LEASE ONE: Failed Brokers Say It’s a Scam
July 28, 2009 by Sean Kelly
Filed under Business
Joe Angelo of Lynnfield, MA-based Lease One Corporation claims that for a one-time fee of $19,900, you can begin servicing a $270 billion industry as a leasing broker and part of the “Lease One Family.”
On the Lease One business opportunity website, Joe claims that, as one of the 200+ Lease One brokers, “you’ll be in business for yourself, but never, ever by yourself.”
As 8 out of every 10 businesses lease equipment, our Associates are right there providing those customers with top notch service and the money they need to make their businesses flourish. With a low investment cost it isn’t hard to see why Lease One Associates are maximizing their investment and enjoying a life-style they have always wished for.
However, allegations that the Lease One broker opportunity is nothing more than a scam and a Ponzi scheme are so prevalent on complaint sites like Rip-Off Report, Complaints Board that the Unhappy Franchisee site posted the question: LEASE ONE CORPORATION: Is It a Scam?
Larry David wrote:
SCAM, SCAM, SCAM. Thank God people are speaking out , thank God I found this website. I signed up and paid my $19,900 two years ago… I was downsized and looking for an opportunity to control my own destiny. The $19,900 was cheap compared to other businesses and I had financial experience. I spoke to LeaseOne first and they convinced me to join. What a SCAM. The train was very basic and the service is completely horrible. The support team is slow and unresponsive… It became clear that these guys are in the business of signing folks up for $19,900 and hoping they do like me and drop out of the program. The scam starts at the low price compared to other business opportunities and finishes when you get so frustrated that you walk away. These guys are great con artists.
King Carpenter, MA wrote:
SCAM. Don’t do it, I paid and was never able to get a deal done through LeaseOne. LeaseOne is a ponzi scheme to sign up brokers, collect the $20,000 and hope the brokers get frustrated and drop out. The support team sucks, totally clueless. Don’t waste your time or money. Find a real business because this one is a scam.
John R wrote:
Lease One is a complete SCAM!! I paid $20,000 attended the training and was never able to get a deal close through them. I was close on one occasion ongetting a $75,000 deal done but they tacked on a $3,5000 processing fee in the 11th hour and the deal fell appart. The backroom support they claim to have is totally inept. I submitted many good deals that seemed to fall into a black hole while my customers waited anxiously on feedback as to whether or not their funding was approved…
Read more on the Lease One broker opportunity here:
LEASE ONE: Scam to sign up brokers?
LEASE ONE CORPORATION: Is It a Scam?
ARE YOU FAMILIAR WITH THE LEASE ONE BROKER OPPORTUNITY? IS IT A LEGITIMATE, LOW-COST OPPORTUNITY OR A FRAUD & A SCAM? SHARE YOUR THOUGHTS BELOW.
Lease is a big time SCAM. I paid the $19,900 and was never able to get a deal done through Lease One. They either rejected every deal I had or came back with an approval for half the amount requested with interest rates and fees tacked on killed any hopes of getting a deal done. To sum the program up: the rates and the support staff suck!! The owner of Lease One is a fast talking snake oil salesman who’s trying to sign up brokers and could care less about whether or not your leases get written. If his folks get you an approval for a $25,000 lease at 39% interest he claims his bogis staff did their job by getting you an approval. If you want to become a lease broker join the NAELB (http://www.naelb.org/index.cfm) for $295. They have folks that will do for free what Lease One claims they’ll do for $19,900. After six months of trying I finally gave on the Lease One scam and joined the NAELB. I am now getting deals won by using the great folks I met through the NAELB. The rates and support I’m getting from the NAELB sponsors are 100% better than the bogus rates and support I got through Lease One.
The most disturbing aspect of the Lease One program is that they rejected my potential customers who were later contacted directly by First Financial who tried to do the deals direct. So I basically paid $19,900 to turn leads over to First Financial Corp.
As a victim of the Lease One Scam please take my advice and don’t do it!! If you want to be a lease broker join the NAELB for $295 p/year and you’ll get access to real leasing companies as opposed to a company run by a con artist trying to sign folks up and move on to his next victim.
SCAM. I signed up and attended the training about 3 years ago. Joe “the con artist” Angelo beat me for $19,900 by selling me on a bogus program. The back room support team is a complete joke. I think he hired a bunch of young kids to run the back room while he’s off selling the broker program to other suckers like me. The lease rates I got from LeaseOne were totally uncompeteive and the support team is a joke. I would fax in proposals and they always seemed to disappear or be missing pages or whatever. When I’d call to follow up they would so i was missing a page or something along those lines. I would ask them why they didn’t call me when I faxed it in days ago and let me know and would get a stupid response. The dope processing the deals is little “slick” Rick Lopez who gave me every excuse in the book as well as to why my deals were rejected. The classic rejection was “i have too many favors out there right now and can’t submit any more deals”. Give Joe Angelo credit on being a great con artists, he sold me on the program. Stay away from the Lease One scam.
