fees and that stupid statement fee that is forced upon us, even though, as a small business, is obsolete, is my biggest complaint, along with crappy customer service reps that caused me to spend excess money that was unnecessary if they had had knowledgeable reps. (FYI-Their errors work the other way, too, by double paying. LOL!)
Maria
Thanks for the idea of just closing my bank account although where would they now put the $175 they still owe me?
Today I called and emailed them and Bluefin and they said they never received a copy of the transaction ($175) so I resent them the email I sent last Aug/12 to one of their employees (who I was on the phone with when he confirmed he received a copy of the transaction). They denied that employee receiving so now I have to wait another 10-14days????? It’s now the 1st of September and they will charge me again on the 15th if they didn’t receive the machine. So yeah I’m gonna have to close my bank account for this. Such pricks.
Deborah Willard
I helped to form an email group of small businesses who were all victims of Elavon/Ladco Leasing’s dirty tricks.
The DA’s office of Ventura County, California, filed a lawsuit on behalf of about 100 of us.
The ruling came down AGAINST Elavon/Ladco and they were forced to pay a settlement. I got almost all my
money back that I’d paid to these crooks in the form of fees and leasing “software.”
Here the link to the press release issued by the DA’s office in 2013:
https://www.vcdistrictattorney.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/12-030-Ladco-Settlement-Disney.pdf
What we discovered as a group, in general, was that the businesses who chose to “fight like hell” generally fared better in terms of getting out of their contracts and getting some fees back. Bottom line: ignore all their scare and intimidation tactics and fight them every inch of the way.
For more info about these crooks, check out my blog at https://merchant-scamology.blogspot.com/
Good luck.
Maria
Thanks for this, Deborah!
marcia redekopp
Hi Maria. I have lost sleep dealing with this fraudulent company. I would love to share my story with you. Dealt with a fellow by the name of Ernesto and then Harvey. I swore they were the same person. I have had to close my account and open a new one . They have every excuse in the book as to why my account was debited.THIEVES!!! I too was promised a refund.
Bob
At first when Elavon dropped us without notice after over 20 years with the same account we were upset. But after moving on to another company “Stripe”. We never looked back and thank them for forcing us to see what crooks they really were. They bought out the provider we used over 15 years before they came into play. They’re really behind in a tech sense, totally unable to help you with questions and problems. We had to trouble shoot it all ourselves and when it came to getting certified they preferred to have us pay their penalties than get things fixed. Not sure why the hell Costco would work with them but I’m sure many people sign up due to Costco then find out what crooks and how bad they really are. Even square i a better company to deal with. Years back we did not have many options, similar to the Paypal issue with them forcing you to use them. But today with more options don’t fall for their scams, lies and games to get you to go along with them.
Joyce
Worst customer service ever. Never respond on time and professionally. I have told them we have urgent to update our account information. They kept changing person to handle my case. And none of them gave me a completed list for what I needed to provide. And they did’t respond back after 24 hours. After a week, my case still couldn’t resolve. They passed my case to a credit manager Sonyna.C., who sent me the most rude email I’ve never seen. And threaten me that if we don’t provide the document they need they will close my account in 5 days. After we have used the service for years, that is the way they treat their customer that just trying to update account information. This makes us feel it is a risk for our company’s operation. And we decided to sign up another merchant service immediately. A week after the rude email. She sent me another unfriendly sentence for final notice to close our account. Elavon, thanks for your attitude. You don’t deserve we are paying thousands of dollars to you every month.
C Davis
I am disappointed that I didn’t do more research before signing up w Elavon a year and a half ago. I was persuaded to switch to Elavon w promises of saving. I’m now spending twice what I was before w a different company. When I had enough and wanted out, I was told it would cost me thousands to get out of my contract early. This has been one of my biggest lessons in business: don’t trust what the salesperson SAYS to you, READ the fine print! I hate this company!
Andrea
Worst company ever!!! Get away from this people.
they have the worst costumer service . And the worst part they pit on hold $ 14000 from my restaurant’s sales and now they took from my account $19701.9 because they think some people use stolen credit cards to pay.. I have been a victim from both sides ( the people that used stolen credit cards on my place and this company) the problem is that they have all my sales.. not just the ones that was paying with stolen credit cards.. I am with a lawyer now spending thousands of dollars more taken this headache to the court.. and I found that I am not the only bussines with this problem suing this crap company because they do the same to them.. Run away from them!!!!!!
Vicky H
I called this morning as our credit card machine bit the dust and spoke to Brandon Lucien in the sale department about a new machine. from the start i felt a lack of confidence in working with him. he was hesitant in speech, less then enthusiastic and lacked interest. we are a small business and need our machine. i was told that a machine could be shipped out at no cost to us for shipping overnight so we would have it the next day. This is what we wanted. We were given the option of purchase outright, or lease. we chose lease, and then when we were close to the wire of when they could ship out to have it arrive the next day Brandon informed me that with a lease it would take 1-3 days more to push the paperwork through. i was not happy, he insisted that he had told me this in our previous calls. Even if he had mentioned it, (which is doubt) he certainly did not emphasize it as he should have, given that WE NEED A MACHINE ASAP. i asked to speak to a manager and he said someone would call. he also said there was a tape of the calls, i asked that someone listen to the call and i definitely wanted to speak to a manager. it is now three hours later and i have received no call. this is extremely poor customer service. i would not recommend using them for new machines.
as an aside, i read through the lease wording, would not sign this lease. we are getting a new machine through our bank.
vicky H
Michael
I work with a very small non-profit organization – 100% volunteer. The organization thought it could increase donations by having a credit and debit card processing. We develop programming and activities for at risk youth. We chose Elavon – a huge mistake!!!! Our first major fundraising effort which brought in nearly $4,000 has been held in a security reserve now for 4 months. We received a letter saying “This security reserve account may be maintained by Elavon for a minimum of 270 days…” We have been on the phone weekly with them to try to get the funds release so we may continue offering our programs.
What a shock that a company the size of Elavon can operate so fraudulently!
Is there any class action lawsuits that can happen? I saw one was done in 2011.
Bert McIntosh
I am quite surprised to find negative comments regarding Elavon here. I am thinking that for sure, the majority are in the U.S. and/or that all the problems are due to the sales office since Elavon abides by the contract written by the rep and the sales office…at least that is how it works in Canada.
I have contracted with 2 sales offices for Elavon over the last 2 years and no one who has ever cancelled that I know of has ever paid any cancellation fees. Both sales offices offered ‘rate lock’ for the life of the relationship and a ‘rate match guarantee’. I have come across Merchants who signed with my current sales office 7 or more years ago and have never had any rate increases.
Here in Canada, all the sales offices selling Elavon I have come across offer interchange plus pricing and flow through assessments. Plain and simple.
They have a dedicated line for all of their MSP’s and I have never been on hold…every call answered within 3 minutes. I call a few times/day and have had the best service bar none. I have access to all of my merchant accounts online and receive an email every time a client calls in…it is all recorded, transcribed and delivered to me on my phone – on the go. I can follow up if I think it is necessary or see any negative remarks.
Makes my job a breeze and my merchants are all happy campers.
As far as PCI, it does not take long to answer the questionaire to be certified compliant and avoid non-compliant fees. If a merchant has any trouble with it, the help number to Sysnet in Ireland is indeed most helpful.
If you are a Canadian merchant and you are having any trouble, I highly suspect your sales team is the source of your problems; not Elavon. All I can suggest is ASK FOR REFERRALS from your sales rep.
Maria
I’m in Canada and nope, I didn’t signup for any PCI charges so no one should force me to answer anything that I didn’t signup for in the first place! even if it would take me a few minutes to do, THAT IS BESIDE THE POINT. They have No Right to charge extra and force their clients if it isn’t in the contract!
Katie
In Canada and the PCI compliance was not a few minutes of my time, it was hours, and calls to Elavon and my Rep that did not answer my questions. I ended up having to call several places and when I was still confused by this questionnaire and the other items in becoming “compliant” I ended up calling a computer technician to come and go through it and check everything, and do the scans and figure it all out. I am constantly getting other emails reminding me to run scans to stay compliant. As a business owner I have other things to do, this process should not be passed onto the businesses, it should be the responsibility of the merchant services provider, and as a business I should not incur any additional costs because of it. If they want to charge me it should be because they are doing the work to ensure compliance. Not charging me and giving me more work to do.
Angelina
AVOID this processor. Elavon lured me into purchasing their terminal T4220 back in 2013 and promised me that this device would for sure handle EMV in 2015. However, I got an email from Elavon on May 20 2015 stating that T4220 is not at all built for the new technology. When I called them, I was simply told that they didn’t choose T4220 to install EMV tech. I felt so betrayed because they promised me it would work just fine when I purchase the terminal for $509!! Now I’m getting a completely OPPOSITE answer! Their customer service staff never did apologize for delivering wrongful advertisement or they don’t even care about one particular disappointed customer because they are the only processor affiliated with COSTCO, the tycoon? I can see my $$$ going down the sewer. Moreover, Elavon’s T4220 doesn’t separate the sale tax from the total. Meaning that they charge us merchants the service rate out of our total sales which includes the sales taxes. Honestly, the terminal is quite lousy. We need to calculate the tax part by ourselves because the machine wouldn’t! We need to do the math on our calculator and then add the tax into the total and then input the tax separately as it prompts, confused hah?! That how it works. In this case, we need to manually separate the sales taxes and report the number to IRS. Elavon fails to provide the tax information on their monthly summary or any other reports. I sincerely have no idea about their intention on doing this. They refuse to get the problem fixed, either. I was told numerous times that this T4220 is built this way. Being an affiliated partner of Costco is somewhat prioritized and ignorant? Great job on that part, Elavon!
