My small business failed in late 2001. I contacted the NASE to cancel my membership on 02/18/02 as I needed to keep as much cash as possible for debt reduction. The account for this deduction was out of state and rarely looked at other than for business.
After answering several identity establishing questions and providing the correct password, I was assisted by customer service in closing the account.
All NASE correspondence ceased and no further insurance premiums arrived. Therefore, I never followed up on the cancellation as all seemed in order. I was LED TO BELIEVE the account had been cancelled.
On 08/18/08, I went to online banking for this account. It was the first time in years that I accessed the account. This was used strictly as a retirement account. As I viewed it online, I noticed a $35.00 debit to the NASE? I immediately called my bank regarding this.
I discovered that my account was being debited monthly since 02/02. The total amount over the time frame came to $2735.00 that was STOLEN after I closed the account.
I managed to recover the most recent debit through the bank by a dispute. This took the amount down to $2710.00, I then contacted their customer service department.
After providing the required identity establishing information. I was informed the membership was still active. The associate informed me that there was a cancellation request annotated on the account dated 02/18/02. However, since the request WAS NOT IN WRITING, it wasn't processed. At that point, I requested a supervisor.
I then spoke with Anthony Parks that re-stated the previous information. This generated a comment and a question on my part. One, I'd not been told that two cancellations were required. Two, had I been told this was required, I'd complained about it but certainly would have complied. I stated again for record, I was NEVER TOLD about this WRITTEN cancellation requirement.in lieu of the in place security measures, this policy seems contrived.
I asked what was needed to get NASE out of my checking account? Mr. Parks informed me that he could do so telephonically as their policy had changed effective 01/01/05. Now I was really upset! They had a cancellation request on file since 02/02 but never processed it.
I filed a grievance through the BBB but it was forewarded to the wrong agency. This was partially due to the difficulty of getting an accurate address for NASE. I got a better address and filed a second complaint. This complaint was filed through Healthmarkets, Inc. They are also known as Mega Life Insurance and associated with UICI.
In any event, each company denies any association with the other. This simply isn't true, they are diversified and one and the same.
I wrote a letter to James Harbuchen, NASE Treasurer requesting a refund. To date I've no reply.
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