Eliot Management Group Reviews & Complaints

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Overview

In this comprehensive analysis, we delve into the intricacies and customer experiences of Eliot Management Group. We explore the company's offerings in payment processing, including credit and debit card transactions, ACH transactions, and an array of additional services like gift card solutions and mobile payments. We also scrutinize the various POS systems offered by EMG, highlighting their features and user-friendliness.

A critical aspect of our investigation involves dissecting EMG's relationship with its customers and employees. This includes examining numerous customer reviews and allegations of predatory business practices, as well as exploring EMG's involvement in recent lawsuits, including a significant $4.9 million penalty imposed by the FTC on its parent company, First American Payment Systems, for deceptive practices.

We also take a closer look at EMG's contract terms, rates, and fees, shedding light on the transparency and fairness of their business dealings. In addition, we provide insights into the experiences of EMG employees, highlighting issues around sales tactics and commission payments. This article aims to offer a thorough overview of Eliot Management Group, presenting a balanced view of its services, customer experiences, legal challenges, and overall industry standing.

About Eliot Management Group

Eliot Management Group is a mid-size merchant account provider based in Fort Worth, Texas, that appears to have opened its doors in 1999. Eliot Management Group and may be under the same ownership as (or have ties to) Appstar Financial, Apex Merchant Group, Trans Tech Merchant Group, Summit Merchant Solutions, First American Payment Systems, and Certified Payment Processing, as suggested in several merchant reports. Although no public information exists to verify these claims, most of the mentioned companies share very similar complaints and contract details. Several Eliot Management Group reviews from customers and employees also suggest connections to these other business names.

First American Payment Systems Lawsuit

EMG parent company was ordered by the FTC to pay $4.9 million to small businesses over “deceptive practices”. It's unclear what part of this is EMG's fault, but it is worth noting regardless.

Eliot Management Group Credit Card Processing

Eliot Management Group acts as a merchant services provider and processes all major debit and credit cards for most business industries. The company also offers ACH transactions, gift card solutions, Firstview data processing, check reading, cash advances, Paypal integration, next-day funding, and Optblue from American Express.

POS Systems

EMG offers a variety of point-of-sale (POS) systems, including countertop, wireless, and mobile options. Their POS systems are designed to be user-friendly and efficient, with features such as inventory management, employee management, and sales reporting. A wide variety of credit card processing equipment is offered through their website, including card readers, terminals, and POS systems from Sound, EPOS, Tetra, SwipeSimple, Pax, Dejavoo, Moby, Ingenico, and Paytrace. They additionally offer the Firstpay.net payment gateway for online payments.

Mobile Payments

EMG offers mobile payment solutions that allow businesses to accept payments on-the-go using their smartphone or tablet. The company uses SwipeSimple mobile payments.

Virtual Terminals

EMG offers virtual terminal solutions that allow businesses to process payments online or over the phone. Their virtual terminals are designed to be secure and user-friendly, with features such as recurring billing, fraud prevention, and customizable payment pages.

Gift and Loyalty Programs

EMG offers gift and loyalty program services that allow businesses to create custom gift cards and loyalty programs for their customers. These programs can be a great way to increase customer retention and encourage repeat business.

Location & Ownership

Eliot Management Group is an ISO/MSP of Fifth Third Bank, Cincinnati, OH, and now lists its headquarters at 101 Summit Ave #914, Fort Worth, TX 76102 along with 8 other listed offices. Ron Dictheris listed as CEO of EMG while the BBB lists Rossalie Nichols as the principal for the company. A John Howe is also listed in multiple places online as CEO of EMG, though we have been unable to confirm this.

Though public information is sparse, Eliot Management Group is reported to be one of many subsidiaries of First American Payment Systems. Both companies share similar complaints and heavy ties to Fort Worth, Texas, and Murray, Utah. The BBB lists 1100 E 6600 S Ste 425 Murray, UT as a Utah address for the company.

Video Summary

Eliot Management Group payment processing
Eliot Management Group offers standard payment processing services
Pros & Cons
Pros: Cons:
Multiple payment options​ $495 early termination fee​
Nationwide personalized service​​. Expensive equipment leasing​​.
Comprehensive payment services​​. High processing rates​​.
Advanced payment equipment​​. Non-transparent pricing​​.
Secure, reliable processing​​. Three-year contract term​​.

Eliot Management Group Customer Reviews

Here's What Their Clients Say

Customer Reviews Summary
Total Online Complaints 225+
Live Customer Support Yes
Most Common Complaint Hidden Fees
Recent Lawsuits Yes

High Complaint Total

We are currently able to locate more than 225 negative Eliot Management Group reviews on this and other consumer protection websites. Many of these Eliot Management Group reviews outright allege that the company operates a predatory business. The company has a high number of negative reviews in comparison to similar-sized providers. The overwhelming themes of these EMG reviews are reports of hidden and undisclosed fees, unauthorized debits from checking accounts, inability to resolve problems, difficulty canceling service, and poor customer support. Many of these problems seem to be traceable to deceptive sales tactics used by agents and failure to verbally disclose important fees and conditions prior to setting up accounts, instead relying on business owners to read the fine print. With the exception of complaints to the Better Business Bureau, it appears that Eliot Management Group chooses to enforce contracts rather than satisfy client grievances. If you have your own Eliot Management Group review to make, please do so in the comments below.

Eliot Management Group Lawsuits

Though not related directly to its merchant account services, the company is in the midst of a class-action lawsuit filed in 2018 by former sales employees. The disgruntled ex-employees allege that the company did not pay them commissions that they were due in violation of the Fair Labor Standards Act. This lawsuit follows a 2012 class-action lawsuit from former employees filed in 2012, which alleged that the company violated the Minimum Wage Laws of many states.

In 2020, EMG was sued by a client who alleged that the company intentionally leased broken equipment with no resolution for fixing it or offering refunds. This suit ended in a settlement for the plaintiff, the amount of which was not disclosed.

2022 saw EMG parent First American Payment Systems ordered to pay $4.9 million to small businesses by the FTC due to apparent “deceptive practices”.

Eliot Management Group Customer Support Options

Eliot Management Group claims to offer 24/7/365 phone support on its website.

Eliot Management Group Customer Service Numbers

  • (844) 898-0337 – Toll-Free General Customer Service
  • (817) 317-9150 – Local Office

Other Support Options

  • Dedicated email support address at [email protected]
  • Customer support form on its website

Given the company’s high complaint total, clients should not expect this phone line to compete with the service offered by top-rated payment processors for great customer service.

Eliot Management Group Online Ratings

Here's How They Rate Online

Online Ratings Summary
BBB Rating 4.28
PissedConsumer Rating 1.5
Average Rating 2.89

BBB Rating Analysis

Eliot Management Group has an average customer review rating of 4.28/5 stars on the Better Business Bureau (BBB) website, based on 39 customer reviews. The company has 7 complaints closed in the last 3 years, with none closed in the last 12 months. Common themes in the reviews include appreciation for efficient customer service and issues related to charges and service problems.

Negative Feedback

I opened an account for my company to process credit cards through Eliot Management Group. They sent me a USB credit card reader and said they would install the software on my computer. This was August 11, 2015. They never sent their tech support person to install the credit card processing software. They have charged my company more than 1900.00 in monthly fees and more than 6000.00 in PCI compliance fees. On March 3rd 2021, I sent them a signed letter asking them to close my account and today I got more PCI Compliance charges, and when I called them they tell me they did not receive an email that I have confirmation they did receive. I resend the email and they say they have no way of checking if the email was received.
– Complaint from March 15, 2021

Positive Feedback

We made some bank changes recently and have had a couple of issues where charges have been rejected, each time I have reached out to ****** in customer service and the problem has been resolved within a couple of hours. Very Simple to use and great customer service!!
– Review from October 3, 2023

Source: Better Business Bureau

PissedConsumer Rating Analysis

Eliot Management Group has a 1.5-star rating based on 10 customer reviews on PissedConsumer, ranking 67 of 199 in the Cards category. The majority of consumers express dissatisfaction, with common complaints about poor customer service, misleading information, and unexpected fees.

Negative Feedback

Stole money, charged me over $1000. The rep lies to you to get you signed up thinking you’re paying the cheapest rates, then you’re in contract for years that you have to pay huge amounts to get out of. Rates may be cheap, but they double and triple charge it, and on top of everything, have huge monthly fees. Please never use this company; they shouldn’t be in business. They will cause you a massive headache.
– Review from February 8, 2022

Horrible. Basically, they trap you forever and never let you leave unless you pay a $500 fee. Lots of liars and misleading information when you sign up.
– Review from September 4, 2019

Positive Feedback

Happy client, great service. We have used their service for over a year, still very happy. Great rates and I like that I have a local person to help me.
– Review from November 21, 2018

Source: PissedConsumer

Eliot Management Group Fees, Rates & Costs

A Closer Look at The Contract

Cost & Fees Summary
Cancellation Penalties Yes
Monthy & Annual Fees Yes
Processing Rates 1.00% - 4.99%
Equipment Leasing Yes

Factors That Affect Pricing

Costs and fees of an Eliot Management Group merchant account will likely vary based on the agent setting up the account as well as a business owner’s ability to negotiate low fees. Numerous customers report that actual fees are much higher than what they were originally quoted and that they experienced several fees which were not disclosed prior to account setup.

Virtual Terminal and Payment Gateway Pricing

In addition to its storefront payment processing services, Eliot Management Group also dedicates a portion of its website to advertising its virtual terminal and its payment gateway, which is powered by FirstPay.Net. However, pricing is not disclosed on either of those services. Additional rates and fees including gateway fees, technical support fees, batch fees, and additional transaction rates typically apply to these e-commerce services.

Three-Year Contract

Eliot Management Group’s standard merchant account agreement includes an annual PCI Compliance fee reported to be $125 per year, three-year service agreement that automatically renews for one-year terms, and a $495 Early Termination Fee (ETF) in addition to credit card processing fees and other recurring fees. All fees are automatically debited from a client’s attached checking account, and there is only a small window of opportunity to cancel service before the service agreement renews. Eliot Management Group also appears to partner with Northern Leasing to sell equipment leases, which automatically prevents it from competing with the industry’s cheapest merchant accounts due to Northern Leasing’s terrible reputation. We would also encourage business owners to check out our list of the providers of the best merchant accounts.

Eliot Management Group payment gateway
Eliot Management Group offers e-commerce solutions including payment gateway access.

Eliot Management Group Employee Reviews & Sales Tacitcs

Should You Work For Them?

Jobs & Marketing Summary
Uses Independent Resellers Yes
Telemarketing Yes
Misleading Marketing No
Discloses All Important Terms No

Independent Sales Team

Eliot Management Group seems to rely primarily on an “agent hiring mill” marketing strategy, wherein the company actively recruits and hires both independently contracted sales agents and internally employed sales representatives. Additionally, the company engages heavily in telemarketing and appointment setting by telephone. This marketing practice does not compare favorably to the provider in our list of best credit card processors.

Many Sales Complaints

Based on customer complaints, it appears that agents are either poorly trained in the terms and conditions of Eliot Management Group’s merchant account agreement or are encouraged to omit important details during the account setup process. This is evidenced by numerous customer reviews claiming surprise over fees and service commitments, and complaints of misleading sales tactics. At a minimum, customer complaints suggest a lack of oversight that allows many agents to engage in deceptive sales practices. It also appears that Eliot Management Group often enforces the contracts even when businesses claim that an agent misled them. If you are stuck in an expensive Eliot Management Group contract, you can lower your costs without switching by seeking a third-party statement audit.

Our Eliot Management Group Review Summary

Our Final Thoughts

Eliot Management Group rates as one of the worst credit card processing providers in the industry according to our rating system. Like the companies with which Eliot Management Group is allegedly affiliated, Eliot suffers from numerous complaints of deceptive sales tactics by agents, nondisclosure of important fees and conditions, and poor customer support when attempting to resolve problems or cancel service. The company can improve its rating by amending unfriendly and predatory contract policies and eliminating complaints of deceptive sales tactics, unauthorized debits, and poor customer support.

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Which is Most Important for You?

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

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

Testimonials & Complaints

How Did Eliot Management Group Treat You?

186 User Reviews

  • Sandra Catlett

    rta, Inc

    Our new Bookkeeper did a little internal audit of accounts we pay with an ACH debit from our bank a couple of weeks ago. We found almost 2 full pages of Monthly and Annual credit card fees from this company.
    We were having problems with our credit card machine so Mr. Eliot had a brand new one sent to me. We tossed the old one per his instructions.
    The earliest charge our bank records show is August 7, 2015 for a charge of $3637.50. The bank records show the last charge posted on the original credit card machine was for $1450.00 posted January 29, 20216. Starting February 02, 2016 thru February 2, 2023 this company has (stolen) withdrawn $6,200.30 in monthly and annual FEES that we did not even know about!

    I was told by Eliot that because I had not signed a Merchant Account Closure Request back in 2015, I could not get any of this money back!
    I am closing my account with them immediately.

  • frank

    franks train shop

    Started off great with these guys as I had a dedicated salesperson. When he left, it was impossible to get anything accomplished with these folks. Fees got higher and higher, some correct, others incorrect. They make you jump through hoops to get anything done. Then you try and cancel. Its easier to launch a rocket ship to Mars then cancel with these folks. Just terrible.

  • Sandra Asc

    Adelitas Mexican grill

    STAY AWAY!!
    Please be careful and stay away from this Cc processing company.
    The sales persones offer a 30 day trial and they sing you for a contract.
    I cancelled my service back on December-2019 and they still charging my account stating that I never cancel the service.
    I called back on January-4 -2022
    To see why they keep changing my account when I haven’t use their terminal for the las 2+ years and they want me to send an email closing my account again and a $495 dollars fine for closing the account.
    I called to get a copy of the famous contract sent to my business address and they don’t send me one until I give them my Mo Id, social security number and my personal address.
    This company and Their costumer service are a joke and the worse on the market.

  • Unhappy with this company

    This is by far the worst merchant services company I ever used. Our equipment stopped working and technical support wasn’t able to help us. We spent 48 hours without the ability to process payments. We tried working with them, but had to cancel and go to another merchant. Of course, they charged us an early termination fee. They were not willing to work with us in any manner. Stay as far away from this company as possible. I wish I would have don’t more research before going with this horrible company. The good news for me is that I now know that due diligence and reading reviews are very important.

  • Kevin Heiner

    Wireless N Wifi

    We signed up with them over 3 years ago with 2 established companies. Almost immediately they refused a $20K transaction from our best customer for company number one, who routinely made payments between $10K and $40K. We stayed with our previous provider with that company, but were charged a $50 fee they never refunded!

    We agreed to go month to month on the second company, and last month they refused to process a $30K card payment from our second companies best customer! We canceled, and now they are charging us a $495 “Bankcard Close Fee”!

  • Terry Crane

    These people have been jerking us around for almost a year. That’s a year that their services have not worked. Months of not returning calls. Months of problems. Months of lies. Months and months of taking our money. Months and months of not have a single successful transaction. Now trying to hold us to a contract. This is hands down the worst company we have ever dealt with. Period.

  • Laura garcia

    The salesman came in to our store and started his sales pitch about how they were way cheaper than square without all the expensive fees. It has been a nightmare every month with one thing after another not working, fees being taken out of our account that we were not told about, a yearly fee(which square didn’t have) and poor customer service. Please, please, please, don’t use these guys. They lock you in to a 4 year lease so if you cancel you have to pay them anyway!!! Stay with square who shows you all the fees up front and no yearly fee!

  • Rosanne

    Eliot, dogged me for months while we were building our business, when we signed up we were happy to have a provider. Right away we were unhappy with the way the system layout worked. We have spoty wifi and we quickly found the equipment wouldn’t work in our spot. We shared our concerns with Eliot and that’s when the trouble began. They are very rude on the phone and wont accept our problem. They have a fee for returning the equipment and one if you dont.

  • Randolph

    This company is a complete rip off the sales rep told me that within six months after I was with them that I could cancel
    so I canceled wrote a letter canceled the account they still proceeded to take funds from my account when I called to tell them about what was going on they acted like I never called or sent a letter saying that they can take funds as long as I was under contract I spoke to a representative she verified that the letter was received.
    I even received an email a month later saying that they miss my business and to come back I can’t believe this company company is still in business

  • Dive World Austin

    Really there are not enough superlatives available for me to emphasize all the reasons you should not use Eliot for your payment system for your business. Terrible reliability, terrible customer service, and had a measurable negative effect on my business revenues on several occasions. Locked in a two year contract, I bit the bullet and paid the early termination fee, it was so bad. Firing Eliot as a good day.


