This company also has a few subsidiaries by the name "Premium Mega Saver" and "Hartford Auto Club". They work with Advantage Capital and they have made an unauthorized withdrawl from my banking account (information that was passed to them by Advantage Capital - w/o authorization).
Let's first discuss "Premium Mega Saver" calling card services: Advantage issues an intro packet that includes this calling card for a trial period. There was no calling card in my packet (which was ultimatley sent back to Advantage for a full refund). My acct. Was debited 3-29-02, for $54.90, two days after I was granted a "return authorization code" of RA032802 on 3-27-02. Tried on several occations to reach this company but their lines were either busy, or their systems were being maintainanced and no one was able to help.
I had not recieved a calling card from this company until 5-1-02. The account in question has been held and placed under investigation by my request to my bank, Washington Mutual. It is my belief that this company will continue to draft my account. I am still trying to contact this company, but they continue to be unreachable.
Now, on to "Hartford Auto Club": Without authorization, Nation Safe Drivers, Inc. (nee' Hartford Auto Club) obtained my bank account and routing number information, and withdrew $99.00 from my account. There was no notification. I originally had no idea who this company was deducting from my account. I later discoverd they received my information from "Advantage Capital", a "credit card" company that coos consumers to believe that they are giving a credit card with 0.0% APR & up to $2500 limit.
Advantage has givein my account information to this company and one other, "Premium Mega Saver", which is under the name "Capital Choice Consumer Credit". All 3 companies have made unauthorized withdrawls from my bank account at a total of $313.80 (Advantage has been the only to refund).
Hartford sent a letter with the Advantage introductory package that stated I had a 15-day trial period for the road-side assistance service. I tried on several occations to contact them to cancel the unwanted service, but their phone lines were ALWAYS busy. I tried at least twice a day to reach them, often more, for roughly one month.
They deducted the $99 from my account on 4/19 and I was able to reach 4/24 to question the withdrawl and the service in general. I spoke with a very helpful customer service rep. I explained the situation with Advantage Capital & she issued a cancellation# for my acct: SL4707022604. She also submitted a request for investigation form formy account and stated that it usually took 15 days to process & complete. Asked if she could forward me to a supervisor and she graciously complied.
I explained the situation to the supervisor and he informed me that since I didn't call within the "trail period", a refund was not possible. I asked for his name several times, he refused. I continued to inform him that this withdrawl was unauthorized and that his company was unreachable. I also aksed for his superviosr but he told me to call back later. We began to speak over each other and he hung up on me.
I have researched these companies, but know where near as much as my fellow victims! I was glad to see the posting on this site and I am very interested in finding out more from fellow victims - I think a class action lawsuit is in order! As a matter of fact, I have the opportunity to speak with my family lawyer and he stated the he couldn't represent me only, it wouldn't be worth it. There would, however, be a very strong case if there were a class action!
As of now, I am having trouble with my bank after filing an ACH Affidavit. They have spoken to Advantage Capital (not Hartford or Premium Mega Saver) and they stated that authorized these funds. Not true. I never spoke with any of these reps. Regarding payment for services. As stated before, this info was passed on by Advantage. I'm still working woth them and presenting hard-core evidence of fraud...
Something interesting that I learned from my lawyer is that the banks have some responsibility to us as consumers for these unauthorized debits. There should be a signature card or some sort of authorization policy in place for these transactions, but Washington Mutual has no such policy. They "assume" that if a merchant has your routing and acct. Number, you have given it to them, granting open access to your account.interesting, isn't it?!
Mia
Houston, Texas
0 comments