Marlin Leasing Doing the Dirty Deed to Dealers?

I have not, but we don't use Marlin, & I don't know of any major competitors in our area that use them as one of their primary leasing partners.

It wouldn't surprise me. I'm amazed at how some of these leasing companies will,screw their dealers. We use Great America primarily and I like the fact that they just want to be the financial arm of the transaction and leave everything else to us and the customer. The rates are a little higher but for the relationship and lack of problems I'll take it.

A long time ago we had a problem with Providence Capital and i brought it up as a warning on this board about using them. I had forgotten but that is what they wanted to do. They did not want us talking to the client about the leasing. They wanted to have the conversations with the clients themselves and keep us out of it.

Marlin is the bottom of the heap as far as scruples go and anyone who uses them deserves what they get.

Our dealership has had a great relationship with Marlin over the last two years. They are a publicly traded company and act like one in the dealings we have had with them. We have built a multi-million dollar portfolio with them and couldn't be happier. I would ask your source for proof and talk to your Marlin Biz Dev Manager. 

Until you reach the end-of-lease issues, you really can't judge any leasing company and especially Marlin. We developed a business model that Marlin agreed to and had their attorney's draw up in an agreement. We signed and returned but failed to get a signed copy back. That's all Marlin needed to renege on everything. It was a contract drafted by their people that they would not honor in the end. If they made you any promises, get it in writing and get a signed copy returned.

I also will add that I do know Marlin is, and probably has for years, sending letters to the customer about a year out talking to them about buying the equipment from them before the lease expires. I'm quite amazed at the short sightedness of this as one, they will lose dealers for a quick sale with a buyout, and two, instead of writing a new lease quickly they will now have a situation where the customer will keep the equipment for several or many years past the expiration of the lease.

I do like our new rep as she lives close to us and is really trying for some business even though I explained to her before she ever came to meet with me that we were extremely pleased with great America and had no intentions of moving our business. 

What I do use them for is the questionable credit as they have a program (I think fairly new) that will do 36 month leases for bad credit or no credit people. I just did one last week that no leasing company would touch because of previous loan write off's for trucks and other equipment. For that particular customer I tried with about all the leasing companies I knew of - element, leaf, DLL, GE, great America, etc.

David Scott posted:

Our dealership has had a great relationship with Marlin over the last two years. They are a publicly traded company and act like one in the dealings we have had with them. We have built a multi-million dollar portfolio with them and couldn't be happier. I would ask your source for proof and talk to your Marlin Biz Dev Manager. 

David:

My information comes from a dealer principal that I've known for twenty years.  He called me to help him get the word out, you know the drill, "bad news travels quicker than good news".  I can also tell you that this dealer also HAD a long relationship with Marlin and a large portfolio.

I appreciate your input and am happy to hear that some are doing well with them.