Electronic Merchant Systems Overview
Payment Processing for U.S.-Based Merchants
Electronic Merchant Systems is an Ohio-based merchant account provider that first opened in 1987. The company specializes in providing a variety of merchant services to U.S. small businesses. Electronic Merchant Systems is owned by or appears to also do business as the Francis David Corporation, and it seems that one of the 2 entities is a direct processor. In addition to conventional credit and debit processing, Electronic Merchant Systems advertises credit a surcharge program and cryptocurrency processing.
Headquartered in Ohio
Electronic Merchant Systems is a registered ISO/MSP of BMO Harris Bank, Chesapeake Bank, Esquire Bank, and Merrick Bank with headquarters located at 250 W. Huron Rd., Suite 400 Cleveland, OH. Dan Neistadt is listed as the company’s CEO.
Electronic Merchant Systems Review Table of Contents
- Costs & Contract: Electronic Merchant Systems offers an 18-month contract with an early termination fee of $595.
- Complaints & Service: Electronic Merchant Systems has received more than 100 public complaints.
- BBB Rating: Electronic Merchant Systems has an “A+” rating and has received 76 complaints and 93 reviews in the past 3 years. The company has been accredited with the Better Business Bureau since 2017.
- Sales & Marketing: Electronic Merchant Systems hires independent sales agents and has received a moderate number of complaints about its sales practices.
- Rates & Fees: How Merchants Got The Best Rates With Electronic Merchant Systems
Highest Rated Competitors
Our unbiased reviews are supported, in part, by helping you find highly rated merchant accounts. You can learn more here.
Lowest Complaint Merchant Accounts
Our Opinion of Electronic Merchant Systems
A Very Low-Rated Provider
Electronic Merchant Systems rates as a substandard merchant services provider according to our rating criteria. The company has a moderate number of complaints outside of the BBB and a high number of complaints with the BBB, but its expensive contract terms are the largest factor lowering its score in this review. Merchants are advised to read their contracts with great care to ensure that they will not be paying excessive or bogus fees. As EMS is one of the lowest-rated payment processors on CPO, we advise signing up with a reputable provider to get the best service and rates.
We rely on your feedback about Electronic Merchant Systems to keep this review accurate and up-to-date. Please take a minute to tell us about your experience. We and the small business owners of this world thank you!Top Rated Merchant Accounts of 2020
About Phillip Parker
Thank you for reading my review. I hope that it has helped you with your research.
Why I'm Qualified to Write About Credit Card Processing and Merchant Account Services
I'm a former credit card processing sales director who left the industry because I didn't like how it takes advantage of small business owners. It feeds like a leech on businesses and thrives by imposing fees that are nearly impossible to comprehend. Seeing a need for change, I left and built this website help business owners better understand the industry, research merchant services providers, and get refunds of excessive merchant account fees. My experience of working "behind the curtain" in the industry, and using that knowledge for good, has resulted in millions of dollars returned to hard-working small business owners as well as enterprise-level companies.
From the time that I starting working in the merchant services industry to when I left to create this website, I've been on the pulse of payments for nearly 15 years. It didn't seem fair to keep this "insider" knowledge to myself. To lift the fog, I've reviewed hundreds of companies, read thousands of user reviews, and learned the pricing tricks of every provider. If you have questions about credit card processing, you can find the answers on this website.
Phillip Parker
I can Attached every email thread and the transaction reports that show EMS taking funds out of my business account at the Bank of Newington for $7750. However I was never funded the same amount of funds at all due to the snotty business that is EMS. THAT is called theft, fraud, and financial discrimination. Moreover this has caused me to look like a fool, my company to lose thousands of dollars, the absolute increase of stress, much higher work hours causing potential health harm, financial instability from EMS hindering my cash flow to myself and carriers, which hurts my asset availability making me lose even more money, and my clients loss of money in thousands due to demur rage charges. I am taking immediate action with my lawyer for everything said prior including everything that follows. this increased stress has directly related to me not working as efficiently equivocating to the loss of total revenue, loss of current customers due to deceptive, and fraudulent behavior. My ability to have absolute means in providing excellent customer satisfaction to existing and new customers is my main goal not money. Yet the actions of EMS has resulted in the loss of thousands of dollars, and my loss of new potential customers. Just my loss in the time value of money has caused me to lose thousands, being stuck trying to authorize the settlement of funds for my clients. Also this has caused me to be late on my payments which has even further harmed me financially. Moreover I switched processors weeks ago which Authorize.net should have noted thereby terminating my portal with them. I can provide more than enough evidence with the criminal behavior of EMS. In addition I called them yesterday trying to peacefully rectify this issue just to wait 30 minutes, be transferred to 6 different people all asking me dumb sarcastic questions, and the last guy telling me that I should report a rebuttal. NOOOO they report the rebuttal because I NEVER received $7750 from them, which is theft and fraudulent. I highly suggest the rectification of this catastrophe or legal action will be taken to everyone involved.
After a fire destroyed our place of business, I notified them that I would be closing my account. It took them 28 days to get back to me with forms. Then they charged me for the PCI fee, knowing I was closed. After being with them for years, I was highly disappointed in how they handled this.
Susan,
Sorry to hear about the fire and the consequent closing of your business. This article should help you address your account closure: How to Cancel a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee. Hopefully, that offers you some relief.
-Phillip
Just started using these guys and was recommended by authorize.net. Im very disappointed and have been charged more in fees than I have made in profit. Stay away from this company.
This company has lousy customer service and high bogus fees. Consumer BEWARE !
This post will help: Best Payment Processors for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
I was on the phone for a solid 30 minutes just now with this lady. She probably could tell in my voice that I am younger (18), and must have assumed that due to my age I am simply incapable of using my brain correctly. I have never left a bad review anywhere but I felt genuinely talked down to by this woman. I did not catch her name although I wish I had. I felt very dehumanized and treated with INCREDIBLY low respect–which was upsetting. Maybe she had a bad day, I’d love to give her the benefit of the doubt. But she seemed VERY disappointed to be on the phone with me and that she had to help me with something my manager asked me to do. I feel very belittled and frustrated right now through how she spoke to me.
