UCC termination fee charged twice by secretary of state - help?
Getting hit with duplicate UCC termination fees and I'm going crazy trying to figure this out. Filed a UCC-3 termination statement last month for a construction equipment loan that got paid off early. The filing went through fine, got my confirmation number and everything looked good. Then this week I get another charge on my corporate card for the exact same amount - $25 termination fee. Called the SOS office and they're saying I submitted two separate termination requests but I only did it once. Now they want me to provide documentation that I didn't intentionally file twice. Has anyone dealt with this kind of billing error before? The loan is already satisfied and showing as terminated in the system but somehow I'm being charged for two UCC termination fee transactions. Really frustrated because this is holding up our month-end reconciliation.
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Micah Franklin
This actually happens more than you'd think with online UCC filings. The portal sometimes processes duplicate submissions if there's a session timeout or connection issue during the initial filing. Did you get two separate confirmation numbers or just one?
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Ruby Blake
•Only got one confirmation number which is why this is so confusing. The second charge just appeared on my card with no corresponding documentation.
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Ella Harper
•Check your browser history to see if you accidentally refreshed the submission page. That can sometimes trigger duplicate processing even with the same session.
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PrinceJoe
Had the exact same issue with Delaware SOS last year! Turned out their payment processor was double-charging but only sending one confirmation email. You need to request a detailed transaction report from their accounting department, not just the regular filing staff.
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Ruby Blake
•Thank you! That gives me a specific department to contact. Did you end up getting the duplicate UCC termination fee refunded?
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PrinceJoe
•Took about 6 weeks but yes, they eventually reversed the duplicate charge. Make sure to keep all your email confirmations and credit card statements as proof.
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Brooklyn Knight
•Six weeks? That's ridiculous for what should be a simple billing correction. Government efficiency at its finest.
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Owen Devar
Before you go down the rabbit hole with SOS accounting, I'd suggest using something like Certana.ai to verify your UCC termination filing details. You can upload your original loan docs and the UCC-3 termination to make sure everything was filed correctly the first time. Sometimes what looks like a duplicate charge is actually a separate filing that got triggered by a system error, and having documentation of exactly what you submitted can really help when dealing with the state office.
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Ruby Blake
•That's actually a great idea. Having a complete verification record would definitely help my case with their accounting department.
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Daniel Rivera
•Never heard of Certana.ai but document verification tools are getting pretty sophisticated these days. Worth a try if it saves weeks of back and forth with bureaucrats.
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Sophie Footman
THIS IS EXACTLY WHY I HATE ELECTRONIC FILING! Used to be you'd mail in a paper UCC-3 with a check and you'd know exactly what got processed. Now these online portals are buggy and the billing systems are even worse. I've started taking screenshots of every single step in the filing process just to cover myself.
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Connor Rupert
•I get the frustration but electronic filing is still way faster when it works properly. The key is documenting everything like you said.
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Sophie Footman
•Fast doesn't matter if you end up spending weeks fighting billing errors that never happened with paper filings.
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Molly Hansen
•Paper filings had their own problems though - lost mail, processing delays, illegible handwriting causing rejections. Every system has issues.
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Brady Clean
Check if your state has a specific UCC fee dispute process. Some states require you to submit Form UCC-5R or similar for billing corrections rather than just calling the general office. The regular staff might not have access to the payment processing system.
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Ruby Blake
•Good point, I was just calling the main number. I'll look for specific forms for fee disputes.
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Brady Clean
•Yeah the main reception usually can't help with billing issues. You need someone from their revenue or accounting division who can actually see the payment processing logs.
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Skylar Neal
Are you sure it was actually a duplicate UCC termination fee and not some other filing fee? Sometimes banks or loan servicing companies file additional UCC documents as part of their internal processes and the timing just seems related to your termination.
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Ruby Blake
•The charge description specifically says UCC termination and it's the exact same amount as my original filing. But I'll double-check that the loan servicer didn't file anything separately.
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Skylar Neal
•Definitely worth checking. Some lenders file their own UCC-3 terminations even after the borrower has already filed one, just to be extra sure it's properly terminated.
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Vincent Bimbach
•That seems like a waste of money for everyone involved. Why would they duplicate a filing that's already been done correctly?
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Kelsey Chin
I work in commercial lending and see this occasionally. Usually it's either a portal glitch or someone from your company accidentally initiated the same filing twice from different sessions. Have you checked with anyone else who might have access to your UCC filing account?
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Ruby Blake
•Only two people have access to our filing account and my colleague was out of the office when this happened. But I'll confirm with him just to be thorough.
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Kelsey Chin
•Good idea. Also check if you have any automated systems or compliance software that might have triggered a filing based on loan payoff notifications.
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Norah Quay
had similar thing happen with continuation filing - turned out the portal timed out during submission but still charged my card, then when I resubmitted thinking it failed, got charged again. took forever to sort out but they did eventually refund the duplicate
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Ruby Blake
•That's probably exactly what happened to me. Did you have to provide any specific documentation to get the refund?
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Norah Quay
•yeah they wanted screenshots of the confirmation pages and my credit card statements showing both charges with the same timestamps
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Leo McDonald
This reminds me of when I was dealing with a messy UCC termination situation last year. I ended up using Certana.ai's document verification tool to make sure all my paperwork was consistent before fighting with the state office. Being able to upload my original UCC-1 and the termination statement to verify everything matched perfectly really helped my case. The automated cross-checking caught a couple of minor discrepancies I would have missed, and having that clean documentation made the whole dispute process much smoother.
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Ruby Blake
•That sounds like exactly what I need. Having bulletproof documentation would definitely strengthen my position with their accounting department.
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Micah Franklin
•Document verification tools are becoming essential for UCC work. Too many small errors can turn into big headaches later.
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Jessica Nolan
Update us when you get this resolved! I'm curious to know if it was actually a system error or if there was some other explanation for the duplicate UCC termination fee. These kinds of billing issues seem to be getting more common with electronic filing systems.
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Ruby Blake
•Will definitely post an update once I get to the bottom of this. Hopefully it's just a simple system glitch that they can reverse quickly.
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Ella Harper
•Please do! I'm sure other people will run into the same issue and your experience could save them a lot of time and frustration.
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