Eric McNamee
Angelina,
It sounds like you need to call Elavon and have them do a partial update to your terminals download file to fix the tax issue. I would call customer service and request to conference in file build to make sure the parameters are set correctly then do a partial update download on the terminal.
Paying $500 for the 4220 tells me that the rep who sold it to you made a decent commission off the sale. Sorry to say but you can find those for a little over $100 online. However that 4220 is going to be obsolete at the end of this year so it would be smart to upgrade to an EMV terminal. I recommend the Verifone VX520 terminal and if you require an external PIN pad then you can use the Verifone 1000SE. Unless your average ticket is above $60 though I would forego the external PIN pad and use Chip N’ Signature versus Chip N PIN. Also when you do upgrade make sure the processor doesn’t lock your terminal. (Terminals are like cell phones, they can be locked to the provider)
Don’t let them coerce you into a lease either as you’ll end up paying far more than the terminal is worth. Terminal leases are 48 months and cannot be cancelled and you have to call on the last month to let the leasing company know your lease is up or they’ll continue to bill you. The only leasing benefit is insurance on the equipment however you can always add it to your business insurance instead.
James
This is probably the worst company I ever dealt with! It’s run by whole bunches of rude uneducated people. The customer service wait time is anywhere between one to two hours!! They charge you for something stupid then promise you that they will reverse the charges only to find out 3 months later that they haven’t done that so. They sound to be annoyed on the phone! very unprofessional!! Only if I knew, In million years I would have signed up for this shit :(
Darryl MacLeod
I signed up with Elavon via Costco about 5 years ago. Everything seemed wonderful for a while. I purchased my card reader ($1000 or so) . Then came Christmas . I had some large ticket items that sold. (Duh-….Christmas…!) Then I took a one week vacation. People do that at Christmas time also. While I was away they tried to contact me about the customer purchases. Nothing bounced for me -ever, and it didn’t this time either. Because I didn’t respond quickly enough, they closed my account and that was it -no discussion. Rude and abrupt. I still have the card-reader hardware in a drawer somewhere. I have since done my processing with another (Canadian) company, Couldn’t be happier.
Gail Ream
Elavon is not a good company. They have bad customer service…bad service period. Their excuse is that they are a large company and large companies get more complaints. How about Apple? I think they are an even larger company but they don’t get as many complaints as Elavon. I’m glad their customer service agents don’t work for me. That’s not the way I run my business.
Phil Colby
3/19/2015
BEWARE.
1. This company (Elavon Merchant Services) will charge you 7.78% (unqualified rate as of March 2015) processing fees. Practically anything will bump you to unqualified. All in All, for the year 2014, our business paid to Elavon in processing fees, PCI compliance fees, transaction fees, non-use fees (when I finally got rid of them late last year I had a couple of months of low activity where they would charge me $35/month for under usage) and 4 other fees for over 10% in total processing fees to Elavon. Next year they’ll probably be at 11-12%! That’s Outrageous. A few years ago after many phone discussions; they lead me to believe I was just paying 2.75-3.75% and no more, they said never any more than that.
2. I was told in 2011 on the phone by customer service that my rate was 3.75% (unqualified) when actually it was 6.75 (maybe they’re trained to lie!). Currently they are at 7.78% + per transaction fees. Most of my transactions for last year were unqualified for on reason and one reason only according to their supervisor; because of the type of credit card my customer was using! (i.e. Business to business, international, Corporate, World, Visa Signature Preferred etc. are all unqualified). And on top of that the Elavon supervisors blamed the high rates on VISA and MC when SQUARE INC can somehow do it for 3.5% (see below).
3. Customer care supervisors seem shady and WILL NOT answer many questions.
4. I cancelled Elavon (I’ve been duped long enough) and currently I am with SQUARE INC. and am paying no more than 3.5% unqualified for manually keyed (verified; 2.75% qualified w/card swiped) with no per transaction fees. No additional fees for i.e. Business to business cards, international, Corporate cards, World, Visa Signature Preferred cards etc. These rates were verified by an easy phone call to Square and easy to read daily statements in my email. This is thousands of $ per year in savings! GO FOR SQUARE!
Additionally:
1. Elavon requires you to request rate reviews to keep your rates down. And who wants to be constantly requesting rate reviews in order to not be ripped off! (In other words: Everyone has a different rate). They are not going to tell you that you should request a rate review, you will find out after you’ve been ripped off.
2. The company is (probably purposely) confusing, and a total rip-off.
3. Final complaint: All the different stories I got from each different supervisor just added to the confusion.
I’m tired of getting ripped off and decided to start fighting back with on-line reviews. I was delaying a couple weeks in submitting this review because the Elavon Supervisor said that they would look into everything and get back to me. Of course they didn’t.
Best regards,
Philip C. (the Very Unhappy Customer)
My Chauffeur Transportation Co.
Portland Oregon
Doug Mann
Your comments about elavon roughly mirror my own experience, and I did switch to square as well. So far, 18 moths of Square have worked perfectly for me and no one beats their overall cost of service as you mentioned.
There are a lot of people with Elavon-like experiences with square though too – holding money with no way to get it, etc. We operate in the Bay, so at least we have the perceived advantage of being able to show up at their door if there is a problem. There is really no way to telephone Square, so I’ll probably always be a bit nervous. I wish Square would get a customer service number. Still more, I wish my bank, Bank of the West would stop “upselling” customers to Elavon. Why partner with the worst processor?
Bob Alexander
I was forced to go via Elavon because they bought out the smaller mom and pop merchant services company I originally signed up with. Elavon was always behind the times with technology from our experience, poor website integration and lousy tech support always blaming problems on everyone else.
They are very picky about anything you do but on the other end they create most of the problems. Shame on Costco who works with them, hopefully that will also change as I don’t care if they’re with Costco I’ll never use them again due their practices. I’m using Square and Stripe both of which I’ve been using for about 2 years now and with ZERO problems.
Like other complainers here Elavon will try and lull you in with promises of cheap rates, but user beware you’ll end up paying more in other fees and fake penalties they create. They started billing me $20 a month for PCI compliance issues and never told me about it. I’d been doing it fine for 20 years. Calling them, OK they have a number but its useless and who answers rarely can help you.
I’m with the new people “square” and “stripe”. Switched and never looked back, no regrets and hey its 100% better and easier.
DAR
The worst company in the universe, BAR NONE, is Elavon. I found then through Costco, and I have complained to Costco as well. Elavon is truly a bunch of liars and will offer you little to no customer service. It has been a disaster from start to finish. I ended up having to fight for all the extra charges to be reversed for nearly six months. When I got down to the last $20 and got no response, I gave up. It’s not worth it anymore. Please do not use this company for your credit card processing.
Robert Meacham
Elavon simply engages in unethical business practices. In our case we never see a bill as they are conjoined to Regions Bank and it was the bank that set up our Mom and Pop size of business with Elavon. Immediately there were fees which were unexpected and unethical. We were penalized for not having our business insurance company “prove” that we had coverage in case our humble VeriFone were to be stolen. Even though we were in compliance we paid heavily for not having our company “prove” we were covered soon enough into the contract. The monthly fees as described in the sales pitch and what reality brought were completely different.
Nhu An
Very bad experience.
They recently closed my account claiming I have not paid the bills without ever having sent the bills to me. The phone support was extremely rude saying he can’t do anything to help since I have not been paying and claiming the bills come by post.
TRUTH: no post came, even they have sent and the mail got lost, no one bothered to give me a call or email me. They have my full contact detail. I really do not understand this kind of customer treatment.
Dr. Cass
This does not make sense because they have our checking account info in order to deposit credit card sales. And, that same checking account is how they get their merchant fees by debiting that account at the first of the following month. (But, I agree that their customer service is crap. This is my last month with them. I gave them a 7 month cancellation notice, to prevent them from claiming that they did not get enough notice. I quit running my credit cards through their system 4 months ago and used only my Square account. I checked with them, in advance of my last day of their service, which I am not using, to make sure that they have accurate info as to my final service date. Of course, they have been debiting my checking account for just maintenance, every month, even though I am not using them. This, I expected, anyway, just so that I can see “freedom” from them without complications. So, hopefully, I won’t have to battle with them for continuing to debit my account after my final date of “service”at the end of this month.)
Paula
The worst company or business I have ever had to deal with. I have never been so frustrated, stressed or angry as I have been with this company. No customer service at all. I constantly get bumped to the next person as no one seems to know anything! Excuse after excuse. They withhold important information regarding fees and many other details and only tell you what they want you to know. Fees that come out of my account 2 months after account closure. What huge scam! DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY…TANGERINE OR PIVITOL PAYMENTS. They all seem to be linked together. Not sure how that works but what a pain in the ass!!!