This post will help: Best Payment Processors for Great Customer Service
-Phillip
Company charges crazy fees and will not deposit any transactions to your account if you have had a charge back. They also keep a “Reserve Fund” which the only way you get back is if you close the account. I can not wait until my contract is up so I can cancel. I am currently using another provider while I wait for my contract to end.
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
-Phillip
This company has a clause in their contract that it auto renews every 18 months without notification. They also raise fees without any warning. They charged me a $795.00 cancellation fee. Their contract says $595.00 but if they loan you their equipment it jumps to $795.00 even though you return the equipment. If you don’t return it you are charged another $300.00. Customer retention is unwilling to discuss anything with you. It’s your fault if you do not remember that their contract auto renews. They also charge PCI non compliance fee of $50.00 per month. It’s your problem if you have trouble renewing your PCI compliance on the website. They charge a $75.00 software upgrade twice a year and a $10.00 monthly access fee as well. After pricing other services I found that they are charging fees that other companies do not. Customer service is poor at best. They are unwilling to work with their merchants. I’m glad I left them but losing $795.00 in a very small business hurts. I would not recommend doing business with them to anyone unless you want to overpay for poor service.
This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Pet Suppliers
-Phillip
This company is totally crooked. In January we had a chargeback – over $1900 was deducted from our account. We disputed the chargeback. Then in May they deducted the same amount AGAIN from our account. Was told it would be refunded in 48-72 hours. NOW we are told that EMSplus closed our account and we have to wait 180 days to be refunded our monies. This for a deduction that should have never been done again. Do not use this company for any of your processing needs!! There are better companies out there!!!!
This post will help: How to Make Your Payment Processor Release Your Money
-Phillip
As mentioned in the review they are full of hidden fees, which ended up costing me over $1700 over one year without account activity
This post will help: Find and Eliminate Hidden Costs In Your Monthly Statement
-Phillip
I have been with them for about 4 years…..no other company has been able to beat their rates….Angie Adkins is great…very helpful…..great company.
Hi Patty,
Please reply to this comment with your business name and location in order to authenticate your testimonial. Thanks!
Stay away from EMS. After having to cancel my two merchant accounts, they’re requiring me to pay $1200 even though we processed zero dollars and the accounts were open for 13 days total. Mike T was a complete jerk, threatened me with collection agency referrerals if I didn’t pay EMS the $1200 to terminate. I would not recommend this processor to anyone, I’ll be leaving honest reviews on EMS on every site I can find!
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
Same experience. I made no sales in 2 months (that involved credit card processing), and found out EMS has a $50 monthly fee (that was never mentioned anywhere), in addition to $25/mo for Authorize.net. I had to pay $595 just to terminate my account. (It also took me 1 month just to get approved for EMS)
This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee
-Phillip
Had problems every time we use it always delays in payment . We did a charge on over a week ago and still haven’t received payment . And when you call you get an answering machine They have bad reviews and over 100 complaints at the bbb. Calling the states attorney today..
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Contractors
Very rude customers service..especially JESSE from technical support…as costumer services you should help costumer with they are problem..not yelling and no give costumer to explaining they are problem. Very disrespectful..
I like the company but very upset every time got problem have to fight with costumer service…
I think EMS has to train they are costumer service to be nice and helpfull…i
From The Editor
This Post Might Help: Best Merchant Accounts for Great Customer Service
today i talked to a nasty lady at the help desk from ems
i was just trying to get help bec my account transactions was getting error, and got help from a friend next door bec i dont speak english too good and she got nasty with him too, very reluctant to help not nice at all with customers,and she even hanged up on me.about 12:pm on 6/3/18
i didin”t get her name she should be fired.
EMS used to be a decent option for small business owners to use as a cc / payment processing company. Unfortunately the free reader has limited compatibility, their fees are no longer competitive, and their customer service is abysmal.
There are several better options out there, I do not recommend wasting your time with garbage EMS.
We had an account with EMS for 6 years with no problem at all. Then our gateway screwed up some subscriptions, raising our chargeback rate to 2% for one month. EMS immediately froze our account with no notice and shut down our merchant account. I explained the problem, that we fixed it (it wasn’t even our fault) offered a way to get our chargeback rate under 1% and they didn’t care. We lost six figures a year because of this.
EMS also told me they hadn’t processed any of our chargebacks for at least one year. We faxed them, they received them, but they never handled a single chargeback for over a year. So we lost all our chargebacks due to their failure to respond to them using our responses we sent EMS.
EMS is a scam! Stay away from this dishonest company. They wanted to keep my money from 90 days!! before releasing to me?? I cancelled and they still charged for the money I never received. Shame on you EMS!!!
Very unhelpful after abrupt termination of my adult high risk merchant account. Could not provide a letter in writing explaining the exact reason for termination.
I was with EMS for 5 years. Chargebacks < 1%.
I would never recommend EMS to anyone.
Could you please tell me who you ended up going with?
I had this same thing happen to me, I am in the same industry. Do you have and email?
Ems cheated me.They took my reserve 4500$ and still showing I owe money.Ems is fraud.
Beware of that.
I owe about 5000$ of ems what can they do if I won’t pay to them?
This is a horrible company to deal with. Their customer service is unpleasant, fees are outrageous, and they are extremely misleading. All around this is a very shady company and I would not recommend doing business with this company.
I have been with your company for many years and have never had any chargebacks. This was one time and the Client tried to fix it and said she made a mistake and misunderstood. sent documentations to show this but you terminated my services after suspending my account. You then told me i had to process more before you would release my other money??!!I I will never use your company again and have warned all of my hundreds of associates and thousands of Contacts. Upon doing a search I found many people complaining about your services as well. I have gone back to my original company a big Bank whom I trust and have also done business with for longer than yours. I will gladly pay the higher fees for their honesty and great well known customer service in all communities. Your stars on reviews are not accurate, you may want to check the internet reviews, its horrible! You have a lot of bad reviews. + 23 negative reviews on the Better Business Bureau and a Federal law Suit. Need I say more….