    This post will help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee

    -Phillip

  • Emily Christensen

    I have worked with Tanner for the last year, he has been very patient and kind with all my question and concerns. He returns my calls/texts very quickly and is easy to work with. I would highly recommend Eliot Management Group for your needs.
    Emily

  • Jana Cooley

    I have severed my relationship with EMG. I was not able to use my credit card processor for about 2.5 months. I also could not pass PCI Compliance. The lack of knowledge and assistance from this company was horrid. There was a local office for this group in Lake Oswego , OR that was closed but I was not notified. Nor was I ever notified about Eliot Management Group no longer using Trustwave. I have made countless attempts to resolve my problems with EMG. In this day and age it does not behoove my business to be unable to accept card payments. This inability to work with me to troubleshoot issues that have been ongoing has caused me to lose money at my business as well as lose all confidence in this credit card management company and months of aggravation and frustration while attempting to ‘jump through their hoops’ in an effort to remedy a situation before I looked into finding a new merchant services company. The lack of customer service, inability to resolve all of the problems I was facing and the incorrect information I was given about entering into a 3 year contract rather than a 2 year contract is disturbing and unethical. I would advise any other small businesses to do your homework before signing with a company. This is a highly competitive field and there are many, many options available. I basically went with this company because the business was already set up with them. I regret my decision and am completely dissatisfied with their method of doing business. I do hope someone at the corporate level might take a moment to review both my correspondence as well as the taped telephone conversations. I sincerely hope this post will save another business owner from the kind of inept, complacent treatment I was given.


    This post will help: Best Merchant Accounts for Catered Events

    -Phillip

  • Marcy Roberts

    The ABSOLUTE WORST MERCHANT COMPANY EVER!!! They don’t back their businesses when there’s a dispute, charge you random fees for not being compliant, but don’t tell you you’re not compliant until a month later when it shows up on your bank statement. Customer services is amazing, until you sign up, then forget about it. I told them I wanted to purchase the terminal & guess what, they put me on a 5 year lease, to get out of it would be $2400!!!! PLEASE DON’T CONSIDER THIS MERCHANT TO PROCESS YOUR CARDS!!

    From The Editor
    This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee

  • vasiliy oleynik

    ***WARNING*** DO NOT DO IT, ITS THE LIES THAT LERK AT “EMG” THAT WILL HAUNT YOU FOR THE NEXT 3 YEARS. AND MAYBE MORE.

    we signed up with Eliot Management Group, and rested assured that we were not under contract, “according to the sales rep” 1.8 years down the road we decided to upgrade to a POS system. EMG was no longer an option, because they couldn’t integrate. so we call in to cancel and to our surprise, the person on the other line says we are under contract and a $500 dollar fee will be charged for early cancellation, mind you this is after giving them our business for almost 2 years.

    that’s when the fun began and we realized the Pile we stepped into. come to find out we are subscribed to auto renew on our anniversary date. and only a window of time allowed to cancel around our anniversary date. so if you miss that window your locked in for another 3 years!
    13 months from today is our service anniversary date, so for the next 13 months i will be waiting for that window of opportunity. meanwhile i will have to pay the monthly fee.

    every attempt at working with them only ended in the contract being shoved in our direction. my dad is 60 years old and he is a handshake type of guy, he didn’t bother to ask for copies or written confirmation of the “NO CONTRACT” stated by the sales rep. at any rate customer service dropped to 0 sales rep is MIA and we are stuck paying a fee for something we cant use.

    We switched to a different provider with NO CONTRACT in writing, and pay a lot less both in percentage and monthly fee that is with the POS included and impeccable customer service.

    Eliot Management group is not a Company that values their customers or their reputation. they seem to only value your money.


    From The Editor
    This Post Might Help: Cancelling a Merchant Account Without Paying a Fee

  • Bill Nordbrock

    One of the worst business experiences of my professional career. They approved our application and started collecting payments on our behalf. After they collected and held thousands of dollars EMG decided they could not collect payments for our business. They returned the money to all of our clients with an explanation that made us sound like we were an illegitimate business. After that, they refused to refund our application fee. Do NOT use them…..

  • DOUG DEALY

    I’ve worked with Eliot processing for many years. Like all processing companies, the salesman come and go. I’ve stayed with Eliot because they do what they say and the rates are really good. Every once in awhile, I call them to make sure I’m currant and up to date with the feds. and they try to make sure I’m taken care rate wise as well. Thank you Eliot for working with me all these years. Doug

  • Cheryl

    I tried this company after much pressure from the sales person, after he told me specific prices and that I could try it with no contract. Well – he lied to me. There is a contract, and I am locked in, and paying much more than we agreed upon. I have contacted the Attorney General to get this taken care of. How dare they take advantage of me and my small business.

  • marco morifin

    Diana joubert is my sales person she is a good rep when I call she pick up and when I have problem she fix for me I would tell any business for her and I will send her a lot more customer she is the best.

  • Carrie

    Beware! I was told I was going to do a SEASONAL 1 month process and now I have a 3 year contract! There is more than you will not KNOW or be told then you have to try to reach the rep or manager- good luck! The attitude is unprofessional and they approach you as you are in a contract and can not resolve the problem at all with them. How weird it is to have a 3 year contract but use 1 month out of a year. Is there such thing as a seasonal contract to fit the client? I was hesitant going with this company but a past employee talked me into this and now she is cannot be reached either. WIERD!! Beware

  • Augustus Vigilante

    Worst company ever!!! I have been lied too… and charged 150 for a service I have never used… sales rep. Charged for a card machine I never got… then started the calls…Never to the right person… answering service is a joke..had someone in the office tell me they where from corporate then hang up on me…i feel like I been robbed…dont trust these guys… I still haven’t got my money back…. don’t do it!

    • Carrie

      I feel the same way and robbed is RIGHT! They start tossing around the 495.00 cancellation fee too. Horrible experience. They tell me (Amber) how they have tried many times to call me but that is WRONG. I will stay with Go Payments for a little more a month for sure.

  • Nancy

    A Brian leaves me a message saying he was sorry he had messed up and missed his appointment with me and would like to reschedule. I told him I didn’t have an appt. with him. Then he proceeds with his sales pitch regarding merchant services, I told him I was not interested and he goes on and on. I told him I did not have time right now as this is our busy time and he said so you don’t have time to save $500, I said, No I don’t have time for pushy sales people.

  • R Kluge

    November 16, 2016
    Elliot Management Group
    Attention: Retention Department
    300 Burnett St
    Suite 400
    Fort Worth Tx 76102
    Dear Elliot Management Group:
    We are writing this letter to inform you that we wish to have our account reference # **** , upon the receipt of this letter. Please see the following reasons that we feel that we have to close the account and expect it to be closed without the $495.00 closing fee.
    First I would like to say that I take responsibility for not doing my due diligence on your company. After the problems began I started looking closer at the company and have found that there are more complaints than I could possibly ever read online, many of them dealing with the same issues that I have. It is quite scary.
    I first met with Travis Lipp and told him I would have to think about the service due to a crazy schedule I did not sign up until months later. I finally signed up in August and registered the service to use in September.
    I first used this service in September 2016. I immediately had issues with the funds not being deposited into our account. I called numerous times and not one customer service representative could explain why I was receiving partial payments and every single charge was flagged, in fact they seemed really puzzled. After waiting for a supervisor to call, and becoming even more concerned I called again since the time period for the supervisor to call had come and gone with no call. I did receive the funds but was shocked at all the charges.
    When I was told of all of the charges I was quite upset, I called Mr. Lipp my representative over a dozen times without a single return call. I called your company asking for assistance and was told it was in the contract, a contract that I had not received. I ask for a supervisor call which I did not receive and a copy of the contract which I did receive.
    Upon receiving the contract I was shocked, the contract I signed had two pages this one had four. There is obviously discrepancy so I once again called customer service in which the operator said I need a supervisor. I could only laugh at that statement.
    The contract was dated in June, I did not have an account with you until August, the date written in a handwriting not mine. I was listed as an owner, I am not the owner as I have stated, I am a managing partner, this is a corporation. It said that I am 100% owner which is completely untrue. I noticed the average ticket listed as $100. The store is quite small and many items are only a dollar, my average sale is closer to $20.00. Once again not my writing and in a completely different pen.
    There are numerous areas where a different ink pen was used and things crossed out and written concerning percentages and such. With all of the different writing and ink I was shocked to say the least.
    I immediately called for help with all of these contract issues and was told, a supervisor would call. I thought for sure your company would be as concerned as I was considering the person representing you was committing what I consider fraud, a different contract, items added and changed in other inks and a very clear different hand writing. I ask to immediately close the account. Was told I would get a call for sure this time. Plus it was $495, to close a fraudulent account. No help and what seemed to be no concern which leads me to believe that you either accept this behavior, encourage it to make a profit, or just plain do not care.
    Needless to say, I am furious about this entire episode that cost me hundreds of dollars and so much stress and worry.
    I feel that my account should be closed at once with no repercussions or fees. I also revoke any and all access to my banking account. I want you to look into your representative, Travis Lipp, and his immediate supervisor. I also feel that an immediate overview should be done of representatives and their training. A new contract should be written where a consumer must initial on areas concerning fees, and on each page as well as being clearly labeled page _____ of _____. A follow up call from the representative’s supervisor to check that the contract is understood, as well as checking to make sure there are no inconsistencies as in my contract would be a responsible thing to do. These are simply yet effective changes that could protect consumers as well as yourself. This would go a long way to changing your rating online which is abysmal at best.
    I am sending this letter to the Better Business Bureau as well as a copy to your acquiring bank, Fifth Third Bank, and posting online with a place for a follow-up response.
    I hope that you do the honorable actions in this case and use it as a starting point to elevate the reputation of your company.

    Sincerely,

    The following is the address listed for their acquiring bank:
    Fifth Third Bank
    Attn: Relationship Manager
    38 Fountain Square Plaza
    Cincinnati OH,45263
    Contact phone: 817-317-2996
    Acquirer Phone: 866-250-9764

    Hope my mistake can help someone else.

  • The Garage Vapor Lounge

    Terrible Customer Service, LIES, took my old card processors card reader, made me think that I was sending it back to old processor, cost me $600, promised to get me out of old contract cost me $400 in fees still being charged to my account, had to pay $595 to get out of contract and they are still charging me, don’t give into these sweet talking thieves. Even when I talked to a higher up manager they would not do anything to help me out with the terrible way that I was taken advantage of, BEWARE
    Thank God I have learned from this experience, but I feel sorry for the new people out there that they are taking advantage of, I wish that there was regulations on what they can and cannot do

  • Yumi Ha

    Worst company to deal with.
    They will conveniently extend your contract for “reviewing your rates”. They said we have to keep 5 year contract terms with them.
    When one customer calls in to dispute a charge, they will immediately suspend each and every credit card processing amount for weeks at a time, REGARDLESS the total amount, whether the claim is correct, etc. You will leave numerous messages for their chargeback dept and you will receive NO response back. It is the worst company that will cripple your small business.

  • John Ramirez

    Eliot Management Group is the most dishonest company we have ever done business with, We signed up to process our company cards, our sales person lied to us and miss repesented what they offered, if I could give -10 stars it would not be enough. Go elsewhere where they have intgerity.

  • Jodi Rasmussen

    Horrable Company !!! Do not go with this company. Or rep Nickolie lied about being there for us. They have the power to accept a customers payment no matter if the card is accepted. They batched out a transaction and charged the fees to our account then reversed the payment because they said it was too high but kept the fees. SCAMMERS. Square is much better..

  • Deshaye Ballard

    I am now another victim of Eliot Management! The sales consultant Joseph Day in the Atlanta office was very dishonest when gaining my trust using his good Christian values to help out small companies get a better deal. I am a new business owner that was not very knowledgeable on processing dealings. Once I started receiving unauthorized debits in addition to high leasing cost that did not match up to cost discussed I began to want answers and was completely blown off! Joseph Day has yet to call me and discuss business, he sends a message through the young lady he was training when I signed on. She just repeats what he told her to tell me but will not assume responsibility for the issue. This man has lied, brushed me off, and refuse to have conversation with me. Joseph has told the young lady at the office I have been cancelled but refuse to give me that information in writing and will not assist me in getting out of the lease that he deceptively got me in. Oh did I mention the company they were using to lease equipment they are no longer with but failed to tell me this! This has been a nightmare for me and I desperately need help with this issue, any suggestions would be helpful!

  • Liz Doyle

    We are a non-profit, and previous folks that volunteered for the organization opened this account and are no longer a part of this organization. We found they were still charging us and we had a contract in 2014. They would not let us cancel our contract after years of non-use. Said we had to wait until our contract was up on our three year contract termination on May 1st, 2016 to cancel, otherwise we had to pay $495. In the meantime, they continued to charge us a monthly maintenance fee and annual fee even though we weren’t using the service. Wet call on May 1st to cancel as directed, and they said we needed to cancel by February 13th – April 13th, 2016 with 30-day written notice. Therefore, we had to wait one more year, on February 13th, 2017 to cancel our contract after their advisement in June of 2014 to call on May 1st to cancel our contract. Now we cannot cancel our contract, again, without a $495 fee. Absolutely ridiculous.

  • Angie Vasquez

    We are a small family run business always looking to cut down on costs. An Eliot salesman approached us with a deal that seemed reasonable. I was very clear with them that I wanted a trial period of one month to evaluate their business and compare them to the company we were already using. Let me repeat I told them over and over again that it was a trial period only!! Even while I was filling out paperwork I repeated that this was a trial period only, getting the picture? I was reassured that they understood the one month trial period. At the end of the one month it became evident that Eliot was costing us considerably more money than the company we were doing business with. When I called them to tell them that I did not want to continue to do business with them I couldn’t get a reply from them. I left several voicemail messages with the salesman as well as Mr Shawn Hussian and no one returned our calls. FINALLY Shawn did return our call and informed us that the noncompliance fees as well as our monthly fees would only be returned if we gave them a screen shot of our bank account charges… What?! They continued to take fees from our account for more than six months and have as yet NOT returned any of the money to which they are not entitled. This might be the most unethical company I’ve ever dealt with. I would recommend, if you are approached by their sales dept, that you do not do business with these people!

  • Leanne Mariano for Mother's Grace

    I have never dealt with a company that is run in a more unethical manner. My organization is a nonprofit run by volunteers – ripe for Eliot’s picking. A year ago when it became apparent that the fees were too high, the account was cancelled. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to us, there were two accounts open – not sure how or why. Months later when it was realized that we were still paying fees to Eliot, a call was made. No apology, no refunds and no explanations other than there was activity on the account (there absolutely was not) and therefore no monies would be returned. Finally, after demanding to speak to a supervisor, the rep advised that they had spoken to a superintendent on our behalf and it was agreed Eliot would refund three months fees once we arrived at our renewal date two months hence. I sent a letter cancelling this second account in writing effective on the renewal date and confirming that three months fees would be refunded. A recent check of our account shows no refund, they are still debiting monthly fee and upon a call to them, were advised that there was no documentation in the account of my previous call and the fees would not be refunded. I’ll say this, the rep, Billy, seemed very practiced in dealing with irate customers. I’m sure she gets plenty of practice. Do not under any circumstances us this company!


    Are you with Eliot Management Group? Learn how to resolve this complaint.

  • Gary Long

    To be clear, Eliot Management Group is about as crooked as they come as far as credit card processing companies. They raise rates multiple times per year without telling you. These white collar criminals screw small businesses out of every penny possible. Every business colleague and vendor we conduct business with will be asked if they use Eliot. If they do, we will not do business with them. These a**holes will not get another penny from us!


    Are you with Eliot Management Group? Learn how to resolve this complaint.

  • Emma Kreer

    We have recently had two serious errors in deposits from EMG . We have 3 people currently calling, and filling out the contact request form online every day. Every time there is a promise of a reply within 24 hours. So far, that has proved to be complete BULL. Horrified at all the reviews on here, as we are hoping to cancel with them soon.

  • Christina McIntosh

    Eliot Management Group has to be one of the most crooked companies on earth!

    My business location is in Kansas City, MO – and the name of my company is SETCELL. In late January 2015 a very charming representative named Jerome Bolin approached my business with confidence – telling me that he knows for a fact that my current credit card processor is charging me astronomical fees as they are not a direct processor. He proceeded to communicate how his company can look over a processing statement to show what they were overcharging every month and by switching to them we would save an X amount of dollars guaranteed, and that he was offering me a risk free service by giving me a 30 day trial – to see the savings for myself.

