RTS Financial Group Lied, Stole, Misrepresented, Advertised here on RipoffReport Vancouver Washington

Back in 2011, I hired a company called RTS Financial Group, first contacting David Buchite then dealing exclusively with Jeff Spinden in all future communications, to collect on a significant amount of debt owed to my business by a company that had basically stolen work from us by failing to pay. RTS was actually advertising here on RipoffReports on the same company (Contingent Network Services), and a couple people said at the time that they had used them to collect. It's clear at this point that those were fake reviews.

What RTS did to me was unprofessional, unethical and downright disgusting. I must sincerely apologize for taking so long to write this review, but to be completely honest, I'm only beginning to put the scraps of my life back together after what companies like Contingent, RTS and a couple individuals had done to me. This wasn't 'fun' 'extra income' to me; this was my job that I wasn't paid for. This was everything to me. So I feel I have to apologize, because they've probably done this to other people in the meantime. I'm sorry I couldn't prevent it.

I'm attaching my final demand and complaint written to RTS, and their 'attorney', Hal Burke (Toledo, OH; I will be filing a separate report on that lawyer). The TL;DR version is that they lied about their legal fees, required a retainer for 'legal services' which was never fully returned even though their 'attorney' told me point-blank that they didn't charge RTS a single nickel, lied about various other parts of the case, and then responded to my demand in a manner you'd expect from a corporation with a lot to hide.

Here it is:

"In January of 2011 I, Andrew Bezgembluk, owner of the corporation called Bizzmark Technology Group in the state of Maine, contacted RTS Financial Group of Vancouver, WA in order to collect on monies owed to Bizzmark by a company called Contingent Network Services of West Chester, OH. The total outstanding payment due to Bizzmark from Contingent was $12,211.59. The acceptance letter I signed with RTS clearly stated a contingency of 25% of “any monies collected”.

After the Final Demand for Payment composed by myself was reiterated to Contingent by the RTS legal team (Jeff Kelsey, RTS) in addition to the threat of legal consequence, Contingent offered a settlement of $2,000 ($1,999), which I found unacceptable. Jeff Spinden, as my primary contact at RTS, was made well aware of this fact from the very beginning of our communications. An agreement for any more than that amount was rejected by Contingent. As a result, RTS continued with a civil suit on my corporation's behalf.

Before a civil suit was filed, Jeff at RTS informed me that I would have to send a retainer of $2,250 to cover “all costs from filing the complaint through execution of judgment” according to RTS' “RECO Letter”. In this letter, which I did not sign, it states a contingency rate of 33% “in legal”. It also states a guideline of 305 days maximum for filing the suit through final judgment, although it does advise that this is 'merely a guideline'. I did send a personal check of $2,250 to RTS, confirmed received by Jeff Spinden on 4/4/2011. In his confirmation E-mail, Jeff stated “you will receive copies of the initial demand, copy of complaint with case number etc for your records.”

Over the course of the next nearly 3 years, I heard very little about the case from Jeff. I would call 2-5 times over a couple weeks, only to get an E-mail back saying that 'the case is going well' or something to that effect during the beginning portion. I never once received any copy of our initial demand, our complaint, case records or literally any paperwork whatsoever from the beginning of the civil suit to this very day, even after multiple requests. When I did request paperwork from Jeff, I was told that he would request it from the attorneys hired in Ohio and get it back to me as soon as possible at first, and in the later stages of the suit (late 2012 onward), that he has requested it and 'doesn't know what's taking the lawyers so long' (paraphrased).

The lawyers hired by RTS were the Law Offices of Scheer, Green and Burke of Toledo, OH. Hal Burke was the primary lawyer, with Michael Burke involved to some extent from what I can discern. After I became frustrated with RTS' total lack of communications, I tracked down a phone number and called Hal Burke. All I was told is that there was a 'pretrial hearing' scheduled multiple times, and that 'Contingent is filing as many extensions as they're legally allowed', an assertion that Jeff reiterated to me one one occasion we did have a phone conversation. Hal did tell me on two separate occasions that they were not charging RTS any fees. At no point until mid to late 2013 was I told that Burke had been accepting Contingent's original offer of $2,000 all along. After several phone calls between Hal Burke and myself, I was told by Hal that he was getting into some trouble with RTS for contacting me directly and to direct all questions to my account manager at RTS. This was my first red flag; Burke's office was officially representing Bizzmark in court. Why would direct communication be discouraged?

In late 2013 Hal contacted me again despite the 'trouble' with RTS, because Contingent had, according to him, upped their offer, and he wanted to know how much he should negotiate for. I told him I saw no reason to settle for less than the approximately $4,800 Contingent owed to Bizzmark according to Contingent's own accounting paperwork, and that I still wanted to go to full trial. Shortly thereafter, Hal contacted me again telling me that Contingent was offering $2,500 and that, in his opinion, I should take it because this case had been going on for so long, and it could be 'years more' before I could get anything else. He also stated that I 'should' get 'about $1,000 back' from the RTS retainer. This came as a surprise to me as 25% of $2,500 is $625. After some convincing from Hal, I told him to accept Contingent's offer of $2,500.

