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Report: #288443

Complaint Review: A-1 Leasing, Start Up Essentials - Grand Rapids Michigan

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  • Reported By: Urbana Iowa
  • Author Confirmed What's this?
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  • A-1 Leasing, Start Up Essentials 2007 Eastern S.E. Grand Rapids, Michigan U.S.A.

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We recieved a call from a Start Up Essentials employee named Mark Eaton. He basically made this scam seem like we were CHOSEN to be part of this great company and that NOT JUST ANYBODY is allowed to do this.

I already have a website for my Pug Breeding business, but he made it seem like this would be SO MUCH better for our business, 'our sales will skyrocket' is what we were told, because we would have this company backing us that is very well known and trusted throughout the internet.

Basically, we are paying a crap load of money ($5585.04 to be exact) to A-1 Leasing for a laptop computer worth $400 and a binder full of paperwork that is useless to our business.

This business should be shut down effective immediatley and all money should be returned to those that have been scammed as well as compensation for all of the trouble that they have put us in.

Upset iowans
Urbana, Iowa
U.S.A.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 12/02/2007 06:17 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/a-1-leasing-start-up-essentials/grand-rapids-michigan-49507/a-1-leasing-start-up-essentials-liars-scammers-bank-robbers-this-is-a-1-leasing-st-288443. The posting time indicated is Arizona local time. Arizona does not observe daylight savings so the post time may be Mountain or Pacific depending on the time of year. Ripoff Report has an exclusive license to this report. It may not be copied without the written permission of Ripoff Report. READ: Foreign websites steal our content

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#3 Author of original report

A-1 Leasing, Stuart Allen Company, Private Investigaters

AUTHOR: Upset iowans - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, December 27, 2007

So, after months and months of no responses to our numerous calls to A-1 Leasing, we get a phone call stating that we are being investigated by a private investigater hired by the lawyer Les Yeager that has been hired by A-1 Leasing. I got right back on the phone and called this Les guy to find out what the hell was going on since we never got a response from A-1 Leasings Asst VP Steve Miel. We were either going to be sued with a huge group of people that had also been scammed by Start-Up Essentials, or we could make an out of court/pre trial settlement of $2700. We have 7 days to come up with the money. Once the settlement is paid, we are free and clear of SE, SAC, the PI and A-1 Leasing. Plus the equipment that we returned, that was rtnd back to us saying no such address, is ours to do as we wish with. I vote to smash it with a hammer and run it over with a truck! Making a settlement with them is definately the way to go to be rid of these scamming companies.

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#2 Author of original report

A-1 Leasing, Stuart Allen Company, Private Investigaters

AUTHOR: Upset iowans - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Thursday, December 27, 2007

So, after months and months of no responses to our numerous calls to A-1 Leasing, we get a phone call stating that we are being investigated by a private investigater hired by the lawyer Les Yeager that has been hired by A-1 Leasing. I got right back on the phone and called this Les guy to find out what the hell was going on since we never got a response from A-1 Leasings Asst VP Steve Miel. We were either going to be sued with a huge group of people that had also been scammed by Start-Up Essentials, or we could make an out of court/pre trial settlement of $2700. We have 7 days to come up with the money. Once the settlement is paid, we are free and clear of SE, SAC, the PI and A-1 Leasing. Plus the equipment that we returned, that was rtnd back to us saying no such address, is ours to do as we wish with. I vote to smash it with a hammer and run it over with a truck! Making a settlement with them is definately the way to go to be rid of these scamming companies.

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#1 Author of original report

My letter to the FTC

AUTHOR: Upset iowans - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Monday, December 03, 2007

We were contacted via telephone by Mark Eaton, a representative from Start Up Essentials. He said that we (based on info that their company had gathered off the internet) were selected to become part of their team. He stated that their company actually pays the funding for the advertising of our business to the online advertisers up front...all we had to do was sign a 36 month non-cancellable lease form, and we were told that was the least we could do since they were putting up the money to front our business. He sugar coated everything, had us log onto their website, which is also sugar coated to look very successful and made you want to take part in this. He also told us we would be receiving a brand new laptop that was loaded with all the tools that we would need to get our business off the ground, i.e. wireless internet capability so that we can run our business even while we were on vacation in Mexico spending the money we would be making on this great opportunity.

We threw the idea around and had actually told Mark that we wanted to discuss it with each other a little more before making this big decision and asked him to call back the next day. In which he responded with urgency that this was a one time offer to join their team. The sugar coating of everything made it look irresistible and letting this opportunity to get help building a successful home based online business was too good to let go. So stupidly we agreed. When the laptop came, it was loaded with nothing but a link to their website...which, once we got our password to get into the 'business partners' part and utilize the website, we noticed that it had NOTHING that would be of ANY use to our business. It actually had us listen to a testimonial from a guy who supposedly got rich off of doing this...it was a fake testimonial, we later found out that he does business as Justgolfbags.com. We have tried to contact them and have gotten no response, except for an email stating that they are not the ones debiting our bank account and we need to contact that company...seemed fishy, so this is when we decided to close our bank account. Now we are receiving letters saying that we have to pay for the remaining balance of $4659.06 pursuant to the terms of the lease dated 10/31/2006 (including $100 breech fee).

The equipment must be returned to them, at our expense and we also have to pay for the equipment to be refurbished. If we do not return the computer, we will be assessed a final value fee of the equipment and that will be added on top of what we already owe. We DID NOT sign up until Feb 23, 2007 (at 2:59:59 to be exact) and they are telling us that the lease agreement is from 10/31/2006...make sense?? Now they are threatening to report US to their law firm...kinda backwards don't ya think. And they are giving their law firm authorization to use whatever collection procedures they deem necessary??? Where are our rights? We want out of this good for nothing (except stealing our hard earned money) scam. We hope this company get shut down for their money grubbing scams.

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