Ashley
Elavon withdrawn more than 50’000.00 from my bank!!! The story starts here: on January 2015, i had a customer who started come to my store to buy lots of things with a prepaid card, and every transaction was approved and signed by customer too, so we never thought it would be a problem. But one day we checked our business account and found out a large amount of money withdrawn from Elavon, which was not right. So i called Elavon to ask about the withrawn, and a investigator representative said because someone used fraud master card. I would have never find out about this if I never called Elavon, how come Elavon did not aware me about the fraud card used in my store when people there already know about it? if fraud is caught, is it not supposed to be stopped?? at fisrt the Elavon people said we can get our money back, its just the matter of time. then today after a cionference call, i’m told that I wont get my money back, the money will go back to whoever that disputed! so what about me? what about my company? we’re not getting our money back? Elavon is so horrible!!! Elavon is not fair!!! Elavon protect the cardholder, the bad people who used the fraud card, but not its own client???!!! Because I used Elavon for my company as a credit card processor, I lost 50’000.00 dollars. and I had to pay monthly fees too. Wow, Elavon is really a rip off company, Its created to steal client’s money!!! I’ll make sure this is all over internet!
How
Bruce
I see a lot reviews with scam in it, etc but my experience has been nothing but bliss since I switched over from EVO Canada (Evil Canada) four years ago. EVO was evil incarnate. I signed up with Elavon through Costco Canada. Does that make a difference? You would think it’d all be the same company.
Anyway, Elavon’s terms were:
– $8 per month for the virtual terminal
– 2.24% per transaction
– $10 minimum charge per month
– 2 year term
– $125 termination fee
No other company has ever come close to those terms. They all seem to want per transaction fees for this a that, $300+ termination fees, $20 minimums and longer terms.
Elavon’s statements are so easy to look at and understand. Eight bucks plus 2.24%. Simple dimple.
Gail Ream
Bruce, whenever I see a glowing review of Elavon I suspect it’s an inside job. You didn’t mention the extra fees. They have a program that’s mandatory even if you don’t use it. The charge is $35.00 per year. Also, some other program that Anne was charged $30.00 per month for not going online and filling out a phony report of how secure your terminal is (which by the way costs $65 or $120…I forgot which. After many years I finally quit and it was fun after all the rude people I talked to throughout the years. I signed up with my bank Wells Fargo for a program similiar to Square. You seem to think what Elavon charges is reasonable…however, with my program I can take credit cards on my smart phone or ipad. There are no terminal charges. No minimum charge. No contract. No termination fee. It’s straight percentage and in line with what you are paying.
karen
Bruce, make sure you keep checking your statements and doing the math yourself… my statement also said they were charging 2.25% but when I added up all the charges on the rewards cards, etc it was more like 7% and on another store it worked out to 10%. I thought I had a good deal until I really looked closely at what was actually happening…. Wish I had not trusted them sooner… I am happily happily moving away
Anne Sellinger
Do not sign up with ELAVON. They are full of hidden fees and extra costs. I started being charged $30.00 a month because I didn’t go online and sign off on a questionnaire. I was also charge 34.95 for a website that I could use to see what services Elavon has to offer. When I terminated I was charged maintenance and monthly fees even after I hadn’t used Elavon for 2 months. They are a scam company. Stay away. They said that I had filled out the questionnaire in prior years, but I have absolutely no recollection. They have you by the balls!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Better business Bureau filing is next.
Mike
I use Elavon, BUT through Costco as an Executive member. The rates are much lower than those shown. Elavon had bu far been the best processor I have ever had!
Remember ALL sales and marketing folks will embellish, twist and tweak all the numbers to make the sale…it’s up to the Merchant to be smart enough to ask the correct and critical questions before signing a contract!
Phillip CPO
Please reply to this comment with your business and location, or website URL, in order to authenticate your testimonial.
Michael Chadwick
They DO charge an early termination fee. That is false. They suckered me in with a promise of lower fees, then proceeded NOT to save me any money. When I switched, they continued to debit my account and refused to stop doing so unless I paid a $195 early termination fee. Unscrupulous and corrupt. DO NOT use Elavaon.
Sebastian Henner
I agree with the above comments. I just wish I knew earlier what type of a shady company Elavon is.
U.S. Bank was the one who introduced me to this better way to collect money for my business. Man, I am so angry I ‘m also changing banks!
The entire process is just set against you. Please DO NOT DO BUSINESS with this company. I made a mistake and learned from it. Shame on me! And Shame on U.S. Bank for telling me about such a crap company.
Im just thinking any good review here probably is entered by the staff of Elavon. I cant see a satisfied customer with this system,.. in my opinion.
Like they say on the shows “You’re fired” or “Im Out”
Kevin McDowell
We signed up for Elavon through our bank many years ago as our credit card processor. Their rates were reasonable. But over the years, burying rate increases in small print their rates went through the roof. Some cards they were collecting close to 8%. When questioned they blamed the rewards cards and said their hands were tied. Not true! Other processors had rates half of Elavon’s for the same cards. Please read your bill- and do not use Elavon.
Pam Blanch
I would never recommend Elavon to anyone looking for a credit card processor. This is what happens when you do want to cancel your service:
1. Sent written notice to cancel our account 9-27-2014 in the regular mail.
2. Received my request back in the regular mail on 10-1-2014 with a notice that they would not cancel the account by written notice. We would have to use a website.
3. Went on the website and cancelled on 10-2-2014.
4. Received yet another bill for October, 2014 in mid November.
5. Called customer service today; hold time was about 15 minutes.
6. Asked for the charges to be reversed for the month of October, 2014, as we had cancelled in September in writing by mail.
7. Denied by the first agent because we didn’t cancel properly the first time.
8. Asked for a supervisor; denied, yet again.
9. Absolute refusal of a concession for charges that were assessed after cancellation.
Please do not use this processor unless you want fees taken out of your account even after you cancel their services. I will be reporting to the Better Business Bureau as well for extremely poor customer service.
Esther
I initially signed up with Elavon because they are affiliated with Costco. I thought they were reliable through Costco partnership. Boy, I made a big MISTAKE!!
1. Their rate for American Express Card is inconsistent as it is listed on the contract. I called in and trying to get an answer from them. I was put on constant hold and was told someone would call me back later with an explanation. THEY NEVER EVER DID. My concern is left unsolved until today.
2. Awful customer service – after I present with my issues, they will have to put me on a very LONG hold over the phone or simply disconnect on my hold! Then I need to call back over and over experiencing the same thing. The customer service is very much lack of professionalism in terms of handling issues and concerns brought up to them.
3. I can’t usually the problems solved over the phone at once. They either don’t explain it well and left with more potential problems where I had to call them back multiple times — my last calling experience was painful waiting and holding for literally one hour.
I am searching for a new merchant service.
James Stanovic
It doesn’t seem to matter what customer service tells you. I had been told repeatedly that my contract was up and that I could cancel on a month’s notice without a penalty. I spoke with customer service and was told the same thing again. I said fine, then I want to cancel. He switched me to their cancellation staff..who told me that my contract had automatically renewed! Stay away!!!
Malcom McManus
Elavon is a scam – they skim credit card transactions made abroad, by defaulting option to pay in “home” currency and charging 3.5% for that. Credit card company provides this service for free already, so this is just stealing money.
Rafael
I have just being charged 8.70 EUR for 5.89 GBP which, according to VISA webpage ( ) is a commission of… 4.60% over VISA daily rates!!! They only appear to recognize a 3.50%, but over an “intriguing” index (“Exchange Rate Mark-Up 3.50%. Reference Rate Provided by U.S. Bancorp”). There is no dude: “Currency conversion provided by Elavon Merchant Services”. Although is a small quantity, I have filled in an online complain form, asking for a refund.
Be very careful, take your time, read ALL the messages and do not hesitate to reject any quantity which appears to be written down in foreign currency: it is a fraud. This company plays with the trust, the hurry and the ignorance of customers. I think nobody expects such a commission, and that we are supposed to look very close for the “reconfiguration” option of the merchant’s dataphone in order to be charged our credit cards in the currency the merchant asks us for.
Glen
We began signing up with Elavon and LADCO because US Bank told us our software company couldn’t process our virtual merchant needs. After 2 months of confusion and tech support calls with US Bank/Elavon/LADCO we discovered our software company could indeed take care of our needs and for a fraction of the cost. When we tried to get out of our contract – that’s when the fun began! What a nightmare.
Here’s one example. US Bank folks said I had to get Elavon to cancel our contracts. Elavon told us only LADCO could approve the cancelation. LADCO said only Elavon could… At one point I was talking with Jenessa at LADCO who told me only Elavon could cancel our contract and that she had no idea who Elavon is or how they work. So I again called Elavon and after the 8 prompts one goes through to connect with a person guess who answered the phone …Jenessa. Yes, the same Jenessa at LADCO who had just told me she had no idea who Elavon is!!!
We did finally get out of our contracts (so they say) but only after a full day of phone conversations with 12 different people in all 3 companies. This is US Bank! Ouch.
Stay away!
Drew
We have been with Elavon for a number of years and mainly good experiences. I like Mr. Parker’s summary as our volume is anywhere from $7K in slower months to just over $30K.
Recently we rented 2 terminals from Elavon for a short term – they were quick to ship and help set them up – yet billed us for an extra terminal (billed for 3) – several calls and several months later we are still waiting for them to stop billing for the extra terminal (all are returned now, yet last month still hit my account for 1) and still waiting on a credit for the billing.
I’ve spoken with a few representatives that agreed we shouldn’t have been billed for 3 terminals and promised a refund and stoppage of the billing for almost 4 months. Our bank is now involved and has indicated we should see a credit next week – thankfully!
My biggest issues are – how can they ship two and bill for three – is there no quality control? Even after I identified the problem, they researched and agreed, yet they still continue to wrongfully withdrawal the funds – three months after I first contact them.
