Macquarie Bank has been accused of being involved in deceit and trickery by bundling televisions, notebooks, phones, and other electronic goods into contracts that have hit small business with tens and thousands of dollars in fees.
The head of the ACCC, Graeme Samuel has told the ABC1’s Four Corners program that he attempted to negotiate with the CEO, Nicholas Moore, but was rebuffed. He described it as like hitting ‘a brick wall.’
According to an ABC News report by Stephen Long, Macquarie is a major financier of deals for “telephony bundling” which involves selling telco services with other ‘free’ items such as notebooks, televisions, and other electronic goods.
However, as soon as businesses sign up with a telco, they will be hit with tens and thousands of dollars in fees for the supposedly ‘free’ equipment that they received.
Four Corners says that it has found evidence of fraudulent or doctored contracts, forged signatures, and finance companies directly debiting money from people’s bank accounts without authorisation. It has also found that whistleblowers were taught to hide the presence of rental contracts for the equipment and to trick people into signing the deals while maintaining the equipment was ‘free’.
Graeme Samuel told ABC’s Stephen Long that what small businesses don’t realise is that as soon as they sign with the telco, they are also signing with a finance company.
“We’ve found far, far too many – literally hundreds if not thousands of small businesses have been caught by these sorts of arrangements,” Mr Samuel told Long.
Mr. Samuels has approached CEOs from various finance companies and asked them to hold off pursuing small business through the courts but was rebuffed.
| Powerdock.com.au
