On Nov. 26th I received a form letter from Elavon dated Nov. 20,200, that they were implementing a new charge to all merchanges to comply with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards compliance. The charge would be $135 annually for Trustwave Trustkeeper service to help with the compliance process, and would be billed to my account in December.
On the next business day, Nov. 28th (Nov. 27th was a holiday), I called Elavon to cancel my merchant account to avoid this new fee. I was informed that the closure process takes 3-5 business days, so it would be December before the account was closed (in other words, they didn't give you enough time between their notice and the new month to close an account), but I would probably avoid the fee or could call back if it was charged. They sent me a form by fax to sign and return to close the account, which I did the same day.
Today, Elavon took out fees from my account for December, including $135 for the Trustwave service, and my normal monthly fee. I called and discovered they never closed my account. I had to fax them the paperwork again, and the service rep said he would present my case to a supervisor who would request a refund of my fee, but that I may or may not receive a refund. I'll also end up paying my normal $5 account service fee since the account is still open now at the beginning of January.
The service rep also informed me that if I had my bank block the charges by Elavon, they would submit it to a collection agency that would go after me, even if it were only for $5.
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