We received a letter from First Data Global Leasing that they were going to take an automatic withdrawal out of our account for $20.00 in "property tax" and an additional $10.20 in "handling fees".
We are tax payers in good standing in our community and regularly pay our assessed property tax which in this municipality is only $18.93 a year! So I called FDGL to ask how they could claim that the property tax on one small piece of equipment that is ALREADY INCLUDED IN THE TAX I PAY could possibly cost more than the payment I make.
After talking to two incompetant operators who could do nothing but repeat the company mantra that I had to pay, I finally got to a manager. When I told her that they didn't have the authority to collect property taxes, that I already pay said taxes to my municipality, she first refused to acknowledge that the letter said that the fee was, and I quote from the letter, a "property tax".
She said the letter just called it a fee, and according to the fine print they could charge any new fees they want, and as long as they send us a letter saying they are adding a new fee, we have no choice but to accept it or pay the exhorbitant buy out fees.
I offered to fax her the letter as we spoke so she could see that that was what the letter demanded. Although I faxed the letter 2 times while we were on the phone, she kept saying that the fax didn't come thru. My fax machine said the transmission was complete.
She said she had to get off the phone as they were very busy (I bet they were since this was the complaint department), but that she would call me when my fax arrived. Is anyone surprised that my phone hasn't rung yet?
I wanted to believe that this was just an error, but after reading the other posts, I realize that FDGL is indeed a corrupt company. These aren't errors - they are carefully crafted ways of overcharging their customers.
They pulled that same thing on us mentioned in a couple of other posts - we upgraded our equipment and sent the old equipment back... Only to get a bill for 800 and some dollars for not returning the equipment. Only thing that saved us was that we had put a "signature required" stipulation on the shipping slip, and could therefore prove that we had sent it and they had received it. Only when our lawyer sent them a notarized copy of that slip did they release the money that they had already taken our of our bank account.
Unfortunatly, when we upgraded, we had to sign a new lease, so we are stuck with this morally bankrupt company until unless we agree to give in to their blackmail of "buy out charges".
But at least we can let other people know in the meantime.
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