Complaint Review: Land Rover Capital Group Div. Of Ford Motor Credit

My small business leased a Land Rover Discovery HSE as a video production vehicle back in 2003. The lease was handled through Land Rover Capital Group, which is a subsidiary of Ford Motor Credit. Because my company was only three years old, I had to personally guarantee the lease. I've had perfect credit since I became an adult in 1978.

The vehicle had a perfect payment record for all three years of the lease. Earlier this year, the lease terminated and we bought the vehicle out. This coincided with our bank (JP Morgan Chase) changing over its web interface software, which caused several problems with our accounting and payment software. One of the problems was that, unbeknownst to us, the changeover of the automatic payments from the lease account to the purchase account didn't "take" properly.

One day we got a call from Land Rover asking if we'd made our payment, as it was a few days late (net 35 days or so). I checked and found that the autopay hadn't worked, so I instantly made an electronic payment for the past-due amount and made the current payment at the same time. Assuming the error must have been mine, I also set up the automatic payment again.

When I got another call from Land Rover a month and some weeks later, saying they once again hadn't received the payment that should have happened automatically, I realized that the problem was with the bank interface, and began dealing with the bank to track it down.

But to my horror, I found that Land Rover had REPORTED BOTH ME AND MY BUSINESS AS DELINQUENT, ruining BOTH our credit reports simultaneously! I've had credit since 1978 and NEVER heard of an account (other than a home mortgage) being reported at less than Net-60. It had never even occurred to me that by the time we received a "courtesy call" from Land Rover, they'd already ruined our credit! But they had!

No problem, I thought -- a letter from our bank, attesting to the fact that the few days' lateness was due to a software glitch, should put things right. But I was wrong. When I called Land Rover, they told me they didn't care! Even a letter sent from Chase, admitting that their payment system was having problems, and that the reason the two payments had gotten there late, wouldn't change anything.

I've had a few situations like this over the past 28 years and ALWAYS in the past, when the problem rests with a bank or otherwise is due to a purely technical problem, the creditor has been willing to retract a report (they don't report the payment as timely; they simply choose not to report for that pay period at all, which doesn't harm a credit rating).

After all, the customer has no control over whether the bank's systems work properly, and when that's the problem it does not reflect on the amount of risk the customer presents to a future lender. I was SO sure this was simply a mistake that I wrote to the CEO of Land Rover and the CEO of Ford, its parent, expecting that the exeutive offices would intervene.

Instead of the expected resolution, I recieved a letter back from Matt Brown, an Executive Analyst at the executive offices of Land Rover Capital, at 877-507-2264 ext. 57002. Mr Brown reiterated that Land Rover doesn't give a rip whether the problem is a technical one with my bank or whether my company and I are deadbeats. They report us all the same. They don't care that the problem was with our bank, not us, or that such a report will result in thousands of dollars in additional interest on future transactions (a planned upgrade to our facility will cost $300,000, structured as a lease, and this report will MURDER us on the lease rate).

Land Rover's claim is that they are required under the Fair Credit Reporting Act to make these reports. But according to the FTC, which enforces the Act, THAT'S A LIE, pure and simple. They are fully entitled to retract such a report if they find the problem was simply a technical glitch with our bank.

So -- if you're thinking of buying or leasing a car, think VERY carefully before you finance it through Land Rover Capital Group (or Ford Motor Credit, which, as parent company, obviously sets their marching orders). If you do, it won't matter that you have perfect credit OR that you had a perfect record with them for three years or more. One glitch in the payment schedule, even if it's not your fault (and can be PROVEN AS SUCH), and they will gleefully ruin your credit. And you can reach all the way to the top (I even faxed the current Mr. Ford about this) and no one will care.

I would drive a soda can with wheels on it before I would ever again purchase, lease, or even accept as a gift, anything from Ford or any of its subsidiaries. No wonder they're failing as a company. They are the most outrageously awful company I have ever encountered. They deserve nobody's business.

Peter
Stamford, Connecticut
U.S.A.

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