I bought a GMC Jimmy from Abernathy Motors in Jonesboro, Arkansas, on March 17. They offer "buy here, pay here" financing and a satellite payment reminder system to allow them to finance to everyone. If the payment is over 3 days late, they can remotely shut off the vehicle. That requires you to call them and make a payment arrangment in order to be able to drive your vehicle. A code is manually entered using a small remote control in the vehicle.
Last week, my husband went in to pay our regular payment, and see if we could get the payment schedule changed to coincide with his paydays. He paid $132.60 for 2 weeks. That would put our next payment due on October 9th.
Yesterday, the truck started beeping the way it does if your payment is late. Since I had a payment coupon that stated that my next payment was due on October 9th, I called Abernathy to straighten out the misunderstanding. The woman I spoke to, named Gina, informed me that in order to change our payment schedule, we had to pay an ADDITIONAL $132.60. I informed her that my husband came in on the 27th to pay for 2 weeks, and my next payment was not due till October 9th. She agreed with me on that, but would not deviate from her assertation that we still owed her an extra $132.60 for ONE WEEK when we had just paid for 2 weeks last Wednesday!
I finally had to have my husband call her from WORK. She told him the same thing. Even when he walked her through the logic step by step, she still stubbornly refused to believe him, and even became rude over the phone. She was going to shut the truck off, when we were paid up till Monday! He finally told her that he had heard of Abernathy overcharging people on vehicles, and even reposessing vehicles 4 months after they were paid off. Even if the owner had receipts showing the vehicle paid in full, Abernathy would reposses the vehicle and try to charge them extra for the vehicle they had already paid for!
Gina finally agreed with my husband, and even set up the next payment to be due AFTER he gets paid next, on October 16th. He definitely made her angry, though. She only set up the arrangement after he threatened to call the owner of the dealership and report her rudeness.
Apparently, this is a common practice with this company. I am looking for another vehicle. I will probably take a loss on the Jimmy, but it might be worth it not to have to deal with them anymore!
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