Crest Financial Services, LLC

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:I did not sign nor have I ever seen that document. I'm not disputing I made the purchase and agreed to the payment. I was not aware of the 90 day buy out. I was told the payment was $41 until paid off. The account was paid in full when I realized that was not in fact true and I would end up paying double the purchase price. I agree with a finance charge since payments were involved but paying double is ridiculous especially since this is not expressly explained to their customers. 
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:This is not the original agreement that was signed. The agreement that I signed had a breakdown of how long I had to pay off the furniture. This is not the original document that I signed. Therefore the debt is not valid. The furniture was that much money and you guys are trying to collect for something that was paid off within the first 30 days. Therefore when you guys drafted my account twice, I had my bank return the funds as I had already paid the account off. When your company attempted a third time and I called your office and spoke with a rep by the name of Charlie or Charlene, I asked her why were they attempting to draft my account when the furniture was paid off within the first 30 days of receiving the merchandise? The rep couldn't explain to me why. I then decided to drive to the place where I purchased the furniture from and that's when I found out the place was closed down and there was no indication that the company relocated. The number I called the rep at was 855-552-7378. Your company is a predatory lending company that is currently facing a class action lawsuit for the same reasons as I am complaining. Over 266 people have paid this company only to have the account reported to the credit bureau after the account has been paid off. Your company is clearly upset that I paid the account off within the first 30 days and you couldn't charges me three times what the furniture is worth. I paid this account off prior to my first payment. I have faxed in and emailed proof back in 2015 and yet and still this remains on my credit. Please check into this and stop posting a mere portion of the contract. Pull up the recordings where I called in. Not to mention that no one has once called, sent letters, or reached out to me until now. Since I sent a complaint to the Revdex.com, now your company wants to reach out to me. I have spoken with several reps and have always wrote their names down. I spoke with a Tony, Carla, Thomas, and Paul. All requested the same documentation that I emailed and faxed way back in 2015. I will be fighting this to the end and I will make sure that I get the word out about this company.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

We understand the frustration Mr. [redacted] is feeling, and are continuing to work on resolving this issue. The delay is not based in our refusal to process the funding and we've explained that to Mr. [redacted]. We'll keep him apprised of the progress as updates are available.

Ms. [redacted]'s store is a retailer partner of ours. Her fundings have been processed according to our guidelines and there are no outstanding transactions at this time.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I am rejecting this response because:  Crest was taking payments of $36.14 out of my
account TWICE a month,in spite of the fact that I was making large payments to pay off the original amount.  When I called to ask
about making the large payment, I was told by one of CREST'S CUSTOMER SERVICE
REPRESENTATIVES that the $36.14 to be debited from my account in October and
that would be the final payment, so I made a large payment of $96.00.  At no
time, did she say that I was out of the "90 day lease"
arrangement.  If she had, I would have
made the final payment right then and there. 
Let's be clear, I am NOT PAYING to have Crest take back the
bed, nor am I paying ANOTHER $452 for this bed. 
If I pay ANOTHER $452.00, I want a SECOND mattress and box spring. 
Do what you need to do as I will be doing what I need to do. and if that means a court date...so be it.
Sincerely,
[redacted]
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I will attempt to find an extra $75 by the end of the month to re age the account and work back to a payment schedule. You stated:"We'd like to reiterate that a copy of the signed lease agreement was emailed to Ms. [redacted] at her validated email address at the time it was electronically signed on September 2, 2015. The signature page (page 5) of the lease is clearly labeled in bold uppercase text stating that "BY SIGNING THIS LEASE, YOU AGREE THAT (a) YOU READ ALL FIVE PAGES OF IT, (b) YOU UNDERSTAND IT, (c) YOU RECEIVED A COPY OF IT, AND (d) YOU AGREE TO ALL ITS TERMS."The problem with your statement makes it seem as though a copy of the contract was e-mailed only after it was signed. Prior to signing we were not presented with the contract. In the future I wish you would work with retailers to ensure better practices for compliance and to avoid hassle and confusion with customers.  I'm not angry just frustrated about this whole situation. I do appreciate your attempts to work with us.   
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted].  We were finally paid in full, but it took them 3-4 Months to get...