    My business partner and I thought “Well, if it’s going to save us money, why not try the trial”. Well — I cannot express how much of a mistake that decision was – We should have done our research – as I would have kindly dismissed any offers especially finding all of these reviews.

    Where to start — Unbeknownst to us – Jerome Bolin had just started his job with Eliot Management Group – and we were actually first clients (Whatyaknow?) – and maybe it was his excitement and his promising words…

    During setup there were even red flags – And understand Jerome and the other 2 colleagues (who will be introduced soon) NEVER brought me a contract, I remember signing on one piece of paper – that was very generic and had no terms of agreement nothing, I was under the impression perhaps it was a piece of paper for Jerome to show his manager, regarding our “trial”.

    During setup – Jerome had problems connecting my POS system to the actual Fifth Third processor – He assured me he would make sure everything would transfer over smoothly and I would not have to intervene as he understands how valuable my time is- and besides he has amazing support and Eliot management processes millions maybe even billions of transactions everyday blah blah blah….So I believed him.

    Sure. He set it up.
    The problem was… He didn’t really set it up…….
    After a week of using this “Better, More Improved processor” We realized….Hey we’ve been doing about $3,000 in credit cards a day for 7 days — why haven’t we received any deposits????
    Come to find out – Jerome didn’t understand the difference between a Host-based platform Vs a Host Based – Time initiated auto settlement platform. Apparently, if you don’t talk to Fifth third to auto settle your batches – Your transactions will no batch and you will not receive funds.

    Now—- I had to intervene and figure this all out myself.. because Eliot Management Group sent in a new guy that HAD NO IDEA WHAT HE WAS DOING and caused total chaos for 11 consecutive days! Until, I was able to get this figured out.

    A man named Larry Tischler got involved. He was supposedly the Manger of Jerome’s manager. This guy – HAD NO IDEA what he was doing. He kept blaming my last processor for the interference – and blah blah blah……

    When my POS system suggested we call Fifth Third — Larry asks if I was going to lose $10,000 of sales transactions because they hadn’t been batched — luckily we had approval codes for all the purchases to manually batch them with Fifth Third….

    THAT IS ONLY ONE of the issues….

    Now… after that incident I was ready to jump ship after a week… I called Eliot Management to cancel my “trial” as that itself left a bad taste in my mouth.
    I was told…”Uh….There is no trial, you are actually, in a 3 year contract with us…and it looks like you have two accounts with us” I SAID “WHAT” 3 year contract!?!?!?! TWO ACCOUNTS!?!?!?! Your obviously reading the wrong account…. Nope… i was indeed in a contract for 3 years and they had also signed up my other retail location with NO PERMISSION… for 3 years….and there was zero talks about us even using the trial on that store….they only knew we had two stores because they requested my statement form my previous processor that showed the volume of both stores.

    Now— to cancel that accounts and get reasoning on how we even signed a contract for 3 years was like pulling teeth… Nobody could explain anything….Just proof of uploaded documents with my signature on them…. documents I NEVER SAW – they even offered to mail them to me…..(How Sweet.)

    I called the corporate office to explain how disappointed I was in the field reps for misleading my company into these contract – surely, they could cancel these false documents. NOPE. Not the the case. I spoke with Amy Walker, who claimed to be the specialist that would be able to help me. Immediately, Amy was on the defense – saying.. “You obviously signed these contracts, do you not look at what you sign?” Thats pretty irresponsible.” I was in shock, that this “Reputable company” had a woman in their corporate office speaking to me these way…. She had zero empathy – it seemed robotic and like she had to repeat the same argument daily…….It was unreal.

    Needless to say after about a month of communication with Amy – I was able to have a human conversation with her – an she was able to cancel my account to my second store… without the $495 fee…..

    The problem still lies with the first store… Most recently I’ve had TWO customers tell me that they were charged twice. In my POS system I can only charge a person ONE TIME on ONE TRANSACTION. There is ZERO WAYS to swipe a card multiple times to double charge them…. The only way to charge twice in my POS is to ring out a separate transaction which was never done……
    I am done dealing with this company… and I hope that every customer that has an issue….complains until an attorney decides to open a class act lawsuit…. there is too much fraudulent activity — and too many business owners and past employees with the same story…..

    [Contact information redacted – not allowed]

  • Donna Martin

    Our smooth – talking rep, David Stevens, promised us lower fees. He did not mention anything about a 3 year contract and the “other fees” or the $495 cancellation fee. There was no contract available to view and nothing was gone over. He just pointed to his tablet and said to sign here. Once I got the first bank statement, everything clicked into place that this was their unethical way of doing business. We have cancelled our contract. We are VERY unhappy and will tell everyone we meet.

    • amy

      I am shocked that this guy is still at it but scamming people! David Stevens was our slick talking salesman too, 3 years ago, I called and called him for help when it didn’t go as promised, and he told me he had promoted and he wasn’t dealing with my account anymore! Apparently he is still at it, Karma will find him some day I promise

  • Lindsey W

    As others have already commented, Eliot Management Group is a horrible company to get involved with. They are not priced competitively, account representatives are incompetent, and even canceling is a nightmare. They will continue to charge your account even after closing and will refuse to send any written verification. All I received from them were empty assurances that the account “has been closed and a refund request has been submitted”. The company is untrustworthy and has no problem wasting your time and energy. I advise anyone to reconsider before signing a contract with Eliot – there are better options available.

  • Judy

    Everyone should file a complaint with the Attorney General of their state. I am seeking a private attorney. It’s only a $495 termination fee but they continued to extend my contract on behalf of a “RATE REVIEW” with holding information that it renews my contract. The hook…. I didn’t ask for a rate review they have on file a Bonnie. I am not Bonnie. They let you go around and around. STOP this company from fraudulent contracting. I may have to take them to small claims.

  • ReTile

    To Eliot Management Group new customers,

    SCAM, SCAM, SCAM, don’t sign on with them they say they will save you money and better then square but the fact is with the monthly fees that add up and the credit card charge fees will be just about the same or more than square. We made a huge mistake by signing on with them and for only a month in we were being charge all kind of fees and not even made a single transaction. They say $20 monthly fee turn out its $45 dollars fee and the rate they promise of .59% was only if it’s a qualified regulated (no explanation as to what is consider qualified regulated) or else we will be charge from 1.59% to 3%, turn out their rate is higher than square. Please, do more research and absolutely don’t sign a contract with them. Everyone who give a negative review on here is in fact been hurt by them and they are speaking out because of great dissatisfaction.

  • Margaret

    I wish I would have done a little more research before “signing” with Elliott Management. The rep made it sound like I was “just giving it a try” to see how much money we would save. We just had to sign the standard paperwork to keep his boss happy. He did not mention that in fine print in the middle of 15+pages of paperwork we were committing to a 3 year contract with a hefty cancellation fee. Okay, I could accept responsibility for my ignorance and live with that especially if indeed we saw the savings on our credit card processing fees that he claimed we would. After one year of using this processing company our total dollars of credit card charges were down but the dollar amount of the fees were significantly up! I understand that different cards carry different charges but how does one really know if you are receiving competitive rates on your processing? I know I find it very confusing and almost impossible for the average customer to be able to verify this. So my advise would be to go with someone you trust (like I had before I left for the allure of savings) and hang up on all those callers who want to give you a “free analysis”. From my experience Elliott Management is not a company you can trust..

  • Richard Aleksander

    Just found out that Tony Tinderholt, Director of Recruiting and Training for Eliot, is running for State Representative from Fort Worth, on a campaign platform that includes the military invasion of the nation of Mexico. Here’s the web page of Fort Worth Star Telegram’s editorial about him; the comments section includes a post which I wrote.

    Eliot has a long history of misleading its clients, abusing Eliot’s access to the banking accounts of its clients and mistreating its own employees.

    Given the custom of Republicans to appoint officeholders from regulated industries to regulate their own industries, the candidacy of Mr. Tinderholt to the Texas legislature should be a warning to consumers, small businesspeople and anyone else concerned with fairness in business: Don’t put the fox in charge of the henhouse.

  • Kristi

    This is one of the worst experience I have had. I was told that once I signed up that they had a team that would set everything up , walk me through the equipment , answer questions. This was not the case. My sales representative lied to me. She told me that Eliot Management had an internet team that would give me a link that I could add to my invoices , so customers could pay with out leaving the invoice. She also told me that Eliot Management would also add what was need to my website. All for one small fee per month.
    There is no team to help. I was contacted by customer support to walk me through setting up my on equipment. I was aslo told incorrectly. After I ran my first transaction my funds was help for almost 3 weeks because my website did not have all the requirements. So I asked if the internet team would take care of that. No because there is no internet team. When I called the sales rep & told her she had her supervisor call me ( he was also at the meeting with the sales rep & my self ) I asked him about the intenet team & was told He would make this short It is what it is- I could take it or leave it. then he hung up the phone. I only did the one transation & stoped service. I have spent many hours over the phone trying get refunds for monthley charges for the 12 days I was a customer of theres. I was charged 2 monthley fees because they help my payment over to the following month. I have been told that I would be refunded & gave referal numbers still no refund.

  • Eleni's Kitchen

    I just received a call from this company. Their sales person was so rude she hung up on me when I told her we were not interested in changing our provider. Here is the number she called from.469-3749300.

    I wonder how they want to get business if they do not have customer service themselves.
    Rude, rude. Will not even consider doing business with them.

  • Richard

    DO NOT do business with Eliot Management Group. They liar about everything (their equipment, their services, their fees, etc). They stated that they could get you lower rates. They not only charged higher rates, they charged rates above what their contract stated. Wish I would have read all these reviews before I changed my credit card merchant services. Live and learn, one more of life’s lessons.

  • Jeff Henderson

    I used Eliot Management for a bit over two years until I sold my business. I was told by someone at the Fort Worth headquarters to fax a cancellation letter in notifying them I sold the business and no longer needed to use their services.

    The following day I received a call from someone asking why I was leaving. Duh, I wrote in the letter I sold my business. All the caller was concerned about was if the new owner wanted to use Eliot. I told the caller to call the new owner themselves and find out since I no longer owned the business I had no idea what the new owner wanted to do.

    Anyway assuming the account was canceled, a month later my bank account was hit with the monthly service fee even though there had been NO transactions. After calling the Fort Worth headquarters, I was told my account was never cancelled and they would not do a thing to help me. The three customer service personnel representatives I spoke to were cold and stubborn. Such RUDE service.

    After faxing in another letter to cancel my service, and calling 4 days later to verify the account was cancelled I was rudely told the cancellation was in process and it normally takes 2 business days to close an account. When I stated it was already 4 business days I was met with silence.

    Did I say RUDE service.

    Wish I had read the reviews before doing business with this shameful company.

    • Julie

      Were you ever able to actually cancel the service? I’ve not been able to so far, despite following all of their many instructions, including faxing many letters, sending several certified letters. I’m about to close my checking account so they won’t continue taking their fees out despite me having closed my account with them.

      • Barry Brown

        Julie, if you scroll down near the bottom (not my first post, but my 2nd, I tell you how to shake these effing thieves…you’re on the right track. Close your bank account. Not only close it but move to a different bank. They have their dirty little ways of stealing your money. Believe me, I know. $1210.53 the stole from me at a time when I was struggling to recover from a bankruptcy and the economy had tanked. Good luck!

  • Deb Pfaffly

    Customer Service is terrible, Account reps lie to you to get your business, terrible experience for our company. Avoid this company!!! They will not refund your $$ even if the Account Reps lie. you sign the contract you are out of $$$$$$, even if you never are able to use the service.

  • Karen Twyford

    The worst company I have been in contact with in 22 years of business. They never return phone calls, are dishonest and don’t provide customer service. We had a week where we had no service at all. Even though they didn’t hold up their end of their contract they still want to charge a outrageous cancellation fee. Do yourself a favor and find ANY other processing companies to work with.

  • harsimranjet Singh

    Do not start an relations with this company they are distrustful and they take fraudulent amounts from your account as well as increase the monthly fee. there are many company out their that give better rates and are 10 times safer and cheaper for your services. This company has the worst customer service representatives and they try to get every penny out of even if your account is closed. i recommend not even adding this company on your list of competitive merchant services.

  • Jessica

    This is the WORST company EVER! We have never had so many problems with a company in all our years! First the said they would start us up with the proper equipment & get us going….months later of problem after problem they say o, you need a DSL cable, so we paid them for service fees, paid our phone company to hook everything up, it was a mess. Next what happened was i had a customer who paid $50 & i checked the batch it was fine, so i settled out, At the top it said out of balance. WHAT?! it charged my customer twice! i had to call to refund, & i get charged to refund the money back to the customer! now the customer has a bounce fee because of my machines error, guess who has to pay her fees. This was only the first of many customers down the road to get double charged. This company gives you the run around. When there is a problem they blame it on the phone company, your employees, anything & everything else besides themselves. I would not recommend this company to anyone. Do not use this company unless you want headaches.

    thanks,
    Jessica

  • Ben Bleyl

    It is my opinion that everyone should stay away from doing business with Eliot Management Group. It is my opinion that their sales tactics are deceptive in that they said they signed me up on a month-to- month basis when in fact the contract at their home office is Fort Worth, Texas said that it was for five years. Also, in my opinion, they never permanently connected me to their system. This can be verified that no credit charges were made on their system for sales made my my company. Despite this problem, they charged my checking account $495.00 for early termination. If you choose to do business with them it is my opinion you should insist on seeing all contract documents and have a knowledgable attorney examine and OK them before you sign anything. In my opinion, this outfit is nothing but a scam.

  • Vicki

    The below document outlines the interaction with Eliot Management Services.. I phoned the company to straighten out this issue first on January 30th and was told a Supervisor would return my calls. I phoned again on February 5th and February 6th being told that it takes 24-48 hours to complete an investigation. I phoned today, February 18th and was told there are no supervisors to speak to, I must wait 24-48 hours to speak to one. I was also told by the young lady today that they left me a detailed message with one of my employees on February 12th . On February 12 we had one of the worst ice storms in SC History, we were closed and had the answering machine detailing that. There were no messages and I did not receive a call on my mobile phone. The young lady told me today this is a closed issue, we are in a contract period. I will have to pay them to cancel.

    This system is still not functional, is not what we were sold on, were not informed of minimum billing, were offered a free month trial and we have spent close to $400 in equipment.

    February 10, 2014

    Dear Sir or Madam:

    Thank you in advance for your co operation with this matter. On February 6, 2014 I requested that our One Touch POS System be returned and our Agreement with Eliot be terminated as Eliot has breached our contract.
    There are several issues with the system. We were “sold” quite a bit of empty promises. Our requirements were that the system was:
    • Easy to use and program
    • Had multiple cash draw capabilities
    • Managed Inventory
    • Was latest in technology, using hand held capabilities
    We were told all of the above was part of the basic system. In addition, we were told that our current set up of wireless router and capability was sufficient to support the system. Since this is a new system, I requested and was granted, ” The First Month Totally Free of Charges” knowing that no system is ever implemented without a learning curve. And since this office had never installed one of these systems before, I didn’t want to pay to be their testing ground.
    We received the system on January 15th. The Salesman, James Glenn, came in and put the system together and registered it. He was to return to train us on how to use the system, and has not returned to do training. He has had no car, no babysitter, no time for us.
    When the system arrived, we were charged $65 for shipping which was not in the contract. We were subsequently told that the printers would need to be hard wired. We spent $200 in cables that evening and had to have my husband run wires through the ceiling, about a 2 hour job. James told us he would reimburse us for the cable. The next day his supervisor came in to re install the kitchen printer which would not work. We were then told that our current router which has an open WiFi system for customer use would not be good enough, we needed another router. We were also told we would be reimbursed for that at a cost of $200.
    The system by the way cannot handle multiple cash drawers, cannot process credit cards table side, and each of the features we were told the system could do, it maybe can, but for an additional fees. Same with the credit card processing which we were told would save us money, but the features I have now do not charge for batching, statements, next day processing. In fact the front of their brochure states “free Statements” yet I have to pay $5 for the statement.
    Last week, I called 1stTouch directly to try and understand exactly what the system could do and because I still hadn’t heard from James and the log in reset every time I tried to access the system. They confirmed that the inventory system I was sold on was beyond the actual capability of the system.
    I phoned James on Thursday January 28 to find out what was going on and to again raise my concerns that so far this system did not do many of the functions we required AND that we were billed by the leasing company $144.69. This was higher than the agreed amount AND was not supposed to happen for a month out. I also, not expecting the charge, bounced two checks ( which I NEVER DO) because of the bank draft from the lease. He told me he would talk with his manager and get back to me.
    On Monday February 3, I called James again, since I had not heard from him to ask him what was going on and I wanted a plan that day.
    This morning I called Daniel, the Sales Manager at Eliot. Went through this entire scenario above AND the fact that we had another charge come up on my bank account for $54 from Eliot directly. We have yet to process a single transaction. He informed me he had no idea that the system was not up and running and that I had to pay them $54 for credit card processing. I asked him to come and pick up the system that we were done. In less than one month we have been billed close to $300 for a system that was to have the first month free, and has yet to be used, programmed or trained on. Plus we have spent close to $400 in additional equipment that we were told we would not need. And he said, NO, we have a contract. A contract is a two way relationship, Eliot has not kept their end.
    I sincerely believe I have been scammed and will pursue this matter in whatever way necessary to return it and recoup my monies. As I told Daniel, when you have been lied to this much, going forward is impossible. My vendors and I are partners, and I will not be stuck in a relationship that has nothing but lies and deceit as a foundation.
    I am requesting this system be returned and my lease agreement severed. I have informed my bank that no further charges will be accepted from either Eliot or The Lease Company.

