September 20, 1999
Hi, my name is Ken Berland and I've got a story to tell about Ladco Leasing and Merimac Card Services.
I wanted to process credit cards for my business and they screwed me into a "Non-Cancellable" lease for a piece of equipment I was to later find out costs about $150.
I suspect that it is illegal to enter into a lease without disclosing the cost of the equipment being leased. If anyone knows for sure please mail me.
I found out that the 48 payments of $23 was about 10 times the cost of the equipment and promptly cancelled the bank account that they were drawing on and mailed the equipment back in its entirety and in perfect condition.
They have subsequently threatened to "ruin my credit" and have told me that I "should have shopped around." I ended my last conversation with the expected "I'll see you in court." So, I'm waiting to see if they do sue me.
For you, it is not too late. Look into purchasing used equipment and stay away from these crooks.
Update
They did sue and I settled with them for about half the price that was due. I had spoken to a lawyer about it and he seemed to think that it wasn't worth going to court since the possibility of losing was a real one.
From: Castagnola76@ Date: Sat, 26 Jul 2003 22:21:52 EDT Subject: Ladco Sucks Hi, I know how you feel I'm also leasing a credit card machine threw Ladco but they were the leasing company I signed the papers threw a company called Landmark Merchants who are a bunch of crooks. IM paying 57 dollars for 48 months on a piece of equipment that cost $600 these includes a 15 page website that they are still working on 6 months later. I was so pissed off when I found out that I had to pay the whole lease off plus 10% fee that my sales rep at Landmark Merchants said If at anytime I can pay off early for around 1200 dollars these was bullshit. I don't have time or money to sue, but maybe there is a class action lawsuit out there against these people. There was an Add in the paper for a terminal for about 800 dollars or take over lease, I called the lady up and said let me guess landmark merchants she said yes and had the same complaints. Well my friend I just wanted to vent to someone Thanks Daniel I dont know what to do ? From: "Marge Firn" Subject: ladco Date: Mon, 28 Jul 2003 20:51:30 -0400 Guess I should have looked into your site first. At least you know what equipment to send back. I received some sort of equipment via my ISP to process credit card orders. I asked them what it was so I could return it. Their only reply was that dire consequences would result if I didn't return it. I contacted my ISP and the company that put the whole thing together (total merchant services) - neither had any idea what I was talking about. Repeated letters to Ladco & their attorney have gone unanswered. But I do continue to get increasingly shrill demands for $. There are a number of shady things that have occurred during the time of my lease - mysterious insurance rqmts attached to 'contracts' I never saw before showedup in the mail after the service started, for example. I've done a little research & think they have committed multiple violations of California's Unfair Competition Law (where they are) and Pennsylvania's Unfair Trade Practices Law (where I am). All states have similar laws. It's a little too late for you (statute of limitations has long since run out), but I was wondering if other 'happy' customers have contacted you. Seems to me there's a class action suit waiting to happen if I start finding similarities in other people's experiences. So feel free to have them contact me. thanks Dave Firn From: "Jamie Barrows" Subject: Ladco is fucking me help Date: Thu, 14 Aug 2003 10:18:41 -0700 I started a business and wanted to do the same thing that you did, and i made the mistake of going through Landmark which was financed by Ladco, after recieving really shitty servous through Landmark i cancelled my service with the both of them... Not really knowing much about leases and contracts, i sent back the equipment on a "good faith" basis with Ladco. I sent it back within 2 months of the signing. The manager of Ladco called me and said that if i didnt pay for the total amount owed on the lease they were going to sue me and have me pay for the court fee's and all of there lawyer fees, and there plane ticket fees...That was over 2 months ago. Now they have a debt collection agency after me, by the name of Commercial Debt Recovery Services... They have threatened to "levy" my bank account (means there going to take money out without my consent) so i closed my bank account. I told them i wouldnt pay them because i dont respond well to threats. I am in a corner here, and have no idea what the hell im suppose to do. I haven't heard from the Debt Recovery agency in about 2 weeks.... But i can feel something bad is about to happen... Do you have any advice? Jamie _________________________________________________________________ STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail Date: Mon, 18 Aug 2003 14:52:39 -0700 From: IECINTL Subject: Ladco I got a couple chargebacks, they cancelled my account but expected me to continue to pay the monthly fee's for the shopping cart. Since then I have been unable to get a merchant processing account because they put something on my credit warning other merchant companies not to deal with me. I don't know how to fix it but IM screwed! Let me know who I should contact over there to settle this with them. Please and thanks in adance for your help! Concerned about your privacy? Follow this link to get FREE encrypted email: https://www.hushmail.com/?l=2 Free, ultra-private instant messaging with Hush Messenger https://www.hushmail.com/services.php?subloc=messenger&l=434 Promote security and make money with the Hushmail Affiliate Program: https://www.hushmail.com/about.php?subloc=affiliate&l=427 From: "Jamie Barrows" Subject: Re: Ladco is fucking me help Date: Sun, 24 Aug 2003 23:10:37 -0700 Did you settle in court? or out of court? just curious. Im thinking of registering www.ladcoleasing.com and putting up a rant site to see how many other poeple they have really nailed with there leases..weird thing is... they dont have that url registered... oh well, hey thanks anyways. jamie >From: Kenneth Berland >To: Jamie Barrows >Subject: Re: Ladco is fucking me help >Date: Fri, 15 Aug 2003 14:49:25 -0700 (PDT) > >No advice. But they pursued me to the point of a lawsuit, and then I >settled at about 80 cents on the dollar. > > > >On Thu, 14 Aug 2003, Jamie Barrows wrote: > > > I started a business and wanted to do the same thing that you did, and