Donna
Vanderhoof,#2Author of original report
Fri, February 13, 2004
Our dispute with AFS began in December 2003 and now as of today is coming to a near end.Unfortunately despite all our efforts and legal mediation we have lost our vehicle. We made our payments every month but AFS was not documenting the payments properly nor were they willing to own up to their mistakes or fix our now taurnished credit bureau. Due to this, our lawyer as well as our provincial and federal mediators advised us to seize making payments inorder to force AFS to deal with the problem. After all they had already wrecked our credit history for no reason so we didn't have much to loose. We offered AFS a settlement and they are currently thinking about it. However, in the meantime a Bailiff blocked me off in our local grocery store's parking lot yesterday and forced us to allow him to take possession of the vehicle. Upon calling AFS this morning they did not know what I was talking about and claim they do not know who ordered the repossession as they are still trying to straighten things out and make a decision on the settlement we offered. I told this person from the legal department that whether they meant it to happen or not the vehicle was seized. Therefore, if they do decide to take the settlement ( it turns out that the VIN on our contract does not match the VIN on the vehicle) the ball is basically in our court as in our province a company may either seize or sue but not both. So if AFS actions the vehicle off for $10000.00 for instance, they loose anything else we may owe including the cost of the Bailiff and their legal fees. When I disclosed the fact that they could do only one or the other, the executive from AFS said "We'll see about that". And claimed she would have to discuss the matter with the Attorney and find out who went ahead and ordered the repossession to take place and then once they decided to take the settlement or not they would call our lawyer. I told AFS to go ahead and do that but if we must buy a new vehicle in the mean time we may nolonger wish to excercise the option of the settlement. I think that really made them think. I guess AFS should check the ins and outs on the laws before they jump the gun. If they choose to not take the settlement and they have now seized the vehicle they will be out a whole lot of money as the vehicle is worth $10000.00CND and we owe nearly $22000.00. Plus, they'll have to eat up the costs of the legal fees and Bailiff charges. Our credit Bureau will continue to be tarnished for 6 or 7 years, but had we of carried on with the loan it wouldn't be much better with all the mistakes on their end they were making. Not to mention all the extra interest they were trying to force us to pay.