Complaint Review: Jules And Associates Inc - los angelas California

Jules & Associates is essentially a broker for equipment leases, or loans, etc. They bundle their leases & sell them to other legitimate companies such as TCF, BB&T,  Bank of America - etc. who fund the deals. However just because solid companies are loaning them the money doesn't make it a solid deal- BEWARE!

Jules may initially approach you almost like a telemarketer. A lot of phone calls, letters, etc, to try & convince you of their services & legitimacy. they have super good rates, the best deal for you, excellant ratings,  whatever it takes to get you in the door.

this was our experience: they contacted us in mid-summer 2012. It so happened we were in the process of buying some equipment, so we did opt to give them a chance. We did some backround checking on them, & all seemed to be legit. they gave us an original proposal clearly stating a 1% buyout end-of-term capital lease. This is what we wanted & requested. following some negotiations on rates and lease length - we signed 3 seperate deals with them with varying term lengths.

We made it clear in our discussions - both by phone, & in emails that our full intent & only intent is to purchase the equipment for the 1% buyout at the close of the lease. What we failed to catch was that after we signed the original set of documents they added what was called Addendum A "clarifying" the lease buyout - where they subtly changed the terms of buyout. By this point you are comfortable signing, & we did not send the Addendum's to be reviewed by legal counsel.

Instead of simply saying 1% buyout as original requested & as originally stated- now they gave themselves 3 options. #1 was the 1% buyout, #2 was return of all the equipment, & #3 was extend the lease for 12 months. IF we did not notify them of our intent to purchase - 180 days prior to the close of the lease by certified mail only - then the lease was to extend by 6 months - 180 days. Jules was to notify us by certified mail 210 days before the close of the lease notifying of the above options.

Our company had numerous leases with financing companies over the years, and it was always a pleasure doing business with them. Couteous, frank & honest. They sent us our invoices on time, & we in turn paid them on time. Never did we have to notify them at the close of the lease what we wanted to do - that was always clarified up front. This put our accounts payable team at a disadvantage, as they weren't watching for fine print, & were simply paying the bills as they came.

All was fine & well. The first lease closed in October 2014, or so we thought. We recieved the last  monthly lease invoice and paid it. We also confirmed that in December of 2014 the underwriter closed the lease & sent it back to Jules. However we recieved no notice of our end of lease options, or any invoice for the 1% buyout. Nobody on our team caught the fact the 1% had never been invoiced or been paid.

Time went on. In April of 2016 we had a question for Jules in regards to a double invoice they sent us for the second lease that was closing in May of 2016. At this point on the phone they said that the lease will be extending. We asked why, & they said - "oh because we did not notify them of our intent to purchase" they also said that if we want - at the end of the 6 months we have the option to purchase the machine at current fair market value!"

We had some more conversations & slowly a downright shrewd &  calculated plot emerged to milk us for more money. we asked about their letters of notice. We were told they sent us one on the second lease, but due to an oversight they failed to send us 1 on the first lease. We went back & found the supposed letter of notice - only to discover they had sent us a letter of address change. The first paragraph told us that their mailing address was changing effective immediately. at the bottom of the letter it stated: this serves notice of Addendum A on lease # X. That's it. That was our notice. We had updated our mailing information & filed the letter. Nobody thought anything more of the last sentence.

We asked how were we to know the difference between the first & second lease. If we never were billed or paid any extra on the first lease - what is different with the second one. We recieved no notice or bill of any type from the final payment in October 2014, until by phone in April of 2016. At this point they informed us that we were too late to notify them of our intent to purchase either lease. We were told if we pay fair market value - we can buy the machines & they also will be charging the 6 months lease extension.

We told them that is totally unacceptable. We do not pay money without recieving an invoice! Interestingly - we paid our final lease bill & payment on the second lease in May of 2016. Again silence.  We recieved no further bills, no notification or anything. We sent them a check for both leases for the 1% without a bill, but the checks were not deposited. we asked for an update in May, & again in September of 2016, but they were quiet.

Finally in November of 2016, we recieved a certified letter along with our undeposited checks that they were filing claim to the equipment that we never bought from them. They are charging lease payment, interest penalties & machine values, in addition at which point they will come in & pickup the equipment, as we lost our window ot purchase the equipment.

We reached out to them - stated our case, & were basically told we are obligated to pay these charges, but they are not required to send us invoices. We asked how they would be willing to resolve this, & again we were told that this is what is owed - they have a strong legal case. If we would be willing to borrow more money from them in the form of another lease they would be willing to work something out, & possibly wipe the "supposed" extra money we owed from the books! 

The bottom line is - the rates are cheap up front, because the difference & extra profit is made up at the end by charging you extra by sneaking some nasty termonology into the agreement. Any percieved savings in the competetive upfront rate will be wiped out by legal counsel costs, giving them an additional lease at a higher rate, or by offering to pay a fraction of what the supposed add-on charges owed! It is an amazingly sneaky way to get in the door, in a percieved legal way, but in reality they will get you!!

BEWARE of Jules. Have your attorney thouroughly review any documents with them, & if you have any choice at all - find a good honest leasing company to work with - who will partner with you to get you a mutually beneficial lease or loan to meet your needs.