I applied on-line to this 'Capital Finance Services' finance company who apparently specializes in helping people who have little or no credit. My intention was to get a personal loan in order to pay off my existing debts and to ease the stress I'm currently under. I was told that I was approved under a 'secured loan' option and after completing the documents needed and sending copies of my driver's license, SIN card and a Void cheque, was instructed to send $1000 via Western Union to a Bruce Hobson, Toronto, ON. When I asked why I was sending the funds to a person's name instead of the company name, I was told that Bruce Hobson was a registered loans officer for the company and had an account with Western Union. Apparently Western Union didn't have company accounts and they could only be registered in a person's name. I have since then found out from Western Union that this is not true. When the wire transfer was completed I was to phone back to verify the transaction with their 'Senior Financial adviser' with whom I had been dealing with from the beginning, a Mr. Steven Langley, with the MCTN number from Western Union and when Bruce Hobson had verified the funds had been received, someone from their Customer Care Department would call me to verify which bank account I wanted the loan amount to be deposited into. I had asked if I could add an additional $1000 onto my loan needs in order to provide my family with a great Christmas and explained that I would be using the $1000 that was for Christmas presents for the deposit, once I could be assured that I would have the loan funds in time for Christmas. Well, lo and behold, the funds weren't in my account in time for Christmas and my family scraped through the Holiday season. We truly learned the meaning of 'Christmas Spirit' and were just happy to all be together. When I tried calling the offices I had been in contact with before Christmas, both voicemails were full. This morning, Dec 28th/07 I called the office again, assuming that they had been closed over the Holidays and was ready to give Mr. Steven Langley a piece of my mind for dropping the ball on the transfer of funds... only to find that both telephone number are no longer in service!! Their website does still seem to be operational and my emails haven't come back to me yet, so they may still be in business. Now, not only am I out the $1000 I sent them, but I'm also still stuck to pay my bills and have no funds to work with a different financial institution. Aslo, I have had to freeze my current bank accounts, make appointments to open new ones and re-arrange payment methods for my regular bill payments. Tough lessons learned... don't deal with internet based creditors! Especially near Christmas. Also I had asked if the company was registered with the Better Business Bureau and was told they were, however I failed to check into it myself.
P. XXXXX
Ucluelet, British Columbia
Canada.
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