Lear Financial REVIEW: Excellent customer service is Lear Financials number one priority. We are committed to ensuring our clients success through the timely investment in gold, silver and other precious metals.
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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Lear Financial - Goldcentral.com - Kevin Demeritt ripped off, misled investors regarding fees and coin recommendations; unlawfully recorded / eavesdropped on conversations among other wrongful acts Santa Monica California
Regarding Lear Financial Inc. (Lear) aka Goldcentral.com aka Kevin Demeritt
Lear Financial Inc. is supported by multiple daily advertising / marketing outlets via national television; radio; websites magazine; 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 Demeritt / Lear ?on air.? FOXNEWS Television broadcasts at least 3 national commercials per day with an actor from Law and Order who comforts the viewers with the promise that Lear will protect their investments and charge them a fair price.
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]
As a condition of employment with I had to sign a mandatory binding arbitration agreement, which is currently relevant as an arbitration date is set for November 2007 to hear the case bought against Lear since I was wrongfully termination in March 2006.
Other activities I witnessed during my 4 year tenure at Lear:
Once the prospective investor contacts Lear via phone or email ALL privileged information (consumer data) provided is controlled / tracked by a sophisticated ?in house? computer database system that logs and redistributes. The consumer data is secured by the computer database system and used for other purposes and / or resold. Demeritt assures the consumer that their personal or privileged information is not resold or used for anything other than the metals inquiry. In fact, the consumer data is used for other business's that are created controlled; owned; partially owned or operated by Demeritt, such as the illegal redistribution / selling of private investment / investor information.
Del
SANTA MONICA, California
U.S.A.
4 Updates & Rebuttals
Del
SANTA MONICA,California,
U.S.A.
Great suggestion "Billy - River Ridge, Louisiana"
#5Author of original report
Tue, April 17, 2007
Summary of the Better Business Bureau ratings:
The rating the Better Business Bureau assigns a business is determined by our composite score of such factors as its type of business, length of time in business, compliance with competency licensing requirements, complaint volume, complaint history, seriousness of complaints, how the company responds to complaints, and our experience with the company's industry in general. The scoring system takes into account the importance we feel each factor is to the company's reliability.
The highest rating assigned to a company is AAA; the lowest is F. Between those two ratings are nine others in order from higher to lower. The ratings are defined as follows:
AAA-An exemplary rating. This means that nothing in our files causes us to have any doubt about the company's reliability.
AA-An extremely high rating. The condition that lowers this grade from AAA is not what we believe to be a significant one.
A-An excellent rating. A company with this rating may not rate higher because of a greater number of rate-lowering factors, but we do not consider them to be factors that would likely adversely affect consumer transactions.
BBB-A very high rating. A company with this rating would not have a significant number of complaints or other considerations that could pose a problem to consumers.
BB-A high rating. The company would generally have demonstrated good business-consumer relations, and we would expect any consumer complaints not to be of a serious nature and to be satisfactorily handled by the company.
B-A good rating that still implies reputability. The rating may relate to length of time in business, a past problem that's been corrected, or something else that does not cause problems for consumers. We believe a company with this rating would generally conduct business and respond to any complaints satisfactorily.
CCC-A good rating. We would expect nothing less than a satisfactory business transaction, but read our full report to determine if you have any questions or concerns.
CC-Average rating. We would expect consumer transactions to be satisfactory. Since each transaction is individual, read our full report to determine if you have questions or concerns.
C-Acceptable rating. We know of no reason not to do business with this company. If the level of this rating relates to anything specific that we know might be of concern to consumers, it is stated in this report. Read our full report to determine if you have questions or concerns.
D-We have enough concerns about this company (for example, their offer, customer complaints, advertising, etc.) that we recommend caution in doing business with it.
F-We strongly question the company's reliability for reasons such as that they have failed to respond to complaints, their advertising is grossly misleading, they are not in compliance with the law's licensing or registration requirements, their complaints contain especially serious allegations, or the company's industry is known for its fraudulent business practices.
