DriveTime ripoff, bought down the original interest rate, screwed when original mgr. left Doraville Georgia

My husband and I bought a 2001 Pontiac Aztek from DriveTime in Doraville Georgia in January of 2004. We wanted to consummate the deal within 2 weeks of leaving a good faith deposit, but the manager was in Arizona at a conference and the idiots at DT in Doraville couldn't find our paperwork. So, finally when Deane Craig returned to the office we consummated the deal and told him we wanted to buy down the interest rate as they offered within 3 weeks.

We went in to buy down the interest rate while Deane was there. He accepted our $500.00 to buy down and told the clerk accepting payments to accept our $500.00 and make out a receipt for $425.00 for the payment (down from $462.00 and change) (we paid a total of $925.00 that day).

We were told (they would not give us the original contract with the buy down amount on it as we insisted and initialed the contract agreeing to it) that we would subsequently receive a new payment schedule reflecting the $424.00 plus change due from then on. We never did, in fact all we received was a letter saying thanks for agreeing to buy down the interest rate and the new payment would be 462.00.

We immediately called to talk with Deane and in fact went in person to contest the amount. Deane agreed we were right and emailed the head office (in Arizona) -- I was smart enough to get the email copied from Deane. However, the email never specified the correct amount. Just that we were correct in our assessment of the payment because DriveTime came out with a new interest and downpayment matrix just after (like within 7 days) the purchase of our vehicle and our buy down.

We fit in the old matrix - which Deane agreed with and we initialed our old contract to reflect new buy down payments. As it turned out the AZ. office would not accept a scratched through contract with our initials and Deane's initials they wanted a new one which we signed.

Somehow Az. and Ga. neither one could locate the original contract with our signatures, Deane's signature and the changed payment amount after the buy down.

For 1 year they accepted $425.00 as our payment and when they got a new manager for the 3rd time since our Aztek purchase, we started getting phone calls about the amount not being right on the Aztek. I told them it was their error not ours and gave the manager copies of our email, and hand written notes on the paperwork which I noted as we talked to Deane.

Finally they agreed we had effected a buy-down but under the new matrix not the old and they made us sign a document agreeing to payments of $455.49 --- now how in the world can you charge a lesser interest rate and effect a buydown of just $7.00 a month for 42 months for $500.00? $7.00 x 42 is $294.00 - any idiot with a calculator can figure out that the amounts don't jive and giving them $500.00 to pay $7 less per month is a rip-off in the first degree!

Julie
Dacula, Georgia
U.S.A.