Genesis Financial, purchased $7500 in GOLD coins Never received coins or promised return of funds,phone calls not returned now for several weeks Agoura Hills California

On or about Sept.4,2006 I hand delivered a cashier's check for almost $7500 to Genesis Financial Inc.'s bank for the purchase of several gold coins for investment and collecting purposes. There was some discrepency at the bank about the name on the account. I had the check reissued. I told my portfollio manager at Genesis, Steve Allas about this and he claimed it was a temporary problem at the bank branches. The next day I found out that they put a 10 day hold on all checks, even cashier checks.

While waiting for the check to clear I received a form to sign which they called a "Account and Shipping Agreement." This form, among other things required that I certify that I was not investing more then 25% to 30% of my assets and that if problems arose I agreed to accept binding arbritration and give up my rights to sue them. I refused to sign this form and stated that the purchase represented about 80% of my assets. I also felt the value of the coins was not worth the amount of the investment.

A couple days later Mr. Allas called and said they were adding additional coins to the package at no extra charge but before they could ship I would have to sign the Account and Shipping Agreement. I agreed and was to fax that to them when they were ready to ship.

Two weeks later I received a letter stating my account was being denied do to it representing to large a percentage of my assets. Mr. Allas stated that he was leaving the company and that the president of the company, Kimberly Bodner, would handle a full refund of my money. I tried calling to find out when I could expect the refund. I Left a message with an answering service. Then the phones started acting funny and even being out of service some days. Over the next several weeks I have left several messages and not one has been returned and I have not received my gold or money. Have I been ripped off?

Dave
Fullerton, California
U.S.A.