I was negotiating with an Account Manager at Ford Credit on behalf of my ex-fiancee who had a 1996 Ford Explorer that I had cosigned on. The vehicle was about 60 days past due at this time. This manager stressed to me that he was not asking for any money today, but only to open the lines of communication with him, which I agreed to.
We were arriving at a mutually agreeable solution and I expected the account to be brought current within a week. He promised me he would turnoff the automatic phone calls that had been hounding me for weeks and that if I got any more calls from his other customer representatives to defer their calls to him. I agreed to this also. We ended out hour-long conversation on a positive note and a spirit of cooperation.
Three days later, he left me voice mail that he "had good news for me." I assumed he meant he was gong to refinance it for the co-borrower who had possession of the vehicle 2,000 miles away from me. I immediately returned his call and asked to speak to Mike. I was told "he is away from his desk." I explained that I was to speak to him only. This other rep refused to connect me to him. I hungup and tried again the next day.
The second day I was again told "Mike is not at his desk." I asked her to leave him a message to call me back ASAP. He never called me back all day. I called on the third day, again requesting to speak with Mike, the manager. Once again I was told "Mike is not at his desk." This was a very convenient way of not letting me through to the appropriate person.
I called again on the fourth day, again asking to speak to Mike. This time my call was intercepted and I was informed that the vehicle had been repossessed the previous day because the co-borrower had allegedly threatened to "burn the car, " following her own conversation with Ford Credit. Because of this threat, I also lost the right to attend the auction! Now they want me to pay $8,540!
This manager clearly misrepresented himself to me in asking me to speak only with him and that he would handle the account. Then he forgot to communicate our agreements with his coworkers.
Because of his inactions, I now have a repo on my record, my ex-fiancee has no car now (which I feel terrible about), and they want this $8,540.
This car was 60% paid for. The original contract was for $19,255, of which Ford Credit received approx. $17,000 over the first 3 years over a 5-year deal.
All in all, Ford Credit's actions are unconscionable. I would never recommend them to anyone. If you're even three days late, you will probably start getting about 30 automatic phone calls a week. And even if you do talk to them, they won't take any notes about unforseen circumstances, so you'll have to repeat yourself over and over and over in the coming days.
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