I’ve been with EMS for many years and have had issues with them in the past, however i stayed with them. The last straw was when a Client of mine reversed her cc payment because she misunderstood and did not wait for the report in the time on her contract and assumed i did not do the work. I provided all documents to her and her company. She called her credit card company to release the hold. EMS said they will continue to hold my account and that i need to also process more above what was held before the “might “release my hold on my account. I asked why I was being penalized for a Client’s mistake and who tried to clear it up on her own. I might mention this has taken a loong time to get fixed after i sent documentation. In the meantime, I cannot process cards for my business. SERIOUSLY!! Bye Bye EMS…
Watch out how they set your account up! We a had a main swipes as well as 5 phone swipes. They set it up with 6 separate accounts with fees on all 6 as well as quietly raised our rates every year. Now that we want out, they want 600 x 5 early terminations. I am contacting my lawyer!
Worse credit card processing EVER! Do not go with this company without reading ALL the fine print. They are a major SCAM!!!!!
Your contract AUTOMATICALLY renews without even signing anything so no matter when you try and cancel they hit you with a whopping $595.00 early termination fee. I guess thats the last ram in the rear before you leave and actually go to a legit company. STAY AWAY!
they will please funds on hold with no notice
Horrible service. Horrible offers. I would never recommend to cooperate w/ them.
Stay far away from this company. They are so crooked in their business dealings. I have reported them to the CFPB to look into. I was processing with them for 45 days through a virtual terminal. Everything was fine. I was told on a Tues that there was an error on their end and that I would have to start swiping. I called into EMS to discuss. They told me that was an error and everything was fine. I kept processing as normal. I spoke to both customer service, a manager and risk.
Then out of nowhere Thursday they completely shut down my account. Without warning and almost killing my business. They gave me no time to switch my business over, get a machine. NOTHING.
They are complete crooks. Do NOT do business with.
This is the worst company for accepting credit cards. If you refund an amount they still charge you the fee. They don’t tell you this when you sign up- Although they clearly advertise no hidden fees. I’ve used other POS services and none of them charge a fee on a refund of moneys. They flagged an amount… told me I had to refund it then charged me the fee too. So they refuse to give you the money but they process it first so they can charge you then tell you to refund it because they are not giving you the money. Yeah I know sounds crazy right. Very shady company. .Then they send a 1099 which includes the money that was not released to me(refunded).SAVE THE NIGHTMARE AND HEADACHES DO NOT USE.
EMS is a big time rip off !! Think twice before you register your business with them .
You can never get hold of any one who can solve your concern .
They took my $$ and told me I had a 500$ limit to charge my customers monthly !! Really ???
Then they said they have to hold on to my funds up to 90 days .
I will report them to FTC asap .
The worst credit card processing ever. I had swiped a charge last week and it’s been a week not receiving funds and they charged me a fee without depositing our money into our account. Risk Management is on vacation so when they are on vacation, you have to be on vacation and out of business as well. So there’s no way anyone can help me until they come back from vacation. I was promised last Monday that I will get my money in 2 days, none. Customer service sucks, will cancel after this and would never use them again or recommend them to any businesses out there looking for credit card processing.
I have a website, my website is considered high risk. These people first run your credit then they look at the website and say, oh, we don’t cover this business. Why the heck you didn’t look at the website first!!! Stay away from these people.
My experience with EMS is an F-
I quit after 4 days.
Not only have they not deposited the 5,000 dollars our store has run but they say I have a 1,000 dollar limit per month. No where in the agreement does it state that. No one will talk with me. No one returns calls or emails. I have reported them to the FTC. Very bad company.
EMSplus is the worst company that I have ever dealt with. They hold my money for no reason. They do not return phone calls as promised. What a joke and rip off. I should of used Square.
BAD BAD BAD AND THIS ALL I HAVE TO SAY !! $595. Cancellation charge!
I wish i had read this before doing business with these guys. I’m a new business and was taken advantage of because i didn’t know better. I got screwed by a sales rep just trying to make a sale. I didn’t read the fine print, now am stuck with $595. Cancellation charge! High fees for everything and they didn’t explain anything! Live and learn I guess. Starting out in the negative, this really hurt. Any suggestions to get rid of cancellation charge, I’m all ears.
You don’t have to pay the $595 cancel fee. File a complaint with the BBB and they will waive the fee as soon as you do. Works every time!
STAY AWAY from Electronic Merchant Sytems (EMS). They are completely unethical and in my opinion crooks and thieves. They will tell you one thing, do another; place a hold on your account, basically freezing your bank account, and when you call, that is a hassle in itself. Once you do get someone on the phone, no one has answered and they are completely unwilling to help. Save yourself the hassle and do not do business with this company.
We were customers with ems for over 5 years. Worst company ever. They also froze our account after we stopped payment on a reverse charge of $275 which had been processed and resolved 5 mos earlier. They had sent paperwork to be signed and returned which we didn’t do because the issue was resolved. We contacted them about freezing our account and were scolded and belittled for not returning the form. Our resolution to this issue was to find a legitimate processor, change our bank account and file a complaint with BBB. THEY WON’T SEE ANOTHER DIME OF OUR HARD EARNED MONEY!
I am filing complaints of possible fraud against this company. After 4 days of holding payments of customers to my company, they will not explain why. I have called daily, and even asked for persons in charge. Nothing but hours of being left on hold, or messages left for supervisors. I suspect this company is not releasing funds unless pressured by law, in hopes that individuals will give up. It’s a scam.
It’s the worst company ever , I will never recommend it to anyone they’re horrible doing business with them , I closed the business and I returned the machine and they k pt charging me every month , they said they never receive my closure paper but when I call couple month before they said they received it , do they tried to charge me and the bank also and they didn’t care and dint do nothing about , never never go with them
EMS Blackwood NJ has fraudulent marketing practices. Nothing is disclosed regarding any sort of fees and you don’t receive a contract. When you ask about fees they so NO FEES are involved only transaction fees. Do not sign up with these people or you will waste more time with them than your own business. Contact the Federal Trade Commission, BBB and New Jersey States Attorney office.
