Prior to deciding to buy a new car, I would hear on a Fort Collins, CO radio station (99.9 The Point) a radio commercial from Tynan's Kia of Fort Collins. "Push, pull or drag sale. Minimum $4,000.00 trade in for your car. If your car runs, we will pay more. At Tynan's Kia of Fort Collins." On the week of November the 19th of I was having difficulties with my car. It had broken down and was not running again. I thought that it would be a good idea to see if Tynan's would be able to help me in this situation. After all their commercial said that they would give you a minimum of $4,000.00.
On November the 19th, I took off from my job and drove from Cheyenne, WY to Fort Collins, CO. To see if Tynan's could help me out. When I got their I asked the sales person, Wendy Reed, if they were still having the "push, pull or drag sale." She informed me that they were always having that sale. I explained my situation to her about my car. She told me that she would need to talk with her manager about it and see if my car would qualify for this sale. When she returned she told me that my car did not qualify; however, they were currently overstocked and were doing almost anything in order to sell the cars on their lot. I thought this was great, a dealership willing to work with me. We began checking out the different Kia's that they had to offer. I test drove the Kia Spectra and decided that this is the one I would get. We went inside to discuss the figures. I told them that my old car (1995 Dodge Intrepid) was currently part of a consolidated $5,000.00 loan. She had me contact the finance company and I discussed the situation with them. They informed me that they could not just take out the car with some money, but that the entire loan would have to be paid off. Or I could just remove the car; however, that would increase my interest rates and they would have to refinance the whole amount adding a process fee. I informed Reed that I could not handle that loan and also the car loan. She told me she would ask her manager and let me know what he thought. When she came back, Reed told me that her manager agreed to pay off the loan on the Intrepid and add that to the new car loan. With that arrangement made we discussed my wages and also my credit rating. I told her that I make $783.00 after taxes are removed every 2 weeks; and a little over $900.00 before taxes (actual $972.00). She then asked what I thought my credit score was and I told her it was 564 (actual 604). She told me that everything looked good and her manager also said that everything looked good; however, they would need to get the finance managers approval. I waited in the back room for almost 3 hours before the finance manger, Keith Metivier, was able to see me. When I got back there, Metivier told me that everything looked good. He said that he would have no problem obtaining financing for the Kia Spectra. Metivier said that he had not received an ok from any finance company as of yet. He said that because it is almost 5:00 pm and a Friday, that the loan officers probably were leaving early and would not have a chance to go over the loan contract until the following Monday. He said that when I am able to get the trade to them, that they would let me take the Spectra home. I told him that I would have to have the car towed here and he said no problem, we are here to work with you. Before I left the dealership, I sighed all of the paperwork. (attachment A) I made arrangements with Reed that I would have the Intrepid towed to Tynan's that night. I drove back to Wyoming, found a second driver and made arrangement with Doug's Towing to have the intrepid towed to Tynan's Kia. When I got back to Fort Collins, Reed had the car brought to the front and we went through the car inspection. Reed put the intransits on the Spectra and I left the dealership thinking that everything was taken care of.
On around November 29th Reed contacted me and said that they were unable to get any financing on the Kia Spectra and that I would have to bring it back to them. Reed told me that her manager could get financing on a different car, a Kia Optima. She said that this car was a little more expensive; however, it had better rebates than the Spectra and it would look better on the paperwork. I did not think that I had any choice in this matter and I was given the impression that my old car was gone. I asked Reed what would happen if they could not get any financing for this car, would I be stuck in Fort Collins and she told me that she would give me a ride home if it fell through. I told Reed that I could not come down until the 30th of November. I made arrangements to leave my job to take care of this situation..
On November 30th I drove the Spectra back to Tynan's Kia of Fort Collins. When I got there, I told the sales manager that I was returning the Spectra because the financing fell through and that they said an Optima could be financed. I picked out the Optima that I wanted and I was sent back to Metivier's office. Metivier told me that he had contacted 14 different banks and all of them said no to the Spectra. I asked him what the difference would be on the Optima. Metivier said that the Optima had $3,000.00 in rebates and this looks much better to the banks. Metivier said that this was a guaranteed approval and it had already been taken care of before I got to Fort Collins. He printed out new contracts for the Optima and I signed them. (attachment B). After that was completed he informed me that I needed to go to U of C Federal Credit Union and set up a savings account with them. I asked him how could I join that credit union and he told me that because I work at the First Presbyterian Church, I could join. He told me that the closest Credit Union was in Lafayette, CO. He said that it was a 40 minute drive and that I had to do it today or I would be unable to take the Optima off of their lot and I would basically be without a car (45 miles south of Cheyenne, WY). I went to the U of C Federal Credit Union to set up the account. When I got there I told the loan representative what the situation was and she asked me how I could join this credit union? I told her that Metivier said I could join because I worked at the First Presbyterian Church in Cheyenne, WY. She said that she had to talk to her manager. When she came back, she said that you can only join if you are a volunteer for the First Presbyterian Church and also the church needs to be located in Colorado. If I was not so frustrated, I would have paid a little more attention to the web page that Metivier had printed for me and questioned it at the dealership... Metivier should have also known. (attachment C). The loan representative said that you have another option to join... You can donate $30.00 to a Shakespeare drama production that the credit union sponsored. I told her I could do that and put that donation onto a credit card. She then informed me that I would need to put $25.00 into the savings account in order to activate it. I only had a check with me. She said it had to be cash. She said that I could go to a different bank that might be connected to my bank so that I can take out the cash from my Cheyenne account to put into the U of C savings account. I went to the other bank, withdrew the money and went back to U of C to finish setting up the account. I then drove back to Tynan's of Fort Collins. I showed Reed the savings account number and she made copies of the account for Metivier. Reed put the intransits onto the Optima and I drove back to Cheyenne, WY.
