IF you haven't already, contact your credit card company and tell them you want to do a chargeback. I normally don't tell people to do this, because I work in the chargeback department for a major processing company but I also hate to see merchants with ridiculous return policies taking advantage of customers. Their policy is worthless as long as you tell the bank the merchandise is defective. Visa/Mastercard do not allow merchants to charge people for faulty merchandise. Regardless of the company's "30 day return policy" you actually have 120 days per Visa/Mastercard so don't let your bank drop the ball.
Yeah, right. I bet you are one of those merchants who doesn't keep your customer's information safe and it got stolen. Then you blame the processor for something that is your fault.
If it was a processing error on Elavon's part they would have fixed it. Seen it happen before.
BTW, where is the LONG history of Fraud complaints of which you speak?
Your credit card company cannot STOP them from charging your card without cancelling the card number, but you CAN dispute the charge as a "cancelled recurring transaction." Although it's probably too late now, Visa and MasterCard impose a 120 day limit from the time of the charge for such disputes, remember this in the future and be sure to use that terminology when you talk to your dispute department. I see these cases all day, and I know that both Visa and MasterCard have strict rules against a merchant continuing to charge for recurring charges once you've cancelled. You don't even have to have anything from them proving it. Your credit card company should have filed a chargeback against Charter and issued a provisional credit to your account until they collected the funds from them.
OK spacom2000 - you are talking about a completely different company. CPS is not Elavon.
In answer to merchants having deposits delayed, there is always a reason. When your account is set up you agree to process a certain amount each month based on your business type. If you suddenly have a higher amount processed, it looks suspicious. Elavon has a very active risk department who looks at this type of activity because often it's a sign of either a merchant having problems or running transactions that are not allowed by the card associations. Too many times in the past, Elavon has seen a merchant run large transactions on their own credit cards or those of friends to "loan" their business money. When the business fails or the merchant can't pay the bill on the credit card, chargebacks start coming in and Elavon eats the money if they don't have a reserve set up. Many processing companies require said reserve up front, we don't. But if you're doing something that looks like possible fraud or that could be dangerous to your business (such as factoring - running charges for another business) a reserve will be imposed. All you have to do is ask, and it will be explained to you.
OK. First Go to CVS or Walgreens and get the same stuff for $9-$14 a bottle. I actually found a buy one, get one free deal and got two bottles of Acai Berry capsules for $14.95.
Now that that is taken care of... call your credit card company immediately and tell them that you cancelled this recurring transaction and the merchant is still billing you. The good thing about Visa and MasterCard is they do not require a cancellation number as proof you contacted the merchant. Regardless of whether you were able to contact the merchant or not, if you cancel the recurring payment they are not allowed to charge your card again. Your bank should then credit the money back to your account and charge it back to the merchant. Don't take no for an answer... they CAN and should charge it back.
Steve M.: How about getting your facts straight before you go trashing a company you know nothing about. U.S. Bank was not a contributor to the economic downfall as you like to think. They were offered bail out money by the government and promptly returned it.
I find it funny that everyone who has a complaint about Elavon had their accounts closed due to past due balances and illegal practices. Reserves are put into place because of risk. By creating these reserves, Elavon is helping themselves and the businesses they process for avoid drastic losses from cardholder fraud. If merchants would pay more attention to the cards their taking instead of staring at the dollar signs in their eyes, chargebacks wouldn't be such an issue. Most merchants with a reserve were put there because of a large amount of chargebacks or suspicious transactions that could lead to chargebacks. Elavon has written off MILLIONS of dollars each year in uncollected chargebacks. Why should they lose money because a merchant doesn't check the signature on the back of a card or insists on shipping merchandise to Ghana even though they were told it was probably fraud? They shouldn't. If merchants took more responsibility for their actions, Elavon wouldn't have to use the reserve system to avoid loss.
Reputation Management department? I don't know who sold you those cigarettes your smoking, but that ain't tobacco Steve. I don't get paid anything to post on complaint boards. Elavon has no idea I'm even here. So whatever. Just another thing to add to the list of stuff you have wrong. So just because I don't like people making up lies about companies and spreading half-truths I automatically work for a company? Well hell! I should be a millionaire by now cause I work for at least 15 different companies according to your figures. HA! Income tax time is gonna suck, that's for sure.
OK. So back to the Steve show. In case you haven't noticed, fraud is on the rise. And by fraud what I mean is REAL fraud. Fraud where Joe Cardholder gets a shiny new Chase card and hits the internet. He knocks out all this Christmas shopping in 4 hours time and everybody gets exactly that they wanted with him having enough stuff left over to sell and make a pretty penny off of. A few weeks later, once all the charges have posted and all his shiny new gifts have arrived (shipped to his best bud's house, of course.. you know, cause they are "gifts") he calls up Chase and asks why he never got his new card. They inform him the card was activated and used and now carries a balance of over $5, 000! Next thing you know, merchants everywhere are getting chargeback letters from their processors because Joe Customer said he didn't make these purchases. Guess who pays for those new presents now? The merchants. And of course, they'll blame their processor... it must be the processor's fault because they got approval codes for those sales, right? WRONG. I won't give the name of the company I work for but I will say this... I have my hands on no less than 100 chargeback cases every day. I frequently speak with banks, merchants and sometimes cardholders. One of the things I hear/read at least 10 times a day is "we did everything right, we shouldn't have to pay for this". But upon closer examination, there is almost ALWAYS something that wasn't checked or done correctly. Take the scenario with Joe Customer. Most merchants could listen to that story and never tell me what was done wrong in that situation that ultimately made the merchant lose the funds.
