Complaint Review: Northern Leasing Systems Inc.

I knew that I could improve the earnings and spontaneity of my photographic clients if I were able to "take plastic" as most of my clients preferred that means as their time is a premium and in a photographic studio working with children, everything is simplified.  I don't really know how I learned about Northern Leasing, but being new to the process I didn't so sufficient research in to the company.  Now the web makes it much easier to identify poorly managed or illegal companies.

It has been many years since I agreed to the lease and received my (beautiful) card machine.  The setup data was massive and confusing and many parts of the setup could not be completed without help ... even putting in the day and date and much more.  There was no way that I could use it with a client as the data they neederd was not there.

I tried to reach Northern Leasing twenty times and both phone lines were always busy, with no contact EVER being made.  I called the providing company in upstate New York, I believe, and they assured me that I had to deal with Northern Leasing for my concerns. 

More than twice I called the actual manufacturer of the machine in Colorado, I believe, and they made it clear that each machine is set up with instructions and codes that made them unique.  They were sympathetic but were unable to help me in any way.

I consulted with my father, a physicist, and my sister, a banker, and they both told me to pack up the machine and return it, brand-new, unused, to their main office, above, in New York City...and I did just that.  I knew that they might not even deal with their leased items at that location, but I had absolutely no choice at all.

Lease or no lease, it was clear that the equipment was sadly no use to me at all, and whatever corporation existed in New York ... and I began to wonder if anyone was there at all ... had no interest in me, my studio, my clients, or me.

Now, many years later, my business terminated to spend eight years by my father's side in his old age, I get a notice from my bank telling me that Northern Leasing (and I did not even remember the name at all) had frozen $3,423.10 "information subpoena and restraining notice" plus $100 "legal processing fee" of my total $11,000+- balance, which somehow they knew and had access to ... and I will talk to my lawyer about this tomorrow.

I received this notice from "their legal firm...possibly also a scam" on Friday, March 15, and it had a form to fill out and return by mail.  OK, that was Friday.  I met with my bank on Monday and they gave me the contact with their Customer Service Department, and she, in turn to the Levy Department and we lost contact somehow.  That was yesterday, Tuesday.  This morning I received several demanding phone calls from Northern Leasing ... who had no right to even kinow whether my response had been written, received by their lawyer, con sidered, and acted upon.

Nothing made any sense at all, but the money is not there and, marginal as it is, with my brother and I each having medical issues and solely social security as income, I simply screamed at them as one man called twice and another once again before I refused to answer the phone.  In one of the last conversations, they gave an odd number of "debt? plus interest" now larger and entirely unrelated to the amount stated earlier...thousands of dollars down to the last three cents.

My sister had warned me years ago that complaints here and elsewhere provided sufficient data to show that I had made a graqve mistake dealing with them at all.  I had, also, soon found out, the the pretty machine was available in maqny locations without a lease and at a very reasonable cost.

I don't know where this is going from here with $3,523.10 "withheld" from my access, but I cannot image it ever coming back.  The funds were, in fact, not my own but at the death of my father at 105, were to be shared with my three siblings.  Having been dealing with my lawyer, a close friend since 1980, as executor of my father's will for seven months, and having him five miles away, I expect to take whatever legal action I can.

In the meantime, telling both "employees" of "Northern Leasing Systems" this morning to Simply Go to Hell (and much worse) at least gave them some idea where I stood.  I referred them to the scam notices (here and elsewhere) that I had learned of, and they said "that was just a few people!"  I would simply tell anyone, especially new to operating a small business, THEY ARE BAD NEWS!!