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Report: #836871

Complaint Review: Lease Finance Group (LFG) - Chicago Illinois

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  • Reported By: Lisa — Bluffton South Carolina United States of America
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  • Lease Finance Group (LFG) 233 N Michigan Suite 1800 Chicago, Illinois United States of America

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Back in December of 2011 I was contacted by Payment Systems Dallas if they could stop by and give me an assessment of my credit card processing fees and that they could save me money.  I was unhappy with my previous processor, mostly b/c of horrible customer service, rude people and half hour waiting periods of being put on hold each time I would call with a question, and also the fact that after a year and a half with them I was still being given the run around regarding reimbursement for my termination fee. So this lady, Sonja Brown from Payment Systems came out and looked at my current statement. Did some numbers and told me what she would be able to save me.  I asked her to tell me more about her company and she said that they were an affiliate of First Data and to check them out on the Fortune 500 companies. I took her word for it and we started talking numbers. I was currently paying average of $300/mo. with my previous processesor at that time and she told me a figure of about $250 total cc processing fees if I leased a machine that was up to date and PCI compliant.  It would be $99/mo. and those fees were included with the total monthly figure she gave me.  I told her I wasn't interested in leasing a machine b/c I already owned one that looked exactly like the one she was trying to get me to lease.  She stated that I would not have to pay a PCI compliance fee ever again with the "upgraded" machine and there were no hidden fees, when I asked her what the catch was.  I was a little wary but it seemed like a decent deal and I then proceeded to sign my life away into this nightmarish hell.  EVERYTHING the rep told me was a lie! I asked her tons of questions and asked her repeatedly that the $99 figure was included with the cc processing fees for each month.  She told me yes, more than once.

As I'm sure most of you reading this know, it has been an outright nightmare with these people.  I have yet to receive a copy of the contract that I signed.  The lady told me that she couldn't let me print out a copy of the lease per their policy it had to be processed first and then mailed to me. My gut told me that wasn't right at all, and I should have listened to it.  I've had to call the cc processing company dozens of times and after the 10th call I was mailed 5 pages of a lease. They were out of order and I know I signed way more pages than that.  I still question that I even initialed some of those pages as they do not look like how I would do them. 

Anyways, I was never told that I was being entered into a non-cancellable lease at all or that it was even a separate company that leased the equipment.  I was told that I would own it at the end and after paying $5000 at the end of this lease I will not even own it! Ridiculous!  I am only a few months into the lease and am seeking advice what to do. I am debating closing my business account.  The only thing I am most concerned with is my credit. I have worked so hard to maintain such good credit and I can't bear the thought of them ruining it with this.  Not to mention my business which is a pet grooming salon, I have worked so hard to get to where I am and now my bank acct is being used as an ATM machine by these people.  I am barely making a profit now after they keep doing debit after debit. I have paid over $1500 in fees in the past 3 mos. through all this.
WHAT CAN I DO???  Please help...it is greatly appreciated.  Who do I  need to contact and in what order?  I have the fight in me to nail these crooks but do not know where to start.

This report was posted on Ripoff Report on 02/09/2012 09:39 PM and is a permanent record located here: https://www.ripoffreport.com/reports/lease-finance-group-lfg/chicago-illinois-60616/lease-finance-group-lfg-payment-systems-got-suckered-into-this-scam-and-am-ready-to-figh-836871. 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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Updates & Rebuttals

REBUTTALS & REPLIES:
2Author
11Consumer
5Employee/Owner

#18 Consumer Comment

LFG

AUTHOR: Robbie - (USA)

POSTED: Saturday, June 13, 2015

I got a letter today from LFG attorney Mr .Ari Madoff with a draft says that they will sue me in Chicago. I live in Vienna VA.

So, anybody really got sued by LFG? If yes then what was the out come? How did you handled that?

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#17 Consumer Comment

At Cindy1977

AUTHOR: Frustrated in Wisconsin - (United States of America)

POSTED: Saturday, February 09, 2013

Cindy, I would like to join your efforts, same situation. You said to email you but nothing was there. Could you please contact me hydes@cheqnet.net

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#16 REBUTTAL Individual responds

The adress to return the machine

AUTHOR: Max25 - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, January 10, 2013

Hello, Does anyone know where we should send back the Credit Card Machine. I got the one on NYC, but i read on the forum, it was a fake address. Please help! Thank You.

