Ohh, Me So Hungry!
It’s 3:30pm and I’m just now catching up enough to take a lunch break for 30 minutes or so. That’s not unusual but today, for some reason, I’m really hungry!
Anyway, I spoke with my insurance claim adjuster about my uninsured motorist claim and she is working to pull my medical records. So, it shouldn’t be more than a few more days before they make their first offer. I just hope it’s reasonable, although I know -deep down- that it won’t even be close to being fair. So, I’ll have to negotiate like always, but we can always hope for something to be easy. You know, one day, maybe something will just work out naturally on its own. Maybe.
DriveTime is also not doing me any favors and is making things tougher than they ought to be. As many of you probably know, dealing with a used car dealership is a true nightmare. They insisted that I provide them an updated list of new references with phone numbers (i.e. so they can harass those people too), and I refused. So, they told me the application for the deferment could not be approved without it.
Oh well. After talking with the lady up there, I realize now that it won’t really make that much difference anyway. I made a 1/3 partial payment in December and they are only approving a deferment in the amount of $300. That will append to my loan, so as far as they see it, they aren’t even “giving” me anything anyway. They are just extending the loan by a month and charging me a $50 penalty. Now, I do realize that I “agreed” to all of this when I purchased the car, but I had no choice at the time. Sometimes, we gotta do what we gotta do. That is how DriveTime makes its money anyway. They take advantage of those who cannot get a car elsewhere and charge 23% interest (25% in my case) and then 99% of everyone defaults on the loan eventually. So, they repossess the vehicle and sell it at auction for roughly the amount they originally paid. So, they make their money off of the payments and interest to the tune of several thousand dollars per car. In the process, they help destroy a lot of people’s credit. C’est la vie.
In my case, they will be getting back a car worth MORE than when they sold it to me. The reason for that is my recent $1,242 repair bill that was only necessary because DriveTime LIED to me when they sold me the vehicle (always get it in writing!). They told me the 60,000 mandatory service had been completed. It had not. The car had 62,252 miles on it when I bought it and I specifically asked about the service. So, that’s not good.
So, anyway, the point is that regardless of a contract, any good business who wants a good reputation and repeat business would be willing to work with its customers during hardships such as mine (i.e. uninsured motorist accident still not being covered after 6 months financially drained me). Obviously, DriveTime doesn’t care about their reputation or repeat business. There are enough people with bad credit out there to burn.
However, since they are not willing to work with me, then I cannot be very willing to work with them. They made their move, and they feel they have won. However, my contingency plan is about to come into effect and will end the game in my favor. I offered them a way to make even MORE money off of me and then continue to get my on-going business, but their attitudes have made me not want to humor them any longer. I offered them a win-win and they chose what they thought was a win-lose (win for them). Unfortunately, I still have one move left to bring me out on top. I will know soon if I have to pull out all the stops. I will update soon…
Update: Ok, they are really pushing me to my limits. I gave them a way to make money (above) and they turned it down in lieu of threatening me, pushing me, and talking down to me. I offered them a win-win and they turned it down. They think they will get over on me, have earned $3,000+ profit on the car, have gotten $1,242 in repair they claimed to have already made, ruin my credit, and still get the car back to sell at auction. But, I still have a checkmate in hand by filing bankruptcy. Despite how that sounds, bankruptcy isn’t the end-all-be-all and isn’t so bad, if you’ve planned it out carefully. (To be Continued)
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