I never even heard of this company until I got a bank statement showing 15.99 taken out once a month and I...
Auto vantage along with great fun, both out of connecticut have been stealing monthly payments from my minor...
In balancing my Mom's checking account, I found a deduction from a credit card she no longer uses. My Mom has alheimer's and has been in a nursing home for two years. I am her POA. I have one credit card which she does not use.
Please check into this. Auto Vantage deducted $129.99 from her old credit card. I cut up that card and don't even know the number. The charge was from TLG Auto Vantage, [protected].
My email is: [protected]@comcast.net
My son Rob has a checking account with one of the country’s top five banks in Orlando, Florida. His disability check is $800. a month. He is 41 and has Retinitis Pigmentosa and can't work. RP is commonly known as night blindness, but restricts day vision as well.
He is one of those who just glances at his statements, since he keeps a running balance and knows where he stands. Last week a $15.99 charge caused an overdraft since he wasn't allowing for it. The overdraft charge was $85.00. He looked back on his old statements and this $15.99 had been occurring for several months.
He went into the bank and talked to one of the officers and inquired about this $15.99 charge. The officer looked up the source and told Rob the deductions were from a company called Auto Vantage. Rob told the man that he had never heard of this company, had no idea what kind of services they offered, had never signed anything, and had never authorized verbally or in writing for this company to take money out of his personal checking account.
He requested that the automatic deduction be blocked, or if that could not be done, to cancel his account and open a new one. The bank officer told him there was nothing they could do, that he had an overdraft and had to pay it, plus make up the deficit in his checking account. He said nothing to Rob about reporting the problem to the bank’s fraud department -- or mention the fraud department at all.
When Rob called me about this last week, I googled Auto Vantage and many complaints and horror stories popped up. People were complaining that this company was not accessible either by the phone number that is listed on a web site, or by U.S. mail. In other words, it sure looked like a shell company and a scam. Some people were bilked out of much more money than my son, like $99.99.
I called the bank’s main number and was told by a customer service rep. That Rob needed to report this to their fraud department, and gave me the number. She further said that the bank would block this automatic deduction on his account, waive the overdraft fee, and refund him for those fraudulent deductions.
He called and filed a complaint, answering all the questions, etc., explained that he is on disability, and that he had never heard of this company, much less authorized them to take money out of his personal checking account – that he could not reach them by the phone number that given on the internet -- and that his mother had found many complaints about this company -- people who, like him, had never heard of the company.
The bank’s fraud department lady told Rob that she had a phone number for Auto Vantage and called them. He was connected to the three-way call. The Auto Vantage person told the bank’s fraud dept. lady that Rob had authorized the payment. Rob argued that he had not done any such thing, and had never heard of the company. He asked the lady from Auto Vantage to present proof of his authorization, and said she hemmed and hawed, but never came up with any specific answer. At that point, the bank lady thanked the Auto Vantage lady and abruptly ended the call. She then told Rob that they would not be able to refund his money because he had authorized the payment, and that Rob would have to make up the overdraft deficit, but that they would waive the overdraft fee and block the Auto Vantage deductions immediately.
Rob became impatient with the fraud dept. lady and asked her (1) How did she have a good phone number for this company when the rest of the world didn't, and (2) why she believed the lady from Auto Vantage over him, especially since she could not come up with an irrefutable answer when he asked her to verify to him how he’d authorized this, (3) and why at that point in the three-way call, did she suddenly end the call -- that it appeared to him she was getting the Auto Vantage lady off the hook. He requested again at his local bank that the several months unauthorized deductions be reimbursed, but was again refused.
Rob told me that he had an open mind about the situation, and would have accepted blame IF Auto Vantage could have somehow confirmed that he authorized that action, but since she could not do that, and at that point, the call was abruptly ended by the fraud dept. lady, he hung up with a gut feeling that the lady from the bank’s fraud dept. and the lady from Auto Vantage were in cahoots with each other. He again requested of his local bank to be reimbursed for all those $15.99 deductions, but was refused.
I would hate to think one of the top banks in the United States is involved in something like this, but the circumstances sure make you wonder ... and stranger things have happened ... like Bernie Madoff, for example.
THIS SCARES ME! We have to go to our bank Monday to close & open new acct. cause of $15.99 charge that we have no idea of. Praying my bank is not the same as your bank. Keep you posted. Sharon C
I had a charge of 109.99 on my credit. I had not made a purchase of any sort on my card for months, and I had...
charges were billed to my acct without my authorization. I had to call 10 times to get thru as they had no representative available.
