Kost Tire Guilty of Charging Fake Fees

Looks like for many years all locations including our hometown service centers of Kost Tire were charging us fake fees for "oil and filter recycling". New York State's Environmental Conservation law states that all New York Auto Service Stations are required to collect and dispose of used oil free of charge.

"According to Attorney General Eric Schneiderman's office, the investigation found that since January 1, 2012, Kost Tire collected over $181,500 in these improper fees from customers throughout New York. As a part of the settlement, Kost Tire agreed that it will comply with New York’s Environmental Conservation Law and accept and properly dispose of used oil at no charge to customers and non-customers in quantities up to 5 gallons per day, each.
Additionally, the settlement acknowledged that Kost Tire’s separately delineating and quoting a “oil and filter recycling fee” on its invoices is potentially misleading to customers in that it implies that these charges are mandated by law when such was not the case.
As a part of the settlement, Kost Tire has agreed to pay the State of New York $181,511.36 as disgorgement of the “oil and filter recycling fees”, as well as a civil penalty of $93,488.64." - WBNG-TV

Kost Tire is based in Binghamton, but also had locations in Ithaca, Rochester, Syracuse and Watertown. All of those oil changes had the extra $2 fee, which racked up to quite the illegal profit! The next question is: Will we be getting a refund for the hundreds of oil changes we have overpaid for? Looks like... No. Since there were too many victims involved to contact and reimburse, all that money, almost $182,000.00, will go directly to the State of NY. Wonder if we'll get a break on our state taxes?

[Via: WBNG-TV]