I received a promotional letter in the mail stating I was approved for $100,000 in financing for equipment purchases for my company, at first I disregarded it but at that time I was shopping for a new vehicle for my company. I then decided to call and find out what this was, my point of contact was Henry and he explained to me this was a very simple process I simply find the vehicle, they get a approval send me a check and all is done, they just needed to do a credit check, after doing the check he said that I would only qualify for $20,000 but after I hit my 3 years in business in a few months he could get me up to $75,000 with NO problems! Forward 6 months I called Henry he said this would be EASY after 2 weeks of back and forth he said the company would only approve me for $45,000 so I decided to move forward, everything was supposed to be in place and all I was waiting on was the documentation, once signed I would get the lease after he failed to fax me the information repeatedly he then told me I could only qualify for $34,000 and that they need to see 4 months of bank statements to show that I carried an average daily balance of $9500 to secure the lesser amount, again I complied, after a few more hoops again the lease was done and good to go! The last delay was that now they could not do the lease because they had to do a site inspection ($350 for a guy to come to my shop look and leave) now it was done.
BAIT and SWITCH!
I finally received the lease papers in the mail, it was imperative I get these back ASAP to meet deadlines (now it was ASAP) as soon as I got these I needed to immediately sign the documents then send them back with a Cashiers check for some sort of lease fees, and first and last payment or something? I don't exactly recall, in any case I gave them the check for about $3400 dropped it at Fed Ex and got it back to them, by the following day the funds would be released. WRONG!
After they received my check they called me back and said they were not going to be able to help me with the originally agreed upon lease of something like $1030 a month repayment and that they were going to have to change it and it was now going to be about $200 more a month and this was the only way they were going to be able to help me out. I was absolutely enraged, I explained that I already signed the documents, Henry's response was well we never signed the documents agreeing to give you the lease I said true but you are the one the wrote up the documents and mailed them to me, this is just as good as a signature They immediately deposited my check and told me I had NO RECORSE, they refused to give me my money back stating it was a nonrefundable deposit and that they would not refund my money, I told Henry it was a nonrefundable deposit on a lease they decided they would not write. He basically said it was a deposit for a lease true but it was not specific to any lease and that under absolutely no circumstances would I receive the deposit back.
Unfortunately after a week and a half of arguing and going back and for the they lowered the amount to only $150 more a month, my choices were. Take this lease or loose my $3400 deposit, or hire a lawyer for $5000 to get back my $3400.
In the end I accepted the lease, There also were more hidden fees they failed to disclose, taxes, broker fees and so forth, in the end my payment has ended up being about $1400.00 a month, when I tried to get a payoff from Pentech Financial whom actually wrote the Lease they told me I had to go to Five point Capitol for the pay off, no one there would talk to me and after emails and voicemails I finally about a week later got a email telling the fun details of my lease, it would seem the initial repay of the lease was something like $68,000 and that if I want to pay the lease off early it would save me nothing and I would then have to buy the vehicle from them for like $10,000 or turn it in to them.
This happened to me 2 years ago and I am still repaying this lease, I have 2 years left and there is nothing I can do at this point other then just pay off the lease over the next 2 years.
In the future I will NEVER lease another vehicle EVER! From here on out, Simple interest loans, just depreciate the vehicle, don't get caught up in being able to write off the entire lease amount, AND DON'T fall victim to this type of get your money then switch contracts on you or loose your money scheme Courtesy of Five Points Capital.
On a side note they called me 6 months later to take a survey of my experience after an hour on the phone they asked if I wished to have a manager call me back to discuss the situation which I requested that they do. I am still waiting for that phone call. Also having 166 Better Business Bureau complaints in the last 36 months is a HUGE RED FLAG! Stay away from this company!
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