On 4/1 I noticed a $75 debit had been made on 3/30 to our business checking account from a company called SKS Associates. I checked with my husband to be sure he hadn't ordered something I was unaware of & he hadn't so I called the number listed on the transaction. After giving my business name & refusing to give her the last 4 digits of my SS# (like I'd give that to anyone!) I was told by a gal named Arelys that the charge was to due them to cover "fees & uncollected taxes" on a credit card machine we had leased. I told her that lease had been completed & paid in full in May so there was no way I still owed anything on it. I told her to immediately put the $75 back into my account. She said she could not do that, but she could file a claim & they'd send me a check. I said "Right, the old check's in the mail routine, I think not. You were able to take it out just like that so you can put it back just like that". I also told her I was already involved in a class action suit against Northern Capitol Lease for their overcharging their customers for years. She put me on hold for a moment then came back & told me there was no such lawsuit.
After a short discussion that got me nowhere I told her I'd be contacting my bank, my attorney, the state's attorney general & anyone else I could think of that would stop their fraudulent activities & hung up. I called by bank & was told to stop in & fill out an affidavit of unauthorized charge & the bank would put my money back within 10 business days. Being a Friday it was really busy at our store so I couldn't get to the bank. On Saturday afternoon I went in to work, logged on to my business checking account to print out my March statement & found another $125 had been deducted on 4/1 by SKS! I couldn't believe it. Then I started researching the Internet & found many, many complaints against SKS. I also got on the phone with Wells Fargo & told them everything that was going on. I was able to file the affidavits (one for each charge) over the phone & was told they'd put the money back within 10 business days or less. I asked if they could block SKS from accessing my account again & was told they could not block them as a whole, but could block them from taking a specific amount. Evidently as long as they use a different amount each time, they can do it over & over. Closing our business checking account is the only way to stop them. I wondered why SKS had hit me again so went back to researching the Internet. I found out people who had purchased signs (on time) from Signtronix were also being hit & we had purchased a sign this way, but our purchase had been paid in full in September. Obviously SKS is preying on all the small businesses that leased or purchased anything on time with several different companies. Nice! In the difficult economic times this country is enduring right now our small businesses that are struggling to survive have to deal with crooks like this! $225 is a lot of money to our small business. I wonder how many other companies haven't yet noticed or have overlooked these fraudulent charges? We must get the word out & stop SKS!
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