We purchased a vehicle from Smart Move Auto in October and have made the payments on time, even when the truck broke down the first day 12 miles from the dealer. We ran into a huge issue when we tried to pay our Feb payment as all the lots were vacant and there was no answer at any of the numbers. Since there had been no communication and no notice of closing we were unsure as to what to do at that point.
We finally got a letter dated April 24th from Synergy Acceptance saying that our payment was due 3 months earlier on Feb 6th. I called the number provided and got a gentleman named Adam who was very polite at first. I explained that I was glad to continue to make the payments monthly as always, but was not able to pay 3 at once. He advised me that it would not be a problem since this seemed to be a common issue with the Smart Move contracts and that he would contact me if any issue came up. I received no calls and no written communication after that and assumed all was well as we were to continue paying our monthly payments.
Well to my surprise the next thing I got was a knock on the door at 3 A.M. A week later and low and behold the repo man had my truck hooked and wanted to know if I would like to remove my belongings. We did so with the drivers help as he was a very nice man, he also advised me that the company they were towing these vehicles for was a scam and we would be better off letting them have it and buying a new vehicle as my truck was number 1109 on a repo list out of the 1900 contracts that Synergy had assumed from Smartmove.
So beware they will come for yours to if you do not make all payments at once and do not believe them when they agree to an arrangement as they blatantly lied to us.
When I called them back the following morning they did not want to talk to me or answer why they had not contacted me to make other arrangements if the ones we had made with Adam were not acceptable (Adam said that he didn't do it and that it was done by another department, well if that is so then why would he assure us he would handle it and let us know if there was a problem since apparently it was out of his hands). They refused to give any information as to the corporate address so that we could send written communication and basically told me that it was my fault for not making all the back payments.
They cannot explain how I was to make the payments for the 3 mths when all the lots were closed and there was no information sent stating where to send payments. I asked why it took them 3 months to notify us of the correct address and contact info to make payments and they advised me that it was not their fault and that Smart Move was to have notified all of its clients.
We had no one to pay and this is absolutely not the fault of the consumer that we were not contacted and were not able to make our payments for 3 months.
They have sent us a letter now saying that they have repo'd the truck (duh) and to get it back I will have to make the pay off or they are going to sell it and charge me all kinds of fees. This I believe was their plan the entire time, much easier to sell them off at auctions than actually hold up a contract and take payments, not so much quick money in that. This has to be illegal and companies like this need to be stopped so they are not able to take advantage of people anymore.
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