STAY AWAY FROM THEM! They are a scam. I opened a merchant account, received the swiper. Started doing sales. After a couple of days I called them since I still did not get my funds transferred. They told me I have to provide them with two invoices of the first two transactions (approx. altogether $140) I did it. I’ve been also told to ask for an MVP increase. For that I had to provide a lot of other documents and information. Did that. After a week I tried to get in touch with them, left them messages on the phone and sent them emails. What I received were two sentences in an email that they won’t release my funds, I should refund all the transactions (we are talking about almost 60 transactions here) and/or cancel my account.
So the bottom line is, that I have to wait 6 month! Yes! Half a year before I can get my money. We are talking about almost $4,000. Thieves!!!
File complaints with the BBB, Attorney General and FTC.
EMS is the worst company to do business with.
My rate has changed 3 times in a year from 2% to 4.5% without any written notice from EMS. I just spoke with a rep who advised that it is very abnormal for a rate to change that many times in a year. She advised that they have a slight rate change once a year but that is it. She was unable to provide me any explanation as to why this has happened and why I have not been notified. Per the customer associate “The rate change MAY have been in very small writing somewhere on a statement received.” I demanded to speak with management and was advised that she can put in a REQUEST to have someone call me back. I find it hard to believe that there are not any managers on duty that I can speak to regarding my issue and have some refunds and explanations provided. I do not have 48 hours to wait to see if or when someone calls back if they have a resolution or not. EMS is unorganized, provides unethical billing practices, and has violated the law. I have exhausted all options with trying to resolve this account with EMS. I have spoken with the retention department many times about the unethical billing practices of this company and their solution to the problem is to offer me to cancel the contract and pay them $595 which they hold my funds in the reserve account for 7 months. Yes you read that correctly pay them $595 to cancel & allow them to hold our funds for 7 months. The customer service reps are nice but unhelpful and the online system is useless.
There is no such thing as a “slight” rate increase with this company. Every year on Jan 1st, they will raise your rate by .30% and then they deceptively add additional .90% on Mar 1st on the Mid Qual/Non Qual card types hoping that you won’t notice because they add on the back end. You will also need to pay attention to your statement to see if they are sneaking in their Non-Compliance fee of $50 a month which is also nothing more than a money making scheme for this joke of a company. The only way to fight back is to file complaints with the BBB, Attorney General and FTC and demand your money back for these outrageous fees from this unethical company.
They are a scam and set up products you don’t need and will not refund charges for services you never requested.
Stay away from EMS and if you get Sales Rep Miles Davis then just hang up First they told me that I on contract for 2yrs and at the end of 2yrs when I tried to cancel they mentioned I have another yr because we got free terminal(it is not free we have to return it after termination). They did not inform that contract is up and automatically renewed it for another 3yrs. I am going to terminate my contract in two weeks when I get my new CC up and running and pay their cancellation fee
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Are you with Electronic Merchant Systems? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
After 5 years of using their service I was offered a better rate by a competitor. I informed them I no longer needed their service. They automatically signed me up without my consent for another FOUR years and I was facing a $795 fee! I did not authorize payment but they stole the money out of my account.
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Are you with Electronic Merchant Systems? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
These people are the worse. Had tons of transactions and only a few chargebacks due to buyer fraud and they canned me. I submitted every document imaginable to the point where I had to get Congress to sign them just to prove validity. What did they do? Flat out ignored it and refunded the buyer.
Ya, thanks EMS for screwing my company and tons of others that use you.
Honestly, I would rather give my money to a Nigerian than to these people. At least I will know where my money is going.
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Are you with EMS? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
IF I owe ems money and I won’t pay back what they can do If I don’t wanna use their services?
SUCKS. Support is clueless. They want you to process your first transaction before you can set up web access. Why? So they can hold the $ of the first transaction in an account to make them extra money. I never would have known this unless I called into support 3X. I’ll stick with square.
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Are you with EMS? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
Worst customer service, no support, the reader does not work most of the time, they will double charge your customers and try and steal money, this is a scam
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Are you with EMS? Learn how to resolve this complaint.
My mom passed away in December. We have a small business that I ended up taking over because my dad was very depressed. Her death was sudden and not expected. In May I called EMS to make them aware of my mother’s death and asked about the terms of the contract, I wasn’t happy with all the fees they were charging us in addition to the processing %. The said I needed to sign another 3 year deal with them and had there sales rep call me. I did not like the terms they wanted me to sign and wasn’t sure I wanted to commit to 3 years of a contract. The business wasn’t doing well and we were debating on closing. I work a fulltime job teaching and didn’t want to be financially responsible for the business. I was just helping my dad until he felt well enough to make financial decisions. I never heard back from the sales rep after the one conversation in June (it took her 2 weeks to contact me) In August all of sudden my credit card transactions stopped going into my bank account. I called them they told me I committed fraud because I would not sign another contract with them and they were holding my money until I did. In fact at this point I wanted no relationship with them. I advised them the contract was in my moms name and we did not want to continue doing business with them. They currently still have my money and are billing me monthly for fees even though I have a new payment processing system and haven’t used them since they stole our business money in August. If I shouldn’t have been processing payment they should have stopped taking them in may when I notified them of her death. Instead the continued to debit my account for their fees and continued to charge me for the machine. I just got a bill with a $148 upgrade fee for a service I haven’t used since August. They were mean and rude and unsympathetic to someone struggling with the loss of their mother and trying to figure out finances that were not in order at all. Never ever use this company.
EMS Prospects and Clients Be Warned!
Full disclosure I clearly work in the industry. We all know what to look for when competing with certain processors and ISO’s. Interchange inflation, line items, backbilling, daily discounting, tiered pricing, etc etc. There are competitors that for the most part are fair, and then there is EMS. I’ve reviewed maybe 30 statements in my short 2 year carrer and everyone of them misrepresented cost in multiple ways.
