Complaint Review: Elavon Merchant Services

If Elevon were not trying to take a bigger skim and their interest was in making a more secure card holder experience they could:

• make PCI a part of the sign up process
• follow up with non complient clients
• Cap the fee at the minimum

However, they don't!  They bury the fee in fine print.  They hide it as part of a "other" fee on the monthly statement on the last page.

Elevon happily collects this fee until the client notices, and then they deflect, lie, and blame the client when asked about it.

I signed with elevon for their rates.  The rates went up.  They sold us an expensive lease on equipment that they use to make money off my business.  The statements are confusing, and there are over $150.00 in additional fees each month that were not part of the original discusion.

We paid over $1200 in PCI fees before I spend hours trying to get good explanations of each fee.  I will be leaving Elevon with a better understanding of shady ethics and underhanded business practices.

i did my homework and bottom line is im saving over $200 a year that your company is ripping people off with your ridiculous fees.  who else would take the time to respond to complaints about a company unless they worked for them???  get a life and quit using words like savvy.  lmao!!

Tgis Jessica lady obviously made the right choice by using Merchant Warehouse, she must not have checked here for their reports versus Elavon. She must not be that savvy of a business owner, and she doesn't understand on what Elavon is charging. Do your homework lady. Don't pretend to understand something you don't.

Don't believe it people.  The day I called and cancelled, the Elavon employee told me their phone lines were backed up and it was due to one thing - the ridiculous fee they were charging now.  People were calling to cancel their accounts.  Elavon is a rip off.  These posts are probably coming from the President of the company trying to save face and make up for some of the accounts they lost.   ELAVON = RIPOFF.  Run when you hear the name ELAVON!!!!!!!!

So let me see if I understand what you're saying.  You left a direct payment processor to switch to an independent sales organization (not a processor) to save money?  Last time I checked, any time there's a middle man involved there's additional cost somewhere.  Maybe the PCI fee is under $40 but I bet there's margin for profit somewhere else in the service.  The PCI fees are required for every US-based merchant now regardless of who you go through.  The fee varies depending on the terminal type, methods for transacting (web vs retail, etc).  The previous post was correct... $175 is for wireless machines, e-commerce, software, and terminals that dial through an internet connection.  Dial-up terminals are considerable lower around $35/year with the fees in both cases waived the 1st year.  (I just signed with this company so I have the contract... which clearly discloses this fee and the PCI requirements.  The reason for the difference in cost is because Trustwave (licensed by Visa to do the service) performs a quarterly network scan to ensure security levels are still in place and assists in closing any vulnerabilities.  I learned this by going to the Visa web site and clicking on the PCI link to learn more myself...

Which by the way I might encourage you to do yourself to learn more about your subject matter in the future when you make a post.

Also... Merchant Warehouse sends its processing customers out to First Data... look this one up folks... you'll see they ain't no picnic!  Last I heard, First Data was charging $125 for DIAL-up terminals.

I've been in this industry for four years with the same processing company.  I've analyzed thousands of statements. The best processor by far is Elavon.  We use Elavon as well as four other major platforms.

1. These are not "interest rates" but "Discount rates".

2. The rates always change with every processor. Why? Because every April and October, Visa and MasterCard adjust the "Interchange" tables. These are the costs every processor pays to Visa and MasterCard. So yes, your rates are going to change, merchants need to know this.

3. The 4 year agreement is probably a 3 year agreement with Elavon (normal) and a 4 year lease for your equipment (normal) with whomever you have the lease through. If you agreed to a 4 year term, you made that decision. It's in black and white in your contract which you were supposed to read. As a business professional it's assumed you are competent enough to read contracts before you sign.

4. The "outrage" is ridiculous. The cost of a data breach could put you out of business. Elavon will indemnify you if you complete the PCI certification. if you don't and a data thief steals data from you, you are in big trouble.

5. The rep did not lie. They told you all processors charge a PCI fee. They all do. If you don't believe that, go flip burgers for someone else. Your previous processor lied to you. How do you know it truly only cost $38?  Aren't they the ones who were gouging you for years? How then do you expect honesty from them? Do you think maybe a competitor might misrepresent Elavon?

"Needless to say", then why did you say it? 

Don't believe them!  The fee is only around $38 and this was confirmed by several other merchants.  Anything over this amount is being pocketed by Elavon.  Real funny how when I brought this up to the employees at Elavon, they all played dumb but now someone from your company finally knows whats going on because a complaint has been filed?  Your company is a joke!  You contracted me in for 3 years with a $195 early termination fee and lured me in with your low interest rates but failed to tell me these would creep back up month after month to what I had been paying before I switched to you.  Then you want to whack your customers with a $175 annual fee and pocket most of the money.  I switched back to Merchant Warehouse because they dont charge this ridiculous fee or an early termination fee.  Beware current and future customers - Stay away from Elavon!!!!!

I'm writing in response to the complaint about our PCI Fee of $175.  The complaint doesn't explain that the $175 is for merchants processing in electronic format i.e. internet, IP terminals, and virtual terminals.  Included in this fee is up to $100,000 of data breach insurance in the event that credit card information is stolen from the merchant.  For standard dial up terminals the annual fee is $35.  Elavon charges more for electronic formats because they require additional security features to be PCI compliant.  This fee is not for revenue generation.  The credit card companies started the PCI-DSS initiative to combat credit card fraud and protect consumers privacy.  Monitering and ensuring credit card information is being handled securely requires resources.  This fee is merely there to recoup the additional resources we have to commit in order to comply with PCI requirements.  For more information on PCI-DSS compliance go to: http://pci.elavon.com.