AmeriCredit
801 Cherry Street, Suite 3900
Fort Worth, Texas 76102
Better Business Bureau at Fort Worth
101 Summit Ave., Suite 707
Fort Worth, Texas 76102-5978
Office of the Attorney General
Consumer Protection Division
PO Box 12548
Austin, TX 78711-2548
To whom it may concern:
Enclosed you will find a check #105 in the amount of $374.87, drawn on the bank account of Yxxxxxxxx Fxxxx, to be applied immediately to my AmeriCredit account number #441077054 (in the name of Sxxxxx Dxxxxx).
On December 12, I made my monthly payment on my AmeriCredit account through the electronic payment services at my bank. This account is for a car loan on a 2007 Dodge Caliber. My account has always been and is current and each monthly payment paid in full, as has also been true of the State Farm policy #1xxx-4xxx-2x which has insured the car without change since April (GEICO had the insurance on the car prior to that). See the enclosed copies of the payment records to AmeriCredit and to State Farm. I have received no communication from AmeriCredit whatsoever other than a monthly paper bill not by phone, e-mail, postal mail, or carrier pigeon.
On December 19 the electronic bill-paying service informed me that they were unable to make the payment as scheduled because the account was closed. I questioned them about any error on their part, and they confirmed the account was indeed closed. See the enclosed copy of the e-mail exchanges between me and the electronic bill-paying service.
I then attempted to contact you through your website at www.AmeriCredit.com. However, the website would not allow me even to send an e-mail without being registered, and when I attempted to register, it said my account information was in error.
The company who originally sold me the car in March (Fusion AutoPlex) is no longer in business, but I still had the cell phone number of the salesman on a business card he had given me. He told me that having my account closed by you was the first step in attempting to repossess my car without cause, and that you had done the same thing to many of his other customers. He said by closing my account without notice, and denying me information and access I need to pay my bill, you are creating a pretext for repossessing my car under a false claim of not having paid my bill. He claims I am very lucky, because most customers pay by check - you hold those checks without cashing them until it is too late for the customer to make that month's payment, and the checks become mysteriously lost. You then repossess the cars in the middle of the night.in my case, because I used an electronic service, I was informed relatively quickly of the problem, before you could steal my car.
Ordinarily I wouldn't give any consideration to what a used car salesman tells me, and I challenged him as to what possible reason you might have for such criminal and immoral behaviors. He told me you are bankrupt for all intents and purposes, can't borrow money to loan to new victims in an environment which is highly profitable for predatory lenders, and are desperate for cash. He says that clients whose bills are paid up to date are not expecting repossession, and so haven't trashed their cars. This makes those cars far more valuable at auction. He says you have a lucrative business on the side extorting money from the innocent people whose cars you've taken, who pay you small fortunes to get their cars back only to come away empty-handed. I asked why the victims didn't sue, and he said by the time they can get another car and recover from the loss, their credit is toast, they are embarrassed to tell anyone they've had a car repossessed, and they can't afford an attorney. He says you've been doing it for a long time, but it wasn't until the economy went sour that you started doing it wholesale.
This conversation occurred Saturday, December 20, immediately after the first e-mail from the electronic bill-payment service. Before I took any action, I wanted to know if there was any truth to what the car salesman told me. I did a thorough search on the Internet. I learned that your own hometown (Fort Worth) Better Business Bureau recorded over 700 complaints against you over the past three years, 292 in the last year alone (which means the annual rate of complaints is rising sharply of late). But the number of complaints on the Internet is staggering a Google search turns up 330,000 entries, and of the first several hundred ninety-nine-percent are negative (after filtering out your own websites and stock reports).
A random check of several of the other pages leads me to believe that is probably a consistent pattern throughout. The most relevant reports are those on a site called consumer complaints. Some of the horror stories are absolutely appalling there is a case similar to one the salesman told me about a woman who had her paid-up car repossessed because (according to you long after the fact) an address on a check she used to make payment did not match the address on her account, and you claimed she had an obligation to keep you immediately informed. Of course, by unexpectedly and without warning repossessing her only mode of transportation, you effectively pre-empted a judge or jury weighing in on your self-serving opinion. Another report tells of you repossessing a car that was up-to-date on payments, claiming (again, after the fact) that the deductible on the man's insurance policy for the car was too large.
Probably the saddest case was one reported by a pastor where you repossessed a car from his parishioner, a single young mother and then had the audacity to charge her $75 to get her personal possessions from the vehicle. All of the reports reference one or more of the slimy tactics I've experienced or heard about from the salesman dishonest dealings, behind-the-back activities, abusive attitudes, and deliberate frustrations of any attempt to resolve issues (like your website's denial of access). I've included the first few pages of entries from the consumer complaints website with this letter.