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#15 Consumer Comment

Payment Systems and Lease Finance Group Nightmare

AUTHOR: dws48319 - (United States of America)

POSTED: Thursday, November 29, 2012

Just like everyone else, I have been suckered into this "good" deal that will save me over 400 dollars a month.  My account was supposed to start December 1, 2012, and I signed on in October.  They started charging me right away with the lease by LFG and fee for inactivity by Payment Systems.  When I signed on, our rep wrote down on the contract that it will start in December.  I was charged within 2 weeks of signing the contract.  I have contacted the rep and the managers of Payment Systems about this.  They said they will take care of the fees for me.  It has been over a month.  I tried to contact them for a few weeks.  Finally I was able to talk to Chris from Payment Systems on Monday.  He said that it will be taken care of and that I should see the money reimbursed in 5 to 7 business days.  It has not been 5 to 7 business days yet, I decided to search some information about these companies because so far their customer service has been terrible.  Now I can see that I made a great mistake.  Our rep did lie about one information: the lease of the equipment is 3 years.  The managers also told me that the leasing is the catch to the low rates that they have offered me.  0% and 0 cents on debit and 1% and .09 on transaction fee for credit cards.  What would be the best steps to get out of this contract?  I worked so hard to get very good credit and I am afraid that if I choose to fight them I would have to sacrifice my good credit.  So if anyone had success fighting them, please help me get out of this mess. 

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#14 Consumer Comment

lots of people scammed

AUTHOR: Billy - (United States of America)

POSTED: Friday, November 23, 2012

Hi Cindy, I too am in a big mess with Global Leasing and PS. 

I'd love to join your efforts.  Did you cancel your bank account and close out your affiliation with PS and GL?  I'm about to do that and was wondering how/if you went about that.  Also would love to join your petititon and anything else...there is a man named Roy Parkes in Colorado that is really working on this, he has the FTC involved and feels very sure that PS will be shut down. 

Please let me know how to work with you, or how to get out of this mess.  Thanks so much,

Billy Zanski
Skinny Beats Drum Shop
Asehville, NC 28801

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#13 Consumer Comment

Same Issue! Have a solution....

AUTHOR: cindy1977 - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, October 24, 2012

Everyone, I was ripped off just like everyone else here. I had the same sales rep: Dana Potthoff. I hope she knows that she is ruining lives and causing lots of emotional and financial stress on people. I am 5 months pregnant and this is ludicrious that I am up till all hours of the night doing research on how to get out of this mess.

Anyways, there is some good news...I've spoken to a few that have fought LFG and won. LFG was not who I signed with...it was Global Lease Company and PS but theyr'e all one in the same/ shell companies, etc. In the end, it's down to two companies looking for me: PS and LFG.

My attorney and I are getting a petition together. Please email me if you would like to be apart of this. Will be mailing it to the direct contacts at AG of Chicago and NY. These names were given to me by the folks that won the case.

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#12 General Comment

john mclean va

AUTHOR: John - (United States of America)

POSTED: Tuesday, July 10, 2012

John

From Mclean va.

I was cold-contacted by a Payment Systems Corp representative her name danna potthoff.I have capital one proccesing co.
She exlpain details that I save about $498.00 a month. The deal sounded good; $0.09 per transaction,  and 1% per sale
qualified cards, and 2.79% non qualified cards, and after she gave me the contrac I see a fee of $298.00.lease. I ask what is this and say includes in the package, in your savings. Later  I received 3 terminals, I call Dan Potthoff and I say I need only one terminal plus I have mine. She tall me is in the package for extra and I will save $400.00 from previous co.Then I call the leasing co, Lease finace group to return the equipment, and the say even if I  return the equipment I will pay $298.00 for 48
months. The end of the month I received the statement. I see visa charges of one week$8,200.00 Qualified 1% $82.00 and non qualified cgarges $259.00 plus  $0.90 per transaction, plus $334.00 leasing fees.I call costumer service and I explain  how the $259.00 came from when they charged my # 1% of $8200.00 for non qualified . I call Danna and I explain to her, She tall me I am right, they made mistake, the total fees with the lease no to be more then 2.79% When I brought the discrepancy to their attention, they made me jump through hoops to prove it, when it was printed right on their statement. I had to submit bank records.