I would think if we were a larger processor we may have some better resolution – I hope that getting our bank involved has truly resolved the issue – I’ll see if we 1) get the refund and 2)have the billing ceased.
Jacob Montgomery
tried signing up with them but never received anything and now they tell me I owe them 1400 bucks … now there taking money right out of my account I don’t even have the terminal these scam artist are horrible do not use there services im having such a hard time dealing with these crooks
Jacob Montgomery
they tricked me into signed up never gave me my machine and now there saying I owe them 1400 no matter what and there going to take it out of my account for give me bad credit. I don’t have a machine I don’t have customers to take credit cards from so why do I need your service and why do I owe u 1400 for nothing????
Philippe
How many cancel requests must one make? Erroneous charges for their incompetencies…Terrible service, difficult and painstaking to deal with to summarize. They have slow response (I had to request service cancelation on 2 different occasions), slow turn around, they bill client for delayed delivery of return package (you pay if the parcel isn’t delivered). My assigned representitive Tamara simply passed the bucket once she new I wished to cancel their services (yet she was designated as my account representative). She didn’t offer to follow up on my behalf nor did anyone offer an apologee. This outfit is more focused on following their own precedures rather then provide any kind of customer service… Thought I would try them out (tried 2 providers) and glad I found how much cheaper a competitor was (savings of about 30% based on real actual data). I love Costco and go there all of the time I’m shocked them they’re doing a JV with such a poorly operated company. I wish them Chapter 11!
david palatnik
If you thinking about joining Elavon do yourself a favor and don’t do that, They charged my bank account $8000 in one week for no reason and no one over there seams to care about that, I don’t think I’ll ever see the money back- maybe I’ll go to court on that issue, this company is a death penalty for small business, go to Square or something similar.
Nick
PHANTOM, UNACCOUNTABLE, INVISIBLE THIEVES !!! DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH THESE IRRESPONSIBLE & PERVERTED CROOKS!! BAD FOR BUSINESS!!! AVOID LIKE THE PLAGUE!!
They miss-sell inappropriate card terminal contracts through “bonus hungry” agents! They then find excuses to freeze your account whilst it has huge sums of money settled and authorised that belong to merchants, leaving merchants in the dark for weeks about what’s happened to thier money…and then send out letters cancelling merchant contracts, whilst informing them that thier unpaid funds will (and I quote) : ” Without further notice to you, apply the funds held in Reserve against any outstanding or future payment obligations.
They have put my successful business in total jeopardy because of this… Not to mention other irresponsible cock-ups that they are fully to blame for, yet shrug off any blame with thier disfunctional system that is far too big and dissjointed to cope.
If you think getting a card payment authorised with Elavon means you are paid as a merchant..?
THINK AGAIN!! I AM OUT OF BUSINESS RIGHT NOW THANKS TO ELANON!
Tiffany
I AM DEALING WITH THIS EXACT SITUATION!
I have only been with them for a month and have had over $1,000 deposited but all of a sudden a spike in sales DURING THE HOLIDAYS they froze my account withholding almost $6,000 in sales. I was told since December 11th they would release funds in 72 hours and kept stringing me along with long wait times bouncing me from department to department leading to voicemails and never getting a call back until December 21st. I felt something was wrong because as a processing company they should know that sales increase during holiday season so there’s no need for holds, so I stopped capturing payments until they released the $6,000 to me. So I have another $5,000 in orders just sitting in my shopify that have yet to be collected. Anyways on the 21st I got a call from a very rude rep who told me they are parting ways with me and holding the funds in reserve and when she feels it’s appropriate she will release the funds. I asked what about my customers who ordered things how am I supposed to refund their $ or ship their item when I’ve never received payment and her response was “that’s on you to figure out as a company”. WHAT COMPANY IN THEIR RIGHT MIND WOULD SEND AN ITEM WITHOUT BEING PAID FOR IT? IT MAKES NO SENSE! ELAVON RUINED MY COMPANY BECAUSE NOW I HAVE NEGATIVE REVIEWS AND PEOPLE THINKING MY STORE IS A SCAM AND THEY RUINED OVER 100 OF MY CUSTOMERS CHRISTMAS!
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Are you with Elavon? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Dave
Elavon does Not have cancellation fees. What are you guys saying? And if you signed up with Costco or other Elavons sales office (ISO) you should contact them for all your issues.
I am a sale rep and my office works with Elavon and all our merchants call us for anything they need. We never charge for terminals or any cancelations fees and if a merchant wants to close their acccount for ANY reason, we have Elavon close the account the SAME Day that merchant request it.
You guys must of signed up with the wrong sale offices (ISO). Elavon is a GREAT company.
Before signing any contracts or agreements with Any processor you must Trust your salesrep more then trusting the company behind him. We the salereps could do a lot to help merchants resolve problems. I always give my cell number to my merchants. You should always ask your salesrep for his/her cell number and ask him if there is any issues is he going to help you or the processor?
A good salesrep Will and Can ALWAYS help merchants better.
Good luck to all :-)
Jeff
Dave must be paid off by Elavon
We were charged a $500 cancellation fee to close our account, despite having been with them for over years.
Elavon is a company that will screw you at any and all opportunities. They are a company that should never
be dealt with, and would make a lot of people happy if those crooks were finally put out off business.
To call them thieves really not fair to all the honest thieves out there.
I would strongly suggest anyone looking at using Elavon to look elsewhere.
Wes
We had the same problem with getting rid of them. Approaching the end of our 5 year contract, we called with 3 months remaining and they told us we could get out of it but we had to pay them, otherwise we were supposed to give them 6 months notice! They’re leaches and they won’t let you go even if you are totally dissatisfied with their service. We have fought them for the entire 5 yrs we were with them! RUN if they approach you!
Dr. C.
You have to be 10 steps ahead of them. I spent 1/2 hour, yesterday, giving them SEVEN MONTHS notice that I want to terminate 3 days after my contract end date for next year. I was told that I didn’t have a contract and that it was with EMS whom they bought out and with whom I was originally signed up. Made them accept 7 months notice, anyway, (just in case they suddenly decide to charge early termination fees). Told them that I would ship the terminal back, registered mail, before the termination date. They said that the terminal was not theirs and that I should keep it because it was between me and EMS, my original processor. (I will ship it, anyway, in case they try to charge me $395 for it as was stated in the contract with EMS.) I asked for email confirmation of our conversation with my termination date. The rep, Robbie, said that they do not do that, but there is a transcript of our conversation, which I can request, later, if I need it around my termination date. And, she said that an email of termination will be sent at that time, in March of 2015. And, after all this conversation, she says that they do not have my merchant number in their system and only have it because I gave it to her. I told her that I gave them that number because that is the one on the statements that they send me, monthly! Are these people for real??? Robbie talked in circles and vaguely and kept having to “consult three supervisors”. Do they train these reps to converse like that, vaguely? Well, in the end, I DID get an email confirmation of my termination dale (that she said that I could not get until next year), right after the phone conversation, and it does have my merchant number. These people are scary! Maybe, it is just that the reps are extremely poorly trained? Or, are they trained extremely well, to leave loopholes? I don’t know which it is, but I am getting the h—- outta there! I have had these runarounds with their customer service, in the past. And, with a whole lot of “passing the buck” Robbie claims that Elavon is transparent, but I think NOT! (Now, to take extra steps to protect my bank account so that they do not get more than they are entitled to.)
Gail Ream
If Elavon is so great why all the bad reviews? I was with Elavon for over 12 years before I finally got fed up with the poor customer service and the constant adding of services I couldn’t use but got charged for. I’m now with my own bank Wells Fargo and I’m very pleased. The customer service is good, there are no “extra” fees and the money is in my account the very next day and I take payments on my phone or tablet. I’m so glad I made the change.
Bob Alexander
We became familiar with Elavon when our credit card merchant was absorbed by Elavon so it was not our choice. On the phone their staff tends to be cold and often “NAZI” types who will judge you and often penalize you without actual proof of having done anything wrong.
I feel dealing with Elavon is not worth it, they’ll require a great deal of personal information and then give you BS excuses why. The real reason is they want to make sure if anything happens they can go after you personally. The truth is there are many better and more professional companies out there. Even cheaper options. Like anything with time technologies change and better options often replace the problem companies like Elavon.
You can go into your local hardware store like Home Depot and pick up a card reader for your smartphone for $10 and even sign up over the internet for online credit card merchants for less cost. Elavon is currently working with Costco however they are not the same quality company with the same standards as Costco.
Avoid Elavon at all costs, their Virtual Merchant online software is out of date and medieval. Its also far more complicated and harder to set up. Nothing about Elavon to like, their prices, staff, fees and rates. Do yourself a favor and look elsewhere for a credit card merchant.
Jeff Fleischmann
Elavon is a company not to be trusted or given business. I had been a customer for over 5 years, as Elavon
had bought out the company I originally had a deal with(Tangerine Concepts). After they raised their rates by over 75 basis points, I told them I wanted to cancel my contract, which with the original firm was a 2 year contract . I was then told that Elavon automatically renews the contract every 2 years, and that I would have to pay $500 to have the contract ended. So the numbers you read above are incorrect.
Elavon will try and gouge you at every opportunity, I would suggest anyone looking to find a payments processor to avoid Elavon, they are not a company with which you would want to do business. They use every legal trick they can, and you had better read every single word in their contract, as they will stick it to you at each and every opportunity. They are nothing but thieves masquerading as a payment provider.
