In 2009 I was layed off at my position as a Maintenance Manager at Honda Lock in Alabama. At 62 it was hard for me to find a position so I came to Houston, TX. Before I could find a job, I lost my cars because I couldn't pay the payments. Sept I purchased an Explorer from RBF Auto 4919 FM2920 in Spring, TX. I made payments on the vehicle for 9 months of a 21 month contract when I found water in the oil. This is indicative of blown head gaskets on the engine. I took the Explorer back to RBF Auto. Since it had been 9 months since the purchase, I didn't expect them to pay for the repair and I agreed to pay them $1200 for the engine repair with them stating that there would be a 1 year waranty on the work as well as the repair would be spread out to accommodate small payments. At our request, we were given a small Chevy Prism as a loaner until the Explorer was complete. Not knowing the timeframe it would take to do the repair I or my wife would stop by to check on the progress of the Explorer. The first time I checked back with them the repair had gone up to $1400. I assumed there were additional parts necessary for the repair so I accepted that increase. My wife and I had talked about the increase and when she stopped to inquire about the repair, they told her of another increase to $1500. This time my wife asked for something in writing as the price continued to increase. My with and Pat (the sales person at RBF Auto discussed the payments for the repair and both agreed to $100 per month for 15 months. This was written out by Pat so everyone was aware of the repayment plan.
3.5 months later we still had not seen or heard about the repair on the Explorer so I went in asking why. I told them that I had spent $214 on repairs on the loaner and needed to get my Explorer back so I was only spending money on one vehicle. The conversation came up about my purchasing the loaner car. I began to hear from the guy in the office how great the engine and transmission were in the loaner car and we could combine the repair payment and the loan for the loaner. When I turned back to Pat, she had the paperwork for the purchase of the loaner car setting at my chair. I told Pat that I was not sure of my pay at work and didn't want to commit to any additional payments. Pat stated that there was no commitment to the purchase and "we will wait to see what happens with my job and we could handle things appropriately when we found out where I stood at my job." Being assured that it was my decision as to what would be done with reguard to my job and monitary situation I signed the agreement. I did this thinking that I had a "right of refusal", which would give me a couple of days to analyze what I was going to do and how much money I would need to make sure I had in my budget. When I realized the dilemma that night, I called to tell them that as I had stated when I was in their office, I did NOT and was not going to buy the loaner car but no one was there so I proceeded to leave a message to explain the situation.
That night I realized that a message would not be enough so the next morning I personally drove to RBF Auto and told them face to face that I was not going to buy the loaner car. They had no problem with that and Pat stated that she would tell the individual doing the paperwork not to finish any more paperwork of the loaner car.in reality, Pat never did that. My reasoning is that Pat would utilize the paperwork and plates to shame me into purchasing the loaner car. I continued to check on the progress of the Explorer and was never told anything about what may happen with the loaner car. If I asked about it, Pat always said that "we will wait to see what happens pertaining to my job and finances." Around Oct 6, four months after giving the Explorer to RBF Auto for the repair, I got a phone call stating that the Explorer was done. When we got there, Pat was still trying to sell my wife or myself the loaner car. Again, we told Pat that we did not want to purchase the car. We told her that our finances had worstened due to a drop in pay at my job. We left the loaner car at the lot and drove the Explorer about 2 miles before having to bring it back because the Explorer was steaming and smoking very badly. Because I now had become worried about the quality of the repair, I asked Pat for the promised 1 year warranty papers and who to take the Explorer to in case of future repairs necessitated by any relevent breakdowns. Pat's answer was "you can just bring it here." I was sure this ment there would be no warranty documentation.
Last Friday Oct. 14 I received a phone call from RBF Auto the second time stating that the Explorer was completed for the second time and that I could pick it up and bring the September payment for the loaner car. At that point, I became very frustrated and in no certain terms told the lady on the phone that I was not going to purchase that loaner car. She stated that she had a signed contract and must pay. She stated "OK, you don't have to buy the loaner car, however, you will have to pay for 50% of the repair up front and $240 per month and the repair bill was now $1800. They are trying to use the repair of the Explorer and a high payment way above the initial agreement my wife had made and what Pat had placed on paper. To force us to purchase the loaner car. That is nothing short of "Extortion". Now tonight, Oct. 17.2011 we are supposed to meet with them at 6:00 pm so the worry now is that they will keep the keys to the Explorer and demand we return the loaner car leaving us clear out in Spring & walking. There is no doubt in my mind that they would do that. I knew they were too good at doing this and I figured there were more than just us so when I checked around, sure enough there were other incidents involving RBF Auto.
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