I bought my 2001 Kia Sephia from Drive Time in Glendale, AZ back in March. Three weeks after I had it, I was driving home from work on the freeway, and I heard a loud bang! Turned out it was the tire—a piece of it came off, it hit the bumper, and side of the car. The bumper was hanging off, and the side of the car was dented due to the incident.
I called Drive Time where where I made the purchase only be to told, "It's not our fault that happened. We inspect all of our cars before placing them on our lots." Yeah right!
To make all of this short... I had to put the car in the shop over eight times in the first nine months I had it. I thank God that it was still covered under Kia's 60,000/5 year warranty! I'd be very broke if not for that. Each time it broke down, I called Drive Time. It was like pulling teeth to get them to give me an extension on the payment.
Recently [07) the car was vandalized—someone put three pounds of sugar in my gas tank. I called Drive Time and told them of the incedent. I made them aware there was no way I'd be able to come up with $1,600 to have it repaired, and all of the car payments. They were so nice to me when I told them what had happened.
They advised me to get a copy of the sales receipt fron the Kia dealership showing I paid for the repairs and they'd give me an "extension" for two months on my payments to help me pay back a co-worker and family member that loaned me some money for the repairs. I did everything they asked of me [as of 08]. I get a call a week later from a represenative by the name of Jose advising me that they declined me extension and I was now 29 days past due.
I was very upset at this point. I told them to come get the car I had enough of them. They laughed and said, "We don't pick up our cars, you bring them to us or we keep adding on late fees." what kind of company is this? Is this legal?
They finally approved the loan as of 10/20 and I had my first payment due on 11/11/04. On my credit report, they put me down as 30 days past due because of all of their extension approvals/disapprovals.
A week after the car had been repaired from the sugar being put in it, the clutch went out. $750 I had to come up with.
I called today to make my payment and their CSR I spoke with was SO rude. I told her to try and please show me some respect. She asked me to hold, and came back to the line approximately two minutes later saying, "Okay, let's try this again!" Ruder than be before. I gave her my credit card number and the bill was processed. After that she thought she'd be nice and clue me in on something.
Apparently I owe them about 22 payments of $8 each from back in 2003 and 2004 this year. She said because I called a few times asking to pay my payment on my next check I received an $8 late fee for each one. I've never been that late before. I mean not 22 times! I'm currently waiting on them to mail me my payment history in which I am going to compare it to my bank statements. If any of it doesn't match, I'll be contacting our local news station for assistance and public awareness.
I told her I'd wouldn't pay those late fees from so long ago, also mentioning to her they should've mentioned those at the time I made the initial payments so I could have taken care of them that day. She stated it's not their responsibility to do so, and that I should refer to my contract.
I'm considering buying a new car, and sending this one back to Drive Time. I'll deal with the repo part of this mess later. I'm just so fed up with the company. How do they stay in business???
Please feel free to contact me if you can point me in some type of legal advice or anything else that will help!
Thanks!
Michael
Phoenix, Arizona
U.S.A.
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