Complaint Review: Nationwide Funding LLC - Irvine California

In the fall of 2005 I bought a 2000 Chevy Extended 15 PSG Van in California for $10,500 off of ebay - The wholesale price by Edmunds or Autotrader was $10,000 - This is how I as the owner of Snow Limousine Inc.   purchase all our vehicles.  We thought we had a good deal.  Little did I know.

Brian Avery of Nationwide Funding called to talk about financing using a lease option - I had not at this time ever used leasing as a financing option.   First phone call - late November - 1st question - What is the finance rate - Brian's answers were very vague - My answer to Brian was If the rate is more than 10% my answer is I am not interested.

My brother Calvin Vagneur then received a phone call from a different representative of Nationwide Funding - We did not keep his name because we had no knowledge at that time of the nature of Nationwide Fundings business practices.

My second phone call - Brian Avery calling Why don't you try one of our leasing products?  He also informed me that because of our credit rating - the interest rate would be 10.50 %.   In the next part of the conversation we settled on 36 months at $519.00 a month with a total cost of $17,450.00.   My response I will have to think about this option.

My third phone call - This time I put the conversation on speaker phone with my brother attending - We went over the conditions - $17,450.00 total cost - The finance rate at 10.50% interest and the payment to be through Manifest Funding and taken out electronically every month.   At this time Brian Avery said to us we normally write the contract to read at the end of the contract - Nationwide Funding will sell the Van to Snow Limousine for fair market Value - but do not worry - that is how we right the contract so Snow Limousine can write off the entire amount on your taxes on a yearly basis.  We will sell the Van to Snow Limousine for $100.00 on January 1 2009.   My response was be aware that I expect that to happen and i will consider you and Nationwide Funding to have committed phone fraud if they do not follow through.

Between Brian Avery and one other male representative - plus one female representative we received at least six more phone calls with the same promises.  We did not thankfully sign any more leases with this company but we came to the conclusion thhat Nationwide Funding was calling businesses all across the country with the same leasing products. 

In February of 2007 I received a phone call from Brian Avery who was now representing a second leasing company from California offering leasing options.   He had left Nationwide Funding - He did not say whether he was fired or he quit but he informed me nationwide was reneging on all its fair market value promises.   He also informed that the management of nationwide was having parties celebrating all the money they were making by not abiding by their sales representatives contracts.   He then informed me a lady from Texas was going to call me about a class action lawsuit because she was being charged over $55,000.00 dollars for a buy out - I received this phone call while driving and could not get her name to verify her story but she but she collaborated Brian's story.   The phone conversation ended with the promise she would call me back with her name and address but I have never heard anything.

At this point I called manifest Funding and they put me through to an executive of Nationwide Funding to try and make sure they were going to fololow through with their sales people's representations.  I believe the person involved was Doug Ackerman - He informed me in no certain terms would they sell us the van for $100.00 and would follow through with the written contract.  i informed him I considered him and his company to be a fraudent company and would expect the title to be sent to us after we paid $100.00 at the end of 36 months.

In the fall of 2008 I believe in the month of October Nationwide Funding informed us by letter - The price for the van was $5,800.00 and how did I want to pay for the van.   I called Nationwide Funding and informed them I had every expectation of buying the van for $100.00 on January 1 2008 as the lease would be completed on this date and as represented by their sale representative Brian Avery.  Also the van would be taken off the insurance and placed in storage until the matter was resolved.  The price of $5,800.00 was a dealer retail price and since Nationwide had never called inquiring about the mileage or normal wear and tear for a Cargo slash Limo Van - which had hauled hundreds of lost bags for Airlines from across I knew this was just another attempt to extort money from Snow Limousine.  

Example - I had two 15 PSG vans one I had financed through a bank and one through Nationwide - the other van with about the same mileage and about the same condition was sold after we advertised for over a year for three thousand Dollars with us including a second 1999 15 PSG van.   The only buyer was a Snowmobile company near Aspen Colorado - I have wholesale estimates records for that van from 2008 and 2009 which average $2,300.00.  - A commercial vehicle has a permanent record put on it by the state of Colorado when it is used for commercial purposes and its value is usually down graded accordingly.   I informed by phone where the van was located and the fact that the ownership of the van was in dispute and would not be moved one inch until the dispute was resolved.

Since that time 2008 Snow limousine has not had the use of the van and could not sell the van for which  they had paid in full.   over $19,200.00 and $1,080.00 in deposite - The $19,200 figure comes to 26 % interest which is a further miss representation since we were told the interest rate would be 10.50%.   

In May Nationwide Funding and American Capital Group sent the account to collections for $25,500.00 and they have failed to mention that the lease was paid in full.  All 36 months at $519.00 - $537.00 paid in full.   We have no lease signed by Snow limousine after December 31 2008 and Nationwide Funding  and American Capital Group have both tried to defraud Snow limousine first by miss representation of the buy out figure of $100.00 and the fair market value figure.   Add $25,000 plus $19,000 and the figure $44,000.00 plus for a van I bought for $10,500.00 in October of 2005.