I contacted FSTN in September in an attempt to finally settle a sales tax case with the state that had been going on for over 7 years. As every day passed, interest an penalties were mounting and I was desperate for help.
I called FSTN after seeing an ad on television. I spoke with Sharon Stephens and after a brief discription of my case to her, she assured me that they would be able to help. Someone would go over the case and get back to me within a couple of days to let me know for sure. I was a little confused as to what they were going to go over seeing they had no paper work or back ground on the case but it cost me $100 for them to do so... This amount would be deducted from my settlement. Two days later, they did contact me and inform me they would be happy to take the case and they could have things settled within 6 months. The state was holding $43,000 of my money in escrow and they told me they could get most of it if not all of it back from me. They faxed me the contract and told me to sign and return it with a check for $2500, which I did.
To make a long story short, I never heard from them again. They told me they would contact me every 2 weeks to give me an update. They did not. They did not return my e-mails or phone calls. Finally after 6 months, in February of I hired a lawyer, who contacted them for any info they might have on the case. They had nothing. They had done nothing to move the case forward, meanwhile, interest and penalties kept piling up and they had $2500 of my money.
My lawyer settled the case with the state within 30 days of his hiring. I tried to get my money back from FSTN but they pretty much said "tough luck". I contacted the Washington state attorney general and he pretty much did nothing but relay my message. They told him the same thing, which angers me now, seeing there are other complaints against this company, why does the Washington attorney general allow these people to keep operating the way they do?
It's pretty much the principal now and I don't just go away when someone rips me off. My hope was to resolve this respectfully but I'm ready for a fight now. I would very much like to file a class action suit with the others who filed a similar report against FSTN. I also hope this report saves someone else the cost and mistake of hiring them.
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