Everyone wants to save money at the pump. No one is more interested in cutting fuel costs than the trucking industry or the companies that own company cars, including many small businesses. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) just filed a complaint alleging that Georgia-based FleetCor Technologies made misleading statements when marketing its “Fuelman” and co-branded gas cards to businesses across the country. According to the complaint, FleetCor failed to deliver on its marketing promises and charged customers unexpected fees that have totaled hundreds of millions of dollars to date.
The lawsuit, which names FleetCor and CEO Ronald Clarke, alleges that despite the defendants’ claims that businesses using their fuel cards will realize specific savings per gallon, such as “through customized fleet management solutions, Save 10 cents on a gallon of diesel fuel” .*” — FleetCor’s own data shows that even without taking into account FleetCor’s huge unexpected costs, these customers are saving less than a cent per gallon on average.
Regarding these fees: Defendant undertakes “[n]o set-up fees, transaction fees or annual fees,” but according to the FTC, the defendants charged customers millions of dollars in various unexpected fees. For example, some ads claimed that customers could enjoy services at tens of thousands of locations across the country The “convenience” of refueling. However, customers are in for a surprise when they purchase fuel at several national retailers, including Pilot, Texaco, Chevron and Loves. First, FleetCor doesn’t honor the discounts promised by those big chain stores. Second, FleetCor charges a transaction fee of $2.00 or more per fill-up at these locations. FleetCor considers these retailers part of its “convenience network,” but according to the FTC, the term actually means non-preferred or out-of-network stations where FleetCor customers must pay more.
The FTC said the defendants also charged customers a series of other unexpected fees, including account management fees, program fees, high credit risk account fees and minimum program management fees. The FTC said that in the case of some of the fees FleetCor cited, they appeared in dense fine print in terms and conditions documents that were difficult to read and understand. Other fees, including those for unwanted subscription programs, aren’t even mentioned. Additionally, the defendants charged some customers “late fees, interest and finance charges” totaling hundreds or thousands of dollars in a single billing cycle, even when customers paid on time, the indictment alleges.
Here’s an example of how one of these fees works. Hidden in the fine print is the fact that FleetCor charges fees to certain customers if it deems them to be “high credit risk accounts.” Who meets FleetCor’s definition?Customers with low credit scores, late payment customers, and “operating” customers[] In the trucking or transportation industry. You read that right. According to the FTC, the defendants marketed gas cards to members of the industry but allegedly charged at least $1.7 million in fees for high-credit-risk accounts simply because they were part of FleetCor’s target market. . Taking into account other customers, FleetCor’s fees from high-credit risk accounts alone totaled more than $108 million, it said.
What’s more, the FTC alleges that when customers complained to FleetCor and successfully had one charge removed, in many cases the defendants simply exchanged it for another unexpected charge. You’ll want to read the lawsuit to learn more about the allegations about how the defendants’ billing practices cost customers hundreds of millions of dollars and have resulted in tens of thousands of complaints to the company, government agencies, and the BBB. The FTC also cited internal documents describing the defendants’ failure to act on what the defendants called “noise,” a pejorative term used by some company executives to describe complaints and concerns raised by FleetCor customers.
The case is pending in federal court in Georgia.