December 10th Metiver called me at work and told me that U of C Federal Credit Union had cancelled the contract for the Optima. He said that they wanted income verification and he wanted me to fax it to the dealership. I asked him what would happen if they still refused to finish the loan. He said not to worry he would take care of the situation. I found a copy of my work stub and faxed it over to Tynan's. I called Metiver shortly after that to verify that he received my income verification, he did. Metiver said that he was going to fax it over to U of C and would know by Monday what was going on.
December 11th I contacted the finance company that originally held the loan on my old Intrepid. They informed me that Tynan's had sent them a check on the 6th of December and my account was paid off. (attachment D).
December 13th I took off from my job to work out my different options. I contacted U of C Federal Credit Union and asked them why they first approved the loan and then cancelled the loan? The loan representative said that the loan was never approved and that Metiver had requested that they reconsider their decision. They asked for the income verification. I asked her if they had received my income verification yet. She informed me that Metiver had not faxed it to them and they were still waiting for it. However, she did not think that would help the situation because my income to debt ratio was to high (about 75%) and they would just end up denying the loan again. I called Metiver and told him that I contacted U of C and that they had never received the income verification. He told me that he took care of that on Friday, but would resend it to them and would know their decision by Tuesday. Tuesday I had not heard back from Metiver and suspected that U of C did not agree to the loan. I went to my credit union to see if they could help me in this situation and they informed me that on a $20,000.00 loan they want to see your income to debt ratio at about 45-50% and mine was to high. She also told me that she did not think that any bank would finance this loan amount for me. I thought that my old car was gone and knew that the financing on the new car was falling apart.
December 14th I contacted Tynan's and told them that there was no financing available for me the deal was falling apart, U of C cancelled and contract and according to my records, if they took the car back, I would be charged use fees ($50.00/day and $0.50/mile). The longer I kept this car, the higher this debt would be and I felt that I had no choice but to return the Optima back to them. The sales manager said we would never do that to you. He also said that there was a misunderstanding with U of C Federal Credit Union and that they were going to approve this loan any day. I told him that I was still going to return and car and once U of C Federal Credit Union approved the loan, I would pick up the car. He said that was fine, but not necessary because U of C was going to approve the loan. I found a second driver and took the car back to Tynan's of Fort Collins. When I got there, I asked the Sales Manager where he wanted the car. I drove it to the edge of their lot and gave back the keys to the manager. He once again informed me that U of C was going to approve the loan. I also was told that my car was still there. When I look around their lot, I did not see it anywhere.
December 20th Metiver called me up and said that a different bank had now approved the loan and I needed to go back to Fort Collins and fill out the new paperwork. I informed Metiver that I was currently looking at different options. 10 minutes latter his manger called me up and said he could not understand what was going on. I told him that U of C had cancelled the loan (according to Metiver), but according to the bank, they never approved the loan. He informed me that it was my fault because I provided U of C with inaccurate information about my income. I never provided any information to U of C because that credit union would only talk with Tynan's (U of C would not even let me fax over the income verification, they needed it to come from the dealership). I also did not lie about my income to Tynan's like the manager has suggested. When I told him that, he said well the credit union had talked with someone in Human Resource and that they said I made $200.00 less than I told them. I asked the people at my job and no one ever called to ask about income verification... The place that I work at has only 5 employees including me and there is no HR Department. I informed him that I was tired of being lied to and given the run around by Tynan's Kia. He said that they have never done that to me; however, it did not matter because they no longer required my signature on the new paperwork. He was going to submit the old paper work and by pass having me sign any of the new documentation. I asked him how they could do that and he informed me that because I agreed on the original contact for the Optima (even though U of C Federal Credit Union had cancelled that contract) they could just submit it to the new bank. He said that it did not matter, the Optima was now mine and I would receive the bank information in 4-6 weeks. It was suggested to me that I have them fax over any contract material to look over and also to have the letter of approval faxed over. I called Metiver and asked him to fax over all of the contract material and also the approval letter. He said that he could not fax over the approval letter because it contained confidential information (this information should be about me and also the loan and I should be able to see it). I told him that I needed some sort of information to verify the approval of the loan. He told me he would have the bookkeeper type up the information and fax it over (attachment E). Metiver said he would not need to fax over the contract because they were just going to use the old contract (cancelled by U of C). I told him that they sure snuck around that issue and he said yes. The approval letterer that Metiver had typed up for me shows the bank as "First National Bank of Fort Collins;" however, it shows the loan approval for the Kia Spectra and not the Optima. After I took the Optima home, I had received 2 different approval letter from different banks. The banks would only approve $16,900.00. I do not know if this letter is the correct approval letter for the Optima or if Tynan's is just giving me the run around again. I called Metiver up to verify the information and he said he did not know what the bookkeeper was doing, but it was just a simple mistake.
After this conversation I looked at the dates for both contracts. The dates for both contracts are for November 19 even though I took back the Spectra on November 30 and took the Optima off of Tynan's lot. It seems to me that if the Optima's contact is to be considered valid it should have shown the date that I took it off of the lot and was given the loan approval by U of C Federal Credit Union. Also I would think that in order for the new contract to be valid with the new bank those dates should also reflect the date that the loan was approved. I do no understand how Tynan's can use a contract that is 30 days old and was cancelled by U of C (according to Metiver) without making any changes to the dates and without getting my new signatures.
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