us paid.I would strongly suggest that retail furniture stores choose a different finance company.  I believe that Crest is having some financial problems and shouldn't be in business.It disturbs me that I had to contact the Revdex.com and also the NC Attorney General to get my balance due of approx. $7800.00.
Sincerely,
[redacted], Owner[redacted]
Since 1917

We understand Ms. [redacted]’s frustration and apologize for the confusion involved with her final lease payment. A copy of her e-signed lease agreement is attached for reference to support this explanation. Ms. [redacted] agreed to make 24 semi-monthly payments of $75.14 after making the initial...

payment of $40 at the time of the transaction on 8/3/15. Semi-monthly payments were scheduled for the 15th and last of the month. The first one was on 8/15/15 and the 24th one was scheduled (and paid) on 7/31/16. Ms. [redacted] must have inadvertently noted the last payment date incorrectly in her narrative, because she frequently accessed her account online and the payment schedule was always visible on her home page. During the course of her lease, Ms. [redacted] had three scheduled payments returned to us unpaid by her bank (11/30/15, 12/15/15, and 2/29/16) plus one attempt to resubmit a returned payment (12/2/15) that was not honored by her bank. The 11/30/15 payment was paid on 12/22/15, and the 12/15/15 payment was paid along with the regularly scheduled payment on 12/31/15. The 2/29/16 payment was never paid, and that is why Ms. [redacted] received the email from Travis on 5/6/16. Although Ms. [redacted] responded to Travis via email with direction to make the missing payment along with her regularly scheduled payment on 5/15/16, unfortunately we cannot act on payment instructions received via email. Therefore, the 2/29/16 payment remained unpaid even after Ms. [redacted] made her final scheduled payment on 7/31/16. Her payment history is attached for reference. We attempted to reach Ms. [redacted] via phone and email several dozen times from early May through September to make arrangements for that missing payment and did not get a return call or email from her. At the point her remaining payment reached 90 days overdue and we hadn’t heard from her, we scheduled and subsequently received the final payment via ACH draft on 11/15/16.  Per section 10 of the lease agreement, Ms. [redacted] authorized us to “initiate an EFT over the ACH network (or another network of our choosing) from the bank account for any scheduled payment you owe under this lease on or after its due date.” It must have been sheer coincidence that Ms. [redacted] chose that same day to write and send a money order for the final payment amount. Due to the returned payments over the course of the lease, Ms. [redacted] accumulated $121 in fees (per sections 8 and 11 – reinstatement fee and returned payment fee). Her money order in the amount of $75.14 was applied to that amount and she now has an outstanding balance of $45.86 for the remainder of those fees. However, we are willing to consider her account paid in full and waive the remaining balance. We hope this clears up the confusion for Ms. [redacted] and we appreciate her business as a customer.

At Crest Financial, we provide families with no credit
needed financing through selected retail partnerships. Customers select
merchandise through their local retailer. At checkout, Crest Financial pays the
retailer for the merchandise, and the customer signs a 12 month lease
agreement. Items 9...

and 10 of the lease agreement explains that we can attempt
to draft payments any time on or after the due date and may resubmit missed
payments at a later time on a different card. When the customer’s payment, scheduled for November 10 returned,
the customer made other arrangements with one of our representatives to make up
the payment, however, when another scheduled payment on November 24 returned,
the customer did not make repayment arrangements. At that point, we are
authorized to draft from other accounts on file to bring the account to a
current status. Unfortunately, we will not be able to remove credit cards
from our system as they are authorized for use in the lease agreement. On
November 27, we drafted a random payment from a credit card as explained above.
This brought the account to a current status so if all other scheduled payments
clear fully, there will be no further need for random payments. All future
payments are scheduled to be made on the credit card ending in [redacted]. If the customer would like to make changes, they can call into our customer service line.

We have executed the return transaction on Ms. [redacted]'s account and the lease is now closed.

