Just another victim of Ladco Leasing here! If you are new to the business world, do not let Ladco take advatage of you, as I did.
I agreed to a 36 month lease for a credit card processing machine in the amount of $23.06 per month. I was told that if I decided to send the machine back and terminate my lease I would have to pay the balance of the purchase price of the machine. Since I had researched the cost of the machines and knew that they sold for about $189.00 I figured that even if my new business didn't make it, after 2 years I would have more than paid the purchase price by then anyway. Small business start up can be very stressful, and VERY expensive, so the $23.06 per month seemed a little easier to handle than coming up with $189.00 when I was counting every penny.
I ended up having to close my business due to health reasons 15 months later. I was closing my business checking account. (from which Ladco deducted their payments) Since I had not yet determined whether to keep the machine for a possible future business venture, I called Ladco to advise them of where to send me a statement every month. After 60 days I still had not received a statement. I contacted them again and the 3rd month after I closed they finally sent me a bill! Now, on top of the regular monthly fee of $23.06, there is as statement fee of $5.00 AND they tell me I am behind in my payments so I have a late fee of $7.50 also. I paid the bill, including the $7.50 late fee immediately and next month again my statement shows that I am late. I called them in attempt to resolve the matter, sent my payment again, and still every month I am assessed a late fee. Not only does the statement not show the total balance I owe, but the amount due every month changes. For example, this month my bill says pay $74.80, but when I called to AGAIN try to resolve it I was told that I had to send $82.30 because it is late. Well, today is 9/7/07 and my payment is not due until 9/25/07, so how can it be late? It all goes back to that first 3 months when they did not send a bill. I didn't even have an address to make a payment to until I received that first bill over 90 days after I closed the business. So, this has been going on for over 14 months now.
When I called today to find out how much I would owe if I returned the machine to them and terminated my lease, I was told that I would still have to pay $276.00. Okay, now add it up... I paid 15 months @ $23.06 ($345.90) then another 14 months @ $37.40 ($523.60) plus their bogus late fees. That's a total of over $870 for a machine that you can purchase today for $159.00. Okay, so I'm going to send it back to them with a check for $276 and end up with NO machine that I paid over $1150.00 for? The alternative is to continue to pay the lease amt. And whatever else they decide to throw in there until the the 36 months is up and then try to sell the machine myself. They sell new for $159, so I might be able to get $50 for it, huh?
Well, just hope someone else will learn from my mistake! And while we are speaking of mistakes, if you are starting up a new business, don't let verizon or any other BIG companies talk you into any leases either. Wait until you know your business is solid before making any long term commitments.
Hope this helps someone.
And by the way, when I called Ladco today the person in the "Account Recovery Dept." hung up on me. Good business ethics, wtg Ladco ripoffs!
Djc
Moira, New York
U.S.A.
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