John sent a message to Greg D. Carmichael – Chief Executive Officer of Fifth Third Bancorp – Email Address that said:
Dear Mr. Carmichael,
For the past four years JM Reproductions has had a business relationship with Fifth Third Bank. Up until this point, we had a great relationship with Fifth Third. Unfortunately, in July of 2015, JM found it necessary to discontinue operations. At that point, we owed just over $800,000 existing from equipment loans and a line of credit.
We then started selling equipment and collecting in earnest the accounts receivable to pay off the loan. We paid off all but $20,000. Unbeknownst to us, your employee Jim Clemens became involved, in more of a capacity than he led us to believe. Jim Clemens lied on many occasions to us, telling us one thing and not keeping his word. It really was an unbelievable situation.
The point being is that we only had $20,000 left to pay. We knew nothing of him bringing in a law firm to collect the money. We were never told this would be the case; nor, that we would have to pay for it. This has turned into the most immoral business case that I have ever experienced in my 37 years of business.
Jim Clemens still has not sent us the information we have asked for months ago. The law firm Fifth Third Bank uses, charges $300-400 per hour. They only had $20,000 to collect from the balance of the receivables. I believe they collected roughly $4,000 of this while charging us roughly $70,000. We were charged $80 for them to file a letter into a folder. The whole thing is beyond belief. The $20,000 shortly turned into $32,000 at their interest rate. We finally went to mediation after Fifth Third’s counsel consistently delayed the proceeding. We wasted the whole day, came to an agreement that cost me over $1,000 to the mediator and over $1,000 to my lawyer. My counsel typed the agreement for them to sign replying that they would not sign, charging an additional $16,000.
This really is an unbelievably immoral situation. I would like you to investigate this case. I believe their fee at this point is roughly $70,000 to collect $20,000. I really don’t see how this is justified.
I had an auction to sell off equipment. I also hired a collection agent with a very high success rate. Fifth Third’s attorney would not allow him to collect any of the major receivables outstanding. They have almost no success regarding this. I have never seen anything like this in my life.
We are hoping that you not an immoral person and will not condone this so you would be able to get this corrected. I sure hope that you will take care of this matter for us. I will look for your response as soon as possible.
Thank you.
John
