Complaint Review: Northern Leasing Systems

When my credit card machine stopped working in 2010, I called TransFirst--the credit card processing company to fix the machine. The service rep???Rich Taylor told me they did not service that machine any longer and I would need a new machine.

I told him I had a very low budget and needed the cheapest machine possible and only wanted to accept master card and visa. He told me the cheapest machine was $350.00. I could not afford that. He said i could lease one on a month to month basis and if I went out of business I could cancel the lease. i was worried the machine might not work with our phone lines--he quarenteed me it would. He said I could sign one page on line, then sent me an e-mail saying that He had to send me a written contract and had highlighted where I needed to sign or initial. he did not tell me that Northern Leasing was even involved, but mentioned their leasing department. said I could decide to buy the machine at any time , or cancel the lease.

The machine did not work well at all, I sent it back and got a replacement machine --it did not work well either. Mean time I was not getting service or savings promised and my bank found TransFirst unacceptable and cancelled the relationship going with another company--I was required to change companies with them. When I called to cancel account and return malfunctioning machine, I was told I would have to call Northern Leasing to return machine. i asked--who is Northern Leasing?? They said they sold them my lease.

I called Northern Leasing and was told that I would have to pay them like $1,300.00 to return machine and buy out lease. I said "what lease?" I was told it was month to month and I could cancel any time. They said "We have your signature on a lease for 4 years of payments and we will not let you out of it".  I said the machine is not working, so the person said to return it with a letter stating it did not work. I thought that would end the lease.

I had not been given a copy of my lease and when I did get it--it did not look like what I signed, but was in a very hard to read. small type face. It took almost a year to get that lease copy. when I read it I was just sick--what an onerous piece of crap. I trusted my customer service rep and took his word for what was in the contract--big mistake. I told the people at Northern Leasing about being tricked and lied to and they said they did not care--they had my signiture on a contract and they wanted the money. I said I did not have the machine, so shouldn't have to pay anything. they said they did not care whether i had the machine or not--they wanted the money.

I have been trying to deal with them every since and they have made my life a nightmare. They promise to send fraud reports for me to fill out--the reports never come. They were taking money out of my checking account and it was more than I agreed to, so i closed my checking account and notified them in writing that I wanted to pay with checks and rescinded any permission to take money out of my account. I was at this point trying to get a reduced settlement.

 I paid several payments, then got a bank statement and was shocked to see money had been taken out by them without my permission. I filed fraud charges with the bank and got that money back--4 amounts in less than 3 weeks. then they started really harassing me. I have not paid them for almost 6 months and they are threatening all sorts of awful things like law suits in NY and wrecking my credit. I have asked for a financial accounting of money paid by me so far and they refuse. i won't pay until i get a financial accounting--any normal company would be glad to do that. I have gotten as many as 10 calls IN ONE DAY. I HAVE NOTIFIED THEM BOTH ON PHONE AND IN WRITING NOT TO CALL ME, THAT I WANT ALL CORRESPONDANCE IN WRITING, BUT THEY IGNOR ME.
i NEED HELP, BUT DON'T KNOW WHERE TO GO.