Drivetime A/k/a Ugly Duckling ripoff & harrassment Richmond Virginia
I purchased a car from drivetime April 2003. I have been harrassed on my job, home and co-workers. They even wanted to contact my supervisor. I work for the federal government.
I was not even five days late. I have only been five days late three times, I was late one time seven day because I was on travel with my job. They called my job left me a nasty message and I call them after returning from off travel and they told me, that the agreement was to be on time and there was no grace period. They lied. When I purchased the car and a black gentleman was going over the finance papers with me, only black gentleman in the dealership working in finance told me after reviewing the papers that after six months that the financing would be leaving this shop and some other company would take over and there would be a grace period.
This woman name Wanda would calls to harrass me on a daily basis told me that was not true. I told her, I asked that gentleman about a grace period and some other questions before signing anything. I told Wanda that was false advertisment. She told me that he did not tell me this. I told her, yes he did. Nothing was accomplished.
I have had the car for over a year and they are still doing the same thing, calling if I am two to five days late. I told them I am not going to write a check if the money was not in there and they could do want they wanted. They have threaten me to come get the car. I actually hope they do so I can go to court. I will never do this again. This is the worst company, I have ever dealt with. I would like to know my writes concerning. I know, no one is suppose to call your place of employment. Yet, they continue.
Deborah
kinsale, Virginia
U.S.A.
2 Updates & Rebuttals
Mike
Radford,Virginia,
U.S.A.
Post-dated checks a very bad idea, Drive Time will deposit any check they get as soon as they receive it!
#3Consumer Suggestion
Sun, July 04, 2004
I agree with Robert's advice in general, except for point #2. Banks don't have to look at the date on a check and usually they don't. A company like Drive Time will deposit any check they get as soon as they receive it. If you don't have the money in the bank, your bank will charge a fee. They may pay the check anyway (and charge a fee), causing your account balance to go negative. Then all the other checks that came in will bounce, and a fee will be charged for each one. You will end up with the bank trying to collect a lot of money from you and possibly cancelling the bank account. They will also place you on a national blacklist that will prevent you from being able to open accounts at other banks.
The basic rule is don't ever write checks for moeny you don't have. The consequences are severe. If a company doesn't trust you to send a check when you have the money, then you don't trust them to not deposit a post-dated check until later.
Robert's point #4 is also not quite true. Depending on the contract and state laws, a lender may be able to reposess a car even if the payment is only one day past due. No paperwork needs to be filed until after the repo. Most companies will wait for several weeks, until it becomes apparent that the customer is getting further and further behind and isn't going to catch up. That is because they will end up with more money if they let the buyer keep the car and eventually make the payments. Once the car is gone, most people are not going to make any more payments. It's strictly a business decision based on money.
Therefore, it's especially important to not miss payments late in the loan, when the car is nearly paid for. In that case, the company will get more money if they repo, and they may do it immediately. Consider paying it off with a lump sum as soon as you can afford to.
Alan
Dallas,Texas,
U.S.A.
Ideas for collection hassles
#3Consumer Comment
Sat, July 03, 2004
1) Get yourself a Caller ID box (you can find them for under $10 these days) and don't pick up the phone when they call.
2) Write them the check on time. Post-date it. Then, several days later, by the time it makes it to collection for them to call and harass you about the date on the check, you can tell them it's ready to be deposited. Make sure to check with your bank to see if they will honor the check when it is presented the second time (after the date you wrote on the check).
3) You may wish to contact Drivetime or the lender they are using, and ask them if you can shift your payment date to coincide with your paychecks. I was able to do this with a bank in Ohio several years ago. I switched jobs and my payday went to the opposite week from what it had been (got paid biweekly). I asked them to move the payment back 7 days and they were happy to comply. Since you're only 5-7 days behind on payments, they may wish to do this because it will benefit both parties and reduce the amount of time they spend with your account in collection.
4) If you are threatened with reposession and you're only intending to be 5-7 days late, do not worry. They cannot reposess the car until they have filed the proper paperwork and that takes time, several days, sometimes a couple of weeks.
5) If your car breaks down and you have to choose between making payments to Drivetime or paying your mechanic, try working with the mechanic. I have been able to successfully work out payment plans on brakes, transmissions, and AC work with several mechanics both here in Texas and in Ohio. If you think it's going to be an issue, make sure to bring it up when you bring the car in for repair. Making $100 payments on a repair is much better than dealing with collections hassles.
6) You can always tell Drivetime you don't work for the company you work for anymore. As long as you make your payments, they can't specify whether or not you have a job, have income, et cetera. Tell them you went into business for yourself as a consultant and list your home number as your work number. Then they won't be able to call you at work. Make sure to let your supervisor know what is going on, they may be willing to tell Drivetime you are no longer employed there, and the calls to work will stop. It's lying, but it's no worse than what is being done to you, is it not?