HSBC Auto Repo Ripoff after offering to work out payment arrangements City Of Industry California

We purchased the car in December of 2004 and struggled to make the payments (which were $80 more than we were told they were going to be). We had some family emergencies (daughter in hospital and son became unemployed), so we got behind in payments.

They called 10 and 15 times a day from 6 in the morning until 10 at night, 7 days a week. When we called back, we either could not get a real person or got someone who spoke broken English with a Spanish accent. We could not understand them.

We got an email saying we were eligible for a workout plan, so we filled out the form and requested a response in writing. I don't trust phone agreements. We never got a response, even though we sent 3 different letters in request for the workout plan.

They sent two men to repossess the car. The men did help us clean out the car and take the plates off. A couple of days later, we got a letter saying that our belongings in the car had been inventoried and we could redeem them by presenting car keys (which we had given to the repo guys), photo ids, and $35 cash. In order to do this, we would have had to travel 300 miles. We called to ask for a copy of the inventory (just in case we had left anything valuable in the car). They never responded.

Then we got a letter saying the car would be sold for less than $3000 and we would owe the balance (almost $10,000 for a 2001 Windstar with 99,800 miles). We could get the car back if we paid the whole amount due or $5000 and payments.

This did not sound like much of a workout plan to me, so I am trying to catch rides or walk the 5 miles to and from work in an area that has no public transportation other than taxis.

Donna
St. Johnsbury, Vermont
U.S.A.