These practices tarnish our industry and it blows my mind how these folks are able to sleep at night. Come on folks don’t be drawn to the flame with “free” terminals and “free” paper. I feel obligated to warn anyone and everyone I can about EMS. They represent the worst our industry has to offer and I’ve been cleaning up as many of their messes as I can one by one.
For example:
Recently when auditing a small single location restaurant, I highlighted inflated interchange, pointed out erroneous EIRF charges at 2.7% to nearly 30% of the total volume every single month, and even a hidden .39 transaction fee. When I helped them call and cancel, the service contact asked why they were leaving and if there was anything they could do to help. That was to be expected, but when I overheard them being told “they were currently paying cost..” I saw red. This confirmed it’s not just the representatives on the street misleading clients, but these unfair business tactics permeate throughout the entire organization.
Horribly Bad experience.
I have a business that runs transactions in the thousands daily. I had been processing payments with EMS for about 6 months with no problem until July of 2014. I had a transaction in the amount of $11,597.00 I successfully processed and was waiting for the funds to be deposited into my account. Low and behold I get a call from EMS saying the funds are under a “security hold” and will not be available for 180 days! I was dumfounded and had and still have no idea what this “Security hold” even is. I went ahead and reversed the batch and refunded the buyer fully as soon as I could as well as lost out on a few thousand in profits. This merchant is NOT FOR BIG BUSINESS! Don’t plan on using them if your transactions will be in excess of $5,000 USD as they WILL NOT RELEASE YOUR FUNDS!!!
Do not give this company your money. You have been warned.
Bad experience. About three months ago, EMS contacted me, so we set up an appointment at our store for the following Friday at 10 am. Well, that time came and gone, no phone call to say that they were unable to make the appointment. Then about a month ago, EMS called me again and I told the caller about the other call and what happened, so, we scheduled another appointment. A sales rep showed, about an hour late, gave excuses why he was late. He needed a credit card statement of ours so they could see if they could save us some money. He comes back the next day to get the statement, said he will be back next Friday at 10 am. Well, to my SURPRISE he did not show and we did not receive a call about his absence. Well, the following Monday I called the local EMS office in Phx, AZ, and ended up speaking to the manager (Andrew Anderson) that’s what he said his name was, after speaking with him, voice mail, and going to give me a Smoking deal, which I believe was not good at all. He was going to call me back later in the same day. Well, to my SURPRISE, no phone call. So, I waited for the following Monday Called Corporate, given Ed Grahams’ name and voice mail, left message. No return call for the entire week. Called the following Monday Ed Graham was not in, given an excuse that he travels alot, so customer service forwarded me to a John Socorro (last name maybe mispelled), He was going to check into what happened and get back to me later in the day. WELL, to my SURPRISE NO Call back. This tells me that they DO NOT care about possible clients. Definitely NO Respect for people. I WILL NOT in any way, shape or form recommend this company. I WIll stay with Square and PayPal.
I was happy to be approved by EMS because I have a high risk business, and it was hard to overcome that with other merchants.
Most of my interactions were pleasant, until I had an issue about documents that I sent them, and they claim they never received them. I verified the email and also have a read report, but was told that it was never received and the representative refused to review the read report and the forward of the email that showed the day date and time that it was sent. I was told that there was not an manager for me to speak with, and that no one else could help me. I was then put on hold for 45 mins. During this time I was able to call back and get the operator to provide the information to me regarding the managers name and email address.
I am very disappointed in their performance.
BEWARE!!!! I wish I have read this before signing with EMS! I am forced to get an attorney to get out of my auto renewing contract. I am a small business owner and EMS has double charged my clients and blamed it on me double swiping their cards. When my batch detail shows the charge once they claim on their end it was charged twice. So they are stealing my clients money! Finally they admitted to their MISTAKE after I had to get a legal consular to help me. Here I am stuck in a so called self renewing contract with a company that stole money from my clients, admitted to it being a mistake and want to charge me 1000. Cancelation fee. I am contacting BBB and calling the news. This company is a complete SCAM!!!
Fantastic service. Excellent support. Great price. 5 years of experience.
EMS+ didn’t notify me that they needed my banking information until a month after my first charge. Now, they’re telling me that they’re putting my funds on hold for another 2 weeks because I surpassed my $1,000 charge limit, a limit that was nowhere advertised, nor is explicitly stated in the user agreement.
Do NOT use EMS+.
Bottom Line. I have had EMS contact me again, even after I left a negative review and dispute with the BBB, saying that have changed, Beware a leopard rarely changes their spots. BEWARE
I have been using EMS+ for almost 1 year now. It’s no frills, and simple like Square, PayAnywhere, PayPal, etc. I’m paying the disclosed rate of 2.25% no per swipe fee. No monthly fees. Manual key rate is higher, but I never use it. I just try one of my other companies. All these negative reviews are old and outdated. The company has changed a lot in the past 2 years.
Hi, guy if you think to deal with ems, then you gone be rob not only one way they rob you all ways, first thing never trust them rate what ever they say, I deal with the sales rep his name is dave weber, he is give me the rate .03 cents per transaction and batch settlement fees .03c and only 10 monthly statement charges, and no pci compliance charges then they charge me $50.00 on everty month and after I pci compliance then they charge me monthly 100k data and breach protection for $5.00 then they charge me tech upgrade and update fees $75.00. and from first month I had the wrong rate they charge me intstaed of .03c per transaction they charge me 0.55% per dollar so how wrong charges you guys think that, they are very bad company my personal expereice they are robber, they rob me up so never trust on them guys again.
Sorry to hear all the bad reviews on EMS. I was looking at them as they are slightly cheaper. Glad to find these reviews. I’ve had past problems with credit card processing companies and had suffered many of the same things being reported here that EMS does. I have used Square for years now with not a SINGLE issue other than I’ve had to replace the reader a couple of times. Never any fees, monies not deposited, or charges to my bank account. Not a single problem! I’ll stay right where I am and pay the slightly more rate just to avoid the hassle. Thank you to everyone that has shared their experiences so that others can avoid the same scam.
