United Truck Group Truck Capital Deceptive Business Practices and Fraudulet Contracts Gulfport, Mississippi

We entered into a rental agreement with Truck Capital/United Truck Group on January 8, 2010.  We wanted to back out of the deal but signed the contract under duress because they would not refund the $8545 we wire transferred to them.

According to Danny ODaniel and Gary Hunt the closings are audio and videotaped.  At the time of signing, papers were shoved in front of me to sign so fast that one could not even read them.  I was hustled into signing them as they were telling me what each page said, which I could not even read them.  I was not allowed to see a sample contract although I requested a copy of it on 1/8/10 prior to signing.  The deposit money was transferred to them earlier that day.   They were refusing to refund my deposit for the truck if I didnt sign for it.  In order to make this deal work, Danny ODaniel and Gary Hunt informed me that they personally were fronting the additional monies for the down payment that I was short.

They [Danny ODaniel and Gary Hunt] had agreed  to give me an additional grace period for the week of January 18, 2010 because I could not leave their location with the truck until 1/12/10 because their compliance department could not produce a necessary document for me to license the truck.  They both knew that when I arrived home on 1/16/2010 I needed an additional 4-5 days to put necessary equipment on the truck so it could be used for hauling freight.  Apparently they either neglected to instruct the bookkeeping department or simply lied to us.

I made my payments on time and according to Johnelle (I believe she is a bookkeeper) on February 26^th I was current on my weekly payments.  The only balance that was owed to them was $3480 which was supposed to be additional down payment, however, in the documents that I signed there was a discrepancy in the downpayment amount.  The initial down payment page they had me sign showed that the down was supposed to be $9900.00 (not $3480.00) which would have left me only $ 1400 owing on that.  They came up with the $3480 figure from I do not know where.  It was supposed to have been paid by 2/22/10, but in the interim I let them know that I was owed a freight bill of $16,600 which had yet to be paid for.  I told them that I needed more time to get them the balance of the down.  They verbally told me that they would work with me on that and I which I had told her that I would probably have most of it  by the following week.

On March 1, at approximately 8pm PT they repossessed the truck in California with no warning.  As per their own bookkeeper the previous Friday I was current on my payments and they were working with me on the balance of the down payment.   I called them at 8am CT on March 2, 2010 and then they told me that I was 3 weeks behind on payments (this included a payment that was not even due until 3/5/10).  When I questioned her regarding the two payments that now they were claiming I was late on, it was for the 2 weeks at the inception of the rental agreement for which I was given grace.

The entire day of 3/2 and 3/3 I negotiated with Johnelle  to get this cleared up.  They had already caused me to lose a $2400 load which was to have been picked up on 3/2 and another load for $3100 to have been picked up on 3/3 and delivered on 3/5.  This would have given me the money to pay them in full except for the exhortative amount of $1200 for the repo man to take the truck 10 miles or less to a storage yard.  I can have a truck and loaded trailer towed 50 miles for $645.00.  The Repo man is based out of Yuba City CA which is exactly 9.7 miles from where he picked up the truck.  I spoke to George at Sanchez Truck Repair (530-671-9252) the company who picked up the truck and has the truck sitting in his yard.   Truck Capital was only charged $400 not the $1200 they are claiming.  I was not given the opportunity to take my personal property off the truck so they are just keeping it.  The value of the property and equipment is $3000.00 plus 150 gallons of fuel which had been put into the truck on Saturday night for an additional $465.00 bringing the total to $3465.00.

On March 3, 2010, Johnelle stated that they wanted $5800 to release the truck.   I responded that I did not have that much available right now and she came back with a figure of $5038 to release the truck.  I did not have that much and I offered to pay $4255 (which was $3480 for the down they claimed I owed and 1 payment).  She responded that she believed that that would work.

She needed time to talk to her superior and would get right back to me.  5 or 6 phone calls by me to her later she had not received a reply from her superior.  She claimed to have emailed him several times.  She was still confident that this deal would work.

