We were contacted by a Charles Wellington saying we had applied for a loan and we were finally approved. I had been applying for several debt consolidation loans so this didn't surpise me.
He said we had been approved for $15,000 but would need to make a 3 month pre-payment due to our poor credit history as well as a mandatory insurance payment of $400.00
He sent us a contract for the loan at a fixed rate of 7% for 4 years. We were pretty excited to finally get this opportunity to help consolidate some of our debt. We sent the money via Western Union to a Richmond Nantwi in Ontario Canada.
Charles told us the money would be in our account in 24 hours. When the money was not, we called back and he appologized saying that he forgot to tell us about a $795.00 brokerage fee that we needed to pay before the funds could be released to us.
I asked if we were able to get a $17,000 loan instead (I know now that it was dumb) because we were going to have to pay back some of our friends and family that we borrowed the money from. He said it was not a problem, but would have to send the difference in the monthly payments.
Again, we sent the money Western Union to Richmond Nantwi in Canada for the amount of $838.80. And were told the money would be in our account in 4-6 hours. I called back 3 hours later and spoke with Charles who advised everything was on track. About 1/2 an hour later, his "supervisor" Ms. Sharon Brown called and advised that the insurance company did an external credit check and would require an additional 3 months payment.
Once again, we sent and additional $667.00 via Western Union to Richmond Nantwi as she had advised this would be our final payment. She emailed us a letter to guaranteed funds. She advised it was legal and we could take it to the police station and they would tell us it was legal. (We should have done this - but I was too trusting) We were again told that the money would be transfered within 4 hours.
She had to leave for the day, but I spoke with a Mr. Randy Marx and he confirmed the money would be in our account by morning.
The next morning the money was not in our account - go figure. I again called and asked to speak to Randy Marx, but he was not in the office and spoke with his supervisor - Mr. Alex Walker.
Mr. Walker advised that there were errors with Ms. Brown's letter and that there was still an outstanding balance of $636.43 for additional insurance because we increased our loan amount plus additional brokerage fees.
I asked him to fax a letter outlining all the fees and money received and fax it to me to have my attorney to look at. I called my attorney and he advised me to contact our local D.A.
Against our better judgement becuase we were so hopeful that this was just an oversight and not a scam, sent the money AGAIN to Richmond Nantwi via Western Union. The letter sent to us by Mr. Walker advised this would be the last and final payment and we would have the funds in 2 hours.
This was on Friday April 14th (Good Friday) We never did recieve the funds and due to the holiday were not able to reach anyone in their office.
On Monday - I called again and asked for Mr. Walker. After being given the run-around, was connected with another person in the finance dept.in Mr. Walker's absence - Mr. Jeremey Ryan. He was slightly rude and very upset that I would accuse him of "ripping us off" as they are a professional business.
He told me he would look into my file and that I should call him back in 2 hours. I called back and he was in a meeting, so I was connected with Mr. Arthur Jones who advised me that there was an outstanding balance of $500.00 for "closing costs."
I advised him that this fee was never disclosed in the contract or by anyone I had spoken with and I would not pay it. He said he would check to see if the fee could be removed from our account - of course it could not be and we was going to meet with the President of the company - Mr. Robert Tanner on April 18th regarding our account.
Mr. Tanner evidently decided that they couldn't waive this fee and they could process the refund. I advised him to go right ahead and process it and while he was doing that I would be contacting my D.A. I asked if Mr. Tanner was aware of the letter sent to me by Mr. Alex Walker. He said that letter was not in my file.
I faxed it to him and have not been able to reach him at this point. (While I write this is it 7pm EST so I assume there is nobody there)
If anyone else has feedback on this company or a positive experience I would love to hear from you. I plan to call back tomorrow and follow up, but have pretty much accepted that I have been scammed!!!
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