When I opened my store, a rep for a middleman company contacted me and offered me the credit card and check reading machines leased through Northern Leasing. A man came to my store, showed me how to work the equipment and then provided a ONE page lease which consisted of the application form to fill out and sign. Oddly, I was not allowed to fill it out. He filled out everything except where I was supposed to sign. And at first, he didn't even fill out my name—he used my first name and my business partner's last. That same year the check machine stopped reading and a customer bounced a $475 check. It took over two months to clear that with my bank, her bank and the county. At that time I attempted to contact said rep only to find he'd skipped town and could not be found. I then called the "middleman" company and was told that my business had not been re-assigned to another local rep and would not be. I hopped along on the old-fashioned method of trusting the checks for the next year.By the year and a half mark I discovered that the middleman company was extorting money through Northern's equipment—credit card is swiped, money goes into their account and never finds its way into mine. It was only occasionaly so it was almost undetectable. At that point I decided to get new machines through my bank. Less than half a year later than that my store went out of business. When the money stopped coming in, the account got lower and lower until Northern Leasing could not auto-debit my account due to insufficient funds. So they continued to ding my account up to five times daily causing overdraft charges until I closed the account That is when the calling began. At first I tried to be nice and tell them that I no longer had use for their equipment and was planning to ship it back. I was rudely snapped at that sending the equipment back did not release me from the contract and the customer service rep actually HUNG UP on me! The way their service works is a computer calls and when answered, sends the call to a rep. However, after calling 9 more times that day, the computer hung up on me every time. After that day, they called me between 5-15 times a day and maybe once or twice have I actually talked to a person. And I certainly haven't been able to talk to a supervisor. I've been nice over the phone and I've been down-right ugly. Nothing phases them and they have no interest in excuses. They think their fraudulent lease is like some kind of iron-clad binding will and testament... I hereby declare that I'm a stupid customer of Northern Leasing and they are the all mighty god of equipment leasing and I leave to them: all monies, my credit rating, my business's reputation and the shirt off my back. They have in the past two-four weeks sent me a copy of my lease, which miraculously turned from one page to four pages. The other three pages included their misleading headings and "should be illegal" terms. And after studying it, the man that watched me sign the lease and then disappeared—guess what! He wasn't even the company's representative! His sister was. SHE signed the rep's line. So there's no notary that says a legal employee of Northern Leasing or the middleman company watched me sign it. I wonder what I can do with that bit of information? I have filed a complaint with the BBB of New York and will be doing the same with the NY Attorney General. I highly suggest that others do the same. After I read some of the complaints on this website, it gave me some reassurance that at least I'm not the only one.
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