Litigation

A victim of United First Financial speaks

By Tracy Coenen

This was left as a comment on an article here about United First Financial (UFF) and their Money Merge Account (MMA).

Tracy, I wish I had read this earlier, like 2 months earlier. I did a Google search for paying down mortgages, and came across UFF?s Money Merge Account. I looked through the website, testimonials, etc. I was sold before the agent even contacted me. The agent was excellent. Young, but excellent. Totally different circumstances of life from me ? I am much older with many more accounts, loans, investing vehicles. I was told that there was a ?Multiple Properties Option? ? I figured ?PERFECT!? and signed up all enthused, fired up, ready to go.

It was a painful process getting my accounts in order, figuring out monthly expenses, entering up to date balances of all my credit cards, checking account, mortgages. I spent SO much time the first month just getting it all lined up and accurate, and being a very anal Virgo, everything had to balance to the penny.

In the process, I found that my HELOCs couldn?t be used because of the limit on number of checks that could be written, and thus was put into a checking account ? savings account instead of checking ? HELOC, and because I can?t write checks from my savings account, I opened another checking account and named it savings for the MMA. The ?Multiple Properties Option? was a joke, no one really knew what it would do, it would cost me $29/month more forever, and would mix personal checking/savings with investment income/accounts. A big no-no if you ever have business income and expenses.

Well, here I am, 2 months later, experiencing on-going problems with the program such as it going change crazy when I executed actions out of order (like paying a bill too early) or executing actions in the exact order listed (like depositing paychecks to the checking account, then paying or transferring funds from the checking account), Really! Sometimes the program would red light and show a budget meltdown if I paid an installment for my daughter?s college tuition (even with available funds in accounts). I would have to wait until customer service chat line or phone service was open (I am in the Hawaii time zone) and they would say hold on, and then do something on their end to fix it, and even though I asked them what they did so I could duplicate it myself, I was not taught ? even though I also signed up as an Agent.

Okay, so now you might think I must be really dumb. You may think that, but I am actually very good at numbers, figuring things out, and easy to teach. Where I am foolish is hopefully believing that companies like United First Financial are in business to help others, not just take their money.

Long story short, I asked for a refund, and was told NO because there is no satisfaction guarantee. The guarantee is that the program works. I asked for a 16 year detailed ?Action Plan? to prove the payments/deposits/transfers would work as projected. The current Action Plans only carry forward for 3 months at most. I have received zilch.

I am still fighting the denial, and the ?Client Special Services? has twice denied any refund based on the ?senior committee? decision. I wrote a very decent letter and asked that it be forwarded to the higher ups, and have been ignored. For $3500 and only 2 months of use, I really must be a dummy.

If anyone has been successful in getting a refund (someone mentioned 80% have kept it, so does that mean 20% have been refunded?) please let me know how. Or, if anyone knows how to contact the higher ups in that corporate ladder, please send me the contact info. It seems like a gated fortress and no one is willing to open any doors once they have your money.

Thank you Tracy, for exposing companies that rip people off. I am embarrassed and pissed off at the same time.

Full post as published by The FRAUDfiles Blog on May 18, 2010 (boomark / email).