Complaint Review: Nu Star Motors - Shingle Springs California

An Accounting:

This page is a detailed accounting of experiences I had with Nu Star motors or That's No Bull:

Nu Star Motors

4130 Datsun Ct. #3

Shingle Springs, CA 95682

Tel: 530-672-0749

Fax: 530-672-0780

"NU STAR MOTORS ESALES MOTTO

We make every effort to find you the right vehicle at the right price. By utilizing the Internet we work to make your car buying experience as uncomplicated and stress free as possible.

Good Luck!!

NU STAR MOTORS, ESALES SUPPORT TEAM"

I first purchased a vehicle from Nu Star Motors in December of 2001. I bought a 1998 4x4 Chevy Suburban LS for $23,156.00. They gave a three month/3,000 warranty with the truck.

Issue #1: I gave them 2 checks for 500.00 each, dated 15 days apart for the down payment, which I was assured was standard practice when someone doesn't have a down payment. I went on Christmas vacation and came back to find that they had deposited both checks at the same time, three weeks early and of course had overdrawn my checking account.

Issue #2: In January 02, the check engine light came on. I am a certified GM Mechanic and I have a code reader. The code was an evaporative code, but I wanted it taken care of by the warranty. Nu Star stated that it was a "Transmission exhaust manifold gasket" and it would be $580.00 to fix, of which I was to be responsible for half, $290.00 plus they couldn't drive it to the transmission shop, so it would be an additional $75.00 to tow it there. The transmission is a 4L60E. It's an automatic. No one I have talked to could tell me where the exhaust manifold is for one of these transmissions. I've taken numerous automatic and standard transmissions apart and I have never found an exhaust manifold, let alone one that needed a gasket. I'll let you come to your own conclusions. Needless to say, I didn't pay for those repairs and they didn't hound me for them.

Issue #3: They repaired the squeaky brakes on this truck two times. I finally replaced the rotors, pads and a caliper that was freezing up March 2002.

Now, I must be a glutton for punishment, but through all of this, the salesperson I purchased from was friendly and rather genuine. He tried to help with the issues and over the course of time, we became friends. Fast forward to November, 2002.

My wife drives the Suburban and I had been driving my Jeep Wrangler, which is built for off road usage and has a gas guzzling Chevy V-8 in it. I needed a commuter vehicle. I really should have gone somewhere else, but I figured my friend at the Nu Star would take care of me. We had been talking about all sorts of things over the last year and he stated that "Nu Star's owner, Jim had "come around" and hired a firm to take care of the mishandling of the dealership." (his words) He assured me that all would be well, so I looked at a 1998 Volkswagen Jetta GLS.

November 24th, after about 40 emails talking about: various cars, the salesmen's new house, cleaning up my credit and other various and sundry things, I gave my friend permission to pull my credit report, Once. On the 25th, he went into the office and pulled it. We talked back and forth for a couple of days. They couldn't finance me by myself because I already had a loan, so I added my wife. I took delivery of the car, which had a few issues:

Issue #4: The exhaust was leaking before the catalytic converter. In California, you can't "SMOG" a vehicle if it has an exhaust leak before the Cat. I left for Christmas vacation on the 17th of December. I left the Jetta with my friend at the dealership to get this taken care of. I got back 4 Jan and it was still leaking. Nu Star couldn't find anything wrong with it. I brought it back to them on the 18th of February, showed them where the leak was. They kept my car for two days while they hunted around for a USED front pipe to replace the damaged one. At least it's fixed!

Issue #5: This one really isn't Nu Star's problem but it irks me. When I bought the car, the two rear windows needed repair. VW's are famous for very bad window regulator designs. I made a deal with my friend, if I bought the car, he would pay to have the windows fixed. I already paid to have two fixed, the third is still broken to this day. Now my friend has been in an out of all sorts of troubles, but I am still dealing with a broken window. Dealership says it's the window motor itself.

Issue #6: Remember issue #1? Yep, while I was away for Christmas, they cashed both checks again! This time I was ready for them. I had money in the account and was able to cover it. My friend was very apologetic.

Issue #7: I currently have 9 Credit Inquiries across three Credit Reports that are dragging my credit scores down as I try to mortgage my house. These 9 pulls are directly linked to Nu Star motors and their attempts to get me financing. Now, my request for one pull was done verbally and via email. My request is legal per FCRA (http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra.htm) and especially the Throne FTC opinion letter ( http://www.ftc.gov/os/statutes/fcra/throne.htm ) that states:

"Section 604(a)(3)(A). However, in order for the additional creditors to whom your client forwards the loan application to have a permissible purpose to obtain a consumer report, the potential credit transaction must be initiated by the consumer. For this reason, the Commentary notes that a lender may forward a loan application to another lender at the consumer's request. Accordingly, your client must obtain the consumer's consent prior to forwarding such information to additional lenders."