So far I am very disappointed in Lease One. Everyone in my class has failed. I tried everything and have ZERO deals to show for it. There has to be recourse because this is simply too blatantly fradulent. What a sad way to make a living, promising people things and then delivering on none just to grab their money!
Here’s more info & discussion on Lease One:
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/lease-one-scam-to-sign-up-brokers/
Sean, Lease One is a SCAM and thank you for this great forum to help make folks aware. Please continue to do what you are doing and help get the word out to protect folks from this horrible scam. I have a lot of business and leasing experience and Lease One said all the right things when I spoke to them and at the training. Once I started trying to get deals approved the scam became apparent pretty quick. More disturbing is the fact that they rejected my deals and later passed them off to other leasing companies. The owner operator of Lease One, Joe Angelo should be put in jail!! Thank God for honest people like you Sean who warns others about lowlifes like the Joe Angelo and Lease One’s of the world
I just signnd up and am very disappointed with the program. I can’t get any of my deals approved and there is no support or help from headquarters. This program does seem like a scam. What a horrible way to make a living by lying to people and selling them on a program that dosen’t deliver. The back room support I though I was buying into is terrible. It looks like they are out posting comments on the internet all day. I saw one comment on Jolt Fourms where someone at LeaseOne worrker is requesting good games for their break room. Based on the service I’m experiencing I think they are spending too much time playing games versus working. This progam is a scam.
Lease One is a BOGUS lease broker program that charges $20,000 with the deceptive promise of provide expert training and backroom support; they do neither. I signed up and paid the $20,000 and was never able to get a deal closed through them. The training is terrible, the back room support is horrible and they took my leads and gave them to other leasing companies! Here’s an example of horrible training, back room support and handing off leads to other leasing companies. During training we were ask to pick an industry and Lease One would provide leads from UCC filings on potential customers in our area. I picked restaurants and they gave me a list of restaurants in my area. I approached some of the leads and submitted a customer lease proposals with all the required information. The back room dope at Lease One came back to me and said that they can’t do leases for restaurants because they are too risky. I asked the dope why he didn’t tell me that when he asked me to pick an industry I was interested in during training but dopey had no answer. I then submitted a $150,000 application for a new Panera Bread store that was opening in my area. The back room dope came back and said that they couldn’t do it because it was a start-up business. I explained to the dope that Panera is an established business and the stock is one of the top rated stocks in Investors Business Daily but again dopey insisted that it was a start up business and he couldn’t do it. Three weeks later the owner of Panera was approached by Robert Searcy of First Financial Corp. who is a friend of Joe Angelo to directly write the lease through First Financial Corp. The Panera contact who is a friend of mine called to say that he was approached by Robert Searcy of First Financial who offered to write the $150,000 lease through First Financial. I called Joe Angelo, the owner of Lease One and told him what happened and he said it was impossible. I asked Joe to call the Panera contact directly but he refused. After submitting many more deals that were either rejected or approved with interests rates in the 15% – 20% range for A & B rated customers with $3,000 fees tacked on I became discouraged and exited the program. I contacted another broker who paid the $20,000 and attended the training with me and he had similar stories of horrible support and leads being passed off to other brokers. He told me about the NAELB and that he was able to make numerous funding contacts that provided back room support and training for free and were able to get his deals approved!! I contacted the NAELB and joined for $295 and sure enough I am getting support and deals approved. Stay away from the Lease ONE SCAM!!! I see other complaints against Lease One on the internet on the following website:
http://www.bizzia.com/franchisepick/tag/lease-one/, FRANCHISEPICK
http://www.unhappyfranchisee.com/lease-one-scam-to-sign-up-brokers/ UNHAPPY FRANCHISEE
http://www.ripoffreport.com/Lease-One-Corporation-Lease-One-Systems/Brokerage-Companies/Lease-One-Corporation-Lease-O-ZAC93.htm, RIP-OFF REPORT
http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints/lease-one-corporation-c122225.html, Complaints Board
http://www.complaints.com/2009/july/17/Lease_One_Corporation_-_Con_Artists_who_charge__2_209797.htm, Complaints.com
Visit the NAELB website http://www.naelb.org/index.cfm, and deal with real leasing companies who provide great support and don’t steal your leads.
