Watch out for this leasing company...they like to screw you

repogolfer · October 9th, 2013, 06:51 PM

Just going to vent for a second, if you don't mind.

Watch out for
American Capital Group
www.acgcapital.com
Irvine, CA 92618
(877) 814-6871

They like to hide stuff in their lease contracts and the sole purpose of this is to screw the customer. They have a 1 liner in there that if you would like to use the option of the $101 buyout that you originally signed up for to be your last payment you need to write us by certified mail 120 days in advance stating that other you will automatically be renewed under your current payments for 12 more months... Are you freaking kidding me....I just paid them 60 payments and was supposed to have a $101 buyout and now they telling me that I owe them $594 for 12 more months just because I did not send them a letter stating that I wanted to buy the machine for $101 instead of making $7128 more in payments and then still have to pay them the $101 at the end.

I've yelled and talked to the higher ups and they are all crooked...they don't see anything wrong with this and they tried to make me believe that some businesses actually opt for this at the end....your freaking kidding me American Capital Group Irvine, Ca

Basically I've had 3 leases before this with Beacon and US bank and non of the 3 had some crazy 1 liner in the contract that put you in a bind like that. Who the heck is going to remember in 4 years 8 months you better mail this letter to them otherwise this is going to happen.

What a bunch of crooks this AMERICAN CAPITAL GROUP of Irvine, CA is.

WATCH OUT and don't trust anybody.

Thanks for listening.

Jon

Robert Young · October 10th, 2013, 09:38 AM

Sorry you are having to deal with this. I had a similar "clause" in a contract with a home security monitoring company. Fortunately it did not cost nearly what they are hoping to charge you but it sure made me look closer at documents from that point on! And hopefully lots of people will read your post and they will also look closer at their documents.

But in the excitement or the sales push or whatever it is all too easy to just trust the other party and sign the papers.. I know!

Hopefully you can work something out in your situation?

shirtprints · October 10th, 2013, 11:25 AM

Thanks for the heads up. I had on my to-do list today to contact a couple of leasing companies about some new equipment, and they were on the list -- not anymore!

repogolfer · October 10th, 2013, 02:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by shirtprints

Thanks for the heads up. I had on my to-do list today to contact a couple of leasing companies about some new equipment, and they were on the list -- not anymore!

I did not have a problem with them until the end.....but the end is all I'm going to remember. Taught me a valuable lesson, that if I see anything shady in the contract from the beginning ask them to rewrite it and take out the shady stuff...if they won't RUN.

What ticks me off even more today is that once I mentioned that we are in the market right now for another emb. machine...I was told that they could take that extra (12) months of fees OFF no problem...if I went with them on a new purchase with them.....Your kidding me right!

minimalist · October 11th, 2013, 10:00 AM

First rule of contracts, read the entire thing and if you don't understand a term make the lessor provide a written explanation of the terms. If you got big pockets hire an attorney. Of course I did when signing a real estate lease and the attorney failed to catch an important term that latter bit me good. Did I mention that attorneys are not responsible for error?

Repo,

You can cross out the things you don't agree to and write the terms you want on the lease. If they sign and accept it, they agree to your terms. If they rewrite the lease look for a subordination clause. Using this they can sell the lease to another company and the terms under the subordination clause the lease terms can change. It doesn't happen often but it does happen

Robert,

I had the same issue with ADT security services. We closed our business 3 years after signing and they demanded the rest of the 5 year term. I went through the contract line by line and found that at the bottom of the contract the agreement was supposed to be signed by a authorized ADT representative. They didn't sign so I sent them a certified letter stating they were in default of the contract and that under the terms I was invoking the refund of all services paid. Of course they ignored that and kept sending notices. I ignored them and they finally went away.

My favorite one was waste management. We had dumpster services through them for years. I had ask them to move the dumpster to our new building and they refused stating I needed to sign a new contract. They also refused to provide extra dumps when we were throwing away trash at the old location again stating that would need a new contract. Buried within the 8 point type was a clause that stated that upon the request of a customer the dumpster would be moved to a new location if the customer was relocating within the geographic area of service. It went further to state that extra dumps would be provided if requested for an extra charge. It only took one letter to shut them down when they demanded the rest of the term.

To all,

I would never sign a lease for equipment. This is what banks and credit unions are for. In Texas leases are subject to sales tax (at least one I had was). I learned my lesson and would never consider dealing with a leasing company because of the slight of hand tactics and buyout scams.

Robert Young · October 11th, 2013, 10:42 AM

I would never sign a lease for equipment. This is what banks and credit unions are for.

I agree wholeheartedly with this statement! and I thank Repo for bringing this topic up as more and more may still take the leasing route, so these little "tricks of the trade" are important to know.

3Deep · October 25th, 2013, 12:28 PM

We bought embroidery equipment and a automatic press through a leasing company and had 0 problems, equipment was paid off just like they stated and buy out for only a dollar. I would buy again using the same company, but really sorry to hear about the problems some you are having.

Darryl

repogolfer · October 25th, 2013, 02:48 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by 3Deep

We bought embroidery equipment and a automatic press through a leasing company and had 0 problems, equipment was paid off just like they stated and buy out for only a dollar. I would buy again using the same company, but really sorry to hear about the problems some you are having.

Darryl

Darryl,

Same with me on the other 3 leases with my other leases...0 issues same buyout terms.

We end up only being screwed 1/2 way with this company...they/we negotiated 6 months of extra payments instead of 12...I still am not happy...but they did not care. My experience with them will be solely based off of how they treated me at the end...and I would steer anyone away from American Capital Group. Stick with proven companies.