NR-"NR" is displayed when the Bureau is conducting system maintenance.
Our rating of a company and our reliability report on a company reflect our conclusions and opinion about the company based upon information in our files and our experience with the company. Neither the rating nor the report is a guarantee of reliability.
Readers should not rely solely upon a company's rating, but should read and consider the entire report, including complaint and response details, before deciding whether or not to do business with the company.
Lear Financial, about 10 years in business, is rated a "B" by the Better Business Bureau.
Do you want an investment company handling your hard earned monies rated average, at best? A quick audit of the BBB site bears 26 complaints in 36 months, many not satisfied. In fact, like most companies in business for as long, rated as low as Lear Financial they "may" have more pending lawsuits than recent BBB complaints.
We spoke to several that agree with Mr. Doug Hanes "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"
Further, most consumers do not bother with the BBB, citing no actual ability or recourse to recover justice.
My opinion is that Lear Financials, rather low, BBB rating will lower in the coming several months and your RIGHT Billy, if I may borrow you words, "they would be put out of business."
Billy
River Ridge,Louisiana,
U.S.A.
Del is a joke
#5Consumer Suggestion
Tue, April 17, 2007
This is a complete joke! Don't you think if Lear Financial was indeed as bad as DEL is saying, they would be put out of business?? The views expressed here are a complete joke.
All I know is that if I were planning on investing with a company and a disgruntled ex-employee started blasting bad things all over the Internet about the company in question, I'd probably go to the Better Business Bureau and check everything out for myself. It seems to me that Lear has a pretty good reputation; considering the amount of volume they do.
Del
SANTA MONICA,California,
U.S.A.
If Don Imus is off the air than DeMeritt / Lear Financial shoud be off the air.
#5REBUTTAL Individual responds
Thu, April 12, 2007
According to alleged business practices of Kevin DeMeritt at Lear Financial Inc., of widespread systematic fraud, misleading sales / fee practices, other wrongful and illegal acts against investors or employees along with the following information republished with the permission of an ex female employee of Kevin DeMeritt and Lear Financial:
[Former Female Employee of Kevin DeMeritt at Lear Financial]
I am a minority woman who worked at Lear Financial for about one year. During this time employees were not reprimanded for screaming arguments regarding deals, potential deals and office politics. They were allowed to commonly use derogatory racial slurs and sexual vulgarity without consequence.
Other important points-
29 of 32 brokers were male.
28 of 32 brokers were white.
OPEN racial and sexual harassment.
NO standard selling or business procedures.
These are not financial brokers/advisors of any kind!
There are no required or accredited industry certifications (ie. series 7, series 63 etc.) of any kind to be hired as an Account Manager/broker.
When clients call, concerned about their coins, current coin evaluations or when attempting to sell they are given the run around.
Salesmen misrepresent fees by quoting just a few percentage points when actual fees are about 45%. Salesmen misrepresent coin recommendations - numismatics is not bullion, though many customers think their buying bullion.
Before purchasing from Lear Financial, aka Gold Central, aka Buy Gold at Cost DON'T!
Former Employee
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.
The following excerpt of "a woman point of view" with more claims of wrongful businss practices of Kevin DeMeritt at Lear Financial, that can be found on the rip off report:
[Excerpt "a woman point of view"
1. My experiences at Lear Financial was not the best experience as an employee, in how I was treated or how I viewed the clients getting treated.
2. Kevin DeMeritt is greatest man in the world in the eyes of the companies he advertises with, acting very well educated and proper around them.
3. But the longer I worked there I saw that in reality he was vocally intimidating to everyone in that office, using threating language or gestures that made people cower.
4. If they only knew that he has a very violent temper.
5. I have experienced that first hand.
6. He screamed at me and other women many times.
7. I cried at work many times, other women have as well, but there was no one to help us.
8. Kevin DeMeritt once screamed sexually vulgar profanities at a woman during dinner a company Christmas party, in front of maybe one hundred people.
9. As a woman you always felt tension in that office because it was mainly made up of men.
10. Men that you can't say anything to because if you say the wrong thing and it got back to Kevin DeMeritt you got reprimanded, wrongfully.