WOW, I though I was the only sucker that pain the $19, 999 to spend a week in Mass. They promised me the world. They told me how they had their own funding sources and could get deals approve for new business etc, poor credits etc. It turns out they can’t. If you have good credit customers their rates are way too high and they’ll tack on huge fees. Joe Angelo and Rick Lopez will promise you the world, don’t trust them. This is a scam to get your $20, 000. All you’ll get for your $20, 000 is 5 days at a low budget hotel and a night out to a ratty chinese joint.
We are in the process of pursuing a class action suit. We’ve contacted the Attorney Generals office and were informed that what needs to happen is everyone first needs to file a complaint with better business bureau and attorney generals office. Here is the on line address:
http://WWW.MASS.GOV/AGO
GO TO FILE A COMPLAINT
BBB..ORG/BOSTON
GO TO CONSUMER
FILE A COMPLAINT
Do we have an attorney to represent us?
Count me in!! totally miss leading. I heard the trainer out in the hall way on her cell phone saying how stupid we were.
Stupid for not understanding training or stupid for writing a check for $20.000? So who is representing the stupid people/
Mark, please go on line and file a complaint with MA Attorney General and MA BBB, website is above. We’ll contact you once you file. We’ll get in touch with you.
Surprise !!! (but not really) Stupid is as stupis does. We all thought we were buying a Franchise with no additional costs, but the 100% profit commission is based on Schedule B per attorney review of our signed contract that is a net profit. Do the math. Attorney states that after all of their profits are added in, we get 100% of schedule B which is their formula given to us at training. The “100%” commission is a net profit not what we thought we were getting as they advertised. Not only to they get $19,900, they get the profits from Schedule A as well. They cover themselves by giving us 100% of the net (whcih is stated in our agreements as Schedule B) and they are getting away with it. Simply stated, if we take our maximum commission as they suggest, there is no way to be competetive in the marketplace. Schedule A (Lease One Profit) + Schedule B (our profit) = NO DEALS FUNDED. Is this 100% commission? I think not!
Everybody on this website that has been scammed by Lease One needs to contact me or file a complaint with the MA AG office. Also contact and file a report with the Consumer Affairs Office at 781-286-8114. Be specific with your complaints. If your going to base your complaint of credit decisions, don’t waste your time. Your issues should be material facts that you can verify through email or have witnesses. Such things as you were told the business is great and “we have all the Lenders we need to get your business done”. Anything that you have found out not to be true before you signed with Lease One or after you tried to do business. The AG and the Consumer Affairs office wants to hear from you NOW…so quit complaining and get your complaints in. There are two issues here 1. Getting your money back and getting Lease One to stop in their tracks.
I signed on with this program back in August 2008 and have emails from even last year that state Lease One had the funding and the sources to get business done. So if you are a Broker who got nothing accomplished, file your complaint and be specific with your information.
Anyone reading this…stay away from this bunch!! Duh??
I paid $19,900. On Rip Off Reports, another franchisee claims to have paid $10,000 for his Lease One Franchise. How many other “deals” have they offered. $18,900, $17,900, $16,900, how about $5,000? What a deal! Of course, you still get nothing. How many franchises did they sell? More than 450 as they claim? The longer you think about it, the better the price gets, but one thing we all have in common, no matter what you pay, you get the same ole’, same ole’. You make no money, it’s all your fault. It’s the “least” they can do.
Joe, I want to start a class action law suit against Lease One, this has to come to an end!! Fat Joe Angelo, little Ricky Lopez, and the supporting cast of useless characters need to be stopped. Joe Angelo is a lying con artist robbing people blind. Please do like I did and warn others on Complaints Board and RIPOFF Report http://www.ripoffreport.com/reports http://www.complaintsboard.com/complaints. You’ll see you’re not alone.
I was embarassed to tell people that I got Ripped Off but I feel better putting the word out there to warn others to stray away. Good luck, don’t let the lying scumbags at Lease One let you think it was your fault, they SUCK!!!
Wow! Glad I didn’t join- I found 100 sources on my own and now can do any kind of loan but one time I was considering Lease One.
Are there any plans to pursue the class action lawsuit?
Good question! is there any way we can communicate with each other?
Sorry Nichelle, in case you missed it above:
We are in the process of pursuing a class action suit. We’ve contacted the Attorney Generals office and were informed that what needs to happen is everyone first needs to file a complaint with better business bureau and attorney generals office. Here is the on line address:
http://WWW.MASS.GOV/AGO
GO TO FILE A COMPLAINT
BBB..ORG/BOSTON
GO TO CONSUMER
FILE A COMPLAINT
Gordon,
There must be some way we can communicate with each other. I have contacted a franchise attorney.