We do our best to make payments as easy as possible for customers which is why we offer several methods for customers to make, schedule and check on payments. Because we offer so many options, we do not notify customers when a payment doesn’t process, especially when missing the payment doesn’t...

cause the customer to become past due. We rely on customers being responsible and attentive to their bank accounts and to notify us about problems. This is particularly true when customers are trying to take advantage of a limited-time discount like our 90 day buyout option. We do see that there was an error in scheduling this $400 payment in January. We aren’t sure what happened. Mr. [redacted] currently has a payment processing through our system. If this payment fully processes and doesn’t return unpaid, we will mark this account as Paid in Full.

We appreciate the responsible payment history Mr. [redacted] has shown throughout the term of his lease, and are disappointed to hear that he’s confused about the terms of the agreement he signed. Although we provide regular training to all retailers who present our lease-to-own solution to their...

customers, we ultimately depend on our own communication directly with the customer to ensure complete understanding of the terms. A welcome call from our representative to Mr. [redacted] was conducted on 3/25/17, within an hour after we transmitted the lease agreement for his review and electronic signature. In that call we covered all the terms in detail, including the fact that Mr. [redacted] had entered into a lease purchase agreement. This call is scripted to ensure consistency, and customer-specific details such as payment amount and frequency are included. He also received a copy of the lease via email at the time of transaction, and a follow up welcome email describing the same information as in the welcome call. We’re confident that we fully explained the transaction terms during these interactions, regardless of whether Mr. [redacted] may have been given inaccurate information by the retailer. Mr. [redacted] has eight remaining bi-weekly payments of $139.92 remaining in order to own his merchandise, with the next one being due on 12/29/17.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I never received an email. I never e-signed anything therefor any signature crest financial has is fraudulent. [redacted] nor crest financial informed me of a 90 day period or had me sign any kind of lease agreement. Had I known there was a 90 day period, I would have had the amount paid off to avoid such extreme fees. I agreed to the amount I was financed for and agree to pay what I owe. I've already made 11 payments to crest financial and will be able to pay the remaining $227.75 of the $1123.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:I entered this contract based on the plain language contained within.  Paragraph 6B clearly states: ""...you will own the Property when you pay to us, in a lump sum payment, 65% of the Total of Payments less the payments you have already made, plus applicable fees and costs that may have accrued." No where I that statement does it mention 65% of 'the balance' , or 65% of 'what is left'.  Both plain english reading of the sentence, and mathematical reading of the sentence arrives at the same conclusion=  65% of (total of payments - ToP) - (payments already made - PaM),  or; , .65 x ToP - PaM, (as written in the sentence, complete with commas)  Grade school math order is "Please excuse My Dear Aunt Sally", or 'parentheses, Exponents, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction',  in that order.  Thus, you would solve it this way:  (.65 x ToP) - PaM.  Then the next sentence of 'plus applicable fees.' of course.  For Crest to interpret this statement any other way is misleading at best, and fraudulent at worst.   I have called Crest several times to resolve this issue and offer a payoff to close the contract under the terms they wrote in the contract to no avail and consider them in breach of the same.  I would be happy to resolve this issue, as long as the terms of the contract are followed.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

The signature on the document is one that was electronically generated by Mr. [redacted]. The industry-leading tool used by Crest Financial for this purpose is secure and provides a complete audit trail of all activities related to the digital signature on the transaction. Note the bracket around the signature with the annotation of the PKI (public key infrastructure) code. That code is associated with the document having been received and responded to from Mr. [redacted]’s email address, which makes it a legally binding signature (please refer to attached certificate from DocuSign). It may be the case that a representative of the retailer verbally presented inaccurate information to Mr. [redacted] regarding the terms of our program, and we’re sorry to hear about the distress this has caused him. Although we provide regular training to all retailers who present our lease-to-own solution to their customers, we ultimately depend on our own communication directly with the customer to ensure complete understanding of the terms. The welcome call from our representative to Mr. [redacted] was conducted five minutes after we transmitted the lease agreement for approval and received his signature. In that call we covered all the terms in detail, including the fact that Mr. [redacted] had entered into a lease purchase agreement. This call is scripted to ensure consistency, and customer-specific details such as payment amount and frequency are included. Although we are confident that the transaction is not fraudulent, the fact remains that Mr. [redacted] may have been given inaccurate information by a retailer and failed to review the agreement in detail before signing it. So, in the spirit of good business, we’ll mark his account as paid off after the scheduled payment from 11/17/17 clears his bank account. If that payment is returned to us by his bank, this offer will be retracted.

