YABBA-DABBA-DOOOOOOOOOOOO

I just received a Certified-Mail envelope from the District Attorney's Office in Ventura County, California. IT WAS MY LADCO RESTITUTION CHECK !!!!!! Hooray, the Little People won one for a change. Fight on, #ElizabethWarren !!

Action!

Wow, the Ladco Leasing (et al.) merchant scam has finally caught the attention of the news media. Here is the text of an email I received late last night:

A news reporter from NBC 7  in San Diego has expressed an interest in interviewing small businesses  who have been targeted in this scam.

Now that the holidays have passed and we are into the new year, there has been a flurry of activity involving legal entanglements with Ladco Leasing et al. One of the members of the Ladco group discovered this very interesting website: http://www.knology.net/~olefogie/INDEX.HTM It is one humongous wealth of information shared concerning merchant scams. And wouldn't you know it, right there under this company's aliases is LADCO LEASING.

********************************* Microfinancial/Leasecomm Throws in the Towel After 20 months of futile attempts to secure new funding for their scam operations, Microfinancial/Leasecomm has “thrown in the towel” as far as Leasecomm is concerned and decided to completely re-invent their criminal corporation. The criminal reputation of Leasecomm has become too well known to continue operations under that name. In order to get desperately needed funding, they had to come up with a new alias. The new ALIAS is TIME PAYMENT CORP. The new website has no reference, whatsoever, to their relationship with Microfinancial or Leasecomm. Kudos To all the victims and the Govt. agencies that have taken a stand and fought this evil corporation. WARNING! The criminal mind is seldom changed, just redirected ****************************** More Aliases Transaction Enabling Systems proudly claims MFI as their "parent corporation", but others, such as Ladco Leasing and Northern Leasing have attempted to remain anonymous. Ladco and Northern were exposed on the Yahoo Finance message board for MFI by Daniel Ficello. "Big Dan" is believed to be an employee of MFI because his home address is listed as Daniel Ficello of 59 Cambridge rd. Woburn Ma. (781) 938-6726, which is very close to MFI headquarters.

The author of this website affirms what the people in our group have been learning, that it's worth your time and effort to FIGHT FIGHT FIGHT these crooks. Too many people don't, so they can afford to lose a few because they are MAKING SO MUCH MONEY OFF OF THEIR VICTIMS. I'll be back soon with some updates gleaned from e-mails.

link to my ladco questionnaire

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1a119jEMo7QAYgUngwierkVKLYnZbjSzoiB9BipZOIoM/edit?hl=en_US

Ventura County DA is investigating....

The Ventura County District Attorney's Office is conducting an investigation into the business practices of Ladco Leasing, Inc. ("Ladco"), of Thousand Oaks, California. The investigation could result in a civil prosecution by our office in which we would seek injunctive relief, penalties and restitution to victims of any unlawful or unfair practices committed by Ladco. Ladco was involved in the business of leasing equipment credit-card swiping terminals to small businesses. If you or your business was a party to a lease with Ladco, we request that you please call Christine Mitchell of the Ventura County District Attorney's Office at 805/662-1731. Thank you for your assistance in this matter.


Christine Mitchell
Senior Paralegal
Ventura County District Attorney
Special Prosecutions Division
5720 Ralston Street, #300
Ventura, CA 93003

805/662-1731 Christine.Mitchell@ventura.org

MerchantScams website

http://www.merchantscams.com/

The group of people who are fighting Ladco Leasing continues to grow. One member of the group has documented his own story at the above link. He has also done a huge amount of research, which he shares here as well.  It is an invaluable resource for anyone who is being ripped off by Ladco Leasing or by some other consumer-unfriendly company.

Complaints Board Ladco group

Ladco leasing scam 2/21/2011

http://www.complaintsboard.com/panel.php?action=groups&subaction=view&id=2949

Link to Facebook page for Ladco Complaints

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100002111000245

Ladco Leasing Class Action

There is a growing number of victims of Ladco Leasing's immoral business practices.

I too have been a victim, but somehow I managed to free myself from their clutches.

Here is an account of what I did, following numerous phone calls, one of which ended with the Ladco guy telling me to "have a nice day" after reminding me that the lease I had signed was "irrevocable."

 

On the morning of August 24, 2010, I received a phone call from an agent at Ladco Leasing,

informing me that the auto-draft to my bank account did not go through. This was, of course, not unexpected, as I had my account  frozen to prevent any further drafts.   She wanted to know how I planned to deal with the remainder of my uncancellable 3-year lease with Ladco for equipment rental.

 

"I have no equipment," I said.  She said "Oh, software," and put me on hold. She came back and informed me that buy-out amount for the remaining 28 weeks of the lease was $1383.17.
 

I responded that this was  outrageous and unreasonable, and that there should be more acceptable terms for buy-out.  Yes, I realize I signed the 3-year lease.   But my business situation  had recently changed, and I decided it would be better to move to a bank with more business services to offer, including an in-house merchant services department.   Elavon's contract included an early-termination clause.  Why wouldn't Ladco Leasing have a similar clause?   

The Ladco agent was authorized to give me 30% discount, or a new buy-out amount of $968.22.  After much discussion and argument, I asked to speak to someone higher up.
 

She passed my call to Cathy  who reiterated that I needed to “return the equipment.” Again, I replied, "I don't have any equipment."   She said, "Oh, software," and put me on hold for a minute.  (Why do I smell a rat here? I thought.)  

She came to the phone; her offer was $961.30 which could be split into 2 payments, and gave me till 5:00 PM the next day to make the payment. Otherwise, she would turn it over to 3rd party collections.

I decided to write a letter to the bank where I had a business account. They had, after all, referred me to Elavon, parent company of Ladco Leasing, when I requested merchant services for my business account.  I hand delivered the letter to the bank's area manager. Here's the link to that letter: 
https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=18j7-5bNYIdQyoVCR2paHMYQ3cf-1t-WLh8Rt4HG-LT0

I'm going to skip some of the play-by-play details for now.
I wrote a follow-up letter to the bank on September 8, 2010. https://docs.google.com/document/pub?id=1PdwEDU5vG9qx3kFRGXmOknc8MjvrxmFj-DAzcTr2yH0

After hearing nothing from the bank or from Ladco, on November 18, 2010 I decided to call Ladco Leasing; I spoke with Stephanie and asked her to give me “status of the account.”

She said “The vendor paid us back and it’s closed.” I asked her what she meant by "vendor."
 

She said the vendor was Elavon, and that "Elavon purchased it back and as far as Ladco is concerned, the account is closed out.”

"Thank you," I replied,  "that’s just what I needed to hear."  Hung up the phone and whooped it up.

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I have no idea what transpired between SunTrust, Elavon and Ladco.  I've had no further contact with SunTrust bank since I closed the account there.  I don't know if SunTrust paid them off, or whether their legal department pulled strings or what.  I'll try to find out.

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In the meantime, I have continued to research contract law and unconscionability.

To be continued.......