Darek
This is not true. Elavon never had auto-renewable contract. They even stopped charging early termination fees in 2012. They also recently lowered lease pricing and added additional paperwork so the customers can’t claim ignorance when they don’t need the credit card terminal anymore and want to get out of the lease. I think some of the complianers here are no different than their customer who stiff them by starting chargeback proceedings against them.
Gail
Darek you must work for the company. I’m sure some of the complainers may go a little overboard but that’s what dealing with Elevon does to you. When I would call in with a question I usually got a rude customer service agent. They added fees and more fees. After they list the regular fees they list “other” fees. They built a website to help their business customers and then charged $35 or so even if you didn’t use it. They told me it was “good” for me. I was so happy the day I called and closed my account. It was fun.
I’m now with a company that actually did what they said and they have not charged me any “other” fees. Also the money is in my account the next day even on the weekend which never happened with Elevon. Best of all their customer service agents are nice and helpful.
Oscar Blanco
Gail, could you provide the name of the company you’ve had a good experience with?
Gail Ream
The card processing company that I now use is my own bank Wells Fargo. They recently added a service similiar to “Square” where I can process my customers credit cards with either my iphone or my ipad. I’m extremely happy with their service.
Jeff
This is absolutely true, it is precisely what happened to our company, One small 2 sentence line on a end of month statement saying that within 90 days rates are going up 0.5%, which for most people translates to a 1/2 of one per cent increase, as opposed to the 50 basis point, or approximitely 20-25% increase in rates. In fact, we purchased our machine over 5 years ago, so whatever it is you are talking about in regards to leasing does not apply in our case, as none of the equipment was leased. So maybe next time you could come back with a somewhat informed
opinion, Are you being paid by Elavon?
Kim
I equate their level of customer service and trust/reliability with ATT, so I’m sure you know where this is going. We terminated our agreement with Elavon/Regions months ago, but are still being charged 34.00/month. I call every month, get a call ticket numner and a promise for a refund. Still nothing. The new rep always blames it on the last rep not submitting some form. Seriously, beware. You will never rid yourselves of them. Ever.
Cassandra Roberson
I am counting down the days until I can get out of my last contract with them. I, unwittingly, signed a new 3 year contract in exchange for a new free terminal, after my previous one broke down. Now, I have to deal with Elavon for one more year. I, already have Square set up on iPad, easing that in, as I cringe out the end of my contract with Elavon, ending in 2015 with Elavon. I will send cancellation, well in advance of the 120 day requirement, via registered mail and multiple online cancellations (for evidence and documentation) and will return their terminal via registered mail to make sure that they do not find excuses to zap my bank account as they have done to others. Sick of their excessive fees that do not serve me as a small business.I don’t trust them, one bit.
Glenn
Elavon has been TERRIBLE to deal with. They offered me a “Free Notebook” for switching which ended up costing me more to ship than it was worth. Recently, my so called welcome kit was incomplete twice. The number I called for training put me on hold for 40 miins then 20 mins beforte I could speak to anybody! In the firtst 2 months they have twice sent me a form letter with my company name spelled wrong telling they were cancelling my account without any explanation. This time I am leting them cancel.
What a waste of time!!
Josephine Valino
I am a customer with Elavon fromerly Nova through Costco for more than five years now. I have made my mistakes before trusting the customer representives over the phone without asking for their names and document my call #. I just overlook it and move on. But this time I am not backing down. Because my cell phone doesn’t support any of the wireless devices, I need to do it the old fashion way of using the knuckle buster on the road and input the info. manually on the terminal. I called customer service to advice me of this standard. The rep on the phone was very nice. He explained to me there are two ways to go about it. The first one is get their cc#, street # and zip. He recommended the second option is voice authorization. He CLEARLY TOLD ME NO EXTRA CHARGE for the service EXCPECT WHEN I SPEAK TO A REP LIVE, then it will cost .90 each transaction.
I was very happy knowing this info. Today I received my statement and there is a $15 authorization charges on my bill. I was shocked call customer service to clear this issue. The rep was trying to help but not in her power to do much. I was transferred to a manager. He told me that he couldn’t do anything for me because I initialized the transactions. Well, of course I did! I trusted the customer service rep to give me proper information and advice. Isn’t that what we are paying for? I am not concern about the extra $15. Is the misleading information from Elavon. If I know there is a fee, I willing to pay for it. The short of it is that the manger tried to find my call log so he can train this rep properly. But still can’t do anything for me. I am sick of paying for Elavon’s employees’ mistakes! I totally lost faith and trust in this company! I will address this issue up to the Ceo of Elavon and Costco. They are ripping off small business by having untrained employees!
Lesson learned. Not to trust any financial merchant customer rep over the phone and document my calls! Can’t trust this company anymore!
JV
Josephine Valino
I have escalated the problem up to the PR Personnel. She took my case very seriously. She had the company refund me my fee and wrote a formal apology letter. She listened to my concerns about Elavon and discussed the issues up the chain regarding their customer support department. I am happy that someone does care for us small businesses out there. So, if you guys happened to run into any issues make sure to take it up to someone who can shake some sense out of the company. Lesson learned, always log my calls and ask for the rep’s full name in the future to avoid any unnecessary fees.
Guy
Biggest rip off I have ever been associated with. These people take take and take some more. I have canceled my account two months ago and they are still taking out monthly fees. Telling me I have to talk to my representative. Well I dont have a representative. I am forced to go to my bank and have my bank stop these people from stealing my hard earned money. I compare this to OBAMA care. Tell you one thing and do another. This business should be shut down.
Tracy
I switched Banks to US Bank and they recommended Elavon for my small business. My first mistake was trusting US Bank. I signed a 3yr contract and by the time I realized all the “hidden” fees attached I still had a year left on contract. A company that does not offer a month to month is the first red flag. I had not used them for 6mo due to the CRAZY high fees. I cancelled and for what ever reason it could not be closed till the 7th of the month. Mind you I have been paying for 6mo already on something I did not use. The lady taking my cancellation said that if they took money out of my acct. to call and they would refund since it was the first week of the new mo. I had been told that twice by 2 different agents. I checked my acct. and sure enough they took out another payment. I called and was told if the contract goes into any part of a new month they will charge and that I was misinformed. I use another company now that tracks my sales and I can see exactly what I am paying. No fees when not being used. That is the way a trustworthy company works. Unless you like throwing money away, run do not walk from any bank that recommends Elavon.
steven
I am in Ottawa/Gatineau area. I am with Elavon for a few years. I did not check my transactions carefully before. After I paid more attention with my new terminal recently, I found out that many transactions in the amount of thousands dollars were missing since July, 2013. I have to do tedious work to call them to find out which are the missing tansations and credit card numbers and reenter the amounts,
To avoid the problems, stay away with Elavon.
David
Elavon has been steadily ramping up my monthly fees and I plan on cancelling my service with them. I’m disgusted that TD Bank recommended them. I only take occasional credit card payments and call in for authorization each time. Even if I process nothing as is usually the case, they take $40.00 out of my pocket each month. Go through proposed contracts with them with a fine-tooth comb. It’s amazing how well they’re set up to scam small businesses who are just getting into credit cards.
Wish me luck in contacting them and getting this cancelled. I suspect I may need to close the account they draw from to stop them even after I cancel.
Gail
I had no trouble cancelling. In fact it was fun. The person taking my cancelation order was telling me how much the “fees” helped me. Right. I have been using my new service for a month now and love it. I take credit cards on my iphone and/or ipad. Much better service than Elevon and much cheaper.
carla sarvis
BEWARE SEASONAL ACCOUNTS: I purchased a wireless credit card terminal from Elavon through Costco over three years ago for nearly $1,000. I am a seasonal business person and was informed at that time that in order to avoid ongoing monthly fees i needed to close my account when not in use and then re-open again when ready. Not a problem and I did that for three years.
So like any regular person I thought I “bought my terminal”…that i actually purchased something to own and it was mine….part of my business and a business expense. I was never ever told, nor did I ever read that being a seasonal account provided absolutely no terminal security……I was never informed (until 2 days ago) that when closed, the terminal’s wireless activity (it’s ESN) would be shut down AND would never work again. That the terminal was useless due to “inactivity”. That I would have to MAIL BACK the terminal i had and Elavon would mail me a used one. That I “was lucky” it didn’t happen to me for three years. They tried to put the blame on Sprint and said it was Sprint who “sold my ESN” due to inactivity. No…I foung out today it is actually Elavon.
So….the terminal i bought is now useless. After many phone calls, I am told by Elavon that it’s “protocol” to do this to seasonal accounts!!! I would beg to say that this is a SCAM on Elavon’s part as we never really own anything!….you either pay $20/month to “own” your terminal or it is rendered “useless” if you are seasonal. What did I buy for $1,000????? There really isn’t a “seasonal business account” with Elavon and I find it disgusting that they do this. I do NOT recommend them.
Marissa
BTW – I had the same experience as Michele Dean when I finally cancelled. Got charged for TWO (!) additional months because 1) I didn’t have 5 days advance notice for the coming month and 2) by the time the cancellation people received my form by mail, they had already processed the charge for the next new month.
Sorry I didn’t post an immediate review about that experience here, but I was just too livid.
I’ve posted here before probably back in 2011 and even though I don’t use Elavon anymore, I prefer to keep getting email updates from this site. That way, I’m always reminded as a cautionary tale that there are horrible, greedy-ass companies like Elavon .
It’ was an expensive lesson, but it’s made me a better, wiser, scrutinizing small business owner.