At Crest Financial, we provide families with no credit needed lease options through selected retail partnerships. Customers select merchandise from a local, independent retailer. Crest pay the retailer for the merchandise and the customer leases the merchandise from Crest Financial. Retail...

representatives are independent, 3rd party sales reps and they don’t have the ability to change the terms of the lease at point of sale. Nor does Crest Financial have any way of knowing or acting upon what the retail representative is told. At the time of purchase, customers sign a lease agreement that initiates the lease. The terms of the lease are fully explained in the agreement, which we have attached. Note the box on the first page, just above the customer signature which indicates the amount of each payment and states the payments will be weekly, and the boxes immediately to the right which explain there will be 53 payments spanning the 12 month lease. We also make several attempts to contact all customers at the start of the lease to make sure the customer understands the terms of the lease. During these calls, we can also make changes to the customer’s payment schedule. The customer signed their lease on May 10. We attempted to call the customer on May 12, 13 and 14 to ensure the customer understood the lease and to set up the customer’s payment schedule. We also encourage customers to regularly check their online customer portal, which shows the date and amount of the next several payments. The customer did not return our welcome calls and did not contact us until after her first scheduled payment was processed. At this point, we cannot issue a refund as we did not violate the terms of the lease agreement. We have adjusted the customer’s future payment schedule for all future payments. Payments are now scheduled for the second Friday of the month, excepting the last payment, which will be the first Friday in August in order to allow the customer to be paid in full within her 90 day discount period. All of these payments are listed on the customer portal. Any other changes can be made by contact customer service at least 3 days before the payment is scheduled.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I'm going to need some more time to locate proof I contacted the company to pick up the items. I'm not 100% sure if it was the furniture company I bought the items from or Crest Financial. I believe it was both but I want to make sure I have documentation to back that up. Regarding the offer to close this account I want to make sure I understand the terms correctly. Crest Financial is stating they will accept 2 payments of $898.45, totaling $1,796.89 as long as both payments are received no later than 2/14/18? Once the 2nd payment is received the account will be closed?If I can get some clarification on this to make sure we are on the same page I would appreciate it. Thanks.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
In regards to the copy of the lease, we never received this document on 3/11/17 or on 11/15/17 via email. Further, that is NOT my signature on the document that has been attached by Crest. When we were sold the mattress, the terms we agreed to were 6 months of biweekly payments of 118.07. We were never told anything about a LEASE. We were told we were entering a finance agreement and we never made any payment on 3/11/17, even though this document says we paid 42.40. We have bank statements to dispute this information. As far as the phone calls on 3/15/17, we agree that my wife and I were heated and requested a supervisor. The frustration of learning we had been taken advantage of certainly got to us. We apologize for the using a few words that we should not have used. We take complete responsibility for that part, but that doesn't change the fact that Crest and/or its retailer took unfair advantage of us. As people who have excellent credit, it was very upsetting to learn we have been overcharged for a bed we could have financed in several different ways if we had actually been provided the lease agreement information at the time of sale. Again, we never signed a LEASE agreement and that is not my signature on the document. We feel strongly that the either the sales rep, Jim, took advantage and illegally signed my name or Crest has put incorrect information on a document. We are not sure how to proceed, but this is not the deal we agreed to or ever would have agreed to for a simple mattress purchase. Any assistance that can be given to help resolve this matter would be greatly appreciated.Sincerely,[redacted]

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me.
I would like to do the settlement amount as long as I get a letter stating that its paid in full once they receive my last payment.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

We understand Ms. [redacted]'s frustration, and in a measure of good faith will waive any additional costs or fees and mark her account paid in full as of 2/28/18.