Complaint Review: Community Commerce Bank

We bought a LEMON car from Deals on Wheels a few years ago. We didn't want to buy from this company, however, we didn't have much choice since we couldn't purchase a car anywhere else due to the fact that my husband lost his longterm job and our credit wasn't so great. Previous to that we had great credit and had purchased a new car outright from a reputable company.

This LEMON car was originally selling at $7,000.00 on the lot. We paid $4,000.00 cash and financed $3,000.00 which turned into $10,000.00 through Community Commerce Bank. We have put over $5,000.00 of repairs into this LEMON car until it finally just blew a head gasket and hasn't run in 2 years. We notified the bank, however, they said it wasn't their probem. We called an attorney, but found there is no LEMON LAW on USED CARS. We tried to PNO it through the DMV only to be told by Sacramento that Community Commerce Bank demands that it be kept insured even though it is parked in a gated parking lot in our space.

Finally, we were forced to purchase another vehicle from a more reputable company. When the balance had become under $3,900.00, my husband asked the manager at Community Commerce Bank to please work out something so that we could either finish paying for the car or for them to just pick it up. The manager told my husband that he would have a man come out and look at it and that they would try to sell it. He also told my husband to have it towed back to Deals on Wheels and just leave it there with no pink slip. How stupid! We would have incurred a ticket at the very least and more fees since the bank still holds the pink slip. So, my husband asked for something in writing stating that it was ok to tow the car. They wanted to charge us $150.00 for the tow as well or we could tow with Triple A. Once they saw the car in our parking space, they reniged.

Shortly thereafter, we were notified by a woman at the bank, after our payments piled up to approximatley 3 payments behind while we were waiting for them (since they said they were going to try to sell the car) that they were now going to sue us and take $800.00 out of my husband's paycheck per month plus attornies fees. We asked what happened to the other arrangements, and she said too bad, they were going to sue anyway if we didn't pay at once. We told her we had believed the other rep and she didn't care at all what the other rep had said or that he had promised something in writing to my husband as did another rep as well.

They never informed us in the interim that they did not intend to sell the car as they originally stated, but that if we didn't pay $1,000.00 in the next few weeks, that they were going to sue us instead. We have since found out that they had already filed with the small claims court even before she told us the payments were still due and that nothing in writing was forthcoming except court papers to sue us, not to sell the car as they had originally stated.

Community Commerce Bank has trouble keeping it's promises. It is know throughout the auto and insurance industry for it's unethical practices. Two other auto loan companies advised us NOT to believe anything that Community Commerce Bank would say since they were known for these type of business practices.

Trisha
Chatsworth, California