    Thank you again for your assistance,

    Respectfully,

  • j lee

    Eliot Management Group is only interested in taking your money, then take more by charging outrageous termination fee. Even after being with EMG for more than 3 years, EMG only allows you to cancel the contract on the anniversary date with a 2-month notice. Otherwise, they charge a termination fee of $475 which no other company does.

  • Brittany

    I’m a part time hair stylist and started using EMG on June 2013. I have never had so many problems with one company in my life. I’m in Eugene, Or. Our account reps are so sketchy and unprofessional I am literally terrified that I gave them any sort of personal information. I should have really thought it through but these people are dirt balls. I had 2 transactions 4 days ago that EMG refuses to put in my account. One transaction for 125$ and one for 20$ I called to ask why I haven’t received my money and I was told “you voided and refunded the money”. Now if I would have voided or refunded I would have had a reciept for that. Yet all I have are SALES recipes just like I do every other time. I was then told someone would call me back in 3-5 business days….. Are you effing kidding me..? Yeah big whoop it’s 145$ but I have bills and I’m sick and tired of these people screwing up our accounts nothing has ever gone right with this company they always have some bogus fee they’re charging for that they fail to mention during the set up process. Basically these people are worthless, disgusting, lying thieves. If you’re in the business to make money, don’t use them cuz they’re take every dime you have.

  • Michelle

    This company will tell you the contract end date but when you try to cancel they tell you that you can’t cancel because you didn’t submit a notice 30 days prior to cancelation. Also, this company WILL NOT work with you at all so be prepared. the customer service agents are rude just as well as the account specialists. I told them I refused go pay any fees to cancel and they next say they took out $600 of my account. Again after I told them NO. we are still fighting with them. I’m posting as much as I can on social media about this company. We will go with someone else for our credit card processing. Now that our company has tripled in size. We will give someone else our business.

  • K&G Wightman

    This company used pressure tactics to get our company to sign on with them for credit card processing, we agreed to try the company but we made it very clear we would not be able to start up the service until January 1st due to lack of funds. Two weeks later they pulled $350.00 out of our account and sent us a processor that did not work. We called the person who set it up to get this reversed, and they refused to return phone messages. We had the bank reversed the charges and sent letters to our bank and EMG to cancel the service due to breach of contract on their part. They pulled money out two more times (which our bank reversed) before we finally had to close our business account. They even tried to collect over $500 from said closed account. They lie, cheat and harass to get money without providing the service they claim to provide.

  • Debra

    So, are YOU the only recourse for registering a complaint? Doesn’t Visa or Mastercard have SOME minimum standard of service or some department that governs merchant providers such as these?

  • Nathan

    DO NOT USE THIS SERVICE: what a scam, I was never told that my equipment was going to cost me 74.99 per month with a finance company, I never even heard of this company until they sent me a contact in the mail for a non cancellation policy with them for 48 months which mean I will have to pay over 3500 for there device. Then after the sale person (James Wooten) told me that I would be on a month to month agreement I found out that we are on a 3 year agreement. I was also told that I would not have a processing fee but to cancel I would have to pay 400.00 and we only had the service for a week. DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THESE GUYS THEY ARE A SCAM and only give you part of the info you need to make a good business choice.

    • Ben Mahalko

      Nathan,

      Can you tell me how you got out of this? I just realized what a scam this is. I didn’t know anything about credit card processing, so the thought the equipment rental fee was standard industry practice. Turns out it is not, they deceitfully had me lease the terminals from another company without actually explaining that I was not getting the terminal from Eliot. Got to seeing that after they upgraded my machine, I now get two charges every month for about $80 each and they say I signed a contract for 2 machines. Big realization that I have been completely scammed out of thousands of dollars over the years for a terminal worth a couple of hundred dollars.

      Thank you,
      Ben

  • Julia Quarnberg

    After many conversations with Kody and Melissa from Eliot Management we decided to change over our Merchant Services. I was very unsure and Kody promised that if we would change he would be a phone call away any time I needed help. We discussed terminals and we decided the Oceano wireless as it would serve our needs. ($600.00) After reviewing my first statement there were six totals that were different from my daily batch settlements. I faxed my totals to Kody, he then sent them to Jenara and asked for her help. She stated she could see where the transactions were going through but the line cuts off before the response comes back to the terminal. I’m not sure how this would charge my customers twice, but it did .She then stated as far as the
    GHOST TRANSACTIONS, she could only reverse the ones that were less than 30 days. I will have to get in touch with our customers to resolve. Our invoices do not have our customers name or information on them so it was up to our counter guys to try and remember who had purchased what part on what invoice. One customer did have his name on his Credit Card Receipt and when looking up his name there were three listings. I have spent, not hours, but days trying to find customers and explain Ghost charges to them, ask for their Credit Card # and refund their money. Some of the customers I could not find so I emailed Kody to see if he could give me any suggestions, but now he don’t return my calls or emails. This is some of the transactions
    5-8-13 $120.00 transaction was declined but still added into my daily settlement.
    5-7-13 $291.36 customer charged twice
    5-9-13 My act was debited $150.00 and I didn’t even have a transaction for that amt.(Haven’t been pd. back)
    5-22-13 $125.00 Refund was duplicated on their side but my invoices match the machines settlement.
    5-23-13 $47.68 customer charged twice.
    6-1-13 $37.08 customer charged twice (Had them reverse)
    6-22-13 $52.98 customer charged twice. ( had them reverse )
    Now it’s late June and I’m still trying to get May Ghost Transactions straightened out, Kody doesn’t return my calls, I can’t get out of the contract with out paying, our only option was to trade to a Oceana landline machine. That was another $75.00 charge for freight. I didn’t get a refund for the difference on the machines.
    I now called Merchant Services and asked about a user name and password so I could monitor my act. (More of my time )Elaine was helpful. We’re now on the landline and there’s a $125.00 charge. Calling Merchant Services, explaining the Ghost Charges to Jason, he insisted we had swiped the card twice. Then why did it not show on my terminal batch total. He agreed to submit a request for a reversal. (Which didn’t happen) I also asked why I was still being charged $19.95 monthly for debit transactions, as we run the debit cards as credit cards like Malissa told us to do. It was cheaper and the terminal didn’t have a pin pad. He said I hadn’t submitted a request form to have this charge taken off my stmt. It was Eliots Rep that told us to process this way, but we were never told about this request. He was to fax me a form but I didn’t get it. I also filled out the PCI Compliance but am still being charged monthly.
    8-20-13 The landline terminal no longer works. After all it has been 2 months. Another $75.00 have a replacement terminal sent out.
    Enough! I called Merchant Services again wanting out of the contract. Elaine referred me Sherri an Act. Specialist. She would request a review. I again asked about the debit charges-she gave me different information to fax in, and I did. Now I still have some the first ghost charges and I explained them again to Shantrell. She can’t help me but she referred me to Rulanda, who was kind and some helpful. One charge had been refunded at a later date and that was an oversight on my part. I would just have to wait and see if the customer called about charging them $47.68 twice. The $150.00 that was charged to my act. which I have no record of any transaction that day, would have to be handled by someone else and they will call me Thursday with a Credit Card # to reverse that transaction.
    9-3-13 Merchant Service Again, Diana, I asked why the $125.00 transaction that Jason had requested be reversed, had not been reversed. She could see it on my Act. and asked if I would like it reversed. WellYa!
    I asked why I had not been called back Thursday about the $150.00 Charge and she said they had called once and the line was busy, and the next time they were disconnected. Really! She will have Rulanda call me back tomorrow. Now it’s tomorrow and no call from Rulanda. Still at this point Merchant Services don’t think I have reason enough to get out of the contract. Did I read the Contract, if I want out it will not only cost me the $495.00, but another $100.00 for the debit contract that I had been trying to cancel for how long? Now our terminal doesn’t have a pin pad, but I have been paying for one.
    We have been in a family business for 35 years and I can guarantee you if a customer was this unhappy with our product or service, even with no warranty, we would do our best to please the customer.
    I know these problems are not listed on their so called contract as such, but I also know I’ve had enough.
    Eliot Management has not worked for us, served us well, or tried to make right.

    Please, if anyone is considering changing to them, read everything you can find about them. I can’t speak for others but I can say most of the problems everyone else has had, I have too. I should have known better than to trust kind nice people that make things sound so good.

    Julia

    • Allisa Hawks (Allie)

      Thank you for posting this testimonial. I am an independent cc processing agent and am working with a customer who is currently with Eliot Management. It’s no wonder that merchants are leery of processors! I am reading through these posts to see if there are any suggestions to help my merchant. He is a good guy and like many of these posts, was mislead. I am sorry for what you had to go through. All agents work technically work for themselves and this is the kind of thing that gives the good ones a bad name. I don’t charge my customers an early termination fee at all. My previous career, I worked in marketing and fundraising for many worthy non-profit organizations and marketing for small businesses. I know how hard it is to keep the dollars we earned. CC processing is supposed to help the org/company not make it harder to do business. I am sorry for what happened to you. I hope all is much better now.

  • george

    We just started using eliot credit cards service and took a credit card for 5000 dollar and they put a hold on the money until we send them the info on our customer and the info they want is againest the law to give out. They now want three months of banks statements and company info on us and if we dont do waht they want we dont get paid. I feel like there making us do stuff that is wrong and i havce called the feds to ask them for help don’t use them there not a good company to work with.

  • Jamall Richards

    I worked for the Eliot Management Group at the Phoenix office. A lot has changed in the company, especially at my office. We now have a new DSM and new reps and even a fairly new office. Because of this restructuring things started to look more positive. The training was pathetic for me, but the new DSM is actually putting in time to properly train the new reps. The only downfall to working for the company was it’s name. It’s reputation is tainted because of what’s happened in the past, it’s not credible, also corporation do a really bad job at taking care of their employees,which explains why we go through reps as fast as the typical person goes through toilet paper. it’s really your manager that keeps you going. The work environment is nice and it’s great working with local businesses, but just a little restructuring and stuff and things will start looking brighter for the company. The pay here in phoenix is minimum wage for base then commissions, but in reality it’s really commissions as they can and will get rid of you if you have little to no production in a certain time period. So don’t expect to go in and sit around and take minimum wage, that won’t cut it. Would I recommend it to a friend? Maybe my first few weeks there yes, (which I have), there’s cool incentives for actually recruiting a buddy, But after sticking around for a couple months I realize there’s much better opportunities. Would I recommend a merchant to sign up? It all depends on what you’re looking for. Possible lower rates and Local service, then yes. Credibility and stuff, no.

    That’s my outlook on the company.

    • amy ruble

      you worked, as in past tense? I cannot agree with your opinion of lower rates and local service, because I received neither. Local to the home office in WA is 4 hours away. It is a case of sign up and skip town, to never return again, even though they promise at least once a month. I would look for a new job if I were you, it doesn’t sound like they give a **** about their commissioned sales staff.

  • jaffet

    I’m a contractor in Eugene OR. I stopped using these guys after they almost put my whole business under water. Simply because i had a bigger job than normal, they held $6,000 for fear of it being fraudulent. Even after proving who i was and what the job was they put me through a million loops to get the money, wasted literally hours of my time, charged me $35 for a form that I had to fill out and send back into them MYSELF!!!

    Absolutely the worst company, run as fast as you can.

    • Richard Aleksander

      Eliot holding up your payment could be among the least of your worries. If you have stopped using Eliot, they will collect an early termination fee from your bank account unless you close that particular account. They’ll even try to debit it from other accounts if you have any others. Anyone wanting out of Eliot; close your bank account and open a new one for your new processor.

  • Larry

    Before you sign up with this company read all the fine print…be aware of the fees over and above the percentage for sales like $7 to have the computer spit out the statement fee, plus other “NTWK Fees” that add up. Finally we have shaken loose from them.

  • Deanna

    This has to be the worst company ever!!!!
    I have been trying to get out of this !#@* contract with them for over 3 years now. An unbelievable experience!!!
    BEWARE DO NOT SIGN UP WITH THIS COMPANY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Go with Square or anyone else but with these cheaters.
    Signed
    Deanna

    • Jamall Richards

      I am sorry to hear about your issues with EMG. I am personally a rep at EMG at the Phoenix office. We have had some problems with past offices and representatives. I am sorry that you had to go through a representative that cheated you for his own gain. Email me at [email protected] and I can pull you up on my dashboard at work and try to solve your issue.

  • Monica Pursley

    I would like to give Eliot Management Group a glowing review. The sales rep was honest, explained everything in detail and took the time to come and review my first statement with me. Everything he promised on he delivered! It was a true delight to work with this individual and I am very satisfied with my overall experiance with Eliot Management Group!

  • chree

    I had the Elliot management group come to my business to give me a quote. I filled out the paper work gave them a canceled check and at that time a salesman from another company called me.He give me better rates. The Elliot salesman said he could match it.He said he would take the paper work and destory it. He took it and signed my name to the contact and they company came after me for 895.00 when I questioned it they didnt care that there salesman was dishonest.They just wanted the money. I will have to take them to court to recover the money.

  • Dave

    We wish we’d seen this before we signed up with Eliot. Rates quoted by our sales rep were double, hidden fees flooded from the shadows, and they told our company that, after 20 years of business, the largest ticket we would be allowed is $1,500 “due to our credit and charge back history.” Our company’s credit is perfect and we haven’t had a single charge back in 20 years. I’d hate to think what it would be with bad credit-$10? If anyone is considering a class action against Eliot, I’m sure there’s plenty of fuel for the fire out there with us being another log to toss into the pile.

  • Shelley Roberts

    I would not recommend ever entering into agreement with this company. I was flat out lied to with promises of an online shopping cart, low fees and guaranteed no PCI compliance charges. The online shopping cart was never delivered. We were charged monthly fees for having an online account though with no ability to process transactions. I was promised refunds without any. The fees were not much lower than I paid previously. Derrick Gayle and John McCormick guaranteed me NO PCI compliance fees…ever…they would take care of completing all questionairres on our behalf. I have been charged a PCI compliance fee and have not been able to get a refund. Hmmm. Can’t get a sales rep or ANYONE to talk too. DO NOT do business with these people!

  • Maureen

    I worked briefly for EMG. Their so called training by telephone actually told us to lie!! When one of the trainees commented on this, he was told that it wasn’t telling a lie, but just business. The manager was abusive, and had a foul mouth. Co-workers were not of the best of character and the men made awful sexist comments about women. I recently was included in a class action lawsuit against them and was compensated a small amount. Bottom line is this is a terrible place to work and do not do business with them. Unbelievable.

  • Nora

    I signed up with Eliot on Dec. 2012 and their local sales rep. assured me that the funds would be deposit into my account anywhere from 24-48hrs. Right after signing up with them i started getting nsf fees from my bank. After reviewing the account i found out they were in some cases taking up to 7days to deposit funds into my account. i tried to contact someone to help me for at least a month and did not get anywhere. I alwasy got the run around. I would not recommend them at all unless you want to get thousands of nsf fees.

