On March 24, 2014, my car was repossessed from my home in Oklahoma City, OK. On March 26th, 2014, I called Drive Time, and spoke with Joe (he did not give a last name) from Redemption and made arrangements with him, including him putting a hold on my vehicle so that it would not be sold at auction and made a deal with him to get my car back for $2500. I told him that I would give DriveTime a call when I collected the money, and would get back to them within my week timeline of being able to pay them.
On April 3rd, I called to make the payment of $2500. The woman was very kind and told me she would give me a call back when the car was released, and I could make arrangements to pick it up. When I called Oklahoma Repressors, I was informed that my vehicle was, in fact, no longer in Oklahoma City, but had been sent to DriveTime's Dallas, TX lot to prepare to be sold at auction. I live almost four hours away from Dallas, have no way to be able to get to Dallas to pick the vehicle up.
This morning, April 22nd, after trying to get ahold of a manager for a week, I finally spoke with Brian Tucco (spelling may be wrong). My request was that since I was in no way told that my vehicle was no longer in my state, and I had no way of picking the car up, I would like the $2500 refunded that I paid to redeem the vehicle. He told me this was not possible, due to the fact I had paid ""fees due"" on my car, and that goes to the balance I had owed. While I completely understand this, I do feel I was misled by never once being informed by the six different people I spoke with that the car was no longer even in my state. Had I learned that up front, I would have allowed the vehicle to be sold for auction and cut my ties with the company once and for all.
The money that I paid with was borrowed from my grandmother, who is a widow and is living on social security. I do feel that this is a wrong by the company. I fulfilled my end of the agreement, paying the company what I was told I needed to get the car back, being told that the ""hold"" would stop my car from going to any auction lot, and yet they shipped my car off the next day after it was repossessed. I am now out $2500 and have no car at all. No one was willing to even help me in the slightest, nor did they seem interested in it at all.
While I do not expect to get my money back, I do think it would be in the best interest of this company to inform any and ALL persons who have been repossessed that their car being taken completely out of state is a possibility. I am not saying it was DriveTime's fault that I was repossessed (this was my responsibility, I understand that), but I do find it completely ridiculous for a company to take someone's car away and then ship it to a place that they can not get to without either a bus, a train, or a flight, and still expect them to happily be able to go get the car by their own means. They have no way to bring the car back in state once it is redeemed, nor do they even seem to think this is a problem. I know I can not be the first person this has happened to.
Best case scenario would be that I could get my money back, or at least part of it, seeing as I paid this to get my car, but am now out on both situations. If that is not doable (and I understand if it is not), I would like some sort of actual apology, and not the ""empathy"" crap they have to give you over the phone. I do think that some sort of change in how they handle these situations should be instated.
DriveTime Automotive Group Reviews
On March 24, 2014, my car was repossessed from my home in Oklahoma City, OK. On March 26th, 2014, I called Drive Time, and spoke with Joe (he did not give a last name) from Redemption and made arrangements with him, including him putting a hold on my vehicle so that it would not be sold at auction and made a deal with him to get my car back for $2500. I told him that I would give DriveTime a call when I collected the money, and would get back to them within my week timeline of being able to pay them.
On April 3rd, I called to make the payment of $2500. The woman was very kind and told me she would give me a call back when the car was released, and I could make arrangements to pick it up. When I called Oklahoma Repressors, I was informed that my vehicle was, in fact, no longer in Oklahoma City, but had been sent to DriveTime's Dallas, TX lot to prepare to be sold at auction. I live almost four hours away from Dallas, have no way to be able to get to Dallas to pick the vehicle up.
This morning, April 22nd, after trying to get ahold of a manager for a week, I finally spoke with Brian Tucco (spelling may be wrong). My request was that since I was in no way told that my vehicle was no longer in my state, and I had no way of picking the car up, I would like the $2500 refunded that I paid to redeem the vehicle. He told me this was not possible, due to the fact I had paid ""fees due"" on my car, and that goes to the balance I had owed. While I completely understand this, I do feel I was misled by never once being informed by the six different people I spoke with that the car was no longer even in my state. Had I learned that up front, I would have allowed the vehicle to be sold for auction and cut my ties with the company once and for all.
The money that I paid with was borrowed from my grandmother, who is a widow and is living on social security. I do feel that this is a wrong by the company. I fulfilled my end of the agreement, paying the company what I was told I needed to get the car back, being told that the ""hold"" would stop my car from going to any auction lot, and yet they shipped my car off the next day after it was repossessed. I am now out $2500 and have no car at all. No one was willing to even help me in the slightest, nor did they seem interested in it at all.
While I do not expect to get my money back, I do think it would be in the best interest of this company to inform any and ALL persons who have been repossessed that their car being taken completely out of state is a possibility. I am not saying it was DriveTime's fault that I was repossessed (this was my responsibility, I understand that), but I do find it completely ridiculous for a company to take someone's car away and then ship it to a place that they can not get to without either a bus, a train, or a flight, and still expect them to happily be able to go get the car by their own means. They have no way to bring the car back in state once it is redeemed, nor do they even seem to think this is a problem. I know I can not be the first person this has happened to.
Best case scenario would be that I could get my money back, or at least part of it, seeing as I paid this to get my car, but am now out on both situations. If that is not doable (and I understand if it is not), I would like some sort of actual apology, and not the ""empathy"" crap they have to give you over the phone. I do think that some sort of change in how they handle these situations should be instated.