Complaint Review: World Magazine Advertiser Lear Financial Inc. (Lear) Aka Goldcentral.com Aka Kevin Demeritt

Rip-off Report REVIEW:

Editors UPDATE: Positive rating and recognition has been given to Lear Financial for its commitment to excellence in customer service.

Ripoff Reports discussions with Lear Financial have assured us that Lear Financial has made customer satisfaction a core principle and that Lear is constantly seeking ways to improve its already high standard of customer care. This means that Lear Financial will provide accurate, timely and courteous information to its clientele and that Lear staff will work quickly to satisfactorily resolve any client questions or concerns.

It also means that Lear is committed to learning from its customers through regular, voluntary follow-up calls and conversations. This feedback helps Lears customer care team to correct any mistakes and to ensure an even higher standard of customer service in the future.

Rip-Off Reports was pleased to learn that Lear Financials president, Kevin DeMeritt, deliberately focused on excellent customer service as a business hallmark in order to make Lear stand out from other gold and precious metals investing firms. Indeed, great customer service is what DeMeritt terms the Lear Advantage.

As an investment industry leader, Mr. DeMeritt understands that Lear clients investments are precious and that Lear has a responsibility to meet the highest standards of transparency, integrity and customer assurance. Lears goal is to establish a long-term relationship with its clients and understands that it can only do so by providing them with the best and most timely information and guidance.

A top executive at Lear Ripoff Report that Mr. DeMeritt is an innovator constantly looking for ways to provide added value to his customers. Kevin understands that the world is changing and that investors needs change just as fast. He strives to provide clients with real-time answers to real-time questions about precious metals investing. His goal is to provide the best and most responsive customer service in the industry, whether through knowledgeable and friendly customer care representatives, or through constantly-updated information on Lears full-service website. Kevins philosophy is: Never make a customer wait, never make a customer wonder.

Lear Financials customer care team notes that the expertise of Lears senior management gives Lear clients confidence. DeMeritt, predicted the market crash of 2001 on national radio and the ensuing strength of gold as an investment. He has steered Lear to a position as one of the most prominent precious metals investing companies in America, with frequent endorsements from a range of media leaders, including the Rush Limbaugh Show, Michael Medved, Dennis Prager, George Noory, Laura Ingraham, Mike Gallagher, Oliver North, Noah Hutchings, the late Marlin Maddoux and many others.

More importantly, DeMeritt and his team have helped thousands of investors protect their savings and retirement through the well-timed purchase of precious metals. As a result, Lear clients report high customer satisfaction.

Lear Financial recognizes that complaints posted on Rip-off Report (whether true or not) are issues that need to be addressed, not ignored. If handled correctly, complaints can be valuable learning opportunities. With the feedback generated by Rip-off Reports Investigation Lear Financial has instituted systematic changes to ensure that problems are resolved quickly and quality standards remain high.

In summary, after our investigation, which included discussions with Mr. DeMeritt and many of his past and current associates, Rip-off Report is convinced that Lear Financial is committed to delivering high quality services resulting in total client satisfaction.

Read more about why consumers should feel confident when doing business with a member of Rip-off Report's Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program. Yes, its a long name for a program that does a lot for both consumers and businesses alike.

Read about Rip-off Report Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation & Customer Satisfaction Program,.. A program that benefits the consumer, assures them of complete satisfaction and confidence when doing business with a member business. this program works.

SPECIAL NOTE ABOUT MOST OF THE REPORTS FILED ABOUT LEAR CAPITAL:

As a matter of policy, when a business becomes a member of the Corporate Advocacy Business Remediation and Customer Satisfaction Program they agree to allow Ripoff Report to contact every person who filed a complaint so they can make things right with them. In order to confirm that each and every complaint was resolved, Ripoff Report emailed the author of all the reports about Lear Financial.. Fortunately, the posting of false reports is not the norm, .. ..Sadly in this case, most of the reports posted about Lear were filed by the same person., and the Reports that were not posted by the same person all looked suspicious.. Ripoff Report has the evidence. Ripoff Report waited more than 2 weeks to post this UPDATE. As of today, Ripoff Report has not heard back from one person regarding any Report about Lear Financial.

It is the opinion of Ripoff Report, because the Precious Metals industry is so competitive, that it is more than likely unscrupulous cut-throat competitors posted the reports about Lear. Executives at Lear admit to Ripoff Report they are not perfect, as no company or individual ever is, but, the people at Lear have made a commitment to do their best to always do right and what is fair by their customers. If any of our readers feels a member of the Corporate Advocacy Program did not do right by them, to please contact us here at Ripoff Report. editor@ripoffreport.com

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NOW TO THE ORIGINAL REPORT THAT WAS FILED
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World Magazine Advertiser, Lear Financial Inc. (Lear) Aka Goldcentral.com Aka Kevin Demeritt World Magazine Advertiser, Lear Financial Inc. (Lear) aka Goldcentral.com uses Deceptive Advertising / Sales Practices and other wrongful business practices Santa Monica California

World Magazine Advertiser, Lear Financial Inc. (Lear) aka Goldcentral.com uses Deceptive Advertising / Sales Practices and other wrongful business practices

Lear Financial Inc. is supported by multiple daily advertising / marketing outlets via national television; radio; websites; magazines; other print; and other methods of advertising. These multi-spot ads have aired dozens of times every day of the year, including weekends, for years. The advertisers include, but are not limited to; some of the largest and respected personalities in broadcasting, particularly from conservative, financial and religious radio, as many personally endorse Kevin Demeritt / Lear on air and FOXNEWS Television broadcasts several of Lear's national commercials each business day with an actor from Law and Order who comforts the viewers with the promise that Lear will protect their investments and treat them fair.

