I went to The Duck because like everyone else, I thought that my credit was bad. I cannot understand how any business can stay afloat with all the things that they do to their customers, I mean, can we not sue them? In any event, here is my story.
I purchased a 1994 saturn for 13,000. The car read 76,000 miles when I bought it. Two days after taking it off the lot, it started to overheat. Of course the duck offered to fix the car, and add the cost to my loan. This first repair cost me 900.00. I found out later that it was a simple fan switch that had gone bad. That same fan switch went bad about 3 months later, and I took it to my own mechanic, cost? 45.00. That included labor.
From that erupted a long list of repairs, including a new air conditioner, 2 new alternators, new tires, new brakes, and just when I thought I was done... 1 year after I bought the car... The engine blew! I paid 1200.00 for a new engine. During this time I called the Saturn dealership to see what a new engine would cost me. They informed me that they had worked on my engine 4 years before, and that at that date, the car was at 86,000 miles. (this is the same car I bought with 76,000 miles on it) To date, I have put 4,592.00 into this car on repairs alone. The car is currently worth 2,500.00 blue book.
When I purchased the car, I was also told that I would get a Visa card, and I have never recieved any correspondence about that, despite repeated calls to the corporate office.
After a year and a half of steady payments (my payments are 168.00 every 2 weeks, and I have been paying 200.00 every two weeks), I decided to try to buy another car, thinking that surely my credit looked better by now. I went to a local Ford Dealer in the Dallas area, and they looked at my credit.indeed, it did show that I was in good standing with Ugly Duckling. However, the loan came back as a "check more" which essentially means that they needed to call my lender and see what they said about my payment history. So, the Ford dealership called my lender, telling me that I would be in a new Ford Taurus the next day.
The next day I recieved a call from the Ford Dealership stating that unfortunately they would not be able to give me a loan, because the Duck said that "I never make my payments on time" and "I am currently more than 90 days behind" I immediately called the Duck to try to find out what was going on, and they stated to me that they showed that I was currently behind on my payments. I asked how that could be and the customer service rep that I spoke with said "Well, thats what happens when you don't bother to make your payments." I hung up on her at that point.
I then went to the Arlington dealership in person to see if they could tell me why I was behind, and they also showed that I was behind. I asked for an itemized copy of all transactions. They scrambled around for about an hour, and came up with an unreadable mess. I took that home, and started comparing it to the reciepts I had. Imagine my suprise when I discovered a reciept from 3 months prior made to someone elses account in GEORGIA! I was making somone elses car payment!!! I immediately called customer service back, and faxed them a copy of the reciept.
I then spent the next 3 months fighting to have the payment back dated and all additional interest removed. I also spent about a month of calling customer service every day at least twice a day demanding a letter of apology. I have recieved a letter, but it does not say that they were in any way shap or form responsible for this.
To wrap up, I owe 6000.00 on a car that is worth 2500.00 I have never been treated so badly anywhere else in the world, it is my personal goal for NOBODY to have to go through what I did.
Hallie
Bedford, Texas
0 comments