Drive Financial Services My First payment and already off to a bad start with Drive, Its long but you should read it! Dallas Texas
I went to make my first payment with Drive financial online, and to much to my dismay all the options online have a curtesy fee of $10.95, well that didn't cut it for me so I called 1-888-222-4227, and talked with Stacey in thier call center and questioned the curtesy charge she said yes that is what they charge, I told her that I would not pay that charge, and she replied that I could mail my payment in. I explained that my payment was due on July 2, 2008 and it was now july 1, 2008 so that was not going to happen. She said that since it was my first payment they would waive the "curtesy charge", i told her thats great.
I then told her that my payment was 493.19 and I wanted to go ahead and pay an even $500.00 and put the extra $6.81 towards principal, she said I could not do that, and that I couldn't make any principal payments for a year after my contract starts. I was shocked and told her that can't be right, then I asked her what if I wanted to pay off my loan earlier, she replied that I could not pay off within the first 6 months. She told me that if I made any extra payments above my monthly payment that they would apply it towards principal and interest. That was just crazy, I know better. I knew I was getting no where with her, so I told her to charge my visa the monthly payment of 493.19. She said ok.
After getting off the phone with her, I used the talk to a person on Drives website and the conversation is as follows:
Please wait for an agent to respond.
You are now chatting with 'Marcus'
Marcus: Hello! In order to assist you today please verify your Name, the address on the account, and a contact number.
you: Rick just made my first payment with Drive, and I was informed that I can't make any extra payment towards principal for one year, and that I can't pay my loan off for 6 months. Is this true?
Marcus: One moment please while I review the account.
Marcus: Thank you for your patience.
Marcus: That is completely untrue
you: so I can make additional principal payments with my payments? I tried to do that this morning and stacey with drive said I could not do that on my first payment.
Marcus: You have to make your first payment, and thing you pay over. You can contact us back after the payment post and request that it's applied directly to principal.
you: ok
Marcus: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
you: thanks for your help, tha is it.
Marcus: Thank you for chatting with us. We value your feedback. Please click the ?Close? button at top right to answer a few questions about your experience with us today.
END OF CHAT
After a while I check my visa account and saw a charge from Drive for $ 510.95, and another one for $1.01. Now I am pissed. I called the 1-888 number and now spoke with Cindy, I explained what happened and her response was that she could not do anything about it since it already post-it. I told her that was not acceptable, she put me on hold then came back and told me that she put in a "Vendor Request" to have the 10.95 removed and make the payment the $493.19. She said it would take a couple of days and to call back.
I am still not satisfied and asked her where she was located she said Texas, I am not sure if she is or not, I am sure they outsource thier customer center somewhere.
I then went back to the chat to find a phone number for corporate and the text went as follows:
Marcus: Thank you, how can I help you today?
you: I would like a phone number to lodge a complaint, but not the 1-888-222-4227
Marcus: That's number we have for you.
you: is there no other number, i don't want the call center. is there a corporate number?
Marcus: Know that's the number.
you: know or no?
Marcus: No,
Marcus: We don't have any other number for you.
Marcus: Is there anything else I can help you with today?
you: alright thanks very much.
Marcus: You're Welcome, Have a nice day.
END OF CHAT
You can belive I am going to document every conversation and payment with Drive Financial from here on out.
Rick
mount pleasant, South Carolina
U.S.A.
Click here to read other Rip Off Reports on Drive Financial
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Fingers
Sherwood,Arkansas,
U.S.A.
keep copies of everything
#2Consumer Comment
Wed, July 02, 2008
I know what you mean. I went through the same thing in 2007. Bought the car in Nov 2006. Made three payments. First one was more than it should have been and yet didn't show on the second bill. I do the same thing with my other car financed through better people and the payment goes down every month. When I received my fourth bill in Feb 2007, I also received a letter from their corporate people turning my credit down.
Every time I tried calling them I got no answers, the same with the car dealer. Talked to my attorney and was told not to make another payment and letters were sent to them requesting my money back since the loan was never legally approved. After checking all the papers, even the office for Personal Property Taxes agreed and redid my tax bill because I shouldn't have to pay for property I never owned. The car set at my place until Aug 2007 before being picked up. We will be going to court soon.
I will give you some advice. Tape every conversation you make with them. If they call someone else, tape the conversation you have with the other person telling you that. You will be surprised how many people they will contact that you never told them about. You can call and talk to someone and get one answer then simply hangup the phone and call them again. You will talk to someone else and get a totally different answer. Also, if you want to see the actual number of complaints against these people look under Drive Financial then change the search to Drive Financial Service. You will also find that people that have made complaints as yourself have numerous comments added just like mine is being added to yours.
If you take the number of complaints under Drive Finance and Drive Financial Service you will find a total of over 580. Then you will need to add the complaints that are added to each of those 580 complaints. The number of people with complaints against these idiots are unbelievable. The first time checked, the number of complaints were a little over 200. Rounghly a year later, they have doubled.
I hate to say it but keep copies of everything because your time may come. Everyone who has been paying for their car for 2 years or more notice that only about $2000.00 has gone to the payoff. Keep a diary of everything that happens dealing with them. I wish you all the luck in the world. You may want to look at the class-action suit where 1150 people in Texas alone won the suit aginst them.