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Tell us about your experience with Elavon in the comment section below.
(800) 725-1243Company Overview
Elavon is one of the largest merchant account providers and credit card processors in North America. 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 offers credit card processing to conventional business types but does not appear to approve accounts for “high-risk” industries. This processor also 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 also leases processing equipment through a poorly rated subsidiary called Ladco Leasing, a supplier of credit card terminals and point-of-sale systems. Numerous Elavon reviews complain of deceptive sales practices by Ladco Leasing, which has negatively affected Elavon’s rating in this review.
Elavon’s online payments services utilize its own gateways called Converge and Fusebox, and can integrate with other payment 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.
Location & Ownership
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 2017.
Industry Specific Merchant Services
Elavon offers tailored merchant services for several different industries in an effort to provide them software, integrations, and POS systems specific to their needs.
Healthcare Credit Card Processing
Elavon offers a range of payment processing solutions and services for healthcare businesses. Some of the specific services include:
Patient Payment Processing
Elavon provides healthcare businesses with the ability to securely process payments from patients, including co-payments, deductibles, and out-of-pocket expenses.
Mobile Payment Solutions
Elavon offers mobile payment solutions that allow healthcare providers to accept payments on the go. With mobile devices and the Elavon MobileMerchant app, providers can securely process payments from anywhere, including at the patient’s bedside.
EMV and PCI Compliance
Elavon helps healthcare businesses stay compliant with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards and the EMV (Europay, Mastercard, and Visa) chip card technology standards. They offer solutions that help prevent data breaches and ensure that patient information is protected.
Reporting and Analytics
Elavon provides healthcare businesses with reporting and analytics tools that allow them to track payment activity and identify trends. This information can be used to improve financial performance and patient satisfaction.
Point-of-Sale (POS) Solutions
Elavon offers POS solutions that are specifically designed for healthcare businesses. These solutions include terminals that can accept chip cards, contactless payments, and mobile wallet payments.
Restaurant Merchant Services
Elavon offers several payment processing services that are specific to restaurants, including:
Point-of-Sale (POS) Systems
Elavon offers restaurant-specific POS systems that are designed to handle high-volume, fast-paced environments. These systems can help streamline ordering and payment processes, reduce wait times, and improve the customer experience.
Mobile Payment Solutions
Elavon provides mobile payment solutions that allow servers to take payments tableside. This can improve efficiency and reduce the risk of errors or fraud.
Online Ordering and Payment
Elavon offers online ordering and payment solutions that can help restaurants take orders and process payments through their website or mobile app. This can improve convenience for customers and reduce wait times for orders.
Gift and Loyalty Program
Elavon offers gift and loyalty programs that can help restaurants build customer loyalty and increase revenue. These programs can be customized to meet the specific needs of the restaurant.
Reporting and Analytics
Elavon provides reporting and analytics tools that can help restaurants track sales, identify trends, and make informed business decisions. This information can be used to improve operational efficiency and profitability.
Elavon Review Video Summary
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 Customer Complaints & Reviews
Here's What Users Think
Complaint Summary
|
Total Online Complaints
600+
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Live Customer Support
Yes
|
Most Common Complaint
Poor Customer Service
|
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 small businesses have a the harder time getting problems resolved. 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.
Elavon Reviews Online
Our Better Business Bureau Profile Assessment
BBB Summary
|
BBB Complaints
106
|
Response Rate
100%
|
Resolved
15
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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.
Elavon Customer Reviews on Better Business Bureau (BBB)
Elavon has an average rating of 1.5 stars based on 34 customer reviews on BBB.
Key Feedback:
- Billing/Collection Issues: A recent complaint highlighted that Elavon processed a refund to a customer’s card for a transaction with Clayton Homes. However, the refund was not fully processed, resulting in the transaction being voided. The customer has yet to receive the refund.
- Merchant Services Concern: A customer review from August 29, 2023, mentioned dissatisfaction with Elavon’s merchant services. The reviewer warned others to ensure that hotels they book with do not use Elavon for their merchant services, claiming that Elavon tried to withhold their deposit for two weeks.
- Official Complaints: There have been 117 complaints closed in the last 3 years, with 47 of those complaints closed in the last 12 months.
- Official BBB Rating: Elavon has an A+ rating with BBB and has been accredited since September 18, 2009. The company has been in business for 40 years.
Elavon Customer Reviews on Trustpilot
Overall Rating: The majority of the reviews for Elavon on Trustpilot are negative, with a significant number of 1-star reviews.
Key Takeaways
- Terrible Experience: A business owner mentioned that they switched to Elavon thinking it would be an upgrade from their prior merchant service company. However, they faced issues with money getting lost or missing, and approved transactions not reaching their account. They identified the problem to be with Elavon’s card processing and found the company nonresponsive at multiple levels.
