Complaint Review: Lease Finance Group LLC

I opened a business in August of 2013 and signed a contract for a lease for a credit card terminal with Lease Finance group, this was by far the worst business decision I've ever made, and one of the most stressful, headache causing mistakes as well. They don't tell you when you're signing up for the lease that you can buy the machine outright for about $200 online instead of paying $50 a month for 4 years. Yeah, do the math, that's $2,400 for a $200 machine. The only reason I signed the lease was because one of my partners was using them for processing, and me being a 21 year old naive business owner at the time trusted him although he doesn't do any of the finances for his business anyways, his wife does. Recently, I talked to his wife and she told me she dropped the company because she felt utturly ripped off. I wanted to use Sqaure when i first opened, and i wish I had. They also don't tell you that you will be getting charged not only for their grossly overpriced machine but you will be charged for the actual processing of the credit cards by another company. Ours went by the name of Eliot Management Company and their fees added up to about $50 a month as well. They do this as a safegaurd against pissed businesses coming after them after they realize how ripped off they just got. The person that got me to sign the lease was actually a representative for Eliot Management and is considered a private contractor so all the verbal lies they tell you when going through the lease fall on them instead of the Lease Finance Group. Anyways, I sold the business about 2 months after I opened it due to a falling out with one of the partners and wanting to pursue other interests. I contacted Lease Finance Group to see what I needed to do in order to tranfer responsibility to the new owner and they told me all I had to do was have him fill out a change in ownership form which he did.

About a year and a half later I start getting collection calls about 2 times a day from Lease Finance Group. I had done some research online when I sold the business about Lease Finance group and came to the conclusion that they are a horrible company and more like a scam than anything else. I chose to ignore the phone calls because I had done my due diligence and everything they told me I needed to do when I sold the business. Plus I'm really busy, why should I have to deal with this company nearly two years after I tranfered responsibility to the new owner? After about 6 months of 2 times per day phone calls I get a letter in the mail from Lease Finance Group. It was a demand for payment saying I owned them $2,300. I thought what the heck? Maybe the new owner didn't really transfer his responsibility for the lease. Then I talked to the new owner. He said he transferred responsibiltiy into his name and it took him about 3 months dealing with Lease Finance Group to get them to do it. He ended up selling the business at a later date to a new owner and transferred all the responsibility into the new owners name. The credit card machine malfunctioned for the new owner so he contacted LFG to get a new one. The said it would be overnighted but it took 5 days costing him nearly $1,000 in sales. He decided to send the machine back and closed the bank account asscociated with them. As soon as Lease Finance Group was unable to take money for their Lease they started calling me!!

After recieving the demand for payment I talked to one of my lawyer friends and he advised me to pay it because it would cost more in lawyer fees to go after them. Plus I started getting letters from one of their lawyers in New York, saying they would initiate civil action against me if the balance wasn't paid. I didn't want to be summoned to New York or have my credit score effected so I called LFG and offered them a settlement of $1,500. It sickens me that a company with an F rating with the Better Business Bureau and hundreds if not thousands of complaints from people they've screwed over can even report to the credit bureus. I paid them just to get them off my back for the time being.

This company is scum and I will fight until I get my money back and then some. They lied straight to me and my partner on repeated occasions and I will find the paperwork that proves so. I am a 23 year old young man just trying to build a foundation for myself by honest means. This company leaches onto the backs of hard working Americans using sneaky tactics and unethical business practices. Well it's not about the money anymore, I will do everything in my power to make sure this company doesn't screw over more honest people. All I have is time on my hands right now, so any lawyers who are interested in taking on this company with a normal/class action suit please contact me. I have an idea of how to take these guys down.