  • HAnnah

    To you and everybody else who had experiences with Eliot MGM.Group: I had a very similar experience with them, the only difference was I closed my account the next day after signing because I was strictly advised to by my accountant and now they send me bills (bigger and bigger), asking for my bank acct. Or credit card payments….!! I am already on a very long list of a class settlement to take the company down, with the Lease Finance Systems and others, connected to Eliot! If you are interested,I can email you the contacts, mostly because is free of charge!

    • amy ruble

      Eliot management group is absolutely the most dishonest company that I have done business with in my over 20 years as a sole proprioter. I will be terminating my services with them at months end if they do not follow up and deliver the credits that they have been promising me since May. I gave them the whole month of August for the credits of severe overcharging to post to my account. As of yet, nothing. I have filed a complaint with the Attorney Generals Office, we will see what action they can get…………

  • Jamall Richardson

    My name is Jamall Richardson and I am an account rep at EMG in the Eugene Or office. I have been with the company over 5 months and have heard some horror stories. No credit card processor has a 100% approval rating with their merchants and the better business bureau is a company just like any other and will respond to those who pay more for services just like any other business. My office is trying very diligently to change the image of this industry, I personally have encountered a few issues within my company due to issues in paper work, being mislead by merchants ( as far as bankruptcy or fraud), and lack of communication. What makes these experiences positive is that I as a representative learn from them and afterwards have the know how to never let them occur again. Not at the expense of any merchant either, if we have made a mistake we work out a way to fix it, even if I have to come out of pocket myself and pay for it, about 300 dollars now. I post this for those who as reps and merchants that have had a bad experience with this company. As a rep, do you homework don’t let anyone or anything allow you to sit in front of any merchant and sell them BS on what you don’t know, it’s your responsibility to take this serious and know what to do and how to help merchants in a crisis even if your not their rep. Merchants, you need to know what your signing, if you think you are talking with someone who is mis informed call our customer service make sure everything your being told is true. Make sure you have a trust worthy rep and ask questions, don’t let anyone walk away with your signatures without seeing what goes along with what you’ve signed, no one should ask you for personal compensation. If you think something is wrong at an appt. ask that rep can he call customer service for you to speak with them or one of their many support routes, don’t make those who come to do business with you feel inferior as it isn’t liked in return, give our company a chance and like your time is valuable you will see that the benefits of our company are valuable and so is the time of the rep presenting it to you. Don’t let your interest in genuine savings or local help be dashed or despaired by the comments and experiences of those who before you as reps and merchants were irresponsible in their business ethics and want to blog post and rant to everyone else rather than accept responsibility. Ask about my Merchants, Jamall Richardson does everything he can for his merchants and is sometime speed to thin, but I am making a difference, it’s 2013 if we were to all take and attitude of pointing the finger of blame in the face of our own unpreparedness, we would all be in the business of politics and this is not that frustrating or confusing. I firmly believe that good training and determination to do right by people and living up to your word an ethics can change this industry, we need the right people doing it and the most understanding given and taken when performing. Check out the EMG website if you have any questions, and call us and talk to us, the reps, the real people who really care, not the Internet blogs and rumors, where any one can post anything on their mind whenever they want, and will always have someone agree, create your own experience, I have.

    • Richard Aleksander

      Many problems with Eliot and First American Payment Systems stem from numerous uninformed sales representatives who verbalize policies contradicted by the contract. So read your contract. Eliot’s contracts call for egregious unjustified termination charges–way out of line in the industry and far beyond its actual damages. Plus the customer service people try to scare customers by threatening lawsuits and damage to credit reports. It’s significant that Jamall emphasizes the Better Business Bureau. Their rating with the BBB is important to Eliot. This company responds favorably to BBB complaints and inquiries. Jamall may be correct in regard to companies without customer complaints. But I myself have been trading three years with Choice Merchant Services and my relationship has been much smoother; free updated POS Terminal, no termination penalty, no PCI charges, no risk management floor charge limits; and the company even reversed a PCI charge I had previously paid.

    • Justin Frazier

      This is a terrible company and I worked there for 5+ years and left as a Field Sales Leader with over 350 merchant installs and $25,000,000+ in annual processing volume and I finished in the TOP 5% of reps my last 3 years. Basically I WAS successful there until the new management took over

      Now this company could care less about the reps or merchant and just want to stop the blleding of merchants/cash leaving. Money is ALL they care about now where there used to be a happy balance.
      It is apparent they want all the senior reps gone to take there residuals. In addition they place unfair quotas on the “revolving door” of reps so that the few deals they do, are absorbed as Eliot as house accounts when the rep quits or is fired. This IS Eliot Management Groups current business model. Most senior reps will agree that are still there, or are no longer there like myself.

      I was fired for “insubordination” when I tried to fight for my customers who were being screwed by rate increases and unnecessary terminal “upgrades” without my knowledge. Apparently asking questions probing questions and putting my merchants on month-to-month contracts was what Eliot considered “insobordination”

      They lie to merchant AND THE AGENT.

      EXAMPLE: Eliot’s “Pass Thru” aka “Cost Plus” rate program is is a lie. Per the internal notes all Eliot reps have access to, the “cost” your merchant pays in is shown in the Rates and Fees Audit History as “inter DF&A 0.1325%” for Visa and MasterCard which NOT TRUE. Cost for Interchange Dues Fees & Assesments is really 0.110% (look on any forst Data statemnt and it listed properly), but Eliot does not want the reps to know this so its never explained in training. They essentially pad 0.0225% (2.25+ basis points) of extra profit into THEIR POCKETS and don’t even pass even part of it on to the rep. This means every “cost plus” deal Eliot does is a lie and deceptive.

      “Tired Interchange Plus ” program is also a deceptive Eliot invention that adds extra percentage to the “Plus”
      for credit, reward/corporate cards, and keyed transactions, which merchant almost never understands. It’s a bastardized version of the industry standard’s Interchange plus. Clever but crooked.

      Soon you will see more and leave there knowing this all to be true. Look at the amount of negative feed back EMG has. This is not a fluke. They are terrible. Go work for someone whose endgame is not to chew you up and spit you out along with your merchant and your reputation.

      Good Luck.

    • Eric

      I have used Eliot for merchant service for 6 years now. Anytime I need assistance, the local a office or my rep calls me back immediately. The equipment wasn’t free, but it’s a reliable machine with a great warranty. Id recommend Eliot anytime.

  • Dennis Costantino

    Thieves. Lied about fees and commitments. Never disclosed fees or terms, said was open ended no commitment. then debited our account without notification and did not have the stones to tell us they where going to do this. Stay away.

  • brian c atwood

    Hello folks, boy do I have a story for you..I was “hired” by a recruiter in Fort Worth to start work at the Eugene, OR office for that $350.00 training start-up. Now my first day should have told me not to go back…the first day of “training” consisted of listening to someone on the phone & given a training workbook that I would just fill in the lines as he spoke. No overhead, no individual training, just listen. I was left in the office by myself for about an hour & a half, told to write my own script, listen to others speak & then get on the phone to try to get the 100 phone calls required by going thru the local phone books. No individual training was given yet again. I was the only one training at the time but one new person happened to be sitting in the lobby to start work for that 1 1/2 hour waiting for the manager..Ms. Alvarez..the next four days consisted of listening to that same individual on the phone filling in lines of that workbook…There was one day that week when one of the new people put a company on hold wanting to speak with the “manager”…he was on hold for about 5 minutes..when she got on the phone, the company wanted to tell her to have EMG to STOP calling them & take them off a calling list..Ms Alvarez then started to badger him telling him there was no calling list & since he was listed in the phone book, he was fair game for further phone calls & then told him if he did NOT WANT any further phone call, perhaps he should get the phone company to no longer publish his phone number preventing any more further calls..then asked if he knew of anyone else around his company who would like EMG to call…he then hung up…The next day..I am on the phone by myself, got ahaold of a local company & she preceeded to tell ME how bad the company EMG was & her bad experience with cancelling her lease..but not able to…this should have given me furthur clues about EMG…Now I finally set up 3 appointments, one was even at the mall across from the parking lot. While I spoke to her, she seemed curious about the company & how we could have saved her monies…Now when my appointment was ready to begin face-to-face..Ms Alvarez proceeeded to ask her if she was ready to start business with EMG & to have her Federal ID & a cancelled check ready to begin..as if she was closing the sale..& I did not even start the beginning process…The company then told Ms Alvarez that the conversation that they were having was a scam & cancelled right then & there to not to see them & hung up…yet again, not a good sign…I do have more & will be willing to speak to anyone else who is interested in learning more….There was even one day that one of the outsied reps came in & threatened one of the employees there who happened to answer a call of one of his “clients” who wanted to upgrade equipment…One other appointment of mine happened to search the internet about EMG & then cancelled his appointment…Now I no longer work for EMG…what a real problem here for many involved!!

    • AC

      My friend and I just took a job with Eliot in one of their new locations. First question, were you paid the $70/day for training? Second question, were you paid for any products or MID’s you sold?

      lots of bad reviews. i feel like a chump now. SMH. what a world we live in, eh?

      • brian c atwood

        Yes, I was payed for the 5 day training period…(& I use the word “training” ever so lightly…as if, the training being so lackluster in it’s content over-all…)..I was only there for 2 weeks & if the customer’s involved & the DM being so destructive towards the end phone called finish for the sale…so no products were sold by me…& would have stayed..the “product” could be sold..to a point, but not at the expense of the potential customers & the attitude of “management” in it hiring practices..) in fact, I wonder how these companies are explaining now to potential victims the practice of having the BUYING Customer to now pay for the swipe fees for CREDIT CARDS vs. DEBIT CARDS??

  • Sean Fulton

    Beware of Eliot Management group. As owner of a small gun shop in Texas, I have been doing business with Eliot Management group for over a year. They have took a Anti-Gun stance as of December 20,2012. I currently have over $4000 of product out of my store that Eliot managrmt group has refused to transfer funds on. There claiming it’s because I entered the transactions manually since the card swiper they sold me has quit working after 11 months of use. I have entered multiple online sales manually before our card reader quit working wothout any issues. I have to send them invoices with the name, address, and phone number of customers I make large manually imputed transactions for. Up until now, No problem. As of 12-20-2012 they have stopped transferring funds of all firearms sales entered manually that they have approved electronically. Elliot Managrment Group has obviously took an Anti -gun stance and all FFL dealers should beware of this company if intend on receiving funds for there products. Again, in two days, 12-20-2012 through 12-21-2012 I have over $4000 in product out of my store without any compensation! All transactions were approved at the time of purchase. Eliot management group refuses to transfer funds due to the mature of product sold. These guys are CON-ARTIST! BEWARE OF THIS COMPANY!

  • Duane Patterson

    I am writing in reference to my experience working with Eliot Management Group (EMG) for credit card merchant services. I first met Ronald Carter at a West Chamber event in early September. Due to his affiliation with the West Chamber, I agreed to discuss the possibility of switching my credit card merchant services to his company. I told Ron that I was willing to speak with him for 2 reasons. One was his company’s credibility due to their membership in the West Chamber. The other was because of my unhappiness regarding undisclosed charges that I had recently discovered from my current credit card merchant services company.

    Ron created a “Rate and Comparison Worksheet” on 9/21/12 illustrating how much money I would save by using his company’s services. This document stated that instead of the $19.95 monthly “Statement Fee” I was currently paying, his company would only charge me $5.00. His company has a “Regulatory Comp Fee” of $3.42 for a total of only $8.42 vs. $19.95 saving me $11.53 per month on fees. During our discussion I stated that we also used a swiper on the iPhone for processing transactions, to which Ron stated that should not be a problem. Based on this discussion and proposal, I agreed to use their services.

    I later discovered that using our swiper on the iPhone for processing transactions indeed WAS a problem. I was told an entirely separate agreement would be needed for the iPhone and that I would need to buy a different swiper for $100. After telling them that Intuit provided our swiper for free, they agreed to supply a free swiper, but that it would still need to be a separate agreement with separate fees. This was the first of several misrepresentations. Ron told me that I could access the website from the iPhone and process cards manually, but that would be at the higher transaction fee.

    Before I had even processed my first credit card, my bank account was hit with a $95 annual fee charge. When I confronted EMG about this undisclosed fee, Colston Robinson told me that Ron had filled out the paperwork incorrectly and that the $95 would be refunded to me. Over a month later, the $95 still has not been refunded to me.

    Again, before any credit cards had been processed, I received a statement showing $42.15 in various fees. I assumed this was the setup fees and did not think much about it. I later discovered another $50 had been deducted from my bank account for the setup fees even before the previously mentioned $95 annual fee. Later when I received my first full month’s statement, I discovered $32.13 in undisclosed fees over and above what I had been quoted in the “Rate and Comparison Worksheet” on 9/21/12. I then looked back and discovered that the previous partial month’s statement included $37.15 in undisclosed fees even though no transactions had yet been processed.

    That was enough dishonesty to discontinue my business relationship with EMG. I called their customer service number on 11/12/12. The person on the phone welcomed me as a new customer and asked how she could help me to which I responded I wanted to cancel my account due to the numerous misrepresentations I had received. She then stated that it would cost over $400 to cancel the agreement.
    Upon hearing this I immediately hung up and went to the offices of EMG. Neither Ron Carter nor Colston Robinson was there, but Sidney Pinchback stated that he was Ron’s boss and invited me into his office. After explaining everything above, he asked for a hand written note requesting cancellation which I provided. Sidney stated that he would personally take care of it and call me to let me know when it was done.

    I learned today, 11/28/12, that Sidney Pinchback no longer works for EMG and could not be found in their office. As of today, I have received no phone call, no cancellation notice and no refunding of any of the undisclosed fees totaling $214.28.

    • amy ruble

      my problem exactly, except I tried to be patient with the rep for some reason and I have had this rip off service since April, and I am done waiting for my money. Gonna cut my losses and move on, stopping my rep (David Stephens) paycheck ASAP!

  • Kathy Laurienti

    In my thirty years in business, I have never encountered a more dishonest company than Elliot Management. They started drawing fees out of the wrong checking account and that was before I started processing credit cards. They promised to credit me that money. They never did. They never came through on any of their promises. After notifying them that I was no longer doing business with them, they have used Merrimac Capital to take even more fees from a different account.

    I wish that I had access to this website before doing business with them

  • Crystal

    Eliot Management group has provided a great solution for my business. I haven’t been charged anything abnormally out of the ordinary. Every credit card processing company has a regulatory compliance fee, some are much higher then $3.42 also Pci compliance is standard. If you can get it for a cheaper price then you are able too. My rep gave me that option. I have enjoyed the service that has been provided to me. It’s a matter of communication, and understanding a contract isn’t always a bad thing. It’s important to ask as many questions as possible. This is my opinion is a wonderful company to work with.

        • Phillip CPO

          Hi Crystal, I’ve found that almost all legitimate business owners will happily provide their business name and location along with their testimonial. It’s an opportunity for free promotion. If they are unwilling to do so, it’s usually a sign that it’s a bogus review left by a representative of the company.

          • Crystal

            I haven’t seen anything on here about promoting a business. I do have a legitimate business, and I want to keep my personal life out of this. I haven’t seen you ask others who have given bad reviews the same question, is it only because my experience hasn’t been a horrible one. Sorry not jumping on that bandwagon.

            • Phillip CPO

              Hi Crystal, I don’t require those who leave negative reviews to list their business information because I have seen providers threaten those who do. I have also been threatened several times by providers who get a lot of negative reviews. If you are unwilling to list your business information and pass up free promotion, then those who read your comment should only assume that you are affiliated with the company and your testimonial is fake.

  • Chris Collins

    I was just contacted by Eliot. A lady claiming to be with the “Sales Tax Department” says she was told to call me and set up our credit card processing. I of course recognized this immediately as a scam and ended the call abruptly. However, this is very a much a deceptive way to present yourself and this company should be avoided at all costs.

  • Deborah

    I was quoted in a face to face meeting and on the contract, NO annual fee, no charges till I used the terminal as we were not open yet and I would be invoiced for the terminal purchase. I offered paymentfor the terminal at signup meeting, which he said would be collected at invoice time
    The day I recieved the terminal, they tried to process a charge for months fees prior to recieving the terminal , the annual fee and the terminal charge. I have called and provided all proof and documentation that they ask for but they keep trying to process and my bank has now charged us over 300 in fees. Ihave spent ovet a month trying to resolve and they just keep passing me to different people, making excuses and ruining our bank account. As of today we have not gotten any money back for the bank frees or fraudulent charges.

