I purchased a 1996 Ford Contour in Febuary of 2005 from Greg Chapman Motors. The sales rep was Heather Kinley. When I test drove the car the check engine light came on. I asked them see why the light was on. They took the car to the back where the mechanics are set up. Heather told me that they turned off the check engine light. I was told that it was on due to the mileage of around 80k which was believable since that is typical of many cars that I had owned in the past.
Later that year I went to have my car inspected. It failed to pass insprection due major emissions problems. A major factor that played a role in my car failing to pass inspection is the fact that the check engine light appeared to have been altered in some way.
I took the car to my regular mechanic to have necessary repairs made. He discovered that the bulb and socket had been ripped out and that they didn't even replace all of the screws. It was apparent that it was done in haste. I assume while I was waiting in the office with the sales person at Greg Chapman Motors.
The repair bill was over 700 dollars. One hundred dollars of the repair cost was to replace the check engine light bulb socket and screws.
Other petty things went wrong with the car making it hard to keep up with the payments at times. But I always paid and I always called them to let them know that it would be late. At this time the transmission is jumping and acting like it is about to go out. I imagine that will be a large repair bill as well.
The car also has frame damage and appears to have been in a major front end accident that does not show up on car fax report. It has recently started leaking oil and has some sort of electrical problem I'm presuming that is most likely due to the ripping out of the bulb and socket since the sorce of the short is in the dash. It is putting a small slow drain on my battery.
The kicker to this entire saga of a story is that I recenly attempted to refinance this LEMON in my mothers name so I could go buy a newer more reliable car and keep this LEMON as a second car. No one wants it as a trade or they aren't willing to give me hardly anything for it because it is a piece of junk. The process was drug out over the course of 3 months.
My mother even made an appointment to meet with Greg Chapman and when she showed up, Greg Chapman was not there. She wasted her entire lunch hourIn the meantime I was told not to make any payments by Robert Garza and that everything is cool. I spoke to Robert Garza on the phone just 2 weeks ago to ask him what was up. He said not to worry everything was fine. It was taking time to get things in order. I was getting nervous and uneasy about this.
Then just this past Thursday May 11 at around 10:30 am someone showed up to reposess the car. I had no notice, no warning that there was a problem. I hadn't heard from anyone. So I thought that my car was being stolen and ran out to the parking along with my boss both of us screaming and yelling. I rip open the car door and shut the ingnition off (the lady starts speaking spanish and grabs my arm) and was about to pull the lady out of the car when she whips out this paper saying she is from Chapman Motors and says go ahead call the police.
I stopped dead in my tracks. I was like WHAT? Who are you? We are refinancing this car. She said no ma'am you are 130 days late. At that point it was obvious to me that this was a set up on their part to try and screw me out of my car and money.
In the past if I was even one day late they were calling me on my cell phone, home phone, work phone 2-3 times a day before I put a stop to it with a letter. This ticked them off severly. So they had come to repo the car when it was one day late because I wrote them a letter asking them to stop calling. They literally showed up within 15 minutes of faxing the letter which quoted the law about calling people at work regarding debts.
They were tying up my phone lines and embaressing me on purpose. They even had Greg Chapman's young 20 something son go to my house and tape a note on the front door to my apartment for all the neighbors to see. Needless to say I was livid. I reported them to the AG's office and BBB.
When I called Robert Garza (finance dept) during the latest incident, I was absolutely livid. I asked him why the F— didn't he call me if there was a problem with the refinancing. His own words "I don't have to F*CKING call you." It was avery apparent that I am dealing with an extremely classy establishment.
Oh and let me point out that my boss was standing there the entire time and is a witness. They tried to tell my mom that I was volital and didn't want me in the office etc. Making me out to be some sort of lunatic. Simple character assasination because they know they were wrong and I was oblviously freaked out thinking someone was stealing my car.
Robert Garza claims that my mother, Barb, failed to show up for an appointment on Tuesday. An appointment she never had. Furthermore, if they were going to refinance the car, they would have had to make the appointment with me as well since it's rather obvious that I have to sign over the title etc.
And if they had a problem and simply wanted me to pay the payments and forget about the refinance, all they had to do was call me on the phone and I could have given them my check card number. But everytime I called or my mother called about the refinance they said that they were working on it and he (Robert) had to talk to Greg about and Greg wasn't there.
When I spoke to Robert about the issue today, Greg wasn't there either. He also admitted to me on the phone that they were having problems with mechanics at the time of my purchase and that the mechanics were not fixing things and that they were stealing from them. He also admitted that Greg was "pissed at me" about the BBB report and letter I sent and that that played a factor into the incident Thursday. Basically, this was a set up and revenge on their part.
But we paid all of the arears up and got the car back. They "waived" the late fees. But in the process they humiliated me at my place of employment, ticked off my boss and caused me and my mother emotional stress. All of this could have been handled with a simple phone call. But they didn't "have to F*KCING call me."
Luckily I have pre paid legal and a very good boss who BTW thinks they are total idiots. As does my mechanic. I will most likely trade this piece of crap in as soon as possible so I don't have to deal with these Cedar Park low life thieves any further.
My advice is to NEVER EVER go to a small lot. From what I hear and read, this sort of thing happens all the time when dealing with in house finance places. If you really need a car buy one from an individual and work out arrangements with them or get a small short term loan at a credit union or local bank.
These people are simply taking advantage of people with limited options. A lot of people would not have been able to get their car back like I did. And a lot of their clients are people with limited education and resources who are desperate for a vehicle and don't know their rights.
They messed with the wrong single mom this time. (:
Sarah
Austin, Texas
U.S.A.
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