Elavon is totally upfront and legit. The problem is with some of their independent contractors. Tangarine Merchant Services is a complete scam. I have used ELAVON for years in conjunction with COSTCO! Tangarine and others are owned by a company called Pivotal Payments. They are worse than the most unscrupulous used car salesman!! They insinuated that they were going to reduce my rates and everything would remain the same with Elavon.
Within a week of signing up 4 seperate companies were taking funds out of my account. They promised me 2 cents for debit and 1.59% for credit card. Extra fees that they listed as "where applicable" were explained as "not applicable."
They charged me 15 cents per credit card transaction. Another fee of .1 percent for batch header. They also charged 3 cents per swipe whether the card was accepted, declined or there was a network problem. Contract was changed after I signed it and they had the nerve to mail it back to me with the changes. The lease company on the machine was Lease Finance group who in addition to their $35 per month fee charged an additional loss waver fee of $7.90 per month. I have barely dealt with them for a month and have already been notifed of a $100 annual fee for technology upgrades. It is a conflict of interest for Elavon to get involved yet they have helped me to go back with my original deal. Tangarine misrepresented themselves as calling on behalf of Elavon, but sold my debit processing to a company called Telus-Emergis and debit me fees for this through another of their companies called Pivotal Direct. Elavon has always paid me debit and credit in one lump sum, usually in less than 12-18 hours. Recently one debit close took 5 days to get to me. Also my debit fees which averaged $7 per month with Elavon at 6 cents per incur a $20 minimum fee through Pivotal another charge they said was not applicable. My solution decided upon by me, my bank and Elavon is to immediately open a new bank account. If you do this, it is important to let Elavon know about the banking change because you risk losing being a merchant forever if credit card commissions are not paid. I expect Tangarine/ Pivotal Payments to assess a cancellation fee, however Elavon has kindly put a note on my account to waive it! I expect that Tangarine will say this is not so!! If anyone calls you on behalf of anything to do with Elavon and you are already using them as a Costco Gold Member, hang up immediately and call Elavon directly. This is what I should have done! Their people will tell you in no uncertain terms that no one gets a better deal than Costco. Keep in mind that Costco has an impeccable reputation and would not deal with a shady company. My terminal lease is so called "uncancellable" but in reality I signed this through Tangarine in good faith. Because they did not live up to any of their promises, I feel that everything in this contract was done in an underhanded manner and subsequently unenforcable. They will probably try to ruin my personal credit but I have assurances from my banks that due to the sure volume of complaints concerning these wheeler dealers that nothing will disrupt the triple a credit rating I have after 35 years in business. I am ready to go to War and look forward to the time they go to debit my account and all they get back is an "ACCOUNT CLOSED" Notice. An analogy I like to use is this. When you buy a ticket to a hockey game it clearly states that they are not liable for injuries sustained in their facility. If you suffer damage from getting a puck in the face, does this mean they are not liable! Of course it doesn't. Their lawyers will advise them to immediately settle out of court. Am I liable for a lease that was presented to me by a third party, who was completely dishonest and deceitful? I think not!! Heh! I'm cancelling and thats the end of it!! If you want to recover something from this fiasco, come get your terminal. I'm in the boondocks of Canada, Come Get Me Chicago!!!