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Auto Master Springfield They would love to kill your kids Springfield Missouri
I'm just going to include the letter I sent to them, minus personal info...
This letter is regarding your vehicle, a 1994 Chrysler Concorde, VIN ***. This vehicle was forced upon *** with no other option. Clearly the dealership that passed off this vehicle, Auto Master #6, made absolutely no inspections or checks of this vehicle. The family that bought this vehicle had two small children, an infant and a toddler. This vehicle was a lemon from the start. Shortly after you handed it off to us, it was found out that the brake pads were incorrectly installed. This was clearly never inspected by the dealership. A few weeks after the purchase of this vehicle, you did pay for repairs at Branson Heights Service Center, however, we still ended up with a $300 dollar rental car bill while these repairs were suppose to have been done after you sold it without fixing the problems beforehand. Numerous problems reported to the Branson Heights Service Center were not properly fixed, or not fixed at all. The transmission eventually went out, and once again you did fix this problem at Cottman Transmission. Shortly after this, other problems arose. The axle's that were supposedly fixed at Branson Heights were found to be bad again, and an idle problem reported at the original Branson Heights shop, but never fixed was finally diagnosed as a bad intake gasket. This problem has not been fixed. Auto Master is clearly swindling people when charging 8,000 dollars for a car that in excellent condition Blue Books at about 4,000 dollars. Again, that is in excellent condition. It has also come to light that this vehicle has had the odometer rolled back at some point in its history and has been involved in a serious accident. This clearly raises red flags with your business and billing practices. Also, payments were made on this vehicle at one point and never posted on the vehicle by you, resulting in an erroneous collection letter. Our cost that we have paid just in fixing the problems that should have been fixed before this vehicle was ever put on the lot is at over 1500 dollars. And we have not had this car for 12 months yet, and it has spent nearly month being repaired or sitting trying to figure out repairs. We are going to be returning this vehicle to your shortly, assuming it can make it there with the never ending problems, which are currently acting up. This is not any kind of repossession; this will be a buyback on your part. We are giving you the car as is, and we have kept up on routine maintenance (oil changes, brakes, etc.) We expect all collection efforts on your part to cease and desist, and we expect this vehicle to be reported on our credit report(s) as paid in full. We will not ask for any reimbursement from you. If necessary, we WILL take all necessary action to have you make this situation right. All further correspondence from you should be faxed to ***.
Ryan
Branson, Missouri
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Ben
Strafford,Missouri,
U.S.A.
Ryan
#2UPDATE Employee
Wed, October 01, 2008
Ryan,
First let me state that I am an employee of AutoMaster and work in the finance department of the Springfield location.
After I read your report I was compelled to respond for your own good. First, let me state that we do inspect vehicles, and assuming that you have tagged your vehicle it had passed inspection, or the lot manager, warranty department or myself would see that any issues were corrected.
You've stated yourself that WE have paid multiple times to repair your vehicle. AutoMaster will make all efforts to assure you of your vehicles safety. Unfortunately, we deal in used cars, in which have no ability to guarantee that each and every used vehicle will be perfect. All we can do is offer a 6 month/6k mile warranty. Good luck in finding any other used car dealership, or buy-here-pay-here that would give you a warranty. We also refinance out repairs to accounts that are no longer covered under warranty.
As to your pricing point-this is a buy-here-pay-here business. You are not paying strictly for a vehicle, you're paying for high-risk financing. Our finance rate is 17%, but that is lower than Car-mart, Best and Rides, other buy-here-pay-heres. Some are as high as 22%. This is simply the cost we pay for having bad credit, whereas paying a vehicle off with our company will improve your credit so you no longer have to utilize buy-here-pay-heres.
I would be very interested to see evidence that the odometer was rolled back, and you are welcome to come into our location and view the documents showing odometer reading at the time we purchased it. Again, these are used vehicles that we purchase at auction, and we cannot be held liable for any practices of prior owners.
Finally, the reason I responded. If you do in fact surrender your vehicle, it will still go on your credit as a repossession and your account will be charged off into our legal collections and be subject to lawsuit and garnishment, per the contract you agreed upon. Be aware that under Missouri law, voluntary or otherwise this will be considered a repossession and collected upon entirely in accordance with Missouri law, and followed through to it's fullest extent. By your own admission, AutoMaster has attempted to provide you a safe car and has far exceeded normal business practices for like companies. Please also be aware that at signing you have signed an arbitration agreement. Being a father of two, I am always personally worried when I see a family return a vehicle because I know the severity of the consequences and have seen them enforced.
Please, contact me at 417-866-8106, or come to our Glenstone location so that you and I can continue to search for a resolution to your mechanical problems. We have multiple tools at our disposal for both financial and mechanical issues. Don't ruin your credit further and end up paying on a vehicle you don't own when our company is attempting to rectify any discrepancy, up to and beyond any other buy-here-pay-here in the business.