Complaint Review: WFS Financial - Northwest Recovery

Marc,

You are way off on this one. Forcible repo's are illegal. That repo jerk is guilty of battery which is a felony. That's the criminal side. Now there is another charge of extortion being the request for $40 to get the personal belongings from the car. This too, is illegal.

Now on the civil side, the repo jerk is liable for all damage to the car and the loss of all personal property, as well as medical expenses and loss from work. Big lawsuit here.

And, there were witnesses to these crimes! This jerk is screwed!

Marc, I gather that you are occasionally required to be a repo man. If you want to stay in that business you really need to rethink how you spproach it. "Scott" will be driving this man's tow truck very soon if the account of what happened is true.

When it is a case of the consumer saying he did pay, but the bank says he didn't pay, the law is clearly on the consumer's side, until it is decided by a judge. The consumer has every right to tell the repo man to go away if he catches him trying to take the car. The bank needs to go to civil court and get a replevin order before there is any way it can be taken by force. Even then, the repo man would not be allowed to exert force himself, the police would be called and could arrest the consumer if necessary to carry out the court order.

Scott needs an attorney NOW. I don't agree that he simply loses this one. In ALL states repossession of a vehicle may only be accomplished if the repossession agent does so without a "breach of peace".

This did not occur and it is likely a court would find what did happen totally unacceptable. In addition, belongings in the vehicle must be returned to the vehicle owner, not doing so is commonly known as "theft by conversion".

Have Scott see an attorney. I smell trouble for the repo agent here.

Scott may have a case against the bank IF all payments were up to date, but otherwise he's screwed. A repo agent can take the car because it is his client's property. At the point Scott jumped into the car he was in the wrong. Everything in the car goes with the car, although if Scott had been nice he may have been allowed to remove a few personal items. EVERY deadbeat says they "just talked to the bank," and bankers tell you it's ok because they don't want you coming after them. They probrably talked to the driver 30 seconds before he hooked the car. What ended up happening, I don't think they can auction a car that quickly. I see Scott losing the injury claim too, the combat could have been easily avoided.

Vehicle owner (let's call him Scott)financed a car through WFS Financial in early 2005. Made payments accordingly for 18 months of a 36 month loan term.

Less than a week ago, a recovery agent by the name of Jeremy and employed by Northwest Recovery, a company hired by WFS Financial arrived at Scott's place of employement (where he is the plant manager) and entered the building and informed Scott that he was there to pick up the car. (the car was at home in the garage) Scott asked the recovery agent to please step outside so they could talk in private and not distract/cause a scene in front of his emloyees. The recovery agent would not leave the building.

After a minute or two of telling the recovery agent to leave the building, the plant supervisor started to walk over to see what was going on. The recovery agent then decided to exit the building stating that he would see Scott at home later that evening and would do whatever it took to finish his job.

Later that evening, the Scott phoned the bank (WFS Financial) and talked to Thomas, the manager of the local office. Thomas told the Scott that they had not received the payment for the current month and he was 20 days past due. Scott explained that he had indeed made the payment through Moneygram and that he would find the receipt and if there was an error on his part, he would make another payment immediately. Thomas told Scott that would be fine but to make sure that he made the payment ASAP. The recovery agent never showed up at Scotts house that night.

The very next morning, Scott drove the car to his office to look for the moneygram receipt. He got out of the vehicle and preceded to walk to the front door. The supervisor yelled to Scott telling him that someone was messing with his car. Scott ran out to see a truck backing up to his car. Scott ran and jumped into the drivers seat.

The recovery agent jumped out of his truck and preceded to yell at Scott to get out of the car. Scott tried to explain that he had talked to the bank that previous evening. While Scott was sitting in the car, the recovery agent jumped into his truck, placed it into reverse and lunged his truck, crashing his truck into the rear of Scotts car, hooked onto the car and started to lift it into the air.

The recovery agent jumped out of his truck ran up to the drivers side of Scotts car, jerked open the door and lunged over Scott reaching for the keys that were in the ignition (the car was running). Scott then tried grabbing the keys due to the fact that his home and work keys were on the keyring also.

The recovery agent grabbed Scotts shoulders and tried to yank him out of the car. After about 30 seconds, Scott was forced out the the vehicle and the recovery agent had the keys. (The recovery agent was around 6'3" 200 lbs. - Scott 5'11" 160 lbs) (The plant supervisor came out of the building and it was then the recovery agent let go of Scott)and ran to his truck.

The plant supervisor helped Scott grab his childrens car seats and a few misc. items out the car as the recovery agent was trying to pull away. The recovery agent then leaned out of the window of his truck and with a smile said: This won't be pretty. He drove away towing the car that was still in gear and with the tires turned sideways.

Scott was upset and decided to start walking to cool off. He walked awhile but decided to stop because his lower back was in extreme pain. He called his wife for a ride home, when he did so he found out that the recovery agent had called the police department and had filed a report stating that Scott had assaulted him and that the police wanted to talk to Scott. His wife also told him that the recovery agent had phoned her and informed her that her husband was going to jail (snickering during the whole phone conversation) and that the car was going to auto auction at 4:00pm that same day. She was upset and crying, but he continued on telling her that if she wanted her personal belongings that she would have to pay him $40 dollars.

Scott then called the reponding officer and met with him to talk. The officer took Scotts statement and advised him to see a doctor ASAP. Scott then went to the hospital. (His injuries were a lower lumbar strain, and leg bruising from the assault of the recovery agent and the fall out of the car onto the pavement)

Scott has called the bank and has left messages, but with no response. Will add more info as it comes. (The recovery agent still has possession of Scotts home/work keys and the home garage openers