On 11/29/2013 I received a check from Contingent Network Services in the amount of $2,000 made out to Bizzmark Technology Group. This was another surprise, $500 short of the paltry offer I only accepted under pressure. On the back of the check, for some reason, was a handwritten message: “Please send to aaron @ rts not plaintiff”. After this I began calling RTS for an explanation and to collect my retainer. Communication from RTS became even worse. After several requests for my retainer, I received another surprise: a check in late January 2014 from RTS for $650, and absolutely no paperwork of any sort, much less any supporting the amount cut from the return of the retainer. The check was also made out to my business despite my having paid the retainer personally, an additional – and possibly purposeful – inconvenience.

Shortly before receiving the retainer 'remainder' check, in early January 2014, I decided to call all the courthouses in Butler County, Ohio to try and track down which one Burke had filed in as I still hadn't received a single shred of paperwork for the case. I tracked it down to Butler Area III Court in West Chester and spoke with a clerk there; she informed me that there were, in fact, 2 cases that Bizzmark had filed against Contingent, and that the first one had been thrown out of court (filed 9/12/2011, dismissed 4/25/2012) because 'the prosecution failed to appear' for both the first and second hearings. I requested all documentation that the court had for this case.

According to the court records, Burke failed to appear twice in a row for the first case, causing it to be thrown out and delaying the entire process by nearly one entire year as there is a waiting period for refiling. The second case was filed by Burke on 7/9/2012. Not only did Burke fail to appear or call in late multiple times again for this second case, but it appears that they had been accepting an offer of $2,000 from the very beginning despite not being authorized to do so by myself, or according to Jeff Spinden, by RTS.

To summarize: I was never given or forwarded any paperwork or invoices whatsoever from RTS or Burke with the exception of the two initial letters from RTS: the acceptance letter I signed for beginning the collections process at a 25% contingency, and the later “RECO Letter” I did not sign requesting the retainer and claiming a 33% contingency “in legal”. That I would be given all relevant paperwork and court records was a lie. The repeated statements that the “case is going well” was clearly a lie; either Jeff @ RTS was completely unaware of anything Burke was doing, or had full knowledge and was directly lying about it, and still is to this day. Hal Burke's insistence that Contingent was filing extension after extension was a bold and outright lie; the court records in my hand indicate absolutely no extension was ever filed by Contingent for either case. The way Hal Burke convinced me to accept the offer was fraudulent at best; the only reason the case took so long was the Burke firm failing to appear no less than 5 times on my behalf, and $2,000 was ultimately ordered by the court only after Burke failed to make any appeal or appearance up to and during the court's review period. In addition, RTS plainly took monies by unethical and fraudulent means from my retainer; not only did I never agree to anything but a 25% contingency of 'any monies collected', they merely managed to get a 'settlement' of $2,000 (Contingent's original offer) by doing absolutely nothing. By keeping $1,600 of the $2,250 RTS is also effectively asserting that $1,600, if I ever agreed to pay it in the first place, is a fair price to pay for a company to compose one short E-mail demand for payment and to forward one E-mail of my original, self-composed complaint to Contingent and Burke (the only discovery ever supplied by Burke in court), and furthermore that $1,600 is clearly not enough in a nearly 3-year time span for RTS to call an Ohio courthouse and talk to a clerk for 5 minutes, much less request $3.05 worth of court documents - the amount I paid for every document Butler Area III court possessed for all Bizzmark vs. Contingent cases.

Hal asserted on two separate occasions that they charged RTS no fees; thus, RTS cannot claim that any monies were spent in legal whatsoever. Moreover, despite the fact that I did accept an offer of $2,500 under pressure and completely false and fraudulent pretenses, Burke did continue with accepting an offer of $500 less than that, completely unauthorized.

I am filing a formal complaint with both the WA and OH attorneys general, licensing boards, chambers of commerce and consumer protection agencies against RTS and Burke, respectively, as well as criminal complaints with the Federal Bureau of Investigation."

And here's Jeff Spinden's response after receiving this letter:

"Wow Andrew really well you obviously need to do whatever you need to do all I can say if you want to go this route we are owed a contingency % from the $2k settlement check & the “paperwork” your referencing doesn’t have anything to do with me? We forwarded to case to Hal’s office & you agreed to settle we didn’t even discuss the settlement before you agreed to accept? You agreed to accept $2,500 to settle with contingency % deducted you would have netted $1,750 but in the end you netted a higher amount your certainly barking up the wrong tree here we have sufficient supporting documentation on our end & will fight you tooth nail because your assertions as well as demands for $1,600 are unfounded."