We contacted this business for more information regarding their credit processing. Upon going to the website and emailing (to which they did not respond) we used their chat system. We were connected to a representative named Daniel. We asked several questions regarding volume ability for business and restriction on business types. Mr. Daniel’s response was we do not do a one size fits all on our customers like Square it depends on volume of the business and the sales however there is no restrictions. He then told us for more information we would have to submit our last 3 months of credit processing. I told the representative that being a corporation that grosses well over 250k a year we are not willing to divulge our exact numbers and statements without some sort of idea of the parameters in which Plus By EMS was thinking. We told them the amount in which we sold per month and our average sales price. Upon not being willing to divulge corporate information they said and I quote and have screenshotted, we do have restrictions on business types and that we suggest you try our competitors.
The fact that this business will not give numbers based on the average without seeing our corporate information and they lie about having restrictions and even more so tell people to use their competitors really makes me question what kind of business this is.
I would very much be skeptical and weary of this company!
Something fishy or maybe just a horrible representative I dealt with.
Being a fairly large corporation and to be blown off by this company makes me wonder how they treat small businesses.
Les see. My name is Cherie new owner of Hair salon in Mulberry. I am really kicking myself for signing up with this company. EMS called me few times to hook me up with a credit machine. I refused and hung up few times. Second or third week they called me again. I tried to get out of it but then offer me a free website. So I agreed to talk to the sales person. They scheduled an appointment with me at 10 am in the morning. I told because I get busy in the afternoon time with walk in. The sales guy didn’t show up till 3pm, telling me that it was written on his paper that the appointment was at 3pm. I had a bad feeling about these people. You know the little voice in the back of your head telling you this is not right. I believe they came to me at that time because It would be easy for me to sign because I would be under more pressure.
First of all the guy filled out all my paper work. I didn’t get to read any of it. I got offer a 39.00 monthly fees for free website design and credit card machine with no contract. Sounded great to me. That was March 11th 2014. Seems like an honest person. Told me he would save me lots of money. I told them that right now I am using Square and its hassle free for me with no contract. He told me I was actually paying more with Square and that I would save more money by signing up with them. I was excited about the free website.
He filled out all the paper work and handed it to me to sign, not disclosing to me any fees nor cancellation fees. the only fees he disclosed to me was the 1.95 % + 20 cents transaction fees, $15.00 monthly access fees and $15.00 dollars monthly 100k data breached protection. Those were the only fees that were marked which led me to believe that those were the only fees I was paying. When I looked at it. I told him that these fees are the main reason I was with square. He then put a line into the $15.00 and brought both down to $10.00 each. Now I’m thinking $20.00 per month is not bad so I tried to get him to lower the terms down to 1 year. In my mind I’m thinking, they came in here with no term now I am signing a contract. (That voice were telling me.) He went outside to talk on the phone and came back with he can’t lower it because I am a new business. I told him I didn’t know them either. To make long story short: With in a week I got the machine and someone called me the next day to set it. I didn’t use my machine the first and second week because I wasn’t sure I would know how. By the second week I went into my bank account and notice they had took out 46.00 dollars plus out of my account. I called them to find out what the fees were. Guy couldn’t even tell me. all he said it was monthly minimum fees which I have no clues what it means. I called him few more times to find out how much sales do I have to make to avoid the monthly minimum fees. Still cant tell me. I looked at my contract and told him that on this contract it says average monthly sales is $2000 which is all a lie because I told him I make about 1500 per month. I told him if that was the case I will never avoid the $25 dollars fee. He told me that wasn’t the case and that it was just my average monthly sales.
2 days later I made 2 different sales of $45 dollars and $53 dollars. They took out $4.61 cents out of my account. That doesn’t add up to 1.95% plus .20 cents transaction. Also, to this day my website has not been put up and its going on a month. This is what led me to this site. Now with everybody’s complaints, I don’t want to wait till a lot more is taken out of my account. I am trying to find out how I can cancel the contract with less then a month into it.
I like Cathy’s idea and I just might go that route. If anybody out there knows how I can get out of it, please give me some ideas. Thanks.
Cherie
$45 x 0.0195 = 88¢ + 20¢ = $1.08
$53 x 0.0195 = $1.03 + 20¢ = $1.23
$1.23 + $1.08 = $2.31 Total Processing Fees (EMS Fees)
$4.61 – $2.31 = $2.30 Interchange Fees (What the credit card companies charge)
$4.61 / ($45 + $53) = 4.7% Effective Rate (1.95% higher than Square)
The rate they put you on is a little high.
$1500 with an average ticket of $50 would yield 30 transactions.
$1500 x 0.0195 = $29.25 + 20¢ x 30 = $35.25 which would put you over the monthly minimum of $25.00 provided the $1500 was all in credit card sales. If your processing fees equal $10 for the month, then they should subtract that from $25 and charge $15 to make up the difference from the monthly minimum.
If it weren’t for the monthly minimum, you could process with someone else until the contract expired, but the monthly minimum will cost you $300/year.
Garbage, utter garbage. They sent me a card reader for my Android phone, but it doesn’t work properly. Once I install it, the app tells me the card reader isn’t installed correctly. I remove it and insert it again and I’m STILL told the card reader is mis-installed.
BUT, if I try to use a different app, such as Square Up, my phone no longer works and I have to do a master reset. This has happened all 3 times I tried to use EMS+ : it both refused to work AND seized up my phone.
I refuse to do any further business with this company.
I have extensive knowledge of this company and how it operates behind the scenes. You are all correct. It bombards merchants with multiple charges that are all for profit even though many are given names to seem like industry charges like PCI non compliance, Semi Annual Tech fees…all just additional profit centers.