- False Start: Another reviewer mentioned that after signing up and discussing their needs with a sales representative, they faced issues with the equipment and software sent to them. They realized the setup would not work for them and faced difficulties in reaching out to the salesperson. They also mentioned a waste of time, money, and sales.
- Worse Customer Service: A user mentioned facing unauthorized voice authorizations by hackers using their account. They were charged for these unauthorized activities for months, and despite multiple calls, the issue wasn’t resolved. Eventually, Elavon terminated their relationship with the user without crediting back the charges.
- Unilateral Termination: Another reviewer mentioned being unilaterally terminated from the contract without any given reason, leading to significant business losses.
- Merchant Change Issues: A user mentioned facing difficulties with Elavon’s merchant change department. It took them 14 days to change their account information due to fraud.
- High Charges and Poor Practices: A reviewer mentioned that Elavon charged back without any notification and had high charges. They described it as a horrible business practice.
- Underwriting Concerns: A user mentioned that Elavon’s underwriting team hides their intentions in the small print with unclear terms and conditions. They had a significant amount withdrawn from their account and were told it would be held for up to a year.
Note: Elavon has responded to many of these negative reviews, expressing concern and offering assistance.
Elavon Fees and Rates
A Closer Look at the Contract
Cost Summary
|
Hidden Fees
Yes
|
Monthly & Annual Fees
Yes
|
Rates & Fees
Negotiable
|
|
PCI Compliance Fee
Yes - Negotiable
|
Elavon Fees Overview
As a payment processing company, Elavon charges various fees to its clients for the use of its services. The specific fees that a client will be charged can vary depending on the type of service or product they are using, as well as the specific pricing plan that they negotiated. Some of the fees that Elavon charges may include:
Transaction Fees
Elavon charges a fee for each transaction that is processed through its payment gateway. This fee may vary depending on the type of transaction, the payment method used, and the client’s specific pricing plan. It appears that Elavon prefers to sign businesses up with a tiered pricing model instead of Interchange-plus. In general, business owners will experience higher Elavon fees under tiered pricing.
Monthly Fees
Most Elavon pricing plans may include negotiable monthly fees. These feed may cover various features and benefits, such as access to reporting and analytics tools or customer support, or may just be “junk” fees that can be removed if negotiated.
Chargeback Fees
If a client receives a chargeback from a customer, Elavon may charge a fee to cover the cost of the chargeback process. Chargeback fees typically range from $15 to $35 per incident depending on the negotiated fee.
PCI Compliance Fees
Elavon may charge a fee to help clients maintain compliance with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standards. PCI Compliance fees can often be removed through negotiation.
Termination Fees
If a client terminates their contract with Elavon before the end of their agreed-upon term, they may be charged a termination fee. However, it appears that Elavon has removed its termination fee for most accounts. Client’s who lease equipment through Ladco may still be subject to lease cancellation fees.
It’s important to note that Elavon’s fees can vary depending specific services, negotiation, and the pricing plan that a client selects. Business owners should carefully review their contract and pricing plan to understand the fees that they will be charged. Additionally, clients may want to compare Elavon’s fees to those of other payment processing companies to ensure they are getting the best value for their money.
Elavon Fees and Pricing May Vary
The company 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. Both of these quotes are high in comparison to other well-rated competitors.
Elavon previously charged 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 appears that Elavon is no longer charging any early termination fees. However, Elavon resellers may include different terms regarding cancellation fees, so business owners are encouraged to read their contract. To avoid early termination fees altogether, see our list of merchant service providers that do not charge cancellation fees.
Virtual Terminal and Payment Gateway Fees
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
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
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 owners buy their equipment outright. 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.
Elavon’s payment gateway options
Elavon Jobs and Employment
Hiring Standards and Ethical Marketing Assessment
Key Points
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Uses Independent Resellers
Yes
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Telemarketing
Yes*
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Misleading Marketing
No
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Elavon Rate Quotes and Advertising
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. This processor has received a large number of complaints related to undisclosed merchant account fees and point of sale hardware leasing terms by independent agents and resellers.
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. However, it is really just 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 that Costco is known for, but were surprised with high rates and fees. In our estimation, Costco and Sam’s Club do not rank among the best low-cost merchant accounts.
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 a previous update to this review, the company added a pricing page that quoted 2.65% plus $0.19 on swiped transactions and 3.5% plus $0.19 on keyed-in payments. These quotes have been removed as of latest Elavon review update. 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
A large portion of Elavon’s merchant accounts are marketed by partnered resellers and subsidiaries who use their own sales and marketing strategies. Based on our research of these resellers, it is apparent that some of them are using misleading tactics. 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.
Elavon Review Summary
Our Final Thoughts and Opinions
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.
If you found this article helpful, please share it!
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…
CPO
Hi JoAnn,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
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.
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!!!!!