Mike
Elavon’s business practices are disgusting. I don’t know how some of those people can look themselves in the mirror at night.
CPO
Hi Mike, can you expand on your review?
Gail
This company should rename itself from Elevon to Fees. Fees, fees and more fees. When you call to find out what the latest “fee” is that you were charged for the customer service person tries to convince you it’s for your benefit. I finally got fed up after years of using Elevon and got so much satisfaction out of cancelling. The lady that cancelled me said everyone loves the fees and the benefits they provide…although she couldn’t tell me what those benefits were. Enough is enough.
Esteban Campodemayo
Terrible customer service. Waste of time. It took months to cancel. Much better alternatives are available. You have been warned.
MICHELE DEAN
I HAVE had a account for almost three years, and have used the service twice, i am paying $52.99 per month in fees, i have asked twice to cancel it and have been quoted huge buyout fees. july 1st i requested a close and they submitted a waiver fee to prevent a payout fee, but they didn’t tell me i needed to fill out a form 5 days in advance of the month to get the monthly fee sotpped so it is 8/1 i have a new fee for july and another one for $52.99 which will be billed for August “because i didn’t do the form 5 days in advance”. the customer service rep was awful, read from a canned script and didn’t care either way. this company was the biggest mistake of my life, the fees are horrible. BUYER BEWARE!!!!!
s. cromwell
I left Elavon because their fees were too high compared with other competitors. I faxed a cancellation notice and they claim they didn’t get it even though I had fax confirmation. They continued to charge me the minimum fee for three months after I closed the account and had to argue with them to get them refunded. They are trying to get additional funds even after account is closed. Don’t recommend them.
chyerl burton
where do I find the cancellation form? It’s impossible to locate.
Thanks!
Gail
I just called in and cancelled and made sure I knew exactly what they were going to take out of my final bill. I just got billed and it was for the correct amount.. Get the name of the person you talked with. I didn’t need a “form”.
Christina
I have worked with various credit card companies. An elevon representative made all sorts of promises and offered all of these great rates if I signed a 3 year contract. After 2 months or so, the changed the rates. They then added about 300$ in extra fees throughout the year. When I complained, they told me that It was in the fine print that I would have to pay any extra fees. Yet they couldn’t explain what exactly the fees were for. After 2 years, I decided to cancel early. It is a 14$ a month charge not counting any fees, and I could use intuit or square for free. I called the company and asked to be removed. They agreed. Then 3 months later I noticed they were still taking out fees. I called again but they couldnt find my account and suggested I call the bank because they werent the ones taking out the fees. I call my bank, it’s elevon. It takes me a couple months to find the time to call them and sit on the phone and hold for over an hour. I try and cancel again. This time, they finally find my account, then tell me I had to fill out paperwork and fax it to them. I ask why I wasnt told this before? They treat me like I’m lying. I ask if I can have the fees removed, they say no. I fill out the paperwork and fax it. They receive it, send me an accepted fax…. YET! I am STILL having money taken out of my account. Worst company ever. Thieves and liars.
Elavon Victim
Beware – Elavon will do their best to take your money and give you nothing for it. They have been deducting monthly fees from our account even though contract has expired and we have completed their “close request” form/fax 3 times. Spent several hours on the phone with “customer service” who promise that there will be no more deductions and guess what? Each month, we can count on Elavon automatically deducting their unearned monthly fee!
Elavon Victim
I opened an Elavon account and they had no problem with accepting my processing volume and low chargeback percentage after reviewing my previous 3 months statements with my current processor.
Only one month into Elavon, they terminated my account because I had $350 in chargebacks on over $120,000 in processing volume. They gave no rhyme or reason for this and refused to answer our questions. When confronted with the fact that my chargebacks were NOWHERE near the 1% threshhold that triggers an account review, they simply said “we reserve the right” per our terms.
I brought this to an attorney who confirmed that I never signed or otherwise agreed to a contract saying that “they reserve the right to terminate at any time without cause” and, on top of that, such a clause in a contract is invalid anyway because, as the lawyer explained, it constitutes what she called a “Contract of Adhesion” and those do not hold up in court.
Due to Elavon’s deep pockets we will be filing suit and publicizing it big-time.
Gail
When I cancelled they told me those “fees” would protect against chargebacks.
Kk
I signed up in March 2013 and immediately had problems. If I voided a credit card transaction in showed “out of balance” the next day. Then I had to spend an hour on the phone with customer service who sent over a list of my credit cards that day that I had to “rerun” the tips as sales 3 to 5 biz days later. Is this even legal? I lost over $50.00 per week in tips that I could not recover later or they did not send all of the cc #’s that I had to input manually as sales (oh and they are charging me for those by the way). Calling the sales person in ridiculous. Absolutely no clue what he is doing…John Escher by the way…thanks dude. Called Elavon actually pretty nice about returning the $100 fee (I wasn’t told about)…but LADCO who is an offshoot of Elavon is now going to sue me after I used the terminal for 2 1/2 weeks,,,,begged to return it and they want 1711.00 for a 2 year contract I guess I signed but didn’t get a copy of….really folks? I will spend $33.00 per month to block your $49.22 per month out of my account. Blocked everything with these folks….don’t do it…don’t do it….don’t do it…
Tracy
In January I contacted Elavon to request my account with them be closed. I followed all the necessary steps as requested by the CSR I spoke with to ensure that the account was closed. I was told that I would have to pay the service charge for January which I was more than agreeable with. I made sure to ask if there would be any other charges and I was told very clearly that only the SC for January would be taken out of the account. At the end February Elevon took an additional $195.00 from my business account. When I realized this I immediately called to have the matter cleared up. It was at that point I was told by a CSR that they should not have taken the money. I’ve been trying for close to a month to have the funds returned and have gotten nothing but a run-around from not only CSR’s but Funding supervisors as well. I would not recommend this company to any business. I am also sorry that Costco is associated with them
Jeff
I work at a bank and refer often to Elavon. They have cancelled their contract requirements since this review was written, and all of our clients are month-to-month. They also have rolled out mobile pricing that’s similar to Square, and though there’s a $10 monthly account fee and you have to buy your card reader, you get around the holds that Square puts on transactions. Visa and MC transactions are next-day if your bank is one of their partners.
That said, their customer service is basically everything you hope to not have to deal with: long holds on the phone, complicated automated menus, and the quality of the help you receive can vary pretty wildly depending on how experienced the rep is.
mickey
Wow, i couldn’t disagree more, Since changing over to Elavon I’ve almost halved my card processing costs, and the service has been exceptional, they include an online management tool, free, with your account other providers can charge up to £120.00 a year for the same facilities. I whole heartedly endorse Elavon and would recommend them to any UK merchant looking for a better deal.
Phillip CPO
Hi Mickey,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to verify your testimonial. Thanks!
Marissa
What – Mickey – no reply?? Thought so. Thanks Phillip for calling out a fake review.
I keep waiting for Scumbag Elavon to go out of business. I used them for 2 years. I can relate to many of these negative reviews. Best thing I ever did was cancel their so-called service.
Keep up the good work with this site, Phillip!
Rob
We were told that there were “NO” contracts and if we were not happy with the service in any way and wanted to return the system we could with no ties or commitment. I have talked to this guy in the Vancouver office, his name is “Lucky” and he will not listen to our concerns and still wants us to pay for the machine which adds up to $1500.00.
They lack morals and their integrity is a big “0” !!!!!!
I will never deal with these guys again and if their representitives keep lying to potential buyers and users, they will go out of business fast!!!!!!!!!!!!
Scott Leduc
I have been fighting with this company for 3-4 months now as they continue to debit my business account, I’ve been wasting hours on the phone telling them to close my account, they send me a secured attachment email with papers that they want me to fill out but the attachment has nothing in it?
Can anyone help me ? I just want to close my account and get rid of this company!
DONNA THORNTON
Call 1-877-326-7990. They can fax you the form and then you fax it back after filling it out. On the form, there is an area to request account closure confirmation by either fax or e-mail. I faxed my request in on 1/07 and received a fax confirmation on 1/10. Hope this helps.
John
Hidden fees, high processing cost and unexpected expenses, They offer it all…
Bisi
I will never recommend Elavon for any business owner. They are inefficient, non compassionate and greedy. After they approved a credit card transaction, the card later turned out to be stolen, they made me bear all the financial responsibility, the stress and the loss finally made me close my business.