All the charges are buried in less than 1 point font on the backside of a contract. Ignore whatever rate you are initially quoted…there are accelerators you will never find in the contract that jack the rates up pretty much right away. I just saw a merchant pay over 6% in his first month when he signed for a 1.95% rate.
Only chance to get out is threaten with BBB. Company is trying desperately to increase their BBB rating…not by changing biz practices, but by satisfying only the customers that catch them in the act and file a complaint. Trust me…his company’s business model is to take whatever it can from customers before they somehow find a way to cancel.
Avoid EMS by all cost… This company is the worst and most expensive. They you money for everything and you are committed to a longgggg term contract. This company is a Scam. I run a small business and been with EMS over 3years, but there service keep getting more expensive, they charge for everything and bad customer support. Now, that i find a better provider i wanted to cancel my service with them. They want to charge me over $1500 for early termination…. This is a life commitment once you are signed up with them, unless you want to paid the cancellation fee.
I am with Filler Up Financial who currently runs processing thru EMS. EMS truly goes above and beyond due to the level of training they provide. Tim Shank is the training agent who has been sent to our offices twice. Tim has always been willing to assist on any question, any deal, any time of the night. He and EMS are fully committed to not only our success as agents however the merchant’s success as a business. There is true care given to each merchants’ success as well as each office/agent. I would highly recommend EMS to any merchant/agent.
EMS is by far THE WORST company to have process credit cards. All they do is lie and when asked to provide documentation supporting those lies, they can not. I was locked into a four year contract with them starting in 2007. When it was over, I immediately noticed a huge increase in their processing fees up to 9% per batch from the contracted 1.79% plus all the other erroneous fees that they could never explain.When I called about this matter, they informed me that the rates went up because I was out of contract. I immediately started looking for another company. When I found another company, I called to cancel services and was informed that there was a $300 cancellation fee or I would be billed $98 per month fee for not using them for processing. How can they raise the processing fees nearly to 10% because I was out of contract? Then bill me $300 for an early cancellation fee?Their contract enforcement seems to be adjustable to suit their needs. According to the complaints on the BBB website ( up to 102 with mine) this seems to be common practice. Backdooring your account for whatever they can get away with.
Not to mention First Hudson Leasing, (which EMS states has nothing to do with them even though they have the same address and I was instructed to return the equipment to EMS), overbilling for faulty equipment for the last 6 years.
Hello Cathy,
I am having the same issue. I want to cancel the contract with them but they are charging me $475 plus $795 a huge amount of non-sense money. Did you paid them? How did you solve the problem? I need help!!!
Please,
I’m currently having this problem. I”m going to contact corporate to see if this can be fixed. If not , I’ll have to contact the news.
I too have the exact same problem. I wanted to cancel a year ago but they said I had to fulfill my 18 month. Finally my 18 months are up so I tried to cancel what they told me that I cannot because My 18 month contract just auto renewed. $595 cancelation fee.
Dear Ryan. What I did to cut EMS out was : I got another company and equipment. and started using the new company immediately. I stopped using EMS returned their equipment and put a stop payment on my bank account through my bank after the last deposit was made. End of story. I filed a complaint with the BBB and EMS answer was that they forgave all fees. After all, without access to my account, how can they deduct fees anyway?
I have read many complaints at the BBB, all the same about EMS. Cancellation fees etc……. The resolutions were all the same. EMS will just back off. They know they are wrong for what they are doing, so they just forget about it. I never heard another word from them.
You can absolutely get out of the self renewing contract that is a crock. Just cut them off from your bank account.Worked for me an I didn’t miss a beat with credit processing. I now use Groupon Processing. 1.8% fees and .15 a swipe. No hidden fees or tiered card fees. What a dream. All you need is an IPad and their little mobile swiper.
Good Luck!
Hey Ryan, Did you ever get out of contract with EMS? If so please give me some info on how you went about doing it. Thanks,
Cherie
This company is awful i’m still stuck with them after 4 years if they come knocking on your door please run very fast from them
Example one
I’m a small start up business that bought out another business and I was stupid to go ahead and keep Ems as my processor easy transfer when to busy trying to start the business (figured that 2% wasn’t bad (warning danger danger) and could look for new better pricing later
The first 6 months was not bad I guess I was doing a major show at 6 months into business and I called their rep I was interested in their biz-funds program for this major show and needed to increase inventory for this show Their lying rep said that i could use this program to raise extra working capitol for business the rep said this program was short term loan to help sart up businesses the payoff was 20% a month over 5 months and 20% interest (my margins are 28% so i was investing in extra short term inventory still making 8 % and trying to build business
They lied, lied and then lied some more they started taking the money off the top (this was ok with me) after 3 months i had already paid 80% back when they they froze my account no warning then said i wasn”t paying enough back fast enough froze 3300.00 at that time then held it for 180 days and I still havn’t got it all back 3 years later they still owe me $191.00 that they say they paid me I have repeatally given them the proof that I haven’t been paid ad they keep saying there working on it I have had enough
Now if you borrow $5000.00 from them at 20 % simple math you should owe them $6000.00 total at end right!!!
(simplified for everyone to understand) why did i pay them $4500 on three months and then pay the remaining 1500. by month later and then some more after that. when It was paid off a month early and then when i was finally done the real interest rate for 5 months was over 66.66% not kidding here…..
for the next 18 months they continued to charge me a $10.00 a month Biz-funds servicing fee
Now the real problem with them freezing the deposits no money was going into my business accounts that they Ems are still trying to ACH my batching fees and monthly fees on an as needed basis BUT!!! if there not depositing in my account then no money is going in and there continuing to try to take it out of my account (my bank was and still is more than happy to charge me $35.00 every time Ems tries to ACH money from me) Ems excuse is your supposed to keep money in your account so we can take it for our fees. It is not our fault my bank says you need to go back to Ems for fee reinbursement. We the bank charge our fees accordingly and its not our problem (bank is chase) Its all about the fees people.
.
Now the real final part here because of all the fees for the ACH’s chase closes my business account for fraudulant abuses and reports me to chexsystems and now Ii cant open a new business account at any other bank because chase says i abused my account.
