Last February my vehicle was repossesed by Fifth Third.instead of writing my whole story like a lot of these reportss, I'll try to keep it simple. The vehicle was FULLY paid for and insured since initial purchase. Before I go on, we did move from PA back to MI approximately 7 months prior to this event (and filed all the paper work at the post office).
At ~3:00pm on a Wed I recieved a call from my wife asking if I had been paying for my vehicle and I said yes. She said a repo company just called and was looking to take our vehicle. I called off the job site for the day and raced to the bank to make sure I paid and every payment was made and correct. We called Fifth third right after we had the bank statements and they said it was about insurance? We called our insurance company and got all of those records also, then called Fifth Third back.
Apparently, we didn't send in proof of insurance to Fifth Third and they took out their own policy a few months prior? What the heck? I have never had to do anything like that before we had the vehicle for about 1 yr and 9 mos at this point, I never knew to send them proof, nor did I know they wanted me to.
I just paid the car payment every month. Anyway, the Fifth Third reps said not to worry and to fax in all the insurance records in the morning (it was 8:00pm bythis point). My wife and I went to bed laughing at the whole crazy situation.
6:00am - get up for work and the car is gone! Literally, we had no idea that there was any problem until about 18 hours prior, and it was gone (with all of my work equipment and I am a scientist and I had very expensive equipment in there). I can't even bare to keep on typing all of this.
-Long story short took us over 4 weeks to get it back
-didn't have to pay what they originally wanted but still ~$1,000 out of pocket
-Fifth Third reps were horrible on the phone, rude, swearing, laughing at us... Even some reps couldn't believe that it got repoed
-all items were returned 3 days later in a giant garbage bag (several things damaged, both personal and work owned items - plus ~$100 fee)
-credit card rates went up, insurance rates went up, etc - still dealing with that even with a letter from Fifth Third stating "removal all negative marks"
-dealt with having to tell this story to everyone that I know... And I am sure they all think "sure it was paid for"
To this day I still get mail from address that I have not lived at in at least 4 years forwarded to me. There is no way 5/3 sent me a letter or anything - I would have sent proof of insurance to them if they had.
Anyway, we have a file (6" thick) with notes from every phone call, all the fees, anything related to this case. At first when I got the car back I was happy it was over (and I was getting married in a few months) but this keeps coming up in conversations at work, home, and with friends and it bugs me. It is the most embarassing story to tell and everyone wants to hear it.
After reading several other cases about Fifth Third it just bugs me even more. I did speak with one lawyer who said that I have a good case, but I'll be paying him whatever I would win (a wash situation) plus I would still have to deal with it. What should I do. Remember it was continuously insured always paid up to date and just repossesed in a matter of hours!?
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