I heard nothing from her until I called her again on 3/4/10 at approximately 10AM CT.  She then wanted $7000 to release the truck.  This amount included the payment that was not yet due for this week and the $1200 repo fee.  I then spoke to her superior Ralph Cox who stated that Johnelle had not had these discussions with me.  When I tried to refute this to him he became overly defensive and he even stated that Danny ODaniel had told him that we would make good on this deal.  But he would not release the truck without the full $7000 (which they were not entitled to that full amount anyway).  There could be no discussion in the matter and realistically this company is nothing  more than a group of legal criminals who prey on hard working Americans

Other issues that arise in the rental dealings of Truck Capital/United Truck Group are:

          They force you to purchase their physical damage insurance on the truck, you cannot use your own company

          They charge a $25 per week Crime Coverage, this is for in case we were to haul illegal cargo .  I am NOT a criminal nor do I haul illegal cargo for anyone.  There is no legal basis to charge this fee.

          They force you to use their compliance department to procure a 2290 Heavy Road Tax form.  This is proof that the tax has been paid to IRS.  They claim you cannot pay this yourself and that is an outright lie.  They tack a $75 fee onto the tax and force you to pay it in May although it is not due until 7/1 of every year.

          A $125 Lenders Key Fee ( I can have a key cut at Kenworth for about $12.00.  This is only inflated by about 85%)

          Their paperwork does not match numbers on multiple pages and you are not given the opportunity to read through the contract prior to the closing (which by the way costs $695.00).  Once they have your money and they print your paperwork you seemingly cannot reverse the deal.

Issues that apply to their business practices are as follows:

          They hound and harass you every day for payments that are not yet due

          False advertising in national publications and on their website i.e. Truck Paper and www.united truckgroup.net

          Enclosed are copies of their inventory as posted on their website which redirects to Truck Paper.  They are claiming 150 trucks on their lot but there are not that many and the ones advertised are the very same trucks that were advertised in January 2010 and they are still advertising them but the trucks are physically not there.  Once you get there it is the old bait and switch and the truck(s) you were interested in are not there.  You cannot keep advertising the same trucks if they are already sold and gone.

          The trucks that they advertise are simply not available at all or are non- existent.  They claim they have sold them, rented them whatever but the bottom line is that they simply put up photos and canned detail information on trucks that are not even on their lot.

          Their 50/50 warranty is a farce.  The truck must be brought back to MS to be worked on and then you are charged of the parts and   of the labor which if the repo bill is any indication is inflated.

          They refuse to refund my deposit of $8545 on this truck.  They have inflated costs and expenses, added questionable charges to my payments some of which seem outright fraudulent.

          According to the Investor Requirements sheet that I signed in their office on 1/8 I needed a down payment of $9900, not $3480; my weekly payment was to be $625, not $695.  But regardless supposedly as I was told by Danny ODaniel that the balance of the down payment was being loaned personally by he and Gary Hunt this should have no bearing on my payment(s) to Truck Capital.  Additionally, if the Investor requirements were not met as per the Investor Requirement sheet I signed the truck would not have left the yard.

          Their own Friendly Surrender page which I signed clearly states that I am to be given 2 weeks to return the truck to them before they take any actions.

          Their bookkeeping practices are flawed and verbal agreements made with employees who are supposedly empowered to make decisions are not followed through.  Either that or they just flat out lie to you regarding the agreement(s) or statements that they have made.

I have sent a demand letter for the return of my deposit on this truck and the return of my personal property which they are refusing.  They have succeeded in putting my company out of business and I am sure I am not the only victim of their bogus business practices.

In a final attempt to resolve this to everyones satisfaction all I wanted was for the truck to be released, I called Ralph Cox again at 1:35pm MT and asked him about the inflated repo bill and he hung up the phone.  I then called back and spoke to Gary Hunt and asked him to have Danny ODaniel return my call.  He has not called me back.

This company seems to employ unfair and deceptive business practices at all levels of their dealings and they do business nationwide.