Northern Leasing Overcharging monthly bill, and a Tax fee after lease completed that was never agreed upon or discussed. New York, New York

We were obligated to use Northern Leasing for our credit card terminal with our use of Trans First credit card merchant processing. We signed a 48 month lease for 39.98/month. About 2 years into the lease agreement, we decided we had pretty much paid for the cost of a terminal in just the leasing payments, so we decided to go ahead and buy a terminal from them and buy out the rest of the lease contract. They were supposed to send a call tag for the terminal to be mailed back to New York (even though it originally was shipped to us from California). But the call tag never arrived. So we bought a terminal from them, and they still continued to charge us for the terminal on the lease.  

The monthly charge was for a larger amount than what was agreed upon in the lease contract. They have over charged us $4.95 on every statement, so for 4 years and 2 months, they over charged us a total of around $247.

At the end of our lease contract, we were contacted by a very rude salesman, saying he will cancel our merchant processing if we did not sign a new contract within 2 days of him sending it to us. This set up some red flags. (especially because he tried to sound like he was from our merchant processor, when really he is pedaling equipment contracts)

I called Transfirst to tell them that we did not appreciate it, and will be likely leaving their services. A manger called back to apologize (which I actually appreciated) and try and give us some better rates, but it was too little too late. I then talked to northern leasing, and told them we would like to terminate or agreement with them, as the contract had now completed its term. They said we must mail back the terminal to New York and they would terminate the agreement or we could buy out the rest of the contract for $120 (even thought the contract term was already over with). So I decided to mail back the terminal as i figured it would be the less expensive route (another $18 dollars).

Now after they have received back the terminal, they charged our debit card for another $75 dollars. I called to ask what this charge was about, as they previously said upon receipt of the terminal, our contract would be over with. After talking with another guy, he said that the charge was for a tax for each year, of $25, and that they would be sending us a refund check in the mail in 8-10 weeks. He couldn't tell me much more about it, and I don't believe any of it at all. Why would they charge us and then mail us a check, and lose money on the whole process (with transaction fees and mailing costs). Also, if it was for each year, then wouldn't it be $100??? They cant even do proper math, which is sad for a company that only deals with numbers!

This being said, I plan on contacting our bank to block this transaction, and any future transactions from their company. I believe this company to be a scam artist on its last breath. Over the course of 4 years, they have suspiciously charged us for around $340 that was not agreed upon.

Merchant processing is an area where most business switch to save on costs, but it likely will not happen if you work with this company. DO NOT go into business with them, they will nickle and dime you, and then come after you with outrageous fees and bogus transactions that they do not disclaim when signing into the contract.