i > > made the mistake of going through Landmark which was financed by Ladco, > > after recieving really shitty servous through Landmark i cancelled my > > service with the both of them... Not really knowing much about leases >and > > contracts, i sent back the equipment on a "good faith" basis with Ladco. > I > > sent it back within 2 months of the signing. The manager of Ladco >called me > > and said that if i didnt pay for the total amount owed on the lease they > > were going to sue me and have me pay for the court fee's and all of >there > > lawyer fees, and there plane ticket fees...That was over 2 months ago. >Now > > they have a debt collection agency after me, by the name of Commercial >Debt > > Recovery Services... They have threatened to "levy" my bank account >(means > > there going to take money out without my consent) so i closed my bank > > account. I told them i wouldnt pay them because i dont respond well to > > threats. I am in a corner here, and have no idea what the hell im >suppose > > to do. I haven't heard from the Debt Recovery agency in about 2 >weeks.... > > But i can feel something bad is about to happen... Do you have any >advice? > > > > Jamie > > > > _________________________________________________________________ > > STOP MORE SPAM with the new MSN 8 and get 2 months FREE* > > http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail > > _________________________________________________________________ Get MSN 8 and enjoy automatic e-mail virus protection. http://join.msn.com/?page=features/virus From: Mckysemail Date: Tue, 4 Nov 2003 21:45:52 EST Subject: Ladco Leasing Dear Ken, So glad I found your site. I too was screwed by Ladco. Although I did fullful my contract with them. However, they have on 3 seperate occasions stolen money from my checking account. Today I filed a complaint against them with the California Attorney Generals Office and the Federal Trade Commission. They are theives. I ended up paying over $2,000 for a piece of crap equipment that is obsolete. When I tried to get them to update the software, they told me they weren't a leasing company but a finance company. Then later when I confronted them about that, they retacted that statement and they were a leasing company again. I have attached a copy of my compaint for your reading enjoyment. Thanks for the site Mickey CrawfordI am a small business owner and I contracted with Ladco Leasing for credit card equipment leasing on 9/2/99 for a term of 48 months. In my lease agreement I authorized auto deductions from my checking account. On 12/5/99 they began making unauthorized withdrawals for a loss waiver fee. This occured 7 times. I resolved this issue with them and did finally receive credit. But again on 4/15/2003 they withdrew an unauthorized $20 for a tax admin fee. After much discussion about this bogus tax, they admitted it was not actually a tax and did agree to credit the charge. However they did not and I had deduct it from my next payment. At this time I was also told they weren't actually a leasing company but a finance company. This was their excuse for not keeping the equipment in compiance with federal laws. I aruged my contract clearly stated it was a lease agreement. Later they retracted that statement and became a leasing company again. Because of the distrust and lack of cooperation I had with this company at this point, I notified them in writing that I was terminating all authorizaitons for any bank withdrawals and asked my bank to issue a stop pay on any future automatic deductions from Ladco. I continued to make my payments by check. At the end of my agreement I returned their equipment as agreed. I began receiving calls from them in Sept indicating I still owed them for two payments. I disputed this and told them the terms of my contract were 48 months and Aug 30, 2003 ended my contract. I would not pay them more money. They said they would turn the matter over to a collections agency. I was compelety prepared to defend my position and made it very clear to them that I was not paying them more money. On 10/24/03 they fraudulently withdrew $116.29 from my account again without my authorization. They had been advised both verbally and in writing that I had stopped any authorization for them to do so on 9/2/03. Their conduct since the inception of this agreement has been an ongoing practice of fraud. I am requesting my bank to honor the stop pay I issued in August however, I feel this company is in complete violation of the law and abuses the priviledges issued by their customers that allow them access to their accounts. Date: Fri, 21 Nov 2003 10:38:57 -0500 From: Dick Wheeler Subject: Fw: LADCO SUCKS [ The following text is in the "iso-8859-1" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] ----- Original Message ----- From: Dick Wheeler Sent: Friday, November 21, 2003 10:35 AM Subject: LADCO SUCKS Hello Sorry to hear there are so many other victims of Ladco Leasing. There should be a way to stop this stuff, but just like you guys, I got stung by a salesman who said we could return the machine without obligation. We only had it for about six weeks and returned it in the box. They are still withdrawing 31.99 a month from my account for almost 2 years now. The only way to stop them is to close my account which I'm reluctant to do because of so many other "authorized" automatic debit transactions. So I keep paying just to keep my bank account (that I've had for several decades) open! Ladco is lower than any scum of the earth! That's how I feel. Regards Richard Wheeler St Petersburg Florida Date: Thu, 4 Mar 2004 20:40:17 -0800 From: M&M To: ken Subject: I hate Ladco [ The following text is in the "Windows-1252" character set. ] [ Your display is set for the "US-ASCII" character set. ] [ Some characters may be displayed incorrectly. ] March 3, 2004 Hi Ken, Thank you for having your Ladco Leasing sucks on the www. I appreciate knowing I'm not alone. In June 2003 I too was CONNED into an unbreakable lease with this lowlife cluster of scum called Ladco. It was through another cluster of scum called Merchant Processing Inc. In Portland, OR. I know it sounds bad, but were they Asian? YEP! And infamous around here. I have complained to anyone who will listen. The State Attorney General's Office, an attorney, Visa, Tasq Technologies... and many, many business and financial acquaintances. I have gotten no results. I am afraid to let them take me to collections, because my credit is quite good. Will someone please tell me there's a class action lawsuit here?!!?**#$% Sincerely, Pathetically Screwed in Vancouver, WA