Our little journey with Lease Finance Group began when I decided to look into credit card machines as a convenient way for us to process payments for our customers. Unfortunately, the salesman (named Jeff Winegardner, (818) 936-7967) decided to sell us something we would never even use fully once. (The one time we DID try to use it, it wouldn't work, the machine refused to acknowledge the card, and the customer ended up paying with a check.)
Having had this lovely experience within 1 week of having received the machine, I called the company & let them know that we no longer wanted their product, and could we please return the machine & be released from the contract. Of course, they said "Oh yes, no problem, just send the machine back & we will consider it dealt with." So we sent the machine back & thought we were done.
Several months passed, and my checking account always seemed to be off for one reason or another, & finally I had the bank do an audit of my account, and Lo & Behold, Lease Finance Group was continuing to withdraw funds from our account! Naturally, I became a little incensed & told the bank to put a stop payment or a ~block~ on them. So the bank did, however, it was only for the amount (about $48 a month). This cost me $25, however, I figured it was well worth it, so that they could no longer steal from my checking account.
Once Lease Finance Group got wise to my stop payment, however, they got sneakier, & started deducting amounts over & above the usual $48. So, I payed yet another $25 to the bank, & told them to please flag the withdraweer's NAME, that of Lease Finance Group. This helped for a while, until they became sneakier YET, and started withdrawing under the shortened initials of LFG. So I payed ANOTHER $25 for the bank to flag the LFG as well.
Now Lease Finance Group was starting to get upset with me, afterall, they were no longer able to access my bank account, so they started sending all sorts of ~late payment~ notices, then bad credit notices, and finally, they had a person from their ~Legal Offices~ call me & let me know that they were now seriously going to take me to court & make me pay over $1200 in legal fees. Which, unfortunately, I thought was true, so I just barely (2 days ago) authorized $547 to go to them. On telling this to a friend, she freaked out, told me I needed to google the company, because they are a total scam, & so today, I found this website & decided to do something about it.
The aggravating thing here is ~
#1 ~ Their salesman told me that at any time, if I was dis-satisfied with the services, or unable to use the product, I could cancel the contract, so I felt comfortable in purchasing the product in the first place.
#2 ~ Once the product was sent back, they AGAIN told me that our contract was null & void.
#3 ~ They continued to withdraw funds from my account on the grounds that they had access to it, AND they were sneaky about the different ways in which they went about it, even withdrawing funds AFTER we had supposedly cancelled the contract.
#4 ~ Now they are threatening me with legal action, claiming that they can take me to court for the full amount of the lease (over $1400) plus legal costs.
#5 ~ And one last weird thing, all this talking to the ~Legal Dept ~ guy, and arranging for this "settlement payment" so we don't have to go to court, and I just got an invoice in the mail yesterday saying ~"Please make your payment, you are behind $132, if you pay now, all will be well." And when I asked the legal guy about it, all he could say was "Well, that's just a payment coupon, because you are behind, & you still have to pay this $1400, regardless, because you can't catch up now. You have to pay the whole thing or face legal recriminations."
Should I hurry and put another stop payment on that $547?? Is he a scam?
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