Our church purchased and paid for an Optek LED display sign from the LED Sign Company for $22,081. Nine months later, we received a full-color "upgrade" because LED Sign Company had a dispute with Optek. The "upgrade" was from a company called AdStar. Part of the upgrade was a laptop computer loaded with the software to control the sign.
The sign worked for 5 months. Each month I had to contact LED to get an access code to operate the sign. The last time I called to get the code, I was informed that the LED Sign Company was no longer in business "as of today." (How's that for timing?) The company had filed bankruptcy.
A couple of weeks later, we received a letter from Vantage Signs in Walnut, California who was the supplier of the AdStar sign to the LED Sign Company. The letter stated they had not been paid by the LED Sign Company and that we were liable for the payment.
A couple of days after receiving the letter, I was contacted by Tim Fitzgerald of Sign Express in Council Bluffs, Iowa. Mr. Fitzgerald offered an extended warranty on our sign for $300 - $500 a month. I asked him how he could warrant a sign that didn't work. His answer was something to the effect that his company was authorized to get the sign operational with the purchase of the warranty. The warranty was to be a five year warranty. Do the math. That's almost what we paid for the sign originally (which came with a five year warranty).
I tried to call Vantage Signs, but the person I needed to talk to "was not available." The next day, I get a second call from Mr. Fitzgerald with the same warranty offer.
The sign is inoperable and the only options seem to be to buy the "warranty" or let the sign sit like it is.
Huge ripoff.
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