Providence Capital Funding - Beware

Being from the leasing industry, I have seen too many of these instances. When dealing with companies that advertise they can approve any customer, please be careful.  I have seen quite a few of these companies taking deposits, advance payments and then never funding the deal and keeping the money 

It always important to check out any company you want to do business with and make sure to discuss the details prior to doing business with them - are they a member of the ELFA or other national organization, references from other dealers.  References from your current leasing partner?

 

As usual, this comes down to the details - did the customer agree to these terms (on the proposal form, application form) that stated that any advance payment, deposit would be kept if the transaction was not completed.  That is a very common clause in many leasing companies proposals (just not this industry).  If the customer agreed to these terms and then send in a deposit and did not complete the deal, they may be out of luck.  If this was never agreed upon, your customer may have the right to get his money back, he will just have to fight for it.  How muck work is the customer willing to put into this to get their money back.

 

You can check out www.leasingnews.org - it's a leasing industry website and regularly they post complaints similar to yours.  The editor even acts as an Ombudsman sometimes to help out a customer that has been wronged.

 

If you need any help, please let me know.

 

 

Thank you for the info Maestro. Nothing was ever fully agreed upon and after deal was approved they took the deposit but then came back and said they couldn't do the deal because the person signing the lease wasn't authorized even though the owners of the building signed the disclosure etc that she is authorized to sign. After that she told me she would just write me a check for the system and get the deposit back and then all the nonsense started.

 

I can also say that we started this deal back in December 2013 and still had no lease approval in place from providence by end of January 2014. At that point she was fed up and decided to purchase.

 

I will check out the website you discussed. I told her between our BTA and CDA people we would make sure they would not be used for anyone's leasing.

Jason:

 

Awesome thread, this is the type of stuff that needs to be posted on the forums!!

I will check out the website you discussed. I told her between our BTA and CDA people we would make sure they would not be used for anyone's leasing.

 

Note from Art:  And all of us Print4Pay Hotel members. Always remember that Bad news travels quicker than good news!

Thanks Art.

I find it important to make sure people in our industry know when something happens that is bad but also will praise the good when it happens.

I am glad my client was not very upset with us as I worried this would open up the door to competitors. This is one of those accounts that doesn't require a lot of attention thanks to the relationship and will call and say "I need a system at this site, on this day, bring me the lease and do it." No complaining about price or anything, just walk in sign and go.

No Problem, in fact, I naming tonight's email headline "Leasing Company Stiffs End User of $2,500", hoping that will get the word out also.

 

As far as your customer, I wish we all had many more like them. They value you, the relationship, the support and allow you to make a buck.

 

Art

Just another reason I don't do business with lease companies.  Some maybe quite good (I hear good things about Great America), but I want to control what happens at the end....

 

Find a local bank, explain what you do, assign them the lease.  You bill the customer and bank debits the payment from your account.  E-automate makes it really easy...

 

Have about $1.5MM on the books (including MPS contracts) and hope to hit $2MM by end of year.  Never loose a customer because of the lease - rarely loose a customer at all.