  • cathy

    Received a call from a rep at Eliot this morning at my employer’s office. When I asked if it was a sales call she said no, they were just wanting to do a comparison for us on our rates, that they work directly with Visa and Mastercard and this was in regard to making sure everything complied with the Durbin Act. So I asked by what authority they would do this? Were they officially authorized? She said no it was just to be sure everything was in compliance…she wasn’t trying to sell me anything. She kept referencing the Durbin Act over and over as if to make herself sound very knowledgeable and official. Again, I asked if we were currently connected to them in any way? No. And again, then, by what authority was she calling to check on compliance of our credit card processing company. She did give a call back number when requested, but still kept insisting she wasn’t trying to sell me anything. In the meantime, I was doing a google search. Which led me first to their website, and then to this site. It was obviously a sales call, because I haven’t seen anything declaring them a non-profit or public service entity. What would you say?

    • Steve Gough

      Cathy,

      Based on my experience with Elliot as well as many others that you can read on this website, I’d recommend staying away from them. Elliot has a long list of highly unsatisfied clients and many documented cases that border on, if not cross the line of, very poor business ethics. Elliot is neither a non profit nor a public service entity and is about as far on the other side of this as I could ever imagine.

  • Deborah A Dassion

    I was approached to open an account. I had thought there was some issues that made me want to hold off but I was assured that I could be put on a monthly plan and could exit if I wish. I decided that this system would not serve me so after contacting the Account Manager and not hearing from him I sent him an email stating that I do not want the service. After no reply, I called Custonmer Service and they said there is no place on the contract that states a monthly plan and I owe them 495.00 if I wish to opt out. I already payed about 170.00
    Point is I was foolish to sign without reading it, but I can honestly say I would not have signed if he had not said I could opt out. This to me is a dishonest way to do business.

  • Marsha Schorer

    This company is definitely not for small businesses. I am a home based business and reached retirement age back in April. After much consideration, I decided to work toward retiring the business and started closing out non essential expenditures and pretty much stopped working. I attempted to close out the merchant account with Eliot Management but was told that they had automatically renewed the contract (which I was unaware of) and if I closed I would face a penalty of about $400 (I think that is the amount). To avoid the penalty, I needed to wait and send a request between Sept. 1st and Oct. 31st. I tried calling the local office to see if they would help. Talked to a rep in the Tacoma office who agreed that since I was retiring they should make an exception and close me out without penalizing me. She (the rep) was going to call the corporate office and get back to me. I never heard from her again.

    I faxed the closing request on Sept. 1st and heard nothing. I called the company to see if they received it. The first person I talked to told me that had not. But she transferred me to the closing department and they told me it was received and I was scheduled to close end of November. In the meantime, I got a notice from PCI Smart about the PCI compliance. I’m going to get hit with a large fee for that before I close. In a nutshell, it would have been cheaper to pay the fine. The company refuses to bend the rules even though I have retired and am not working. Even when I was working, they were making minimal money from me as I processed very little. I kept the account for the convenience of my customers.

    I would never recommend this company to anyone. Their company’s customers leaves a lot to be desired. I’ve never been treated so poorly before. The other company I used prior to Eliot just charged me an extra month of “monthly fees” when I switched to Eliot. Guess that was a poor choice on my part to switch, but of course when they sell to you they make everything sound wonderful.

  • Nicole

    What a mess… after using them for years, we decided to upgrade our system and go with another company that could process with better rates. When I tried to cancel, I was informed that it had already been automatically renewed and I would have to wait the year to cancel. I wrote it on my calendar and when the time came to cancel I sent a fax and called….. Oh…. it has to be done 90 days prior to the end of the contract, so to cancel will cost $300. I asked for a manager, but was told the manager will tell you the same thing so refused to transfer call. After repeated calls for a manager, one finally called back only to say he would look into it and reduce cancellation fees. A month goes by with them still charging their service fees on my account, and the “manager” is never to be found or heard from again. I then sent cancellation fax and letter. They still would not cancel my service. After four months of calls, letters and faxes (and charges), they called to speak with me to confirm that I really wanted to cancel. Are you kidding? $300.00 and a lot of wasted time… but so glad to be done with the most unprofessional, rude, crooks that I have ever dealt with.

  • Elevage Wine Company

    Eliot Financial has charged me 486.89 in fees since may and has never provided me a machine to run credit cards. On May 25th 2012 I sent an email asking for the machine and tracking numbers and didn’t receive any response back. I didn’t catch the monthly fees for approx $42 a month until they recently popped me for an additional $124. Several times since May phone calls and text messages were sent to find out where my machine is and no response. I called corporate this morning and they would close my account for $495 cancelation fee because of the 3 year agreement I signed. I did sign the agreement but they never provided me the equipment to process credit cards. I demanded a refund in total and they told me nothing they can do per the fine print in the contract. Please look at their BBB record of a Solid D. Good enough for Congress but not for me.

  • Barbara Chesbrough

    I am so frustrated with this company. I’ve only been using them for 6 months and have had to replace
    my credit card machine 3 times now. (At $75.00 a pop) and I just refuse to pay this to get service and
    have to pay them all the fee’s. I am now without a working machine and they will not help me.
    I don’t recommend anyone using this company.

  • BJ

    Your review is accurate. As a former sales rep, I can verify that there is a class action suit indeed. I just received a settlement form from the attorneys of record in wash. state.
    It is myunderstanding that EMG and FAPS are trying to change the public opinions of this company, however, they have a lonnnng way to go.

  • Mary Mann

    Hello
    Yes I too just have had a unexpected surprise today when I called into the main office to cancel using Elliott Managment whom I had used since 2003. I found an easier to use online computer merchant service and since I had to be the one to use it instead of my son who has been called up for active duty for the next year military it was decided this new company would better fit my needs.And no the large fees of $40.00 per month or weird cancelation features.
    I was very calmly told the conditions underwhich I had apparently signed in 2003 and the fact the I actually was going to use another service seem to be a factor in the employees snide ( In my opinion) reinforcement of their contract conditions and that I had past the notice time for renewal. My main issues were like all business easy of use and customer support. I now find I am a prisoner of a contract signed almost 10 years ago. I will continue to explore a way out of this and to make it public how in appropriate I think it is for these types of contracts. So I am not going to use this service but will have to pay $495.00 to discontinue or continue paying the approx $40.00 per month. Not only add insult ot injury I was told if I did pay the $495 and cancel it they would only accept a money order or certified check. Now isn’t that interesting. All the conditions are on their side and on on the merchant who is paying for service. These types of contracts should be made illegal where it concerns the use of credit card services and Elliott Managment just lost a not only a customer that had not had any particular issues with their service but made a business person very mad. I am not going to stop spreading the word about this company contracting policies.

    .

  • Paul Stublaski/Milwaukee,Wis

    After I read all the complaints and then responded I started thinking about my office Manager and the training I had. My district manager (Salome Silver) has been really helpful and hasn’t tried to rip any customers off by trying to sell them something they didn’t need. In fact it has been just the opposite, he has told some clients they don’t need something new. I have seen the sale of some upgrades but that was because the clients old machine, while still could process fine, was reading debit as regular credit so instead of paying the .59 we got for the client, they would have paid 2.89%. In the course of just a few transactions the new machine paid for itself. As for the training and reading how EMG is only about making big money for the parent company, that is Total %$^&%&^. My week training was conducted by a gentleman named Chris (from Fort worth Tex) who stressed over and over that first and foremost we are customer /business consultants. Of course they want us to try and sell the more expensive equipment ( Only !!! IF the business needed it ) which would ultimately mean a bigger check for the rep. But Chris stressed over and over the main objective was to help the company save money and improve their profits through lower fee’s and in return it would pay off for the rep through references and a happy client who would stay with us for many years. Several times my DSM, Salome Silver has asked me what kind of equipment someone has and then responded that “then they don’t need something new, but we can help them with lower rates and services.. He has not only been honest about rates and services but has lowered several fees, rates, ect. so the businesses feel more comfortable with switching. EMG has many different services not just processing equipment and low rates. Which is also stressed during training. Again I am not saying the complaints I have read are false I’m just saying as a rep and someone who has first hand knowledge, the Milwaukee office IS NOT anything like I have read. I would and have recommended them to family and friends.

  • Paul Stublaski

    Wow, I have just read a half hour of complaints and terrible experiences about Eliot Management Group. I’m not sure which states theses came from. I started working for EMG a couple of months ago and have Never been told to lie or misrepresent the products and services we sell. I go over all the paperwork with businesses that I have contact with and make sure they are aware of the policies, fee’s and cancellation fees for both equipment and services. I have explained the 4 year terms but at times EMG has lowered those down to 12 months if the company isn’t comfortable with 4 years. However, along with the 12 to 48 month signed lease the businesses also get the lowest rates around for the term they sign up for. Meaning they get a very low rate for the length of the agreement/contract ect. I’m a rep in Wisconsin and have dealt with customer service and agent support and have had good experiences and so have my clients. I am certainly not saying the people who have written bad reviews are wrong I’m just saying I have NEVER come across any problems even remotely close to what I have been reading.

  • Tess

    STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY. I have been through everything that everyone else has complained about so I won’t waste your time please heed our warnings. This Company is awful I filed a BBB Complaint today as well I hope it gets rid of them for good. I will Support any suite against them as well.

  • Marian

    My company signed up with Eliot last month under the assumption that we would be saving money on interest and fees. We did not expect the lost of money we have experienced since they are continuing to hold our money for any reason they can think of. They need copies of our bank statements, they want copies of our customers invoices and now they want our customers names. All in the name of “Safety” for the customer and of course us. I am done with a company that thinks they can hold my money and run my company too.

  • Jason J

    We (small family-owned business) signed up with Eliot Management Group in February 2012. We were using Heartland Processing and switched to Eliot because they told us the markup would be .15%. We were paying .37% with Heartland. After using Eliot for 5 months, our effective rate doubled from 2% to over 4%. Eliot is simply dishonest. We switched back to Heartland..much happier.

  • Krista Bingham

    From me to Eliot Rep Harley Lamont

    Hello Harley,
    Twice now I have left you messages regarding my ‘account’ with no return call.
    I am now beyond frustrated with the Elliot Management Group.
    When I spoke to you I asked you about pricing, the Durbin Act, and processing with Elliot.
    I specifically told you that due to a cash advance I was NOT in a position to transfer processors at that time and would not be until at least March of 2012. I was VERY clear about that.
    Apparently, you set up an account anyway and since that day- with out ANY form of service what so ever-
    I have been getting billed a $6.00 statement fee, a $30.00 under the monthly minimum fee and a Reg comp fee of $3.42 without even knowing what that fee is.
    I TOLD you I was not in a position to change at that time. You TOLD me you were only gathering the information for when I was ready to change.
    You also set up an American Express account for my business, so of course they too are billing me with statement fees and under minimums.
    However, I already HAD an account with AMEX with my current processor. Fortunately, i have spoken to AMEX and they have finally deleted the second account.
    I called Elliot management Group and told them I was not yet a client due to my having the advance and they said I had been put in the system and thus I was a client falling under the minimums. I told them I would not be paying $39.42 monthly for service they werent providing my business. So they have taken upon themselves to reach into my checking account and take their monthly fees.
    In addition to all of the fees for Elliot Group alone, the company I had the advance with does audits of our accounts to be sure we are not using another processor in order to avoid having the daily batch payments withdraw. Because Elliots processor First American something has shown on my account as withdrawing fees, it threw me in default of my advance contract and they have litigation pending against my business. When I appealed to EMG about this they said I could pay the $495.00 termination fee and they would cease all contractual obligation including the monthly fees. This is UNBELIEVABLE as I have received NO SERVICE – EVER from EMG!!!

    I am asking you to look in to this. If I cannot find resolution to this, I will pay the 495 fee- because I will NOT do business with a company such as this.
    However, I will also use every possible resource available to make certain that everyone knows how this company operates. Including the partners of our local bank that referred me to your company, my entire Business Association ( of which I am chair and have been for the last 8 years), our Chamber of commerce, Facebook/Branch Out, the National organization I belong to at Restaurantowner.com, National and Oregon Restaurant Associations, Twitter and every other business forum I can think of, including the radio show forum I have hosted (for the last 2 years) on local businesses. I wont slander- I will state the facts.
    I look forward to hearing from you,

    I got one response saying he would contact me daily about the status. He sent ONE email saying they were ‘working on it. the saga continues below ( now 8 months into them withdrawing money from my account for absolutely NO service) :

    ‘Hello,
    Its been three months since you told me you would be in contact with me daily until this was resolved. That of course, was the ONE time you emailed me other than to say theyre ‘working’ on it.

    I notice that once again, your company has withdrawn monies from my account this month for services you do not render.
    Now, I am formally requesting this be ‘resolved’ by the end of the week otherwise I shall be pursuing legal action with my attorney for fraud against your company ( and possibly ##### Bank for allowing these fraudulant charges to continue to happen). We will also be contacting the FDIC for additional support and counsel.
    I do realize that the cost of legal counsel is more than the cost of the fees withdrawn from my account monthly, and it is also well in excess of a cancellation fee.. However, I had to retain a lawyer due to your company putting me in default of the advance contract, so I may as well use him for the case I am building against you personally and your company. To reiterate: I did not activate an account with your company and will NOT on principal, be paying each month for services not rendered nor to cancel an account I dont have. Its extortion and Id rather pay a lawyer that Elliot Management Group.

    I look forward to your reply. ‘

    And I really do

  • Colleen

    The absolute worse company I have dealt with. DO NOT USE THIS COMPANY!!!!! Liars and cheats and will tell you anything to sign you up then in tiny tiny print buried deep in the 18 page contract you find you are committed to 3 years of fees even if you do not use their service any more. I canceled a contract and they STILL charge me every month!

    Cannot say enough bad about this company.

  • Montgomery

    I had the unfortunate experience of trying to terminate my account with Eliot. The first problem was they failed to keep their promise to show up and reprogram the machine to my new bank account. When I called to cancel they decided to charge me $495 to cancel, when the contract stated the cancellation fee was $300. The contract also has a clause which essentially allows them to charge whatever they want for cancellation. I cancelled the contract and payed the $495 after receiving assurances I would never have to hear from them again, One month later, I received another $37 charge – the “month-end fee” for the month in which I cancelled. When somebody decides to mount a class action suit against these jerks, count me in.

  • aly winningham

    These folks are nothing more than modern day thieves.
    They rob you with hidden fees, Bogus explainations, fake insurance charges, ridiculous rates that are impossible to make heads or tails of, by sneaking extra charges on your statement hoping you wont notice and my personal favorite lying through thier teeth during enrollment about how it will only be 5.00 a mos, there is no annual fee and you can easilly suspend you acct at any time with a simple phone call.
    I cant understand how they get away with it honestly.
    Im so sick with anger at them for robbing me slowly over the last 3 yrs I can barely type this.
    I wont be surprised if, when my time comes to finally be released from thier blood thirsty jaws, I have to actually close my bank acct to make the auto withdrawals stop.

  • First Class Limousine

    The manager of the Tulsa branch (Shawn) is an absolute liar. He made promises to me that he did not keep and then totally ignored numerous phone calls made directly to him. I am in the process of cancelling my contract with these crooks and don’t really care what it costs. I switched to this company because they were local and have tried for 6 months to have someone come back to my office, only to be ignored. They were even stupid enough to use me as a reference. I told everyone that called me to BEWARE.
    **WARNING**
    DO NOT do business with this company.

    • Michelle

      Hey, I’m in Tulsa and the new branch manager is named “Chuck” and while he seems to try to be helpful this company is a joke. Have only been with them since 6/27 and just got my 1 week statement for june. My costs have doubled from what I was paying my bank. The largest transaction conveniently was a “un-qualified” card and got a whopping 3.09% transaction fee on it. I have declared war on these crooks!