The same thing has happened to my Dad who is a senior citizen and lives on a fixed income. Recently our Mom pasted away and I took over paying his bills. He had a Fingerhut bill that I paid off so he would have extra money during the month. I paid his account off in October 2008. In Dec 2008 this Auto Vantage Company which I never heard of charged his account for 59.99. Since I knew nothing about this, I didn't think anymore about it, thinking he was squared away on this account. So the mail he received from Fingerhut he thought was advertisements and threw them away. Today May 15th, 2009 I got the mail and wondered why a yellow letter from Fingerhut was in there so I opened it. It showed a balance of 109.34 and his account was seriouly past due. So I called Fingerhut to see what was going on and they told me the account had been paid off but the charge for Auto Vantage was causing him to have late fees on top of their charge. She gave me the number to call and cancel the account. I was confused because I had never heard of this before now. I called Auto Vantage, which I felt stupid because I really didn't even know who I was calling. When he told me what services they provided I knew my father never signed up for any thing like that. He had no need for those services. When they told me it was a service that was added to his account and then if he didn't want it he would have to canel it and that he never did. So, that gave them the right to keep charging away, I was furious. He never even knew he had it tacked on let alone know he was suppose to cancel it. I think this is wrong to do anyone like this, how dare them! How many people have they ripped off doing this. Something ought to be done. No wonder this country is in such terrible shape. It's companies like this that are taking advantage of hard working people and unsuspecting senior citizens. I'm not saying what they do isn't a good service, it's the way they are doing it.
The blame is not all Auto Vantage's I feel Fingerhut should protect their customer from this type of dirty dealings.
This company is a scam. They charged my Macy"s account (119.99) for a membership that I never had. I have no account number and when I called to have it removed I was told by Theresa that it was a renewal Fee. Renewal for WHAT!!!! I never purchased anything. Read all charges on your bill because its a company like this one "Auto Vantage " that will try to scam you and hope that you do not see it. I am in the process of closing my Macy's account because they also are guilty of fraud., in allowing some random company to access my account.
When I asked Auto Vantage to have a copy of the agreement they said I agreed to , Auto Vantage, said "not possible."... I wonder why... Theresa said she would remove the charge.
BEWARE!!!
I had the same thing happen to me. I was finally able to get a good phone no. for AutoVantage. They actually answered the phone and gave me a cancellation no. for the program and they said they would issue a credit to my acct. I'm not sure how they accessed my account at Macy's.
After further contact with Macy's they are telling me that when I signed up for the Macy's acct 26 years ago, I agreed to take the insurance program and have been paying the $119 periodically over the years. That was the strangest thing I ever heard. I've since cancelled my Macy's acct.
I just had the same thing happen to me just 2 days ago.Auto Vantage charged me $89.99 on my credit card.I had never heard of this company until now.I was highly upset once I reached my credit card company due to the push this push that game.THEY actually switched me over to Auto Vantage as if they were part of the scam team! Auto Vantage wanted to explain the benefits first before they would cancell this unauthorized payment!.They promised to unbill my account as soon as possible.
I love everyone but I could not have a reasonable conversation with the rep because of the strong dialect.I hope someone will stop these practices and I hope their employees know exactly what their doing to consumers!
Act quickly and BEWARE also!!
I stayed in a Super Eight hotel in 2000 and the gave my credit card number to Autovantage/customer service center. They in turn charged my credit card for services I did not request and did not autherize. They have been charging my account annually ever since and I did not catch it until this year, 2008. They claim they are not responsible and refuse to refund my account. Do not do buisness with this company or any company that the would give your credit card information out to crooks like Autovantage
I just caught a $119 charge on my Nov. Visa statement from AutoVantage. I had never heard of this company or used their service. After some research I discovered I had been charged an annual fee of $119 every Nov. since 2001. I talked to a AutoVantage rep who said that I had returned a mass mailing in 2001 and signed up for the service and provided my credit card # (absolutely not true!). I called back and was tgiven a different story. This time I was told they got my credit card # from Super Eight Motel that I stayed at in 2001. Stay away from this company!
OKAY WHY DON'T YOU DUMB PEOPLE STOP CASHING THOSE CHECKS WTF DO YOU THINK FREE MONEY IS JUST COMING TO YOU BECAUSE YOU ARE THAT DAMN GREAT? WHO IN THE WORLD THINKS YOU ARE JUST GONNA WAKE UP ONE DAY AND GET FREE MONEY!!! GROW UP AND REALIZE THERE ARE CATCHES TO EVERYTHING YOU GREEDY CRYBABIES!!!QUITE FRANKLY YOU DESERVE TO BE CHARGED IF YOU CASH THOSE CHECKS!!!
My Name is Olga and my husband and myself recently returned from a deployment to Iraq. Much to my dismay I...
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