On 5/2/05, Roach, Bill J. <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> While I agree that hostage fees are a major problem today, I do not
> believe that their original use was unethical.

I agree with BillR concerning the origination of the 'hostage fee'.
When I started in this profession competition was fierce amongst the
storage vendors in the Dallas area. Cost of storage was the driving
force. To attract new clients vendors offered free move-in, but as we
all know there is no such thing as a free lunch. This 'free move-in'
was built into the pricing structure and technically was paid off at
the end of the contract. The vendor paid the costs upfront and the
customer paid it off over time.

What was acceptable quickly became a means by which a vendor could
hold a customer until the repayment was completed. Unfortunately the
fee was never removed.

It is up to us a records managers to make sure that these fees have an
enddate to them.

but beware as new fees slowly rise to the top. I've heard of an
"account closing fee' that is slowly replacing the "permanent out fee"
as the fee du jour

Peterk

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