Michele
Glad to see that I’m not alone in this rip crap from Elavon!! And even worse is it that our bank recommended them!! We are a small business and have only been opened approximately 2 yrs. – this was our first credit card processing company, and until I find a reputable one, will be our last. The rep that sold us on this company promised us the world, I guess you would say, and it went down from there!! 60 days later he was no longer able to be contacted, as he no longer worked for them and he “supposedly” according to the company, did not disclose to us all of the terms and agreement under the contract we signed. The fees and additional charges every month became my worst nightmare. Until they informed about what it would cost to cancel the contract!!! The amount of $295.00 for the first year and $195.00 for the 2nd and 3rd !! Then the charges for their stupid PCI certification, we were penalized $125.00 plus another $100.00 for the certification itself. Which they informed me if you get certified we will refund that. I not certified alright, but was never refunded that $100.00 either. When I called to complain and want to talk to “Jennifer – Ext.~~~” , they said there was no one at that extension with that name and they had no Jennifer’s!!!!! This BS continued until November of last year when I ran one (1) credit card in the amount of $165.00 (we finally began requesting our customers PLEASE NOT to use credit cards and we would rather take an out of state check!! The last transaction I ran in the amount of $165.00 – they charged us exactly $ 64.75!!!! Do the math!!! That is nuts!!! When I called to complain – I got the complete run around, charges for every imaginable thing they could come up with – you talk about hidden fees!!! That was IT !!! Furious I hung up, called back the next day, requested to talk to a supervisor and cancel the whole thing!! I will eat the $195.00 out of my own pocket rather than put up with them another day. In the long run it will be cheaper to pay the $195.00 than have them continue to charge us astronomical charges every month!! I’m sure it won’t be that easy, and I WILL change banks if I have too!! (also informed the supervisor their PCI certification was a joke, and that any idiot could pass it. IF YOU HAVE THEM – GET RID OF THEM NOW!!!! Good Luck
Michele
Just an updated since my original comment in January 2013 ~ my nightmare still continues, which I should have taken the advice and closed our bank account, with Bank of the West!! I did dispute addition charges from the company, in person at the bank, that got me absolutely no where!! Even after filling out all the paper work, it was denied by the bank!! I originally did fax the cancellation request to Elavon in January and was informed in February I would have to send it again because they couldn’t find it!! I had my fax confirmation in my hand but I sent it again!! They CONTINUED to charge me monthly fees – I have to admit I did receive a refund of approximately $55.00 BUT was not refunded the PCI fee! And the last week in March they charged me the $195.00 cancellation fee, which the rep said she would “try” to get the waived!!
Not sure when it will stop!! I guess when I change banks!! LOL
Margaret Allender
Without realizing it I was signed to a contract with Elavon by an independant rep. As a result Elavon would not talk to me about my account. They would always say you have to talk to the rep that signed you up. Well the rep that signed me up said he would pay my early cancellation fees from my former processor which was $675.00. Also he claimed he became ill and was no longer affiliated with Elavon as he could not work. Elavon told me I had to deal with him not them. So I was caught. The rep stopped returning my calls and seemed to drop off the planet. Needless to say I had to pay the early cancellation fees of $675.00. If I had a problem with my credit card processing well too bad Elavon would say we can’t help you. I stuck it out to the end of my contract. I tried once again to contact my rep to cancel my services and this time he answered. He said he didn’t care that he didn’t make any money off me anyway. I told him that only he could close my accounts. It didn’t happen. One account was closed but the other one was not. And as of this month Elavon is still charging me a monthly fee. although they have not processed any sales for me for 4 months. I have no way to cancel. I am still stuck paying for services I am not using. I closed the bank account that they were using but they will probably threaten to sue me. I will just tell them sorry I can’t help you, you will have to talk to my sales rep.
Gary Lee
Does anyone have the form to cancel our account. They sent one, my husband filled it out and sent it back and they are claiming they never received. He forgot to make a copy. They keep sending these “Secured Emails” that are ridiculous. Every time we reply back it says it didn’t get sent or received. They promised to refund fees, since we haven’t used the account since October, but we can’t get through to them. Need the form again to send registered letter.
Thanks.
Todd Golterman
I found in one of the other comments a phone number that I called, responded correctly to the voice prompts and got to someone that provided some answers. Try this number (877) 326-7990.
Barb
Same as others on this comment section just out of the blue got a funny illegal transaction message when I put through a payment after 10 years of using it. I phoned 3 different people at Evalon and everyone was incredibly stupid and with no idea of what they were speaking about. I just kept phoning back until i got someone who told me to phone our gateway provider who told us they informed Elavon a year ago to tell their customers they were shutting down our gateways so we could make new arrangements. I got nothing so i can’t believe a company would be so incompetent.
Kathy Schaefer
I have been a customer of Costco/Elavon for over 10 years. For the most part no problems. Then one of my clients wanted to process American Express. That was a 2 day dog and pony show. Approved, finally I processed in excess of $10,000. Two days after Christmas as I was again processing a transaction a strange code came up. I was informed that my account was closed and they would send me a letter. I was totally shocked. After 10 years of loyalty, they simply shut me down. I need to process funds for payroll, etc and I have been scrambling over the holiday to change companies. No on at Elavon will return my calls and I will take my business elsewhere. There are plenty of companies out there, I would really shop before I give my business to Elavon.
Upset client, Kathy
Jose
I am a sales rep For Elavon. I started to work for them about a month ago after working for Wells Fargo Bank for the previous 9 years. I would hands down recomend Elavon over Wells Fargo Merchant Services, Worldpay, Chase or Firstdata. As of Sept of 2012 all new accounts do not have a contract it is month to month unless you sign a lease. You can always sign up with a new company and keep paying the lease no need to terminate it if you are getting a good deal. All these new fees that are being released are thanks to Walmart and the big retailers who fought Visa and Mastercard on fees that they were being charged. Republicans stepped in and created the Doss Frank bill. It’s the same fees just titled in a different name. Just wait until 2014 when everyone will be forced to update all terminals because the Visa/Mastercard will be issuing EMV chips and banks will start to issue them this summer. All terminals must be able to support the cards or the business owner will be liable for all fraudulant charges.
Good luck!
DONNA THORNTON
Well, fortunately my contract with Elavon is up on 1/07/2013. But, I did get the parting shot of the $34 SRS Access Fee (what a crock) on my processing bill ending the end of Nov. After calling them, and be prepared as they talk in circles, this is basically what it is. That “one time only” fee they gave you last year of $59 because they have to do a 1099 to the IRS for how much they collected from you in processing fees is a “one time fee” because they just brought it down $15. The $59 one time only became a $34 annual fee to do a 1099 to the IRS. Their problem has become your problem. Adios Elavon on 1/07/2013.
L
We changed banks in May 2012. Elavon was recommended to process our CC transactions. Since then we have been hit with numerous fees by Elavon of which we were not made aware, the two biggest being the PCI compliance fee and the SRS enhanced reporting. I was dismayed to learn that a huge multi-million dollar company pays the same for the SRS enhanced reporting as our little enterprise does, with a tiny fraction of the the number of transactions. As a small business, such fees are totally inappropriate. We would never have signed up for this “service” had there been full, open and honest disclosure of what it was actually going to cost us. Although Elavon waived the PCI non-compliance fee once we became compliant (after my expression of dissatisfaction with how it was handled), I’ve been so unhappy with their attitude in using almost any excuse to charge yet another fee, I asked for the service to be cancelled only to be advised we were under a 3-year contract — apparently something else the independent sales person slipped under our noses in the fine print without bringing it to our attention — and it would cost us $275 to cancel this first year! Next year will cost us $195. What we pay into them is not worth what they’ve provided back.
fred
Beware of the fine print. As Elite customers of Costco we were promised that the cost would be less than with Moneris. When all costs were in, evalon was 4 times more expensive. The had promised first 3 months free, not unless you stay for 1 year, we are a seasonal business we don’t qualify. they said we had 3 months to try or cancel , not so , cost to cancel is $165. Machine worked in city outdoors only. Indoors there was no reception, we had to do cards by hand , just like Moneris , but at 4 times the cost. Debit cards rarely worked , even outdoors, we had to move from under a tree to get reception.
I do not recommend Evalon . DO NOT believe the sales person.
Fred
RMW
While I can’t speak to what your fees were in comparison to Moneris, some other claims about the program are not accurate.
Costco merchants in Canada are offered a 3month rebate on there terminal rental, not 3 months of free processing.
Also, Costco members do not have a cancellation fee anymore, and even when they did, it was not $165, it was $105. Again, this has been waived since about August or September.
Deborah Willard
Maybe all the lawsuits against Elavon and Ladco have had some effect on contract terms. One of the problems, however, has been the fact that every contract seems to be different in some way. Monthly fees vary, start-up incentives may be different, and so on. And while Elavon manages to keep its image clean, its equipment leasing company Ladco does the dirty work with its “uncancellable” contracts, mark-ups in the buy-out price of equipment that may be up to 1000% of the actual cost of the equipment, forged signatures, and hard-nosed tactics to collect money from small businesses that are easy prey due to their lack of knowledge and experience with merchant services companies, and who don’t have the bargaining power that a large company like Costco would have.
fred
I have cancelled account and returned the machine.
We were not charged a cancellation fee, it was waived.
I will now read all the fine print.
I will run away when an addendum is required. (meaning i have read the fine print)
lesson learned.
fred
Cass
Wow! And, I came to this site because I am upset due to a recent letter from Elavon, that they will start charging $19 in December 2012 for their new SRS (Settlement Reconciliation Service) which I do not need, whatsoever, due to being a very small business that does not have “returns, chargebacks, credits, etc”. My only transcations, for years have only been the handful of credit card transactions from my patients and the monthly fee that they take. So, why would someone like me need a reconciliation report? The only info that I need is the 1099 for my tax filings and their statements of their monthly fee. I called to state my case and ask if that $19 is optional. I was told “no” and I have to pay. I told the rep that it would be more honest if they just sent a letter saying that they were going to steal $19 from me in December, rather than disguising it as a service. Even, the “benefits” of the SRS, stated in the letter, were so ridiculously weak, as if they were grasping for straws, just trying to justify that fee. My complaint seems trivial compared to all the other horror stories on this site. I am getting out of Elavon before it gets worse and this $19 is just the tip of the iceberg. I would like to see a class action suit in Minnesota, dealing with this, because I can’t be the only one upset by this sudden, surprise fee. What will be next?