      • Mike

        I tried them for a couple of weeks and was told by Shawn and Derek they would let me out of my contract if they didn’t get better…..they didn’t….I canceled the contract and now both of them have left the company and I’m getting statements and calls from their Corporate office. I see a lawsuit coming VERY SOON!! STAY AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE!!!!!!!!!!!! ESPECIALLY IN TULSA, OK

  • National Oldtime Fiddlers Inc

    We signed up with Eliot Management in January of 2011 because they guaranteed they could save us money and being a non-profit organization we need to “pinch” every penny. We have had problems with them from the beginning, but horrible problems with them during our yearly event. They supplied us with VISA machines that did not work properly and were delivered without any ink cartridges in them, which we did not find out until it was too late to do anything about and being a small town, nobody carries these cartridges. It would have taken a week to get the cartridges in and our event is only one week long. The machines were rented from them and a total waste of money! After our event we tried to get copies of sales or proof from Eliot Management and they would not provide anything but the “sale amount” they refused to give us any names, phone numbers, VISA numbers or anything in order to track down the sales. We were at their mercy to believe what they charged us for. The “Customer Service,” and I definitely use that term loosely, because it was anything BUT service that was provided (or not provided as the case may be) was a JOKE! They have no customer service and sound as though they are bothered by the fact that a call was even made to interrupt their day! Basically, if anybody signs up with Eliot Management, be prepared to be promised the moon as far as saving you tons of money and excellent service at any time you need it, while you actually receive lousy service and as the time goes by, more and more fees are increased and “unknown” charges appear that never go away. Their rating should be F-

  • Cyndi B.

    I had an account with Eliot Management for 4 years. My anniversary date was 5/1/2012. I sent my cancellation in March to the local office. I have a fax confirmation. Eliot Management continued to try to charge my account including late fees. When I contacted the office in Texas they advised me that anything their local office did was not official.
    Now, how can that be. I opened my account locally. If that is the case then my entire contract would be “not official”.
    I spoke with Joshua who I now will refer to as Rude Joshua and then to his supervisor Jorge. They agreed to close my account for 35.00 plus late fees for a total of 95.00. Strangely, I had 2 charges show up on my account, one for 495.00 (early cancellation fee) and another for 125.00.
    Of course I attempted to call back Jorge who would not speak with me. Instead I was given to Rude Joshua who advised me that they had done me a favor in allowing me to close my account. He advised me to stop payment on this 125.00 fee and they would then put through the 95.00 fee.
    Whoa there little doggy. Slow down a bit. Do you really think that I would allow you to charge anything else to my account ever again? I advised Rude Joshua that I would send him a payment of 60.00 – the original 95.00 minus my banks 30.00 stop payment fee. Ohhh no! That would not do for Eliot Management. Rude Joshua advised me that they had done me a favor.
    Strange how all of this has occurred. I have an email confirming the agreed upon 95.00 fee from Eliot Management. What are they thinking.
    After reading the reviews on this site I am all the wiser. I will work on changing my bank account number. My bank is now refusing all attempts to charge my account.
    Beware all who are looking to use Eliot Management – very scary and rude company. They do not honor anything that they state and do all they can to try and charge your account…..beware!

  • Craig W. McArthur

    I used Elliot for more than three years during which time the random odd fees kept increasing in quantity and frequency. There was no rhyme or reason to some of the fees. When I finally cancelled, I was told that there was a 30 day cancellation window at the end of the year and a $495 cancellation fee. These people are unbelievable. I would not recommend them and strongly recommend against using them

  • Carol Helf

    My son worked for EMG in SLC with the promise of great wealth. He was required to attend regular brainwashing “sales training” meetings and was encouraged to hang in there and stick with his hard work because he had “it”. He was told he would be an outside salesman when in fact he was confined to their offices doing telemarketing cold calls for 40 hours a week. Right when he was due to recieve significant residuals, they falsely accused him of stealing and fired him. Not only did he not get paid his residuals, but they tried to prevent him from getting unemployment by saying he stole equipment! My son worked 40 hours a week for 8 months and was paid only $1800, that is almost $ 7000 short of minimum wage! Slavery! We filed a wage claim with the Utah Labor Commission with no result. I am prepared to spent a significant amount of time and effort to get the word out to people. EMG must be stopped! They are crooks!
    Internet, on foot, mailing lists, word of mouth, EMG will not be finding free sales reps or customers here in Salt Lake City very easy.

    • Blake

      As an Account Representative for EMG, i can tell you that noboby is forced to stay working for this company. At this job, you get out of it what you put into it. If after 2 months i hadn’t made enough money to support myself, and felt like this wasnt the right fit for me, i would find a job getting paid hourly. If you use your time wisely, listen to direction and WORK to HELP merchants, you can make a beautiful living at this company. As to complaints about “lies” and “misleading” merchants, this is not what EMG as a company condones. Nobody can control what an individual does at any time, therefore, if the individual is corrupt in signing an account, it has no direct affiliation with the company as an adult cannot have thier hand held through thier career. Yes, there are dishonest people in this world…(surprised?)…and even if a company doesn’t advocate stealing and misleading, it will never prevent a dishonest individual from doing so. In the end, it is a merchants choice if they want to sign up for Merchant Services. No company can prevent someone from ill-advising a merchant, and ultimately if a merchant does not read the details of a contract of ANY SORT, this means they trusted the Representative to be an honest person. Everyone gets mad when they make a mistake, and the most simple thing to do to relieve the grief is to blame everything on the company as a whole, as we all make mistakes and most dont like to admit it. Let’s stop passing the buck, read paperwork carefully and make an educated decision as to which route you would like to choose. Lastly, I am up front and honest with each and everyone of my merchants, as i make my living off of retaining my customers. The relationships i have with my merchants is very much valued, and i would take a MILLION “NO’S” after being honest about pricing and contract terms, before i would take on a SINGLE mislead client that would ultimately become disgruntled. Word of mouth is your best friend or worst enemy, and i would advise ANYONE who is in my industry to be up front and honest as one angry customer can be much more time consuming than managing 1,000 happy customers.
      I am not saying that anyone who is complaining about thier experience is out of line in any way, as it is definately possible that they were connected with a dishonest, misleading individual. Remember, when you go grocery shopping, get your car serviced, have lawn maintenance done or a home service performed, you are ALWAYS taking a chance that you are going to come across someone who is dishonest or manipulative. At the same time, using words like “Fraudulant” , “crooks” and “stealing bastards” are very strong convictions, and should not be associated with any company as a whole. Miss Helf , i am in the same position as your son was with this company. I absolutely love my job and could not be more proud of who i work for and what they represent. I am sorry for anyones bad experience, but remember that there are still honest people in this world in every industry. I pride myself on being one of them!!!!!!!

      • Craig W. McArthur

        So here’s for the honesty of Elliot Management –

        They charged / dinged my account for a $495 termination fee telling me effectively I was stupid for not reading their contract. In reality any one would be stupid for signing their contract. BEWARE! OF ELLIOT. STAY AWAY. So they reply to this complaint claiming to the honest. So much for their honesty. The very next month after taking their termination fee of $495 from me, they dinged my account again for the monthly minimum. The only way of getting rid of these people after signing their contract is to go to the expense of closing the account and reopening a new one with all of the expense and hassle that entails. STAY AWAY FROM ELLIOT!!

        I will support anyone pushing a class action suit.

        • Kyle

          I started working for Eliot because I saw the value in their service. As a Business owner my self and knowing Eliot Management Group, I would not sign up with any one other then Eliot if I accepted cards. Why? Because I know what they offer. I know the Company. And Yes If I chose to cancel, I think the fee, if one was present with my contract, is reasonable. I’ve had heard much worse experiences with other processors, and when you think of it, It’s less risk then signing up at golds gym. They were going to charge me more than that. HAHA. But like Blake said, some REPS in the business of merchant processing could be misleading, IN ANY BUSINESS. It don’t matter who you go with, I recommend what any Judge would say…. Read your Contract. Ours are not that difficult. I read it in 25 minutes. Also to safeguard your selves my second advice is, be sure your equipment and contract with another company is cut off before switching other wise you will have to continue to pay for it. We are not the only ones with these contracts. And last thing; I love this company. In my branch I have the joy of seeing companies grow and expand because of our help. I’ve been thanked by customers who have been with us. So I’m sorry you guy’s have had bad experiences, This Company Strives to Hire, not JOE SHMOE’s, but to hire honest, hard working employees with a desire to serve, not be served. I understand this is not a few dollars at stake either, but people’s livelihoods. So we do wish the best in your future endeavors, and hope any wrong that may have been done to some will be repaired one day.
          Thank you,
          Kyle

  • Pat

    Hi My name is Pat Owens and I made a huge mistake in signing an contract with Eliot Management Group,
    This company is aweful they don’t want to refund your money back to you when it wasn’t even 30 days, I know I should have checked them out before I signed the contract. I’ve been waiting on them to refund me my money they ignored the fact when I say no tech has never contacted me to reprogram my terminal that didn’t happen, Aaron spoke with his superivsor James and said it wasn’t nothing that they could do, so therefore it was my fault for not reading I took to the Rep, and I contacted Wanda Ashford, I have all the text that she and I had ever since this started. Now I’m so upset with myself and with them. Then I was told that Eliot Management Group had sent me out an terminal after taking my funds, no that did not happen, then I was told that Eliot Management Group had sent me out a certified letter, that did not happen.

    I told them out of anger if my money mean’t so much to them to just keep it!!! But still in all I’m complaining

    Thanks

  • Niel Hergert

    I normally would not go to such great length to discredit any merchant or service provider, however, in this case it seems fitting to do so. Eliot Mgt. Group has to be one of the worst and lowest of all businesses I have ever had the misfortune to deal with. It started with the salesman, talking an 82 yr. old business owner into switching merchant service providers, after I had told the salesman and the 82 yr. old (my mother) that EMG’s gateway would not work with the current POS system, and he assured her that their tech dept. could make it work. I had already been down that road with EMG and knew that it WOULDN’T. So now, the business owner is locked into a 3 yr scam, by this deplorable business, and we had to switch back to the previous merchant service provider,Mercury Payment, which requires no contract, and are great people to work with. However that leaves us with paying the monthly fee to Eliot for no service provided. I hope Idaho will join Washington in a class action suit against this good-for-nothing company and get them shut down ASAP before they scam others in a 3 yr auto renewable deal with the devil.

  • Gary Wall

    I have received a marketing phone call about every 4 to 6 weeks from these folks, for months now. Each time I ask them to remove my number from their calling lists. They just keep calling ! I have even attempted to contact them by way of their own phone number of 801.933.5581, located at 3216 Highland Drive, Salt Lake City, UT 84106. Today they refused to allow me to speak with the supervisor and just hung up on me. I guess I’ll just have to drive over there in person to convey my disgust with their annoying calls ! ! ! Their persistent phone calling has caused me to conclude that I will absolutely never, ever allow them into my offices !

  • Kevin

    We do not hide fees. I do not know what branches some of you worked at but it wasnt mine. I have received all the training I need and my District Manager is always there to answer any questions I might have. Eliot is not the only processor to have cancellation fee that is a standard practice. Some companys offer lower fees on cancellation but you pay higher rates. To the merchant that never recieved their equipment that seems odd, the rep that came to see you should have come back to install the equipment. As an account rep I personally install all equipment for my merchants. As I said before you cant please everyone.

  • Kevin

    I currently work for Eliot Management Group. We are not taught to lie. That might have been a practice of a select few but not the majority. It doesnt matter who you process with you are going to find people with bad things to say about them. I believe these are isolated events that do not accurately represent what Eliot is about. We do not hide anything in our contracts. People should be careful and read what they are signing. I have several happy costumers with nothing but good to say about Eliot. You cant please everyone.

  • Mark

    Eliot Managment Group scammed me from the beginning and charged me $495 to cancel my service. I would like to find out if anyone has started a class action suit. Let’s get these fraudulent people out of business.

    • Richard Aleksander

      I pressured Eliot to drop the cancellation charge and refund two annual PCI surcharges.

      How?

      First, I closed the bank account they had access to before they could debit the cancellation charge. That sent them into a tizzy, and they dunned me for additional returned check charges as well, threatened to take me to court and impact my credit rating.

      So I filed an online complaint with the Ft. Worth Better Business Bureau. BBB has hundreds of complaints about Eliot, all of them resolved.

      Suddenly, Eliot’s demeanor with me changed dramatically. What could they do for me to make my day better? I could only think of requesting the PCI charges refunded for them to quit harassing me.

      Rather quickly, by mail, came a check for $250 and a letter that our business was settled and wishing good luck in my future endeavors.

      I kept up my part of the bargain, by reporting to the BBB that Eliot had resolved my complaint.

  • Steve Gough

    My business relations with Elliot Management Group began in 4Q11 after several promises were made to me in terms of pricing and services that would be provided to my company, ReNew-U LLC.

    Among them were:

    1. Specific promises made regarding fee’s and pricing.
    2. The promise to set-up and qualify my prospective Sales Agents on their within 3-4 business days.
    3. The promise to save me money

    None of these promises were delivered and over 4 months later I can’t even utilize their payment system as planned and promised for my business. I have complained both by phone and by written email and have gotten no return calls or emails after I have tried to discontinue their services so as not to have to pay for incredulous monthly fees that were never told about and I didn’t learn about until my audit for 4Q11 in January 2012.

    My experience with Elliot Management Group has been anything but what was promised. They seem to be rip off artists who, once they have the capability of automatically withdrawing funds from your checking account, do not have any interest in delivering on any resolution so they can continue to do so.

    They should not be allowed to do business in the US nor anywhere else and I’ll do whatever I can to support my claims made against them so they hopefully can’t any longer.

    Steve Gough
    CEO/Founder
    ReNew-U LLC

  • Tamara Shoemaker

    I just found out the sales rep that visited me had me sign a contract which he displayed as a credit check to be sure we would qualify for a merchant account with his business. In calling Eliot group the response was well you signed a contract so we will hold you to it. I asked them is this how you do business? He most definitely confirmed that by his response. What is everyone else doing about this company?

  • Rick Stevens

    WORST SCAM COMPANY EVER!!!!! I used to work with them as I was coaxed into an interview as I was excited about the commissions. After a lame training session and horrible instruction I took the phone on day two with little instruction as all I did was cold call people and make people angry. They don’t even train you on the products and except you to sell a product. How could you do well when they don’t even tell yuo the product? they just want you to push an appointment on people so they can go harass. Nonetheless, they tell you to hide the fees and charges so that you can make a sale. its all about getting YOU to SIGN the CONTRACT. All they are concerned about is making a sale and getting a contract signed. After that, it seems there is no customer service and they want people to cancel as to collect the huge cancellation fee. Which they don’t mention in training as I found out. Also they all seem like scumbags.

  • Brian Erickson

    Eliot Group is pathetic and very hard to work with. It has been 6 months since I have set up an account with them, and still have not received my credit card machine. Now I am trying to cancel my account and they are telling me I have to pay a cancellation fee of $495. I have not ever received any service from them yet so why should I have to pay them anything? STAY AWAY FROM THIS COMPANY!!!!!! THEY SUCK!!!!! FRAUD!!!!!

  • susan adams

    Ron Dichter has not owned the company in years. Ron was the CEO until he left two years ago to get out of the life of crime ripping off all his customers. Ron is know a up and coming actor in Hollywood. and has changed his name to Ron Eliot, his middle name. You can review Ron’s website at roneliot.com After viewing Ron’s resume you might notice Ron forgot to mention his years at EMG as founder,owner, and CEO. I assume he just forgot those 11 years of his life,or perhaps he changed his name to hide from all the fraud EMG committed under his direction as owner and CEO.

    If anyone knows of and lawsuits or class action suits against Ron Eliot Dichter please let me know. I was ripped off big time by Ron and his partners in this horrible organized crime scheme.

  • Michelle Guther

    I completely understand all of the complaints I am reading on Eliot Management Group. Their representatives do not disclose all of the fees, they do not tell you it is a 3 year contract and if you lease equipment that is a separate contract from the processing contract and they don’t disclose the length of that contract either.

    Their reps claim to have integrity and are there for you for local customer service but that is not true. EMG is owned by First American Payment Systems and is no longer owned by Ron Dichter. Although First American owns them, they operate EMG as a separate company. EMG moved their corp office to Ft. Worth where the corp headquarters are for First American.

    Eliot has a new GM, Tony Norrie and a new VP, Brady Harris. The CEO of First American is Neil Randall. I would keep fighting these people as they do not have ethics nor integrity,

    If you close your bank account they will no longer be able to debit your checking account but if you have a leased terminal that they either have sent that lease to Merimac or LFG leasing, that is a separate contract and if you break their non-cancellable contract it will be placed on your credit and will make it difficult for you to lease another terminal from another processor again. My advice would be to always buy the terminal so you are not locked into a separate contract.

    First American owns and operates under other “processor” names some of which are; Certified Payment Processing, TMG, Eliot Management Group, Bruce the credit card guy, and more. All of these companies have bad press for not disclosing fees, no customer service, lying about their own contract and even forgery of merchant signatures.

    A class action lawsuit against all of the above company names and others that operate under the First American umbrella would be a good idea!

