I lost my job in May and I am at the end of my unemployment benefits and can no longer make my car payments. I contacted Drive Fiancial to voluntarily surrender my car. A request was made and I was told I would have to wait for someone to contact me. They have no where for me to deliver the vehicle to and an agent will have to be assigned to pick up my car and store it until it could be sold at auction.
A time-frame for them to get back to me could not be set. I would just have to wait. I started this process on February 19. Everyday I called to discuss the voluntary surrender of my car there was some reason it couldn't be handled until 03/02/09 when I was finally transferred to someone who could actually help me. Meanwhile they call everyday to continue trying to collect.
I was told today that because my account is not that delinquent (it is only 11 days behind since they gave me a deferment on 02/20/09 that moved the past due amount (three months) to the end of the loan) it would be sixty days at least before they respond to my request. I cannot make them understand the sense of urgency that is needed.in sixty days I will not be in my apartment and will not have a phone.
As of this writing I have no place to go. I am trying to do the right thing here. I had one representative tell me today that Drive Financial could not be concerned with my apartment or my phone. That their business with me regarded my car and that they have a contract. If I have no address to have mail delivered to and have no phone for them to call me on how are they going to find me, muchless the car?
Another rep asked me today what my call was regarding and when I told her my car what else would I be calling Drive Financial for she said something rude and hung up. Drive Financial obviously does not train their customer representatives to think out side the box or must not encourage creative thinking.
I have twenty two years experience in customer service and I am appalled at the level of service that they give. I was hung up on at least by 7 different people today alone. I have been lied to, mis-led and given false information. It seems that you cannot speak to a Supervisor or Manager at Drive Financial. They appear not to exist because one is never available and you always have to call back.
I am of the old school that when you are speaking to someone that is either incompetent or is not empowered to do what needs to be done you escalate the call.By what I experienced today Drive Financial doesn't understand the meaning of the words escalate and sense of urgency.
I called 877-374-8035 which is listed as the main switchboard number on their website and the girl that answered didn't even know the name of the person who is in charge of the Customer Service Department. She had to put me on hold to find out. When I asked to speak to that individual she had to put me on hold again to have someone tell her what to do. (I was given the name of Anthony GRay.) They will not transfer you to someone when you have their phone extension and have been given assurances that someone would do so.
Their representatives are rude, uncaringand argumentatitive. They have no personal integrity. If they did so, they would not treat their customers as they do. When you call their 888-222-4227 number a recording tells you that the call may be recorded for quality assurance purposes. That is a joke.in my career if I had ever treated a customer with such indifference, rudeness and callousness I would have been fired on the spot.
I finally manged to locate a list of the officers of Drive Financial and a local number to their headquarters in Dallas, Texas that I will call tomorrow to see if I can connect with their Chief Operating Officer, Jason Grubb. I can't wait to share this story with him. I have already shared it with the local television stations in the DFW area. I know from what I have seen on the internet that there are serious problems at Drive Financial.
You would think in the current economic situation in the US that they would have a plan in place for dealing with situations like mine. I know that I am not the only person faced with losing their vehicle. They have made a difficult situation that much worse. Tomorrow I am filing a complaint with the Texas Attorney General. Today I filed one with the Dallas Better Business Bureau.
Regina
Lewisville, Texas
U.S.A.
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