We found National Recovery Network online and sent a request using the contact form on the website with a quick response quoting $800 to pickup our vehicle in Florida. We had the address, keys to the car, contact information of the non-paying buyer (bad internet sale) and felt the cost was high for a simple pickup but agreed to have National Recovery Network do the job. Literally 1 day after they quoted the $800 price they contacted us with a $2800 invoice stating they had the car in storage and 'additional costs' were incurred in the recovery.
I spoke with Rick StMarie and Dawn from the office and forwarded the quote they had sent the day before expecting this to be some kind of mistake. Rick was very rude, threatened us with his 'contacts' in the recovery area and stated they would keep our car unless we paid the $2800 fee. Rick went further and explained they do recovery by impersonating police officers and have a special phone system that enables them to change the caller id information and voicemails when people call so that it appears they are law enforcement thus tricking people into believing they are legitimate. Rick gave us a long story about how he spent hours researching our case and had to send three people out to pickup our vehicle and it was being stored in a secure climate controlled location which increased the cost.
I doubted the story since it took less than 1 day to pickup the vehicle at the address we provided so I asked for some type of backup to the claims or additional fees. Nothing was ever sent other than a demand for payment at the extremely inflated rate. I researched National Recovery Network finding Rick StMarie's personal contact information and cell phone (before they change the domain registration to private so when they rip people off there is no way to contact them) and called Rick on his personal phone which upset him greatly. After I had my lawyer call Rick on his personal line Rick change his story and agreed to 'give us a discount' eventually agreeing to $1,200 to be paid to his lawyer in Arizona (I refused to send Rick any money since it was clear he was a con man) claiming National Recovery Network paid $1200 to the recovery company they used in Florida.
By this time nearly two months had passed and we were told there are additional fees to pickup the car from the storage facility in Florida. I flew down to pickup the car and upon arrival at the 'storage facility' I found out it was the back yard of a run down home out in the middle of nowhere - not a storage facility. The 'storage fee' was $690 which we had to pay before we were allowed to go near the vehicle. The older man who met me at the house complained that National Recovery Network only paid him $300 to repo the car and he was upset that it took them too long to pay him.
The car had been sitting in a muddy field with the sunroof open for over two months. The vehicle was undrivable with a destroyed interior (it must have rained several times), there were leaves, mud and trash everywhere inside and the car would not start. At this point it became VERY clear that Rick StMarie was a liar and a con man and National Recovery Network is setup to extort money from people nationwide. We filed a claim with the Better Business Bureau and contacted the local police department to file a fraud report. The BBB retained the complaint on file and we spoke with a detective several times who was unable to help other than suggesting we hire a lawyer and sue National Recovery Network.
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