Where should I start?
September our truck was stolen from the parking lot of a law office. We had our own insurance through Victoria Insurance, but it had lapsed the previous month. However we were paying for insurance through Westlake Financial making our total payments $604 monthly for a 99 Dodge Ram. When we called them to tell them that the truck was stolen they asked if we had insurance. We reported the truck stolen and they said the insurance would cover.
Then we started getting collection calls because we did not pay the following month because the insurance should have covered. (we never had a late payment). They then told us that we had no current insurance because they claimed they never recieved the renewel letter from us the previous June/July.
Now, we know we sent it in and that is that. It was included in our payments. They then told us that the insurance premiums we were paying were from the previous year, which is absolutely ridiculous, nobody pays for insurance that is already paid. So we then got scared and I told them that we had insurance through Victoria so they would stop calling our family and friends (that by the the way were not even referances on our application).
We got a phone call sometime soon after that (not sure about the date) telling us that Victoria had recovered the truck and was missing seats and rims, but said nothing about the stereo system that was in it, when I brought that up they said it was still in tact. So what kind of theif leaves the stereo system, a very nice, expensive one at that?
So I contacted a lawyer. They did not want to get involved with such a big case. Then I recieved a phone call from the Attorney General of Arizona asking about the situation and asked us if we would be willing to make audio tapes. We agreed. On the audio tapes recorded at the Attorney Generals Office, they "transferred" me to Victoria Insurance. There was never a transfer because there was no current insurance through them. They pretended to be Victoria Insurance and claimed that they had the truck and was holding it in Tuscon, AZ.
After much work they gave us an address to the holding facility. The Attorney General had several local authorities check the place out for the truck. It was an auction lot that the car dealership originally bought the truck from. Guess what. No truck. So we called them back on audio and they claimed that the truck was in fact down there, still pretending to be the insurance company and that if we made a payment the would repair all damages and return the truck to us. The A.G. Said that they had been trying to bring down this company for years and that these tapes may pave the way for such to happen.
They have now filed suit against us and we are set to go to arbitration in April. We have no legal representation and are going up against a company with overwhelming resources. Hell, they probably paid the arbitrator already to cover their behinds. I read a few of the reports and I know I would definetely want to get in on a class action lawsuit. Anything to get this ill-legitamate company out of business and our peace of mind and credit back together. They filed the truck on our credit as a repossession, even though it is a stolen truck that should have been covered by insurance. They also tried to bring charges of fraud against us saying that we had it stolen to collect the insurance. I mean come on, insurance only covers the cost of the vehicle, they were the loss-payees. We would have never seen a dime.
HELP US if you have any information that could get us and others out of this (these) situations.
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