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Eric A.

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Total Points
195

1 Review by Eric

  • Biometrics4all

5/27/14

After caring for my disabled sister for 9 years, she passed away from medical negligence in 2012 and I was forced to find a new career. I decided to get my notary public license. One of the supplement jobs a lot of notaries pursue for extra income, is Live Scan Fingerprinting. So I took a class, got my license and purchased over $4000 worth of equipment from Biometrics4ALL.

That's when the horrors started.

I should have known from the run-around emails I was getting from their employee Jon Allen right from the start, that I probably shouldn't go with this company. But it came highly recommended from another Live Scan operator I had met. They also manufacture the software that seems to be the one most in use in California.

I started my association with them in January 2013... this is May 2014 and the problems are only worse.

First, they tried to sell me laptop models that were obsolete... no longer being made. When I confronted my salesman, Piet Lesage, with this, they gave me 2 other options to choose from, I researched them and chose one. Yet, when I went to pick up my equipment in April, they had substituted one of the obsolete models! I was told to use it until they could get the actual model I purchased already. FIVE MONTHS LATER, I finally received the laptop I had ordered, SEVEN MONTHS after I purchased it.

Edward Chen, the managing director, wrote me a short email of apology and offered to extend my warranty to a year from the date I received the correct laptop. Gee, that was big of him. How magnanimous. I get my warranty from the date I actually got the computer I ordered!

It wasn't as simple as that, though. They kept promising me between April and September that the "computer was almost ready." Dozens of emails back and forth checking on the status ensued. I was told on August 29th that it was shipping out the next day. Over a week later, still no laptop. I finally wrote to Edward Chen on September 18th with documented proof of at least 8 times I was promised the computer was ready... I even sent him audio recordings of phone messages stating the same.

Once I finally got the equipment, the username/password and instructions they sent me to start up, did not work.

I just received an email from them stating that my warranty is up on May 26th. They charge $120 just for the software warranty and $635 (a discounted rate from $795) to include the hardware. But get this. If you don't buy the warranty this year, and decide to buy it next year instead, they charge you retroactively for the year you missed. Edward Chen says they do this as a favor to their customers! Baloney... they do it to make money! So if I skip the warranty this year and my computer breaks down, I have to pay for the repair. But if I then resume the warranty next year, I have to pay for the warranty service for this year, which includes the time where I had to pay for the repair with no warranty! So I'm paying for having the warranty for the year where I couldn't use it!

I also signed up for a program they offer called, SAM, where they bring work to you from businesses, either to your place of business or with you going out on a mobile basis (if you offer that service). I do offer mobile, but I run my business from my home. In over a year, I've never received one bit of business from this program. Now Edward Chen is saying it's because I don't have a "store front." Nowhere in the contract does it state that I have to have a store front, but regardless, they're supposed to use me on a mobile basis as well. This program was one of the reasons I chose to go with this company in the first place as they told me it would bring me extra work. Now that I'm complaining, Edward Chen is threatening to cancel my contract with them.

Edward Chen doesn't read your emails carefully, either. I wrote that I thought the warranty program was a scam, and he wrote back that I called the SAM program a scam. He likes to manipulate your words to fit his own scenario and then ignores pertinent information you send him.

I would avoid this company at all costs.

UPDATE: I ended up buying the full warranty even though I couldn't really afford it. I just received an email from Jessica Yang stating that she "was instructed to refund [my] maintenance payment.

So now they're refusing to warranty my software and hardware!

UPDATE 2: I took this company to small claims court and sued for a refund of the entire cost of the equipment. Edward Chen, the president, tried to stop the court case by filing for a change of venue (I filed near my home, not near their business in Orange County). The judge denied their venue change. A month later when the court date rolled around, they sent some "board member" to represent them, who had no idea what he was talking about. They had printed out bunch of my Yelp reviews, but only the bad ones to make it look like all I do is complain. Well, in this case, there was a LOT to complain about!

I won the small claims case! Now I am free of this company.

Eric Has Earned 5 Votes

Eric A.'s review of Biometrics4all earned 5 Very Helpful votes

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