Transouth - Arcadia Ripoff violated consumer rights laws either liars or incompetent Englewood Cliffs New Jersey

I am also, quite suddenly, having problems with Transouth Financial (also known, it seems, as Arcadia).

A year and a half ago, I bought a car and used Transouth to finance it. One month later, I was laid off (thank-you Mr. Bush). I had been with the company for 10 years, and they had decided to move their operations south. Since then, I have done my best to keep the account current. There were a couple of bad months, but I got them caught up with the help of Transouth allowing a one month deferral. I had developed what I thought was a good rapport with my account manager, "Ms (Lianne) Johnson", and I was satisfied with her service and assistance.

Last March/April, as I anticipated the end of my unemployment claim, I came to the decision that the car payments were an unnecessary drain on my financial resources, and decided I was going to let them have it. When my daughter found that out in May, she told me she wanted the car instead, so I called Lianne to see what was the best way to handle the situation - have my daughter take over the loan, get a new loan from Transouth, or get a loan through another finance company and pay this loan off. Lianne said my daughter could take over the payments on the existing loan, and they would list her as an interested party, but that I needed to bring the account current enough for a deferral to bring it completely current, and that they needed to receive the payment at least a week before the next payment due date - June 18th. Then she told that since I'd had the loan for a while, she could lower the monthly payment by rewriting it with a lower interest rate, after the account was brought current.

I sent in the amount required in two payments, along with my change of address, and called Lianne the day after mailing the second payment (which posted to my account May 25th). During the conversation, I mentioned that I would be incommunicado for a couple of weeks after June 1st, as my partner and I were separating, and I was moving out. I also let her know that I had sent the change of address in with the money order I had mailed. After confirming that I had sent in the correct amount, she said she would start the paperwork for the change in the loan once it was received, and to call her when I had a phone again.

As soon as my phone was working, I called Lianne as promised (3-4 times), but she never returned any of my calls. I did get two calls from a "Ken Cherry with Arcadia", but I didn't know who he was or what Arcadia was, and he didn't leave any information in the message, except that he wanted to "resolve this issue", which is what every collection agent says in messages and the car was the only account I was making payments on, so I get lots of collection agents calling, Needless to say, I don't call them back. (How does one work out payments on $50,000 in debt while on unemployment? Bankruptcy, that's how - postponed for as long as possible, or until a steady income is being received again.)

Last week, I got a call from my ex, gloatingly informing me that a black tow truck from Arcadia had come by to repossess my car!! That they said they had tried to contact me "numerous times" unsuccessfully, and they were tired of dealing with me. The woman (from Arcadia?) that was with the tow truck had my loan papers in her hands, and told my ex that I had to come up with $885.00 cash to avoid the repo. She also said that if they saw me on the road, they would "jack her out of the car, and take it on the spot; and those 2 guys are a whole lot bigger than I am!"

I immediately tried calling Lianne again, but had to leave another message. Then I recalled that Ken Cherry had been from Arcadia (although I wouldn't call 2 calls numerous, if those calls were what she was referring to); so I called him and left a message with him as well. Then I called Transouth again, and waited for anyone to take the call. I was on hold for over 24 minutes before my cell phone died.

The next night, the woman called my ex again to see if I had been there. Then she said that I had until 9:30 the next night (Friday) to call her. After that, she would go to the DA's office and ask him to put out a warrant on me for "Grand Theft Auto"! Needless to say, my 'wonderful' ex informed me of this the following afternoon, and couldn't find the number she'd left ("I'd had too much to drink. I don't remember what I did with it.")

Ken and Lianne both, failed to return my calls from Thursday, so I called them both again on Monday, leaving messages again, questioning the legality of the "Grand Theft Auto warrant" threat, among other things (ie: disclosure of my financial privacy to my ex-not spouse). I also received my statement from them on Monday. The "amount due" was $635.00, not $885.00; this also showed me that Lianne never redid the loan.

Tuesday (today) Ken called me back twice, but I forgot my cell phone that morning so didn't get the messages until after he'd left for the day. (Do you think the word "legality" got his attention?) We'll see how it goes, and I'll post an update later.

Karin
Sonoma, California
U.S.A.

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