Wednesday, June 3, 2015

Xpert Order Service - Taking the Payday Loan Scam to the Next Level


I first became familiar with Xpert Ordering Service through an online “bait and hook” ad in the local Houston Craigslist that my son found when searching for a used or new PS4 or Xbox One system.  The ad basically leads and or directs its potential victims to a website at https://xpertorderingservice.com/  (Please see submitted screen shot).

Xpert Ordering Service presents itself as a business that offers bad credit / no credit financing for consumers who may desire to purchase low to high end electronics. Numerous and deceptive bait words such as, “100% Financing Guaranteed”, “No Credit Check”, “No Money Down”, “Everyone’s APPROVED” and “We carry all the latest electronics” are used to entice consumers to submit an application to lure them in to a high interest financing scam that is illegal in several states.  (Please see submitted screen shot).

In short, Xpert Ordering Service is a fraudulent enterprise using deceptive trade practices to entice consumers in to purchasing electronic products financed by subprime lending services such as Progressive Finance and Crest Financial Services, who have taken the “Pay Day Loan” scam to the next level using a lease agreement to draw consumers in to high interest loans, with numerous undisclosed fees, further disguised as a “90 Day Same As Cash” financing options.

After my son foolishly applied to and was denied by Xpert Ordering Service for financing to purchase a PlayStation 4 (Everyone’s APPROVED), I decided to find out exactly what he had potentially fell victim to.  After picking out a MacBook Pro, I submitted my application for a lease of a MacBook Pro via an unsecured web portal to Xpert Ordering Service.  When selecting the MacBook Pro from the Xpert Ordering Service, the first thing I noticed was that the website did not list any price for the MacBook Pro, other than it states on its advertised page, “Starting at $99.00.”  There is no disclaimer on any of the websites pages indicating hidden charges or why the actual product prices are not advertised.  (Please see submitted screen shot).

Every product on the Xpert Ordering Service website is linked to an application page for financing.  The application page asks for personal information, which includes, “Date of Birth”. “Social Security Number”, “Driver’s License Number”, “Checking Account Number”, “Bank Routing Number” and two “Personal References.”  The website does not have any disclaimers concerning the application for credit, other than the following, concerning said application:

BY CLICKING SUBMIT, I HEREBY: (1) certify that all information I have provided on this application or in connection herewith is true, correct, and complete. You may contact any person or company that I have listed and I fully release all parties from all liability for any damage it may result; (2) understand that this application is subject to approval by Xpert Ordering Service. (3)understand that this action counts as my electronic signature.”

 

Within an hour after submitting my aforementioned application for credit (No Credit Check) to Xpert Ordering Service, I received an Email notice from Xpert Ordering Service, stating that I had been approved by Progressive Finance for a credit line of $1580.00, I could utilize to purchase / lease the aforementioned MacBook Pro.  Shortly thereafter, I received a phone call from a sales person, known to me as “Anthony” [hereafter referred to as ‘Sales person and  or Salesman’] from Xpert Ordering Service who indicated to me that I could pick up my MacBook Pro the following morning and that I needed to pay them $140.00 (“No Money Down) before picking it up.

The following morning I contacted my sales person at Xpert Ordering Service and was told that it would be later in the day before I could pick up my MacBook Pro.  After going back and forth with the sales person several times during the day about picking up my purchase, the salesman then informed me that Xpert Ordering Service was waiting on Progressive Finance to set them up on a “new system” and that it would most likely be several days before I could pick up my MacBook Pro.  (“Receive your product in no time”)

I really did not believe I could hear any more outlandish claims and lies than what I had already heard from the salesman, but I was definitely proved wrong when the alleged Principle of Xpert Ordering Service, Maurice T. Hill contacted me by telephone later that day.  Mr. Hill introduced himself to me as a sales manager for Xpert Ordering Service [and later as an employee of American Contemporary Furniture].  Despite my giving him numerous examples of the prevarications his sales person previously had orated to me via our numerous telephone conversations, Mr. Hill came up with some really outlandish prevarications himself.