I told them that I thought I was fraudulently overcharged and that I would not be using their service any longer and I would
be mailing their equipment back.

Now I will sent canceletion notice to procesor and stop use them.

I call them today and ask for the maill adress for the equipment and say I am stock with the lease and is no adress to return

I am 31 years in business and I will not be repoff of them.

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#11 Consumer Suggestion

BBB report

AUTHOR: Christopher - (U.S.A.)

POSTED: Tuesday, July 03, 2012

Government ActionsAccording to a press release dated April 23, 2012, The Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman announced a lawsuit against a group of New York City-based business equipment leasing companies. Schneiderman alleges the New York
City-based business fraudulently siphoned millions of dollars from their former customers, including mom-pop stores and other small businesses.

Northern Leading Systems, Inc. and its affiliates, which lease credit card processing machines and other equipment, carried out a deceptive scheme to drain over $10 million in authorized debits from the bank accounts of over 100,000 former customers up to 11 years after their equipment leases had expired, ultimately retaining at least $3.5 million. To disguise the scheme, Northern Leasing and it's affiliates, Lease Finance Group LLC, MBF Leasing LLC, Golden Eagle Leasing LLC, and Lease Source-LSI, LLC, used a shell company, SKS Associates LLC, to deliberately mislead customers in an attempt to avoid any harm to Northern Leasing's business reputation. After receiving over 70 complaints from victims around the country Schneiderman alleges the customers bank accounts were charged automatically every month. The leases required customers to reimburse the companies for property taxes and related "administrative fees" Northern leasing claims it failed to collect some of these amounts form
certain customers while their leases were still active. Schneiderman also alleges the company could not explain why it failed to collect the amount previously, nor could it show that the alleged amounts were actually owed. In fact, 77 percent of the amounts SKS sought to collect were not taxes at all but "administrative fees" The Attorney General's lawsuit seeks full restitution for the tens of thousands of former customers defrauded in the scheme, disgorgement of all profits,
penalties, fees, and injunction relief prohibiting Northern Leasing and its affiliates from continuing to engage in these deceptive collection practices. Attorney General Schneiderman encourages victims or anyone with information about Northern Leasing and SKS's scheme to file a complaint with the Consumer Fraud and Protection Bureau. Victims may also call the Attorney General's Consumer Frauds hotline at (800) 771-7755

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#10 REBUTTAL Owner of company

file complaint online

AUTHOR: marykelsey - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, May 23, 2012

Google Better Business Bureau. There is a category of "file a complaint" on the first page. Use this.

We did send the machine back. Don't remember the address. It probably doesn't matter. We did cancel the payment account and warned our bank not to honor any attempt at withdrawals from them although they never tried.

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#9 Author of original report

which BBB?

AUTHOR: Lisa - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The BBB in which state? I'm in SC ..I know LFG is in NY and IL . That's the confusing part for me there's so many addresses and states to deal with. What did you say to them? Did you have to file a formal complaint too? Did you return your terminal and cancel your payment systems acct in the meantime? I've read in a lot of posts to not return terminal just yet bc they day whoever signs for it does not work there and that they never got it plus they are giving me conflicting info on the address to send it to. Did you sue payment systems as well? Who do we file with against payment systems?

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#8 REBUTTAL Owner of company

don't worry about being sued

AUTHOR: marykelsey - (United States of America)

POSTED: Wednesday, May 23, 2012

As I stated in a previous post call the Better Business Bureau number listed on the internet. We got a letter saying all debt was cleared after doing this.

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#7 Consumer Comment

Help

AUTHOR: djh286 - (USA)

POSTED: Tuesday, May 22, 2012

I am in the same boat fighting with Payment Systems and Lease Finance Group.  I plan on sending my complaints this week.  Send to your state, Illinois and California or Texas wherever Payment Systems is located.  I've talked to an attorney and he is preparing letters for both companies... I will be sending back the equipment and cutting off my accounts to thee thieves.  There are people fighting them.. the more the better.  Please send your complaints... it's the only way to fight them. 