    • vincent

      I just don’t understand all these types of comments.

      I work for Eliot and have never had these issues.

      We can’t “hide” the fees. They are clearly stated in the contract.

      The “contract” is not a bad thing. It is a written record of everything that Eliot is committed to doing, and everything the merchant is committed to doing.

      Of course it’s full of legalese. That’s not Eliot’s fault. That’s a product of our legal system, like it or not.

      Our contract clearly states the cancellation fee. Try cancelling your car lease or your apartment lease. There is always a cancellation fee. Why would you expect anything less when leasing your merchant processing machine?

      The fees listed in your contract are the base fees charged by the credit card companies themselves, plus the processor mark-up. We can’t sell at wholesale. We have to make a profit for the job we do, just like your business does. But when the credit card companies raise their rates, we have to pass that increase along to each business. Our markup doesn’t change, but your base rate might. That’s not your merchant processor doing that to you, it’s the credit card companies.

      And telling someone they need to buy instead of lease is truly incompetent on your part. You can’t possibly know every business owner’s situation. Some don’t have the money to pay in full up front. Some have better things to do with their chunk of money. Some prefer the easy accounting and not having to deal with property taxes of depreciation schedules on their tax return. Leasing and purchasing both have advantages and disadvantages and is completely out of the scope of this discussion. You attempting to give tax advice in this forum is as negligent as some of the sales reps actions described here.

      As far as equipment not being installed, I can’t say it hasn’t happened, but it makes no sense. We can’t earn processing income if we don’t process your credit cards. We make a little profit on the machine sale but our major profits come from processing your customers credit cards. I can’t even for a second understand why we would not install your machines.

      But the bottom line is that YOU need to READ YOUR CONTRACT. Everything is in there. If you don’t read it, it’s your fault when you are surprised. Don’t read your mortgage contract and see what happens when you try to cancel it. Don’t read your insurance contract and see what happens when you file a claim for something that’s not covered. Don’t read your auto lease and see what happens when you just walk away. Don’t read your credit card statement and see what happens when decide not to pay.

      When you sign a contract BOTH parties are committed to performance, not just the other guy.

      And if you have read your contract and understand it, and you still feel you have been wronged, hire an attorney to review your case and send a demand letter. If you are truly in the right, that will usually fix your problem. It will cost you a couple of hundred bucks and you will be free. That’s a lot quicker and a lot less hassle and a lot less expensive than all this other stuff you guys are trying to do.

      • Phillip CPO

        Hi Vincent,

        I believe your argument shows exactly the reason why these types of complaints exist. You compare opening a merchant account to leasing a car, buying a house and opening an insurance policy when the reality is that most merchants think of it as opening something similar to a checking account, which never has a cancellation fee. We live in a society where everything we sign up for has a multi-page agreement, so it’s not surprising that a merchant wouldn’t feel the need to fully read one for a merchant account because most other agreements never have hidden conditions that come back to haunt them. When an agent fails to disclose important terms and conditions that will most definitely affect a merchant, it is because the rep is intentionally hiding it to try to make a quick sale or was poorly trained and didn’t know about them either. It is my belief that the company is ultimately responsible for these problems because they enforce the agreements even when merchants cry foul. To fall back on the argument that its the merchant’s fault for failing to catch the fine-print is just a cop-out. Just because it’s legal doesn’t make it right or ethical.

        As for equipment leases, merchants are often mislead to believe that they can terminate them anytime by sending the equipment back or that they own the equipment at the end of the lease. Both of which are almost never true. In my experience as a former agent, 99% of merchants are better off buying a machine for around $300 than spending $30+ a month on a non-cancelable 48-month lease. In the rare cases that merchants need an expensive POS system, leasing may be the right option if they can’t finance through less expensive options.

  • Barry Brown

    This is my best advice to anyone caught in the web of EMG’s deceitful practices.

    1) Close your bank account and move to a new bank. Otherwise, even if you block their account or change your account number, somehow or another they seem to be able to steal money at will because you signed a bogus contract that they don’t follow, but you’re supposed to.

    2) They may then call you to tell you that you owe the money. Tell them where to put it (hint: where the sun doesn’t shine). They will not sue you, as a lawyer costs way more than you “owe” them. They will give you the bogus “it’ll negatively affect your credit score” routine. They’re blowing smoke. All you need to do is write a short explanation to any credit reporting agency and they’ll file the issue as a “dispute” and you’re off the hook.

    3) Post your story on as many consumer watchdog type sites as humanly possible…warn the other businesses that this company is unethical at best, criminal at worst.

    4) This company is somewhat interconnected to about 15 other companies, so make sure you stay clear of any of those companies as well, including First American Payment Systems, Apex, Transtech, Merimac Capital, and others.

    5) Research companies online that don’t require annual or multi-year contracts…they tend to be more honest because if they’re not, you can leave at the drop of a hat with no ETF’s or ETP’s (Early Termination Fees/Penalties).

    6) I’m not endorsing either of these yet, but a couple we’re researching right now are GoEmerchant.com and CDG Commerce. CDG has no bad reports in 11 years on RipOffReport.com, and GoEmerchant has only a couple in 15 years, which, you’ll find in this industry is almost nothing.

    7) Stay away from Wells-Fargo. They lie, cheat, and steal. I am about to follow my own advice in the first couple points with them. Also, a word to the wise…don’t combine your merchant services bank with your checking/savings account bank. I made that mistake, and although I love WF’s checking alerts, I’m being forced to switch to B of A for checking so they don’t hit me with their $500 ETF. Will they scream bloody murder? Yep. Do I care? Nope. I’m tired of these banks who write their own rules and steal from my family. How about you?

  • Rosemary Grieser

    Eliot Management Group keeps taking my money even after they let me off for 186.00 and closed my account. Or did they close my account? They took another 7.00 out this month. How can they do this after my account is closed??? This is an example of slavery really. It is a shameful practice. I am so boiling mad but realize that I am better off than some of you out there in your dealings with Eliot.

  • Barry Brown

    We were ripped off by Eliot Management Group for a total of $1210.53.

    Eliot Management Group, First American Payments/Merimac Capital, and TransTech are all interconnected (some sort of conglomerate) ISO’s of Keybank. Their headquarters is in SLC, UT.

    Eliot Management Group contacted me about merchant services in May this year (2010). Their salesman Matt (don’t recall the last name and he doesn’t work there now) gave me figures as to what their percentages were and the numbers sounded good.

    I met with Matt and Brian, his “trainer, ” at Starbucks a few days later and went over their program and asked some questions about how it would integrate with the new website we were building and Brian assured me that it was so easy it could be done “in 15 minutes” and would work with any e-commerce platform.

    We didn’t immediately start the service as we had some delays, but Eliot Mgmt. began billing our bank account even though they said they wouldn’t until we were ready.

    Then their software didn’t work with Shopify.com’s website structure which is how we’d set up our site.

    Then they billed me an annual fee which apparently was hidden in the small print somewhere (they’d assured me there were no other hidden fees – they lied – about pretty much everything).

    Needless to say, this type of business is at least dishonest, and at worst fraudulent.

    Fact #1 – Eliot Management stated that their online software would work with anyone’s website – NOT TRUE.

    Fact #2 – Eliot Management stated they would reimburse us every month from July to Sept – THEY DIDN’T (except July).

    Fact #3 – Acct Rep stated at least twice (Aug. and Sept.) that our account would be suspended to keep this issue from happening again – HE DIDN’T.

    Fact #4 – I sent Branch Manager Russ Hausman an email demanding a refund for services not received from Eliot Management Group on October 5…he responded saying he’d call me – HE DIDN’T.

    Fact #5 – After we stopped payment of the October fee for the service we hadn’t commenced, an associated company of the Eliot Management Group proceeded to withdraw – unauthorized – over $600 out of our bank account – THIS IS FRAUDULENT.

    Recommendation – Run away from this company or any connected companies!!!

  • Delia

    WARNING: do not do business with
    Eliot Management Group
    5151 E. Broadway Blvd. Ste 790
    Tucson, AZ 85711

    or any other Eliot Management Group-terrible sales people, reps
    after several attempt to cancel our contract, we finally did within their
    specified “rules” and they still took out $495 out of our account for early cancellation! We tried to return the leased equipment, but were not given the return address. the contract said we can return equipment within 10 days of cancellation-it took us 3 months to finally get an address to send it back-I’m sure we will get a bill for not returning the equipment earlier!!! All in all, this company is not worth the headache you will certainly get if you deal with them

  • Susan Gomberg

    Eliot Management Group is corrupt and fraudulent. In the last 3 years that we have owned “bricks and mortar” stores, we have experienced almost ALL of the same problems as has been reported on your website. We experienced problems before that time with our web based business (we use Authorize.net to process) as well.

    Last year after opening another new location, we contracted with our local bank for merchant services – much better. But we are stilling having trouble cancelling Eliot. We’ve decided to mark our calendar with a reminder to cancel before the “renewal” and to continue our attempts to cancel now.

    I plan to also set up a “pass through” account at another bank as someone suggested so that the account can be easily closed should problems again occur.

    Both my husband and I (we own the company) would be more than eager to participate in a class action suit against EMG.

    • Richard Aleksander

      After I filed an online complaint with the Better Business Bureau, not only did Eliot not hold me for liquidated cancellation damages, they also returned two pci charges and sent me a letter releasing me of any obligations.

  • Michael L Delaney

    Regarding Eliot management Group and our cancellation.
    Renee from EMG contacted us and told us we would not have to pay the lost liquid assets fee. That was Friday the 30th. This morning they not only withdrew the entire fee but extracted yet another monthly fee from my wife’s soon to be closed account. They pretty much wiped out payroll for the staff for the week.
    So this will be an all out cyber campaign war from this point on. The CEO, “Ron Dichter” will be hearing of this for as long as I breath…. His facebook account is:

    Have at him…

    • Michelle Guther

      Ron Dichter is no longer the owner of EMG and hasn’t been for some time now. Eliot Management moved their corporate office to FT. Worth where their parent company First American Payment Systems is located. Eliot has a new GM, Tony Norrie and a new VP, Brady Harris. Neil Randall is the CEO of their parent company at First American Payment Systems.

  • Michael L Delaney

    Elliot Management Group is practicing highly unethical business practices. EMG had my wife sign a contract for her Pet Daycare and boarding company that has a Loss Profits clause in it that totals about what she pays in employee taxes for a quarter. Since I know she did not read all of the fine print I am making the assumption that this is done on purpose in the hopes we would not notice. That is in itself a conscious contract manipulation tactic that CC companies are getting into trouble for. I don’t know what kind of morality they teach in Utah (where Ron Dichter, CEO, lives) but I consider this practice a most heinous one and will never do business with a company that practices it.
    Elliot Management Group and its namesake are unethical and amoral. Small and large businesses should avoid them at all costs.

    • Richard Aleksander

      If Eliot sued for lost profits in a court-of-law they likely would not collect. So they withdraw it in the middle of the night from your bank account, and then hold onto it, and you have to sue them.

      Be aware of processors’ methods, have them deposit into an account separate from your main account, and be ready to close that account whenever they claim monies you dispute.

  • Kyle and Tessa

    Eliot has been charging us for an account we don’t have any longer for the past 7 months and they keep telling us that they closed it and we shouldn’t be charged! Plus every time we go down to their office no one is there and it’s “CLOSED” for the day! How can a business still be open and have this bad of a rep.!!!!

    • Sean

      I have had a great experience in the 4 years I have been with EMG. They saved me over 50% a month from what I was previously paying. I dont know about the cancellation fees people complain about, but I have never had a reason to leave EMG. They have even lowered my rates two times since I signed up. No complaints here!

      • J Clarkson

        The bad thing is…I used to also be one of the people that liked them, until my husband had a stroke and I tried everything I could to cut back so that our business, in this very tough economy, could still make it, and since my husband was not working anymore it was very important to cut back. I found another company that gave great service, small monthly fees and no contract, so I decided to try them. When I tried to leave Eliot is when you see their true colors. I tried in vain to explain my problem that maybe they could give an alternative, work with me in some way, re-evaluate our fees…anything! But no one cared, no one tried, I contacted the main office as well as the local office who signed us up. It is not that they could not help, …..they didn’t even try or care!

        Try to leave them and see what happens!!!!! Please go back and read very carefully over your contract.

        It is too late for the ones who have already signed the contract but we hope that it will save others from having to deal with what we are dealing with.

        • michelle guthrie

          I have had major issues with Eliot and their list of affiiates names. Rather than me go through the long list of issues; people need to speak out and post their complaints all over to stop these people.

          Eliot Management Group
          First American Payment Systems
          Certified Payment Processing
          Bruce The Credit Card Guy
          TMG
          Merimac
          many more

  • Neil Thorne

    I have spent countless hours trying to clean up our account. We sent a certified letter in January to close our account in March. After several phone calls to confirm closure it took them until June to close the account. In the mean time they have charged statement fees to our bank which they finally credited. While waiting for those credits, two more charges where charged to our bank. I’m still trying to get through to supervisors to get those credits taken care of. This company will nickle and dime you if you do not have every t crossed and every i dotted! We have gone the Heartland and are very happy with this company. If you want better information just check out the Better Business Bureau ratings between these two companies!

  • Fred Eidson

    I am also going through this right now. I had called two months ago asking to cancel my services. They said it was not within the window and that I would have to call back in June. I called back today 7/28 and they said that I cannot cancel until 5/5/2012 and then it would go through on 8/5/2012 and if I tryed to do so before there would be a 400.00 cancelation fee. R U Kidding!!! So I called my bank and stopped my auto withdraw and was told that they have a way of getting your money anyway by changing the amount. How can this be allowed to happen !!!

    Who do we contact for the class action law suit I would like to be a part of it.

  • Richard Aleksander

    Our small business had been served by First American Payment Systems (FAPS) for about six years when, dissatisfied with the level of service, unreasonable charges including annual renewal fees and contract requirements , we sought another provider who, most importantly, was not FAPS.

    Eliot assured me they were not FAPS; we signed up and over the years processed hundreds of thousands of dollars in transactions. We were surprised with changing monthly minimum fees that were debited when we could least afford them. Ultimately we were processing a very small number of high dollar amount tickets from long-time customers. Though we posed little to no security risk, they debited 124.75 annually for PCI compliance fees and threatened to discontinue us if we didn’t purchase new equipment. Eliot’s representatives offered no ideas or assistance. We began to search for a new provider.

    A false start with a potential provider, ICON Payment Systems, taught us the perils of third-party access to our bank accounts. ICON forged my signature on papers I never saw, and debited unauthorized and cancellation fees from my account. The rep was in our corner and also accused ICON of defrauding her as well. ICON’s third-party processor refunded the fraudulent charges.

    By now we have learned to close any bank account a card processor, with a charge we dispute, has access to. And our personal bankers are extremely cooperative within their limited range of actions.

    The business world is loaded with credit card processors looking for merchants. We signed up with Electronic Merchant Systems with whom we have no contract, minimums or cancel fees, who loaned us a free modern terminal and with whom so far things are smooth. My monthly fees are less than 1/7 what Eliot charged.

    But Eliot/FAPS wasn’t finished with us yet. A supervisor informed me our three year contract had automatically renewed and if we severed our account we owed a $495 cancellation fee. Despite that they had provided no services whatsoever after the contract renewal.

    We wrote Eliot that we no longer required their services, and closed the account they had access to. Two days later I received a demand letter for $581 due in cashier’s check or money order no later than 10 days from the date of the letter and payable to First American Payment Systems, L.P.

    “Please note that when attempt was made to debit your last payment it was returned by your bank. As such, should you fail to make payment, First American is prepared to take any action necessary to collect this outstanding debt to protect its rights and interest. I would take this opportunity and remind you that all unpaid debt will be reported to the major credit bureaus and all applicable collection and legal fees will be added to your outstanding balance.”

    “I strongly urge you to resolve this matter immediately prior to us taking further steps. Should you have any questions, please feel free to call (800) 633-1702”

    “Regards,

    Collections Department”

    • Janet Palmer

      The Sewing Queens

      What did you do? My business is barely surviving already and we have been out several hundreds of dollars for equipment that never worked properly. Ond of their technicians said that the components we have are not compatible and this was also confirmed by someone working at my local bank. We were told all sales were final. Now they want the $495 and I don’t have it. They are saying they will sue and I don’t have a leg to stand on. So I am at default of contract because the equipment was not working properly. We couldn’t process most of the time and when it did work could not print a receipt.

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