In fact, for years investors have been deceived.

Since the following letter was published several investment customers, citing similar experiences with Lear, have contacted Mr. Peter R. Dion-Kindem P.C. via phone & email:

[Counsel's excerpt]
Dear Lear Financial, Inc. Customer or Prospective Customer:

We represent a former employee of Lear Financial, Inc., a company that sells gold coins, other metals to individuals for their personal accounts and also for their IRA and other retirement accounts.

Our client has sued Lear and Kevin DeMeritt, its President, and other employees of Lear alleging that Lear and DeMeritt wrongfully terminated his employment in retaliation for his complaints about the widespread and systematic fraud and illegal tape recording of customers' phone calls perpetrated against Lear's customers, among other wrongful acts.

In the lawsuit, our client contends that Lear systematically misled its customers about the amount of commissions they were paying and overcharged them. Our client also contends that Lear also systematically violated the California Penal Code by unlawfully recording and eavesdropping on conversations between Lear salesmen and Lear customers without the customer's knowing consent. Under California law, Lear is subject to a $5,000 civil penalty payable to the customer for each such violation.

We have obtained a declaration from one Lear customer who has stated under oath that he was told that he was only being charged a 7% commission to purchase coins. The Lear documents we have obtained, however, reflect that he was charged 40%. We have obtained from Lear other documents reflecting that it charged another client 40%.

We are investigating whether you had a similar experience at Lear and would greatly appreciate it if you could call us to so that we could determine if you also were subject to Lear's wrongful conduct alleged by our client. I look forward to hearing from you in this regard.

Peter R. Dion-Kindem P.C.
Dion-Kindem & Crockett
WOODLAND HILLS, CALIFORNIA 91367
(818) 883-4400 Office
(818) 676-0246 Fax
[End excerpt]

Mr. Doug Hanes (invested $25,000) is one of many Lear investors who replied. The following is an excerpt of Mr. Hanes email:

[Doug Hanes excerpt dated April 4, 2007]
Mr. Dion-Kindem,

I received your letter dated March 29, 2007 asking about my dealings with Lear Financial. I had a very bad relationship with Kevin DeMeritt and Lear Financial and will assist in any way I can in your lawsuit against them.

I knew nothing of how the gold markets worked and I put my trust in a Lear salesman? I fell for his smooth talking and ended up sending over $25,000 to Lear Financial.

In return I received at $1,225.00 each. After about a month of additional research into the rare gold coin market, I realized I had been ripped off! At that time, I could have purchased the identical coins on the open market for $800.00 each!

I confronted Kevin DeMeritt on the phone and had a nice loud discussion with him about their sales methods of misleading their customers. He first tried to tell me these coins were premium quality and worth the extra money. I found out later from other sources that was a bunch of BS! DeMeritt's only defense was the "sales contract" that they had me sign which had a bunch of fine print in it about markups and other crap.

But because he was concerned about my satisfaction (BS) and wanted to keep me as a long-time customer (no chance), he refunded me $100 per coin. But even at the reduced price of $1,125.00 per coin, it was still 40% over the open market price! And even after 18 months, and with the price of gold skyrocketing, these coins are still only valued at about $900 each. It will be a very long time, if ever, before I will be able to break even on my investment!

I published my experiences with Lear Financial on an eBay chat room and heard back from a few other customers who had similar experiences. One elderly gentleman wanted to buy over $80,000 worth of gold bullion (current gold coins that sell for the published market price of gold) and his Lear salesman talked him into buying a bunch of low-quality rare coins that were just as over-priced as mine. If Lear Financial had sold this guy the gold bullion like he asked for, the guy would have made over 35% by now. Instead, the old guy is going to lose a bunch of his retirement money.

So after talking to a few other people about getting ripped off by Lear, I filed a complaint with the Better Business Bureau in California. This quickly prompted a call from Kevin DeMeritt and we had another loud conversation about their misleading sales practices.

His response to the BBB was full of lies and contradictions.

.. there was absolutely no way ever told me they were marking up these coins by 40%!

I will be very willing to testify that Lear Financial engages in widespread and systematic fraud of their customers. I have a feeling you will hear from many more former customers who have had similar experiences.

Good luck and let me know how I can help! Doug Hanes.
[End excerpt]

If you have any information that may be helpful or think you may have been subjected to wrongful acts by Lear Financial Inc., feel free to post your comments and / or contact Peter R. Dion-Kindem P.C. Many others have come forward with similar experiences, such as an investor from Nevada that stated I also bought gold from Lear - I think they are nothing but a bunch of crooks.

Lear investors and former employee
Aurora, Las Vegas and Santa Monica
U.S.A.