Keep everyone dated on if you make an progress... I will do the same.

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#6 Author of original report

Who do I write to??

AUTHOR: Lisa - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, May 20, 2012

So I've been doing a lot of research today on who to file complaints with. So far I have the Atty. Gen of Illinois Lisa Madigan, The FTC and the Asst. States attorney Sophia Lopez.  I am located in South Carolina. Should I be filing with the Attny General of SC too?  The company I use is Payment Systems Dallas and I am about to cancel my contract with them and just switch bank accts.  I read from a few people not to mail back the machine just yet until I hear back from the Attny general.  I did call LFG to find out what address to mail the machine back to and were they ever rude! I got two different addresses 132 West  31st St. 13th floor NY NY 10001 and the same address with the 14th floor instead. They told me there was no name to address it to.  I am 6mos. into being scammed out of my hard earned money now and my blood has boiled enough to the point where I am taking action.  How can we go about getting this to a class action lawsuit?  Does a lawyer need to be hired?  Anybody who has gotten out of this have any suggestions please? More people to contact?

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#5 UPDATE EX-employee responds

Ex employee gives some additional insight

AUTHOR: Bob - (United States of America)

POSTED: Friday, May 04, 2012

I worked for a while for Payment Systems as an independent contractor.  I received about 3 hours of training and then went out and sold.  Every customer I sold to was dissatisfied.  I sold based on the training I was given and everyone I sold to had a higher fees plus a ridiculous rental agreement.  Contact the Attorney General of California.  If enough businesses do hopefully they will be shut down and fined.  I believe their Dallas office is done.  The BBB has stopped accepting complaints since the company has not responded to the last 82 of them.  This company is a flat out scam.  To any current employees, you would be doing less harm to just steal the 200 to 500 directly from the business owner to match your commission than trying to sell a

contract that will cost them thousands.

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#4 General Comment

I Got My Summon

AUTHOR: rustystar - (United States of America)

POSTED: Monday, April 30, 2012

Lease Finance Group is summoning me to appear in Civil Court of the City of New York. Now where do I go? I've tried to find a lawyer here in Texas that can practice law in New York and so far no luck. Will this go away or do I settle? I have two contracts with Global Leasing Co. One I signed when the Rep was at my business that was unreadable with a promise to have a readable contract sent to me when she got back to the office. It never came after several request for a copy. The contract that is attached to the summon is a frault. I didn't sign it and a different Rep filled it out. I hate to give up and let this company win, they are bad. If anybody can give me some good advise, I would appreciated.

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#3 General Comment

They are threathing to sue me too

AUTHOR: mm2012 - (United States of America)

POSTED: Tuesday, February 14, 2012

They are currently threatening to sue me in Chicago.  How do you ignore this without serious consequences? I want to continue ignoring them but I'm not sure what will happen? This is so horrible. Is there any help from government agencies or lawyers that you know of?

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#2 REBUTTAL Owner of company

do not pay lfg

AUTHOR: marykelsey - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, February 12, 2012

I sorry I meant to say that our problem was also over a credit card machine.
I should have also said that the first step is to call and tell them to cancel and to ask if and how they want the machine returned. Record names, dates and time. Record if possible.

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#1 REBUTTAL Owner of company

do not pay lfg

AUTHOR: marykelsey - (United States of America)

POSTED: Sunday, February 12, 2012

DON'T PAY THEM ANYTHING!
We were harassed by LFG for over a year about cancelling a rip off phone lease. They sent many letters and called sometimes more than once a day. The final straw was a summons delivered to our house by the police for a supposed trial in Chicago (we live in Kansas). I called the Better Business Bureau and filed a complaint. I don't know if this is what did it but about a month later we received a letter that said all debt was cleared.
I believe the most important thing is to make sure they can't debit your bank account. We deal with a small home town bank so telling them was sufficient. If necessary you may need to change your account number.
These people are scum.
DON'T LET THEM SCARE YOU INTO GIVING THEM ANYTHING!

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