Complaint Review: Andrew Firstenberg Firstenberg Machinery Company Inc.

Used Industrial Machinery Dealers:

Andy Firstenberg and I were both bidding on a pair of surplus centrifuges. We decided to partner them (50/50 joint venture). Andy would be the high bidder and ship them to his place in CA and I would reimburse him for half of all costs, which I did. A couple months after the deal went down, I quoted the Cepa machine to my customer. The customer told me that he had already bought it! This is how I discovered that Andy had sold it - HE never told me. When I asked Andy about it, he feigned ignorance, saying he would look into it. Andy is like that...

Eventually he reported that yes, it was sold. But the shipping and reconditioning costs had been quite high, so the profit to be split was not so high. He would not provide any paperwork to verify that, but I decided to accept his numbers. It was January 2007 by the time I finally invoiced him, about 4 months after the sale occurred. As you can imagine, I have called him dozens of times. He never returns a message.

On the few occasions when he answered my calls, he told me a sad story about his clients not paying him and promising to pay me in installments. But I never received ANY money. And then I learned that Andy was on vacation, kicking back on my money! At that point, I turned the debt over to Ken Ryker of DGM Financial Group (Miami, FL) for collection (Feb 2008). On 7/7/08, Ken reported that Andy has been unresponsive to letters and phone calls. I mentioned to him that I also own a Sharples AS-14 centrifuge together with Andy and that, if he will let me pick that machine up, I am willing call the matter even. Ken said "okay, go ahead and try."

I had quoted the AS-14 to my customer in Menlo Park, CA, because he already had one and was looking for another. In fact, on 7/3/08 Victor (at Firstenberg) told me that HIS good customer (same guy!) had been there looking at machinery the day before. I mentioned my frustration with Andy (his boss) for not paying me my share of the Cepa sale yet. Victor said he would talk with Andy about it again when Andy returns from his family vacation. Andy told me at one point that he didn't have any money to pay me my $5800 because his customers were slow paying him. But he had gone on vacation a couple times that I knew of in the last 1-2 years, so he must have money for that...

Now comes the kicker. On 7/14/08 my customer tells me that he bought the AS-14 I am quoting him from Firstenberg six months ago! Neither Andy or Victor ever told me, and they both knew. On 7/17/08 I spoke with Andy. He promised to research this and call me back on Monday 7/21/08. He said "you won't have to sue me to get paid." I left a couple messages after that and Andy has never returned my calls. My patience ran out. I searched LexisNexis (martindale.com) and found an attorney in Richmond, CA. We have filed suit in CA Superior Court in an effort to recover my half share with interest plus attorney's fees and any punitive damages that may apply.

On 11/14/08, my attorney received a reply from Firstenberg's attorney. He claims that Andy has been paying $1000 a month to DGM Financial ever since 2/28/08. $8000 has been paid and 7 of the 8 checks have cleared. He even faxed over copies of the canceled checks. Three of them had DGM Financial endorsements on the back (4 did not). Each endorsement had a different account number! So it appears that Andy decided to pay the collection agency, but never bothered to tell me. When I spoke to him in July about the second machine he had sold without consulting me, he never mentioned it. When I spoke with Ken Ryker in July, he claimed Andy had been completely unresponsive. Are the canceled checks fake? I don't know.

What I do know is that ever since this issue arose, I have been leaving messages for Ken Ryker and getting no replies. I finally got a response to my email on 12/1/08 and here it is: Mr. Sanders, I apologize for the delay in getting back to you. At this point I do have our accounting department as well as our Finance Manager looking into this.

Unfortunately we have acquired several other companies this year and while we have all been assured that everything has transitioned correctly, apparently that may not be the case.

I have asked everyone involved to keep me advised of the progress of their research and whatever information I receive I will pass on to you immediately. Our Finance Manager left me an email which I received this morning stating that he will have more information for me later on Monday or first thing Tuesday morning which I will pass on to you as soon as I receive it.

That was Dec 1st and now it's Christmas Day. Still no news, even though they have my company name, case number and account number. Whichever way this goes, DGM Financial has been inept. I checked with the FL Dept of Financial Regulation yesterday. They verified that DGM is "registered." However, they have no enforcement authority. The clerk suggested I contact the State's Attorney office in Dade County to make a formal complaint against DGM Financial for collecting my money and apparently keeping it!@ To be continued...

Wildbill562
Palm Harbor, Florida
U.S.A.