Thank’s Very Much Ems !!!! it’s their fault and they dont care..
so now for the last 3 yrs i”ve been using my credit union account to run my business
I tried to get rid of them at my annual contract and I get told that I have to give them a 90 day notice in advance
or pay a cancellation fee of over $1000 dollars so I was stuck at this time and when I tried a year later this time in the correct window of oppurtunity they say they got cancallation notice 2 days after it was due (please send it registered people reading this)
now it’s 2013 and they have froze my account at the end of march and here we go again only this time its my credit union account being affected and there charging me $30.00 per transaction
so now I am contacting the office of comptroller US goverment, State of NH attourney general and the banking commission for credit unions (no money from my credit cards being deposited bank feeing me to death again
and cash transactions not being enough to keep bank positive)
EMS is going to succeed in bankrupting my business and me personally and the best part is the lease on the 2 credit card machines i have thru first hudson(ems) that cannot be canceled for another 2 years so when they
finish destroying me and my business i’m still gonna owe them more money.
They do a yearly rate increase at Ems on there percentages(they call them discount rates) (warning its automatic) d will be a small line on your monthly statement that it will take effect on xx/xx/xxxx
PLEASE ANYONE READING THIS DON’T USE EMS (you’ll be sorry)
stay away from miles davis. he is very sweet talker he will promise the world and when you get your first montly statement you will realize all these EXTRA fees. always remember rates are always different for different cards like points card, business card. dont believe when the rep says that there is no cancellation fee. ask about all the fees and get everything in writing in email. JUST stay away from ems corporate
I have been using ems for 6 months now and just realized the poor business prectices they use. first a guy comes into your place of business trying to relate to you like hes your best freind. No big deal i can see through that. But then with the promises of lowering your merchant payouts he smiles the whole time your signing that false contract. I was told my fees would be 40% less and yes the initial fee is less. But what they do not tell you is they are going to hit your bank acccount every business day with a 25-35 dollar fee. So when I was paying 475$ a month in fees im now paying 950$ a month. Total crap they can lie to you and switch things around to fool you. Oh and by the way when you try to call that smiling face that said theyll be there if you need anything they dont return calls. So you become forced to eat the high cancelation fees and move on. THANKS EMS YOU SUCK! Hope you guys get put out of business. Im a small business owner and that extra 450 would be nice to have in my pocket and not yours.
Sincerly
The guy you screwed over
Hello Cody,
I am having the same exact issue… I cant stand this company no more for the over fee. Did you paid them the 475$ cancellation fee? and move on? We, as a small business try to survive and hate it for some stupid company screw us up…. Cant stand….
I have had many bad experiences with several different card processing companies!! Some of them have the same names which is also frustrating and confusing. I understand pci compliance fees and regulatory comp fees but many card processing companies lock you in to an agreement, hide fees or you can never reach anyone. There are a few companies called EMS Merchant Services, I have found one that has awesome customer service no monthly minimum for little guys like me. No contract and they have 24/7 tech support. I dont remember their location but I spoke to a really nice girl there, [redacted – promotion]. She seemed to really care about my issues and concerns. A lot of companies have screwed me they haven’t yet, been with them 3 months now. By now I would have noticed a raise in monthly rates but everything is as she explained. There rate is only 10 bucks a month! Google them they may be hard to find they are a small company but have been around over 20+ years. [redacted – contact information] (who i delt with may be spelling her name wrong)
Hi Chelsea,
In order to verify this testimonial, please reply to this comment with you business name and location.
I had been processing for a couple of years with EMS without major issues until a few months ago when they froze all my transactions(near $30K). I was told the reason for freezing the transactions was my website was not secure. I informed EMS that we were not using our website but were using a 3rd party website that is secure for all transactions. They released almost $20K but refused to release approx $9K for 180 days. Yes, you read that correctly 180 days. The customer doing the charge had a conference call & offered send a letter to EMS authorizing the transaction. They still refused to release the funds for 180 days. I refunded the customers $9K as instructed by EMS & they took an additional $9K from my account. They also charged me for wire transfer & will tell you they are going to do something then change their agreement. I plan to file a formal complaint in VA & OH for the unethical business practice.
I personally could not be more upset with this whole process. As a starting business the last thing you expect is that something as simple as a system designed to assist service providers with drafting and monies from clients accounts wouldn’t be such a big headache. We used them in our bankruptcy practice and over time noticed additional fees. The numbers just weren’t adding up. We had a month of inactivity on our account and were hit with an aditional $50 inactivity fee for not charging enough on the account. Then the $15 non-compiance fee. Then the $75 semi-annual technology upgrade fee. All the while I sat and looked at my account month after month watching EMS deduct $80 out of my bank account while I waited for the contract period to end so we could finally cancel. Mind you, we have other solo practictioners who are using Pay Simple and Squared without having to deal with their bank account getting raided each month.
I know that starting a business means making mistakes and bad business decisions along the way. But signing up with them by far has been the DUMBEST thing we ever did.
They actually have been in business for longer than 20 years. And If the company is such a scam then why are they still in business and getting new cliental on a daily basis? EMS has helped a large amount of businesses with saving money. I have heard nothing but good from the current merchants whom are doing business with EMS.
EMS Electronic Merchant Systems aka Francis David Corporation is a sham. In the above review they blame it on agents/iso. That is a false statement. Corporate employees are trained the same way. They focus on getting statements and rate reviews. Then comeback showing how much money the merchant can save on the rate review. They fail to mention the $125 fee to set up. The $75.00 semi annual technology update. There are more charges than I’m going to mention. You will need to use a microscope to review the fine print on the contract. The contract auto renews. You have to notify them 90 days prior to the year. I suggest doing it certified mail with return receipt. They will say you never notified them. This company has zero ethics. As soon as you sign they will bleed you dry. Stay far away from EMS as you can.
Hi Rich,
Thank you for your your review. Are you are merchant that used this company, or are/were you an employee?