One of the most outlandish prevarications Mr. Hill orated to me was a claim that because Xpert Ordering Service was a business, one of their main suppliers of electronic products, Best Buy, charged him more money than personal consumers for their products offered for sale through their internet sales portal and brick and mortar stores.  (I was originally told by his salesman that Xpert Ordering Service ordered many of their products through local Best Buy Stores, so that Xpert’s customers could pick up their products, ordered in their names, directly from the stores. Allegedly giving the customer a receipt from Best Buy that could later be used for warranty and or exchange purposes). [Please listen to audio files of the aforementioned conversations for further information]

After being subjected to numerous prevarications orated by Mr. Hill, I contacted Progressive Finance to determine if in fact I actually had a new account with them and to learn more about their internal credit approval processes and their experience with Xpert Ordering Service.  The agent at progressive informed me that they were not familiar with Xpert Ordering Service, but a lease application was submitted to them by American Contemporary Furniture, allegedly in my behalf.  (Mr. Hill informed me previously that he was an employee of said furniture company and that his salesman and himself, worked out of one of the furniture stores brick and mortar locations, located in the West Oaks Mall in Houston, Texas).

Said agent at Progressive verified that I had been approved for a lease agreement through Progressive, but clearly stated to me that the hold-up in my picking up my MacBook Pro from Xpert Ordering Service  had nothing to do with a hold up of setting up a new system as both Mr. Hill and his salesman alleged, but was in fact due to the fact that American Contemporary Furniture had not provided Progressive an invoice, which would include the serial number and price of the MacBook Pro, which was needed to open an account and fund the purchase.  I later learned from the salesman at Xpert Ordering Service  that Mr. Hill was waiting on money from other sales to be able to afford to purchase the MacBook Pro and they could not get paid by Progressive until they actually purchased the MacBook Pro and delivered it to me.

With the knowledge I gained from my conversations with Progressive Finance and having further talked with Mr. Hill and his salesman, I decided to give Xpert Ordering Service some more rope to hang themselves with, by asking them to submit me to some of their other financing sources, in consideration of their claim that the delay in my picking up my MacBook Pro from them was allegedly because Xpert Ordering Service was waiting on a new computer system to be set up with Progressive Finance[BL1] . 

Shortly after asking Xpert’s salesman to submit me to other financing sources, I received a telephone call from said salesman indicating that I had been approved by Crest Financial Services, but my credit limit was only $350.00   I asked him about getting an Xbox One and he later called me stating that I would need to pay Xpert Ordering Service $140.00 before they could order the Xbox One and that I could pick it up from Xpert the following day.  The salesman later sent me two Emails with invoice attachments. 

 

One for $450.00 with no itemization of the purchase of an Xbox One.

However, the second invoice itemized the proposed sale, as follows:

Application Fee:  $40.00

Xpert:  $60.00

Xbox One: $350.00

 

*****(for more information, please see Emails and Attachments submitted with this complaint)

 

In summary and consideration of the aforementioned facts and information, I would advise any consumer who may consider purchasing something from Xpert Ordering Service, to consider said enterprise as a criminal enterprise and avoid Xpert Ordering Service accordingly.  Mr. Hill and his conspirators would be wise to hire competent attorneys to advise them of the provisions of the Truth in Lending Act, Antitrust and MAP requirements, The Texas Deceptive Trade Practices Consumer Protection Act, §17.41 et. seq. of the Texas Business and Commerce Code, Deceptive Trade Practices Act, the deceptive business practice provisions of Texas Penal Code §32.42 along with a whole plentitude of other violations of state and federal civil and criminal statutes, that they have and continue to commit. 

Xpert Ordering Service in simple terms offers its victims “Payday Loan” scams in the disguise of lease purchase plans for electronics.   Agents for and the principle of Xpert Order Service are extremely dishonest and obviously not very well educated.  The website for Xpert Order Service, promulgates a multitude of prevarications that any trier of fact would construe as deceptive trade and fraudulent inducements to bait its audience / victims in to entering in to high interest loans and probably identity theft from the misuse of their submitted personal information via an unsecured website portal.  

Any consumer considering doing business with Xpert Ordering Service, would be well advised to ask themselves, should I provide sensitive personal information about myself and access to my bank account(s) to a criminal enterprise that lies to me both in their advertising and their conversations with me, prior to doing business with Mr. Hill and his merry group of criminal scumbags.