Eckroth Music

Mr. signed a lease agreement with Eckroth Music on November 11th, 2012.

In December of 2012 Eckroth Music contacted Mr. with our standard follow up call. It is our policy to contact all of our customers after they sign an agreement with our company and follow up with them. This is an opportunity for our customers to ask any questions they may have about our agreements and for us to see how music is going for their students.

In February of 2014 the lease account went into default for missed payment. Eckroth Music contacted Mr. and he stated he was filing bankruptcy. We were referred to his lawyer (James ***) at that time. At that time I forwarded a copy of the lease agreement to Mr. James ***. The reason for forwarding the agreement was to show that Eckroth Music retains ownership of the leased property. It is not a purchase agreement. The payments made apply as credit on the agreement and 100% of the payments can be applied to the purchase of a full size instrument when the student is ready to play a full sized instrument. The instruments leased on this agreement are not for sale.

In March of 2014 Mr. called and he was very difficult to deal with. At that point in time I advanced his payment (gave payment forbearance) 2 months to help Mr. out with his struggling financial situation and reduced his payment from $23/month to $15/month going forward. I did this to be kind and helpful to a customer in need.

Mr. continued to make payments on the lease until June of 2017 at which point he received notification from our office stating his missed payment(it was a credit card issue). Mr. called our Roseville store on June 5th to schedule a pickup at ***. Eckroth Music contacted the school and made special arrangements for the school to be opened in the summer to search for the instrument. The instrument was not found in the school or a neighboring school.

I called Mr. in August and left a message that we still did not receive the instrument and that we would not be refunding payments because payments on the account are due until the instrument is returned.

On August 10th, 2017 I talked with Mrs.. She told me the instrument was at their house. I explained that they should return it immediately to stop the charges and we would pay shipping charges for the instrument to be returned. Eckroth Music sent prepaid postage for the safe return of our property. Mrs. also stated that they need an alto saxophone and would like credit from the violin to be applied to a saxophone rental. I explained that is not part of the agreement and we do not bend rules for customers. One of our core values at Eckroth Music is integrity. I explained that it would lack integrity if we gave her credit from a violin lease and applied it to a band instrument (this is a different type of contract, band and orchestral instruments are not handled under the same contract because of the different needs of these programs) rental and did not do it for all of our customers. She at that time told me that she promised she wouldn’t tell anyone if I made an exception for her. I refused her request. During my conversation with Mrs., Mr. took over the phone call. He was rude, threatening and personally attaching me. He at that point denied the instrument was in his house and told me that it may be in his sons room but that it was not his responsibility as a parent to know what was in his child’s room and he would not go into his room to look for the instrument.

In October we sent notification to Mr. stating that we would be turning his account over to a collection agency for if he did not return the instrument. Mr. ignored our notices.

On October 17th 2017 we forwarded Mr. account to our collection agency. We put a final balance on his account because it is a lease and there is no term on the agreement. The final balance is $550.00 (for the purchase price of the instrument) and $183.32 for collection fees (these are the fees charged by the collection agency and are retained by the collection agency) for a total balance of $733.32.

I encourage Mr. to do the right thing and return our property. If he returns the property he is only liable to pay the past due rental fees which would be the July 2017 payment through the date of return plus applicable late fees and collection fees. I’d like him to consider our generosity by cutting his payment and giving him payment forbearance when he had financial problems. I would even be willing to take off a few of his past due payments to get his case resolved in a speedy manner.

I understand that they probably forgot about the instrument and it got tucked away and they were paying for an instrument that has not been used in his sons room. There are some things we can help, such as helping customers in need like we have shown to Mr. in the past. There are others things like negligence that we cannot control. We have to charge customers during the time they have possession of our property. If we let every customer keep our instruments for years without paying for them we wouldn’t have a business.

Please contact me with any further questions or if you need additional documentation.

Thank you,

Mathew ***

Eckroth Music

Business Manager