Obviously, at least one part of the salesman's story holds water you are absolutely without morals or scruples in your treatment of customers. The question then becomes, are you such bad business people that your resultant financial condition could serve as an excuse for crossing the line into criminal behavior? That is are you both morally and financially bankrupt? Apparently so the enclosed article states that in your fourth quarter, you lost over $150 million dollars. Since the national credit crunch occurred after that time and even reputable car companies and lenders are seeking bailouts, it is reasonable to assume you are indeed both desperate and bankrupt. This may be the only time in recorded history that a used car salesman has told the truth. Of course, behind that is fact that he's doing so only because he's found in you someone lower on the scale of human slime than himself.
It was obvious to me that despite paying in a timely manner and keeping my end of the bargain, I and my two-and-a-half year old daughter (I, too, am a single parent) were in grave danger of being left stranded without transportation some frigid day while shopping for Christmas presents by a car thief not a pleasant thought for me or my family this holiday season.
Therefore I put into action some of the ideas advanced by the used car salesman to extract as much of my equity from the vehicle as I could and also prevent you from realizing any gain should you steal the car over the next few days. On Monday, I contacted a consumer fraud attorney through my legal services benefit at work (he will be writing you a letter of his own).
The bottom line is that I have paid diligently and in good faith since purchasing the Dodge Caliber. I have maintained it and protected it, and I have substantially more equity in it at this point than you do (I traded in a 1976 MG Midget with true wire wheels that I restored myself, appraised value $11,500, and I have paid an additional $3000 in payments the Dodge Caliber's original street price was only $16,000 when brand new). Fortunately, Texas law allows me to protect myself and my property with deadly force if appropriate and necessary, and any rights you may have abusing mine and my daughter's are substantially less permissive than that.
So, if you are confused in any respect regarding the law or proper conduct in general, that discussion will not be pre-empted by you stealing my property in the dark of night like a cowardly thug. No, the discussion will be held in a court of proper jurisdiction by an honorable justice not on your payroll and in front of a jury you haven't intimidated. And, it will be an entirely public thing, complete with a website describing every detail of this matter and the participants a website address easily e-mailed to your stockholders, stakeholders, and business partners.
Finally, the discussion is at least in part going to involve my other concerns. One of the topics of the discussion will be the crooked stunt you are pulling where you are telephoning people with a pre-recorded message that states only you have received this call (period, nothing else). This illegal collection tactic is meant to satisfy your legal requirement to make contact, but without the two-way conversation the law presumes.
When I originally got the call, it made no sense to me and I blew it off as a prank or wrong number (I didn't yet know about the closed account). It wasn't until I learned you were actually trying to illegally repossess my car that I finally put two and two together. And, as long as the topic of your honesty is on the table, we need to discuss the missing parts of my car that you owe me. When I purchased the Dodge Caliber, I surrendered my MG Midget for the down-payment, and was given the Caliber to drive.
A day later, my MG Midget had been purchased by one of the employees, who promptly blew out the starter (they called me to figure out how to fix the damage) and so I could never be made right again if anyone reneged on their end of the deal.
The Dodge Caliber had no jack or spare as required by law when I was given it, so the dealer had to order them. A week later, when I came to pick them up, I was told that my car lacked the trim required to meet the terms of the AmeriCredit loan apparently, it had to have a custom CD radio and speakers, a moon roof, and custom wheels to have the requisite loan value. They wanted me to sign a paper stating that the vehicle had those items. I said not only no, but hell no, I wasn't about to pay more at already ridiculous rates for features I wasn't getting. They said no worries, don't get upset, the loan payments wouldn't change, they had a wrecked Dodge Caliber at another lot that had all those features, and that they had intended all along to put the parts on my Caliber but that you had the title to the other vehicle and hadn't yet signed it over to them for salvage.
They showed me a photo of a Caliber with 20-inch wheels and a badly smashed front end, and said they would be able to transfer the parts in a week. Otherwise, they couldn't return my MG Midget anyway and didn't have any other vehicles in the price and age range. So, I signed the paper, and it is part of the loan agreement (shred it if you want, but then the numbers won't add up).
So, among the other deficiencies we are going to correct is that you are going to put the parts you owe me and I do mean the same quality components I was promised on my vehicle. I am also intent on having your business practices reviewed by the Texas Attorney General's office. I've learned something about used car salesmen for all their greasy behaviors, they don't like the possibility of going to jail, especially over money and crimes for and by someone else, and they do like to talk. You might want to carefully consider what it is about some of the things you've done to people they might want to talk about.
Re-establish my account in good standing and install the parts on the car to make it compliant with the description used in the loan application as promised. You may reach me, as always, at 8xx-8xx-5xxx or by e-mail at [email protected] to discuss the restoration of my account and the arrangements for the repairs. Questions on any other topic can be directed to Mxxxx J. Fxxxx, the attorney handling this matter for me.
Regards,
F. Sxxxxx Dxxxxxx
Scott
Sugar Land, Texas
U.S.A.
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