Complaint Review: National Recovery Network LLC - Scottsdale Arizona

On December 4, 2012, we assigned a repo order to National Recovery Network, LLC.  At the time we asked what the fee would be and we were told that the base price would be $499.00.  The first person I walked with was Michael, and was told that there would not be any further fees unless they ran into some extenuating circumstances.  That if it was a pretty cut and dried repo there wouldnt be any further charges.  I did tell them that we would want the car transported to our state (where their head office is), and we would drive there to pick up the car.  We were told that it probably wouldnt cost more than $300.00.

The account was then turned over to Andy, their expert inspector.  Soon after, I received a phone call from Andy, who wanted to clarify some things on the order.  On the order I gave them the debtors home address, work address, and the address of a bar at which he often hangs out, as well as a description of the car including that it was totally covered by a wrap that advertised where the debtor worked.

Andy then said that they should be recovering the vehicle within a day or two. I was pleasantly surprised by that.  After not hearing from anyone for one week, I started calling NRN to find out what was going on.  I was told, by Andy, that they had not been able to find the vehicle.  He said to give it a few more days, which I agreed to.  I then asked if this was going to add any costs on to the fee.  He assured me that we would NOT be incurring any more costs.  I asked this several times and was assured each time that there would not be any additional costs.

I turned this over to them on Dec. 4th, and by this time, it was getting very close to Christmas.  I had hoped to get this all taken care of well before the holiday.  The next time I called Andy, he said that he was going to call the debtor directly and tell him that he had to turn the car over to them.  After some back and forth with the debtor, the car was finally turned over (On Dec. 13th). Although I had to call them to find out that the car had been turned over.  I was told that the account had then been turned over to Jessica, who I would be working with from then on.  We were than reminded that they would store the car free for 10 days.  After 10 days the charge would be $35.00/day.

I was then emailed an invoice with the charges.  Imagine my total surprise when I opened up the invoice and was staring at a $1,702.59 bill!  I called to confront them about this amount.  I was then told that, in the second paragraph of my contract that I signed, it said that there could be additional charges:

"Client agrees and understands that each recovery is unique and NRN LLC's "base fee" DOES NOT INCLUDE hardcore skips, investigation charges, field agent fees, fraud, identity theft, criminal enterprise, national database charges, etc., and that NRN LLC's final invoice is based upon the degree of difficulty in the recovery and the means necessary to recover your particular collateral. NRN LLC's "base fee" is just that, a "base fee," and the expenses encountered engaging in the recovery will result in an increase in the final charge to Client."

The fees included things like: Investigation (in-house) $365.00; Investigation (field) $115.00; Agent fee, tow/impound fee $375.00 (this one was legit); Criminal background check $89.00; Utility/Break search $75.00 (??); Info Data Search $60.00(??); MVD/DMV Search $65.00 (I sent proof that the car belonged to me, so this was not necessary); Doc Fee $59.50 (what docs?); plus the base fee of $499.00.  Im very sure that most of these charges were totally unwarranted and unnecessary. 

I could have told them that this was not a hardcore skip; fraud, identify theft, or a criminal enterprise. And, I was not told that there would be national database charges, etc.  I was told over and over that I was NOT incurring any additional fees!  I was told that this would be a pretty easy repo.

Well, we were stuck! If we wanted to get the car back, we would have to pay the invoice by a wire transfer only.  We could not use a credit card or certified check.  Finally, after paying the exorbitant amount, we were then told where the car was being kept.
 
Then, I asked about getting it transported.  She (Jessica) said she would have to contact her agent to see if they could find anyone to transport it for us.  (At this point it is getting very close to the 10 free days of storage, and to Christmas.)

At each point I had to call her to get the updates.  Finally, she found someone who would transport it for us for $450.00, but wouldnt transport it until after the holidays, thus incurring $140.00 in storage fees.  At this point, we decided that we would drive there ourselves and recover the car, which we did.  We drove for 7 hours to get there.

When we got to the storage facility, we talked with the owners of the place and found out that many of the things we were being told were totally false!

First of all, Andy only gave the tow truck operator the home and work addresses of the debtor.  He neglected to tell him that the car had a total wrap on it. The truck driver said that he probably had seen that car there many times, but didnt know that was the one he was supposed to pick up.  Also, their fee after the first 10 days is only $10.00/day, so here is another way that NRN LLC is making extra money.

We would not hesitate to tell anyone DO NOT hire National Recovery Network, LLC to recover your property, unless you dont care how much they charge, and that you will have to be proactive in the recovery.  We would not recommend them to anyone.