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Review 4/20/2011
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This companies representatives lie, threaten and otherwise act in an extremely unprofessional manner.
I purchased a car from San Clemente Auto with whom I have a great relationship. At first, they were financing my loan themselves. After 2 years they transferred my account to Challenge Financial. I had had no issues with San Clemente Auto nor they with me - we had a great relationship and still do.
The first thing Challenge Financial tried to do was change the terms of the loan as they said the insurance I had did not meet their criteria - being the deductible amount. The loan contract I had signed stipulated the amount of the deductible and I was in compliance. When I therefore refused to change my insurance, and despite the fact that my payments were up to date they threatened to repossess my car. I contacted San Clemente Auto and after a productive conversation they contacted Challenge Financial who desisted from this behaviour.
On several occasions they have called me on the day after my payment is due to harass me as they say they have not received my payment when in fact they have as can be proved by the fact that the checks were debited from my bank account either the day I received the phone call or the day after and given that they acknowledge it takes 48 hours from receiving the check to paying it in they had to have actually received the check prior to the payment due date.
The worst case of this was in December 2010 when they called me up to say they had not received my payment and if I did not make a payment by phone instantly they would repossess my car. I had already sent them a check. I paid them a second time by phone and they promised not to process the check payment when they received it in the mail. It turned out that the check (the initial mailed payment) had already been debited from my bank account that very day and they now processed a second payment for that month. To me this seemed like just an attempt to get an extra payment in before the end of the financial (and calendar) year.
Now the last straw. This month I did not receive a bill from the company. I called them regarding this in advance of my payment due date. They stated that the bills had been sent out late, my bill had been sent and I should receive it either that day or the next and to send the check anyway. Instead of receiving a bill I received a letter stating my loan was paid (believable as I had one months payment left on the car, I had several times paid more than the correct payment due to disputed late fees for payments that were not pate and had paid twice in December). As a result of their letter I stopped the check I had sent them for which I had never received a bill as I believed the loan was paid. A week later my room mate received a call for me from Daisy at Challenge Financial. The message she gave my room mate to give to me was that I had stopped payment on their check thus committing fraud, that they would be prosecuting me for fraud, had notified the DMV that I had committed fraud, and had notified the police that the car was stolen. Never did they call me previous to this to admit they had made a mistake. Never did they call to try to resolve the issue of the payment - despite the fact that at this time they knew they had made a mistake and they had no reason to believe I knew they had made a mistake. Daisy was shouting at my room mate when she left this message and was extremely rude. When I called Daisy back before I could even speak she launched into the same accusations without allowing me to speak. She admitted her companies mistake but still claimed everything was my fault as according to her I should have known it was a mistake and disregarded the letter!!! She initially refused to let me talk and threatened to hang up unless I allowed her to continue her lecture to me of why I had committed fraud. I was eventually able to calm her down (surely her job as I was the one accused of fraud and car theft), understand they had made a mistake, and make a new payment. As a condition of resolving the issue she also demanded that I return all documentation I had received by mistake (therefore losing any evidence of their mistake).
I will never allow myself to have a loan financed by this company again and have already informed San Clemente Auto that any further car purchases I may make from them are condition a written guarantee that they will not sell or otherwise transfer my loan to Challenge Financial.
These people are a joke.
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