Weekly Bulletin Board Report Southern California Repeater The Most Complaints Are About this Company The DDL Company Leasing News warned readers about Unicapital, United Capital, MSM Capital, writing about popular companies, their presidents, and “good old boys,” to name just a few over the years. The last was EFG Leasing in Fresno, California, losing their corporate status in California, Nevada, and getting expelled from the Better Business Bureau as a member for all the complaints unanswered, including an FBI investigation on 19 leases not funded. Even after the president, Kenneth Wheeler, passed away, Leasing News received inquiries about the company from vendors and brokers over the United States who were not paid for several months, wanting to know if we had any further information. They had not heard of Leasing News before, or if they did, they were too busy to read the trade publication. Leasing News is working on seven complaints at this time, here are three: Southern California Repeater This party has a “D” Better Business Bureau report. The latest complaint may push it to an “F.” The Party does not want to be posted on the Complaint Bulletin Board and believes Leasing News is threatening him to settle with the party making the complaint. In addition to the Better Business Bureau rating, Leasing News has received over seven complaints in the last four years, all now settled. Two e-mails were sent on February 17, then several telephone calls made over the next few days, then the e-mail were re-sent on February 22 nd , and more telephone calls. It wasn't until the late afternoon that the party was reached by going through the sales department instead of operator or voice mail and not identifying who was calling. When the party was reached, he said he was too busy and he would call back on Friday at 3:00pm. On 3:15pm, Leasing News called him and the conversation started asking if he had received the several e-mails. For at least ten minutes he argued that it was only a “couple” and “not several” as there were only two e-mails. That four e-mails were sent, two repeated, was not satisfactory as “several” and during this time, he also avoided answering the e-mails. In the end, Leasing News sent him 35 pages of documents, contracts signed April, 18,2005, e-mails, the sequence where his first salesman on May 31,2005 informed that the funder would not accept the type of equipment, and then on June 11 th , the first letter, then fax, mail, e-mail, telephone calls, and then on September 8 th , the idea of another lease using the deposit for the new lease and he was stalled again until October 16 when he signed a lease with another company. Leasing News traded e-mail and telephone calls, asking for a statement or an explanation of why the company was not returning the deposit. Finally on March 2 nd, he responded with the reasons that they kept the deposit: We received application. No new documents were provided, including an “the agreement for the work done.” The company in question does not hold a California Finance Lender's license during the course of the transaction, and has a “D” The Most Complaints Are About this Company This company in Southern California has the record of the most complaints received at Leasing News. Their Better Business Bureau report is an “F.” They have over 90 complaints with BBB. It is our policy that if a complaint is resolved, it is not posted. We act as an ombsbudsman, and the idea is not to “punish” a company but to help the person who made the complaint. If the complaint is not legitimate or appears to be a civil dispute, we do not consider it. Leasing News also has found several complaints as unfounded. In this case, the Jacksonville, North Carolina party found us via a Google search, and thought we might help them with a proposal signed on February 20,2004 requiring a $9,155 cashiers check. The lease produced was at a much higher rate. The applicant asked for their deposit back. April 12, 2004, they informed the leasing company they had three days to return the money or they would turn the matter over to their attorney. April 23, 2004, their attorney wrote a letter of demand to the leasing company stating the reasons. They decided it would be too costly to pursue the matter as the venue was to be in Orange County, California. February 22, 2006, Leasing News contacted the company, who stated the files were in storage, and they would have to retrieve them. They admitted to having salesmen trouble and did not know the status of this. After repeated calls, the paperwork had not been found. The president of the company promised to get to the bottom of it, if he had to go search himself. One of the difficulties Leasing Companies have in returning deposits is that it is common among many companies (especially in Southern California—now don't start writing me letters that all leasing companies in Southern California are like this. editor) that half the Advance Rental is earned by the salesman if the lease does not go through. The DDL Company Ricky Patterson is trying to work out of his filing of Chapter 11 Bankruptcy filed on November 30, 2005. He moved out of his offices at 111 Taylor Plaza Driver, Greenville, Texas and is basically reportedly working out of his garage in hopes to get out of the $1.3 million debt of his corporation. He has been working with CIT, HP, Marlin, and Wells Fargo. His creditors are all IT suppliers as his company is basically a VAR that bundles and places into leases computer and related equipment. Two of the creditors notified Leasing News to alert other leasing companies. The DDL Company was written up here before at the beginning of last year with a lease funded by Greater Bay Bank, but the vendor was never paid, although the lessee was making payments to Greater Bay Bank. Eventually this complaint and others were paid, so DDL never made the Leasing News Complaint Bulletin Board. As Ricky Peterson explains it, he never recovered from “fraud” that him his company with “no verbals” given when equipment was delivered. One involved a lessee who would not give one on a $35,000 lease after the equipment was delivered, another two were from a “ring” where equipment was shipped but the lessee never funded as the applications turn out to be fraud, costing his company $66,000, as he was the purchaser of the equipment from various supplies. The most bizarre from this group, he explains, was a laptop shipped to a residence of the officer of the company, when delivered, the people who answered the Federal Express said the party did not live here, but they signed for delivered anyway. As soon as the Fed Ex truck left, two men showed up at the door and explained the package was delivered to the wrong address and belonged to them. It appears Mr. Peterson juggled money trying to get out of the predicament with law authorities “doing nothing to help,” he says, and with some slow down in business, the cash flow evidently could not support the operation. There are no leasing companies in the list of creditors. It is his goal to get out of Chapter 11.
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