On April 23, I found the above company on the internet, and after talking to a Mr. Tom Daniels at 888-342-7737 I agreed to hire his company to repossess a vehicle that I had co-signed on for my former son-in-law that e payments were not being paid in a timely fashion.
Mr. Daniels told me the repo fee would be $400.00, which included 15 days of storage, and $200 if they had to make a key. Since I had a key, I told him the key charge would not be necessay. He then faxed me a Hold Harmless form, which I signed and sent back.
The vehicle was in Las Vegas, so that is where the search began. Since I have friends in Las Vegas (I am in Colorado) they would call me from time to time and let me know when they spotted the vehicle. I would then call ICU and by the time they would get to the location, the car would be gone. Originally, I spoke to a Mr. Jay Carter at 866-626-7376 and he assured me they would find the vehicle. Periodically, he would call me and tell me that they couldn't seem to locate it.
After 60 days I had a call from Amanda Pierce. She told me she was the new contract on that case. Again, I would call her when ever the vehicle was spotted, and again it would be gone by the time they got there.
On July 11, I had a call from a friend telling me the vehicle was in Westminister, CO. I called Amanda Pierce and gave her the address, and she had a truck pick it up. I ask her where I could pick it up, and she told me that she would have to send me an invoice on Monday, July 14th, and as soon as I paid that, they would tell me where it was. Remember, I had a key and could have picked it up my self, but felt since I had this agreement with ICU that I should honor it and let them pick it up.
On Monday, July 14, I received a fax statement from ICU for $8230.00!
Talk about shocked! I called Amanda Pierce and told her there must be some mistake. She said no, that was the correct amount and that it was so high because of all the skip-tracing that had to do, and all of the gas and time they used looking for it in Vegas, and if I wanted the vehicle that was what I was going to have to pay. I reminded her, that I am the one who kept telling them where it was and they were the ones who failed to get out there in a timely fashion and pick it up. Most likely, they would have never found it if I hadn't called them with the address.
In the next few days, I started getting calls from Rick Green telling me that I needed to pay this bill, or they were going to haul the vehicle to Texas for long-term storage while this issue was mitigated. At that point, I contacted an attorney. I also contracted the Attorney General's office in Nevada and they told me this company wasn't even licensed to do business in Nevada and they were going to look into the matter. The Attorney General's office in Nevada was very pro-active in filing a complaint. I also contacted the Attorney General's office in Colorado. They were not very helpful, but forwarded my complaint on the The A.G.in Delaware, where this company is licensed. Nothing has come from these complaints as of yet.
Finally, the Lender called me and told me that ICU had contacted them and that they were going to sell the vehicle if the Lender didn't pay this fee. The Lender then contacted me and said that their legal department told them they needed to pay. The Lender would pay ICU, then turn around and sue me for that amount, plus they would repo the vehicle.
So, talk about being between a rock and a hard spot and wanting to retain my credit, I had no choice but to send ICU a check. They did negotiate the fee down to $7,000.00, which is still highway robbery, but I paid it.
One final thing, if you read the HOLD HARMLESS they send you, it says that they can charge you a percentage of the value of the vehicle for their services. What they don't say, it that they determine the percentage, and they determine the valuse. Pretty sweet deal for them!
All I can say in closing, if you are thinking of hiring these people, DON"T!
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