11. Many times other woman I knew came to visit and one of the brokers or Kevin DeMeritt would say something sexually inappropriate to them.
12. Kevin looks down on women, I don't know why. I remember talking to many other women who know Kevin, and we all share this same opinion.
13. The company in my opinion is based on a lot of deceit for both the client and employee.
14. Everyone in my personal life wanted me to quit or file my own lawsuit.
15. I bet many can sue them, if they wanted to.
16. I do know that the brokers recorded clients because I heard them practice after work while listening to tapes with the clients (often making jokes or planning sales scams)that they had already pitched.
17. Many of those tapes lingered around in the office.
18. As a matter of fact Kevin DeMeritt would use those tapes to train the new brokers.
19. I have heard Kevin DeMeritt tell the brokers to tape their pitches and take them home and practices his pitches.
20. They lied a lot.
21. The client got sold and then they are forgotten about.
22. In many instances the client will call the broker many times after they have been sold because they have a question in regards to their portfolio.
23. But many of the calls went unanswered. I witnessed brokers not wanting to deal with the aftermath of what they have done to the client.
24. I felt bad because many clients are older people that feel they are safe investing but reality they are not.
25. Those brokers were so greedy that they don't care what happens to the client's portfolios once they have already gotten paid their commissions.
a woman point of view
Los Angeles, California
U.S.A.
[End]
Kevin DeMeritt has many other business enterprises including ReferNow and has several income producing real estate properties.
Kevin DeMeritt's many business operations is currently using US radio, print, web and television sources to advertise his business's such as FOXNEWS Television, Rush Limbaugh Radio, AM Coast to Coast Radio and Web with George Norrey and Art Bell Advertiser, Michael Medved, Laura Ingraham, Dennis Prager, World Magazine and dozens of others. 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, according to many Lear Financial investors as well as former and current Kevin DeMeritt employees, for year's investors have been deceived.
Once again, since the following letter was published several, citing similar and other wrongful experiences with Lear Financial and Kevin DeMeritt, 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.
Send email to this website -
If Don Imus was kicked off the air for his statements, than how do you feel about Mr. Kevin DeMeritt and the allegations brought forth by those who have been hurt?
Kevin
Santa Monica,California,
U.S.A.
Response to Del
#5REBUTTAL Owner of company
Tue, April 10, 2007
Hello, my name is Kevin DeMeritt, and I am the owner of Lear Financial, the precious metals company referenced by "Del" in the attached post. So that there is no mistake, Del once worked at Lear, he was indeed terminated, and he is now suing my company. The rest of Del's allegations are simply untrue.
Thus, for the last ten years, Lear Financial has been a leader in the precious metals industry, consistently getting the highest reviews for quality, integrity and customer service. I demand that my employees conduct themselves openly and honestly, and I apply the same standards to myself. We have had literally thousands of satisfied customers over the years, and the few complaints that invariably arise are handled swiftly, and always with the clients' needs in mind.
I do not want to descend into a "mud-slinging" match with Del. We already have a forum for airing our differences - - there is an arbitration pending - - and a point-by-point rebuttal here would only give dignity to baseless allegations that deserve no further comment.
If you are interested in learning more about my company, please visit our website, goldcental.com where, among other things, you can review Lear's standard contract, which fully discloses the "spread" applicable to each transaction. In fact, our contract contains disclosures above and beyond that required by law, because it is my belief that purchasing precious metals is too important a decision to be made blindly. If you still have additional questions about Lear's standards and practices or, indeed, have other issues that you wish to discuss, I would be happy to personally answer any questions you may have.
In sum, I hope that you will give Lear Financial the benefit of the doubt, and not jump to quick conclusions before getting the full story. Lear Financial is a clean shop, and we do not tolerate any conduct by our employees that could bring disrepute to the company. I come from Montana, a place where business is conducted on a handshake. If you want to stop by, I will shake yours. Thanks for listening.
Kevin DeMeritt, President
Lear Financial