Now, this is a similar circumstance. I gave Nu Star permission to pull my credit reports, once. Jim (the owner) states that I implicitly gave them permission by adding my wife to the mix. Law states that I must explicitly give them permission to override my previous restriction. I never authorized those extra inquiries. We spoke about the credit repair I was doing!! All I have asked of Nu Star was for them to remove these inquires from my credit reports. These inquiries are not even coded as auto inquiries. Auto inquiries within 14 days of each other are counted as one. They've stated that my lawyer should talk to their lawyer. I was looking for amicable resolution to this but they force me to sue them, to uphold my rights as a consumer here in California. Now, these pulls were done on the 25th and 26th of November. When I picked up the car on the 28th, my friend followed me to my home where we signed a credit application and dated it the 26th of November. We spoke via email about removing the extra credit pull that I found on the 29th. He said he would get it done. It wasn't until the 12th of December that I found the other pulls!!!

Begin of Timeline:

24Nov2002

Gave them authorization to pull my credit once.

25Nov2002

Pulls on Experian and TransUnion from Nu Star

26Nov2002

Pulls from Yolo Federal Credit Union, Fireside Thrift, Nu Star, Transouth and WFS Financial on Experian

Pulls from Use Credit Union on Equifax

Pulls from Use Credit Union on TransUnion.

28Nov2002

Took delivery of the Jetta, signed all documents, including a credit application that we dated the 26th of November, 2002.

6 January, 2003

7. Spoke with Chayla, a manager at Nu Star and Al Gutierrez, an Account Manager at CUDL, both stated that they would help me out and get these removed.

7 March, 2003

8. Received a letter from Pam Cozakos Nu Star Director of Operations, stating they had permissible purpose.

11 March 2003

9. Sent another fax stating my case. That in writing (email) and verbally stated they were only supposed to pull once. Cited the Throne FCRA opinion letter that supports the legality of my requests. Throne opinion letter states: "in order for the additional creditors to whom your client forwards the loan application to have a permissible purpose to obtain a consumer report, the potential credit transaction must be initiated by the consumer. For this reason, the Commentary notes that a lender may forward a loan application to another lender at the consumer's request. Accordingly, your client must obtain the consumer's consent prior to forwarding such information to additional lenders." Again, I requested the deletion of these pulls.

13 March 2003

10. Spoke with Pam Cozakos, Nu Star Director of Operations, about deleting the inquiries. She stated that she would do everything in her power to get them deleted. She also stated that she would call me back by Friday.

24 march 2003

11. Spoke with Jim McGilliguddy, owner of Nu Star who gave me his home and cell phone numbers. He stated "that he wanted to take care of me, because I was such a good repeat customer and asked me to fax in the copies of the email with my friend". I explained that I was looking to have these inquiries deleted and he said that he would call the people at CUDL and get it done.

26 March 2003

12. I faxed Jim McGilliguddy and Pam Cozakos copies of the email, a copy of the complaint I made to the BBB and another letter requesting these deletions.

27 March 2003

13. Received a letter from Pam Cozakos, Director of Operations. She wants my attorney to contact their attorney:

Paul Phillips

90 Blue Ravine Road

Folsom CA

28 March 2003

14. Sent an email to my friend, Jim, Chayla and Pam, stating my case and asking them about their promises. In my world and hopefully the business world, people do what they say, especially when it's damaging to someone else.

29 March 2003

15. Certified letter from Nu Star. I was too late to pick it up, so I will find out what it is Monday, 31 March 2003.

31 March 2003

16. Letter from NU Star is a copy of a request, dated 27 March 2003 to Experian requesting them to delete a duplicate inquiry. Also, their letter states that: "You are a valued customer and we appreciate your business." They were supposed to do this in November. No mention of the other pulls that are in violation of my request.

11 April 2003

17. Received an email:

I have contacted Experian today. They will be doing what is called a masking of the inquiry. What that means is that if someone pulls your

credit history they will not be able to see the inquiry done by the dealership through Yolo Federal. Now, if you were to pull your own

credit report you would see the inquiry. So as far as other financial institutions are concerned the inquiry doesn't exist. This can take up

to 30 days to reflect on your credit report. If you have any questions please feel free to contact me.

Bethany Malcolm

Financial Services Manager

Yolo Federal Credit Union

530-669-6309

[email protected]

End of Timeline.

In total, Nu Star pulled my credit report three times, yet does not issue credit themselves. They then sent my credit information out to other credit systems where they pulled as they wished and when that didn't work, they sent it on to two more agencies. All in violation of my requests and the law. Additionally, these inquiries are not coded as Automotive, so they do not all count as one. Jim stated that they tried to get me financed in any way they could. My current credit union will finance me, as would any bank out there. I have three promotional offers from the time I bought this car that say I could get 30K for a car at 4% APR!

Since this, I have spoken with the credit unions themselves, Nu Star, and Credit Union Direct Lending. All I have requested was the deletion of the impermissible inquiries that are dragging my credit scores down and reducing my chances at a better mortgage rate on my house. I took my friend's word that Nu Star would have those inquiries deleted. I took the Director of Operations, Pam Cozakos' word that she would have them deleted. I listened to Jim, Nu Star's owner talk about having them deleted. How much effort does it take from me to get them to do what they said they would do?

Tell them how you feel. I can't honestly say I would ever buy there again. I can't honestly say anyone should!

Grendel

Sacramento, California
U.S.A.