Lease dispute

[BigJohn]

I signed a contract with a company for a check processing machine so we could electronically process checks with our credit card processing equipment. The business is incorporated and has only one officer, that is me. Nobody has permission to sign for anything except me.

After I signed the contract, the company was suppose to deliver the equipment. They didn't until I had left to go overseas. When they arrived with the equipment, they claimed all new equipment was needed for the check processing equipment to work. The salesperson claimed I would want all of the new equipment and had the salesperson sign for it. She even signed as the guranter of the lease. The lease was non-cancellable.

When I found out what had happened, I had the lease canceled, because the equipment never worked right, and had all the equipment sent back.

This all transpired almost 4 years ago.

Now the leasing company sent the lease to a collection agency. They demand a payment of $2820.66 and another amount of $705.16. The lease was for 4 years at $79.95 a month. How they come up with $2820.66 they refuse to disclose nor disclose what the $705.16 is about.

Is this a valid lease being it was signed by somebody not authorized to sign for a lease?
What questions, etc. should we be asking the collection agency and what else can we do?

[BK2008]

I'm thinking it's not a valid lease...forged signatures, unauthorized delivery of equipment you never ordered.

Do you have a copy of the forged lease?
Do you have a state consumer agency you can file a complaint??
Have you checked out this company on BBB in your area to see what kind of record they have?

Write a certified letter to the collection agency, stating what you posted. Do it within 30 days of letter.

[BigJohn]

I say the lease is invalid because not signed by an officer of the company. Being there is only one officer, that is me.

The lease company has a lot of consumer complaints. They inforce the lease no matter what. As for the collection agency, they are not much better.

The lease company tried getting me to pay, but I thought I fought them off. Instead, they sold the debt and the new debt buyer has decided to go after the employee instead of me.

[HHM]

Probably not valid, but it could cost you more than 2800 to fight it. The sticking point is that you did sign the original agreement.

[BigJohn]

They are not coming after me, they are coming after the employee who hasn't work at my store for over 3 years. I argued with them and won, or at least I thought so. Now they are going after the employee.

As for the original, that never was an issue. The salesperson actually returned it when he did a hard sale after I left to go overseas.