Complaint Review: Arcadia Transouth - Carol Stream Illinois

Previously the TranSouth in Billings MT was known as The Associates, before being purchased by CitiGroup. I heard they were accused of violating Rico Laws (racketeering). This had to do with profits from selling repo's being pocketed rather than being credited entirely to the customer's account. Suprisingly, the same "Associates" employees are still working as TranSouth which was bought by CitiGroup. I know someone that worked for this crooked company and that person told me all about their dirty tactics. They were always changing their tactics too to take full advantage of the situation. Try not to do business with any of the dealers that deal with TranSouth in Billings MT either, from what I have seen they are also dishonest. It is not uncommon that they pad the options. Especially on tier 1 and tier 2 deals based on the current scorecard. I've seen people get "sold" expensive warranties on vehicles that are under full factory warranty, and people pay too much for their doc fees. The dealers and/or TranSouth may also use phony documents to get customers approved for loans they can't afford. I'm convinced that TranSouth and the dealers both profit from getting people to "qualify" for loans that they can not afford, they do not care if they have to repossess them as they still make a profit at the beginning of the loan on commissions, doc fees, and warranties (see other reports on this website). Their collectors threaten repossession on the last day of the month because their commission is based on their delinquincy report. They don't care if you don't get paid until the 3rd because they won't get their commission unless they collect by the last day of the month. If your payment is received 3 days late in the middle of the month then they don't really care because it doesn't affect their bottom line. I suggest that anyone having trouble affording their car payments with TranSouth, request their original paperwork. The entire file including the application and go through them carefully as Bill suggests. If you find that the options don't match, that the application has been changed, etc, you may have the legal right to demand that TranSouth or the dealership buy back your car! Any competent attorney would salivate at handling a RICO case against a company like Citi. Citi is the one who shakes at being accused, let alone being charged with rackeetering, fraud, forgery or any other such thing. One final note: I don't know if Citi condones this behavior from it's buyers and managers or if they just don't pay close enough attention but I think, for starters, the specific dealerships and managers that are doing this sort of thing should be held 100% liable. That's why I'm naming TranSouth Financial in Billings MT and the secondary lending individuals at Rimrock, Frontier and others.

Received a call last week from a lawyer who said he would take my case and poss. start a class action. Well seems that he got paid off or bribed or just ran scared because I never heard from him again. I guess we are all screwed because there is no one out there that has the Ba--s to persure this case.

I am sorry to read about your plight. I am amending my Federal Rico Action at Tallahassee Florida to include them. They were involved in very serious criminal fraud connected to my case at Thomasville Honda. I suggest that you carefully examine ALL the paperwork you signed. These people are crooks of the first magnitude. Very often they are associated with dealers who commit serious sales and lender fraud too. I have seen cases where the paperwork you signed first was torn-up and your name gets forged onto another contract( most F&I people at dealers are expert forgers)with horrible terms. Often the dealer makes a thousand or more off you on top of the other frauds because the lender kicks back some of the rip-off jacked-up interest that they gouged out of you. You might have been hit with a fraudulent mark-up or worse? Carefully peruse your paperwork. Try to find criminal wrongdoing- they spit in the eye of the FTC -they make too much profit to back down on civil threats. The only thing they fear is criminal wrongdoing and prison. TranSouth has a checkered past. Originally it was connected to the infamous "Associates" that was blasted by the FTC - Citigroup acquired it with the Associates. And Citigroup is failing to supervise TranSouth's predatory activities carefully. If you do find criminal wrongdoing - then lotto- you have some power! Best of Luck - Bill

Enclosed is the address and a letter I sent to the Ill. AG's office. I want all that read this to do the same. If we flood that office we may get some help. Office Of The Attorney General Of Illinois 500 South Second Street Sprinfield, IL 62706 To whom it may concern, In the year 2000 the month of April my wife and I purchased a car from Internet Auto Rent and Sales, Reno, Nevada. The car is a 2000 Daewoo Leganza. This car was brand new with only 4 miles on the odometer. At the time of the purchase Internet Auto found us a lender by the name of Arcadia Financial Ltd. Based in Ill. We got off to a good relationship but that started to fail in the year of 2002. I had lost a $ 2000.00 a month second job and my wife is out of work with a workman's comp injury that she receives no benefits or disability for. Because of these factors we were forced to file chapter 7 bankruptcy. The car was not included and yes we were behind in our payments at that time, but not by 60 to 90 day's as they report to the credit agency. Our lawyer was able to save our car and lower our payment's and interest. We were also told that we would at that point receive a payment booklet and full disclosure of what we owe. To this date none of that has surfaced. My wife and I decided to try to sell our Daewoo because the car company went bankrupt and parts are not to be found. We felt that this would be the best because if the car failed we would not be able to repair it and would still have to pay a loan payment. We first went to Kia Reno, NV. to inquire about a car. The salesman told us that he would contact Arcadia to get an early payoff balance. He tried for a number of days without any satisfaction. He finally received a call with an early pay off of $7,500.00. Due to the fact the cars value is now only $ 2,000.00 and because of the bankrupt Daewoo Company he is unable to buy our car. We than went to Hyundai and we were told the same story. Internet Auto who sold us the car would not even buy it back. My wife and I finally ended up at Reno Dodge. The sales man there Little Tony called Arcadia to get an early payoff balance. I was given the phone for verification and was told by an Arcadia rep. That my loan showed no balance due. She than told the sales man the same story. Another salesman possibly the boss than got on the phone and received another Arcadia rep. And was told that he was unable to give any information on my account because it was in collections or recovery or something. All three-car dealers made credit checks and the same results came up. Arcadia has not reported to any of the credit agencies since the year 2002 and the last entry states we are 60 to 90 day's late. We have never been that late on a car payment. My wife tried with no response to get a balance, payoff and our good payment record (since our bankruptcy in 2002) to be reported to the credit agencies. NOTHING. I than mailed a letter and received no response. I sent a second letter Certified and have not received a response. I have written the credit agencies to get our credit report updated, Arcadia has not responded to the credit agencies either. I will include my credit report and the letter I have sent with this complaint. If what we decided to do is legal or not we had to take drastic measures. We have stopped payment on the loan seeing that they stated that we owe nothing. We have placed the car in an undisclosed place and the monies owed are being held in escrow. This was explained in the two letters I sent to Arcadia. We have not received any phone calls or mail responses from Arcadia to this date. You will see in the letter that I ask for a balance due on the car seeing I have no idea what I owe, an early payoff balance and a payment schedule as promised both when we bought the car and after the bankruptcy. I feel that I am legally entitled to this information seeing I have tried to live up to my end of the bargain by paying what I owe. I have kept up my end of the contract and I feel that Arcadia has breeched there's. I would like One: to file this complaint with you because this company is allowed to conduct business in Nevada and Two: would like to know what type of legal action I can take against this company for breech of contract and Three: would I be able to settle up with Arcadia with your help by settling this matter now as paid in full and the title of the car sent to me seeing the car is now worthless. We have also placed our plight on the Internet site badreports.com along with many others with the same problem.