Ann
I just got off the phone with Elavon regarding this same fee, except I’m being charge $34. I was told it states in the Elavon contract that I signed that “Elavon can charge additional fees as long as they give me 30 days’ notice”. I am also a small business and have no use for the service but per Elavon, I am not allowed to opt out of the service. So they will get $34 from me each year until my contract expires, at that time, I will switch to another company and I will not recommend Elavon to others seeking merchant services. Hope the $34 was worth it.
deb
I would appreciate any thoughts of how to get out of my contract. I called and was told u had to pay 3,000.00 if I cancelled service. I have a non profit and I’m so ashamed I did not research further. I went with my banks recommendation. So far I have stopped accepting credit cards to reduce fees. If you know of an attorney who can help, I would appreciate that also. [email address redacted]. thanks.
Jackie
Deb,
My credit card processor (not Elavon) began tacking on both monthly and annual fees after we entered into a contract. Try as I might, I could not get them to back off any of the fees. I filed a complaint with the BBB asking for all of the fees that were not spelled out in the contract refunded and discontinued. Once the BBB got involved, the company let me out of my contract without any early termination penalties. This just might work for you. File a report and see what happens.
Deborah
One person in my e-mail group did exactly that with Elavon and Ladco Leasing. He took it up with the BBB in Tennessee and got absolutely nowhere. In fact, he came away with the opinion that the BBB was somehow involved in the whole thing. There is another merchant service company called Entrust that people have had problems similar to those with Elavon.
Euneece
HI there!
We have an experience with this company Elavon. Since one of our customer in (Canada) purchased our product. All the transaction went well with complete information from the customer. Elavon accepted the funds. The order was shipped and signed by him. It was not until two months later we received a chargeback to our account. And somehow we sent all proof evidence of the purchase together with proved delivery. After we sent the evidence we received our money back and everything was clear.
We then, received another notification that we have either accept the chargeback or sent proof evidence again but with a charge fee as double the amount.
We sent the information but they said the case was ruled in cardholder’s favor with no evidence of such.
Currently customer has our pruduct, your company cannot provide any proof of such we already provided all information. And yet, you already took our money from our account.
So everytime a cardholder make a chargeback to the merchants they have to give away the product, pay it and the penalties??
Yann Mergui
Elavon has no service at all. I try to open an account with them and this guy Jean R. Desarmes from Elavon answer to you when he has nothing to do. Almost 1 week i contacted them and still no progress in the account opening process. Will look for another company. I m with moneris since 2006 and yes maybe i pay more but at least i have someone professional to answer to me and as far as i can remember in 2006 in 2 days my account was opened. So Elavon goodbye…
Deborah Willard
By all means look for another company. And read this press release from the D.A’s office of Ventura County, California: which details the terms of the settlement reached in a civil action filed by Ventura County. Elavon and Ladco Leasing (which Elavon owns) were ordered to pay out over $400,000 in restitution to victims of their “misrepresentation and false promises used to induce small-business owners across the country to enter into lease contracts….”
I just received my restitution check and letter that Elavon was required to send to all the victims involved in the lawsuit. See my blog for more information, http://www.merchant-scamology.blogspot.com.
Jennifer
This company has screwed me over for 2 years in a row. The first year by saying they sent me a letter saying I needed to be in compliance in which I had hundreds of dollars worth of fees for. I explained that I have a PO BOX and I always get my mail. Clearly they never sent it.
This year I went through the whole process of getting the certificate of compliance. At the end it said PASS and I even printed out the certificate.
I just realized I have been charged $29.99 for the past 7 months on 2 accounts. They went in and fixed the compliant thing because I was actually compliant but will not refund my $419.96. I am now going to file a complaint with the BBB and contact an attorney. I feel like they are scamming people out of money and just don’t care.
Jami
Small merchants: I second all the opinions saying Elavon is not worth your time or money. They are extremely difficult to get a hold of, and once you do, the customer service is unfriendly. They do not discuss contract terms with you before setting up your account, and as a result you can end up with hidden fees and terms you had no idea you’d signed on for. It took me 3 months to get them to cancel my account. I was charged for each of those months despite the fact that I did not use the service at all during that time. Finally it is closed and I frankly couldn’t be happier to no longer have to deal with this company.
Jessica
We had a charge back for $2000.00 and since we did not have enough money in our account they “closed” our account because we just had “too many charge backs” in a short period of time and were “warned” about it. We have never received a form they usually give you to fight a charge back. As always, our rep was not available and nobody returned phone calls. We then got a letter from their legal department saying we have to pay them $2000 within a few days to avoid collection and that they cannot reopen our account yet still able to charges on it! They also did not recognize the fact that we had over $1000 in a reserve they established which should have been applied towards the charge back amount. We switched to Merchant One. What a difference!! Friendly and fast service. No hidden fees and charges. I cannot believe that with all the complains and issues Elavon has they are still continue being in business. They should take the complains to heart and try to do better but they seem to get worse. All their Reps need customer service training to learn how to treat customers!!
Alex
Elavon is probably the worst company there is. They put a hold on my account for no reason and decided that they would not release them for a year. I was told that it is in their contract and no reason has to be given. This can be devastating for a small business. This is nothing short of stealing. Also they told me that they don’t have to release the funds even if they get paid and will not pay any interest on my funds.The only nice person was the one I signed up with.
Also the software sucks. They do not have any good reporting tools. The one they provide will not fit on a page.
Alex
Tiffany
I use Elavon because I banking with US Bank. This is worst experience I never had with all differece Merchants. The bank Merchant officer is suck. She does not prepare the user and ask the small business detail by just opeing a account for us to get our business.
The Elavon itself was mess. bad attitude, un- responsbile, I had so many charge for variety unreasonable reason and when I claim is not our responsilbe see what happen.
first time they charge $25 for charge back fee for $8.95 claim. and we fight back our money and they return our money back to our account.
later on for the $8.95 case again they withdraw the money away plus another $25 charge back fee from our account again. Without getting any of our money back, Elavon making $50 dollars charge back fee from a small business like us. Shame on you Elavon Elavon Elavon
Their service is suck. The customer service representative having bad attitude and they not there to help. They are their to make our life difficult. The company make the account clsoing process extremely difficult like going to the moon.
They are reipper and try to get as much money as possible from cosummers. NEVER NEVER NEVER USE THEM AGAIN.
I deeply feel sorry for anyone who are with them.
David Peek
I have gone through HELL trying to cancel my account with Elevon through Costco. I faxed the form they provided back in June 2012. nEVER HEARD BACK FROM THEM…. Finally called them again today after receiving a new bill for 20.00 covering July 2012. They claimed I used the wrong signature and that they had emailed me back in June….No email….they are the rudest people I have ever dealt with…especially after using their service for over 15 years. I urge everyone to switch to “Square Up” credit card service…they put your money in the bank in just a couple of days,,,instead of upwards to 5 days with Elevon. No monthly fees and a small percentage compared to Elevon.
Joanne Rathgaber
I got a chargeback from a fraud case June 30th and was notified by Elavon August 14th. They tried to take the money on the 16th when I asked for the 17th. They say they didnt hear that , although their answering machine says they record all calls so this can be verified. When the money wasnt there they held all funds for a week. Finally I got my earnings from the store, less the chargeback, and I thought I was done.NO!!!! They took the money again on the 24th and since then 3 more times. You cannot get anyone to talk to you and when I yelled out of pure frustration…they ‘fired’ me. But they are still trying to take the money and I keep refusing to pay. I have now sent a registered letter, faxes, phone message that are never returned…..WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO? This is costing me money and they dont listen. BE WARNED ABOUT ELAVON…..
Daniel Peterson
Don’t use Elavon I had them for many years. then they started to raise my rate. When I called about it they told me I was considered high risk and they couldn’t lower my rates. I have NEVER had a charge back. I am a small company and when they first raised my rates I started to encourage my clients to pay with check or cash. When my volume dropped off they raised it again. I called again and was told they couldn’t lower my rate.
Then I found a new Merchant account with a much lower rate, and a much lower monthly fee. After trying the new company out for a while and being satisfied I called to cancel my account. I was told they would send me the cancellation form to fill out and send back. It never arrived. I looked on their website and couldn’t see it. I called back and they said they would send it again. IT NEVER ARRIVED. I received another statement though. Finally I found the form another customer had posted online. I filled it out and sent it back. The account is still open and they say they haven’t recieved the form to close the account.
This time it is going out certified mail.
AGAIN DO NOT USE ELAVON
Dave Andoff
They stick to the 2.2 % industry average pretty well. The Engenico terminals are crap. They will NOT replace broken terminals ($60 for them) for free as many other (Paymentech) companies will. They charge $200.00 for replacement of a terminal that is pre-disposed to failure…. it’s where they make their money. Phone support is dismissive and uninformative. They have split contracts which will keep you paying for hardware for 60 months and then hang you out to dry with a ridiculous “buy-out” offer.
Elavon is not a good company to get involved with. Paymentech is the best …by FAR! I hate myself for the day I changed 18 months ago. BEWARE.
Patrick
For the last 6 months I have been trying to cancel my service with Elavon. Yet every other week they continue to bill me. I had to close my bank account to get away from the outrageous fees. $655.71 in the last 90 days alone. That is with zero transactions. I 1st tried to close the account in January 2012 and now its July 2012 and its still “open”. DO NOT USE!!!! ps-Use chase payment tech. lower rates, no “equipment lease” to use the website and no sleazy lets add this to your monthly account business partners as well.