Unacceptable Repo Man Tactics

[Andara Bledin]

So, my brother is currently a deadbeat. He hasn't paid his car payment in a few months, so the repo men are out to take it back. I have no beef with this, as that's their job.

I do, however, have a beef with the fact that the repo guy actually threatened to kill my brother's dogs (in full hearing of people other than my brother who I trust to be unbiased) if he didn't leave with the car tonight. That is in addition to a number of heavy-handed attempts to egg my brother into getting into a fist fight with him.

Police were called and the repo men waited around for a while, then took off before the police showed up. At which point the first officer to arrive mostly just inferred that we were ignorant of the law (which we are not, actually) and that since it was a he said, she said situation, it might as well have never happened (which we are aware of), and acted . The second officer on the scene, however, was downright snotty in her dismissal of our concerns, and she'd be halfway through her dismissal before we'd even finished speaking. >_<

^-.-^

[MadMike]

"Ignorant of the law?" I thought that wasn't an excuse.

[Mongo Skruddgemire]

Now I'll admit that many years ago I had a car repo'ed on me. It was my 1994 Chevy Caviler and it was my first and only new car. I had come on bad times and they had to take it back.

Lesson learned? Never lease a car no matter if they give you a lower monthly payment. The repo agent informed me that if the car had been financed normally then there could have been things they could have done to help me get through the hard times with my car still in my possession.

You know how this woman managed to get my car? She came up to me and let me know who she was and why she was there. As she met me at my old address (where my soon to be ex-wife was still living) she agreed to let me drive the car to my home where she had called ahead and had a tow truck waiting.

They let me take my stuff out of the car and they loaded it on the truck and off it went.

No drama, no threats...Hell it wasn't even that unpleasant really.

I asked the agent about it and she told me that the standard practice (back then) was to try doing it the nice way as most repo's are just people like I was who had fallen on hard times. They preferred to do it as gently as possible.

If I had confronted them or if I had managed to hide the car or make inaccessible to them then they kid gloves would come off and they call out their heavy hitters to do the repo.

I actually blame reality TV for the change in how things are done these days. The shows where we see the repo agents going after the really nasty customers is what I feel has made it so the repo companies now have carte blanche to do whatever they feel like doing because they know that we have seen those shows and now assume that this is how they have always done business.

An related side note. Bill collection agencies are getting just as bad. When they took my car (a few months afterwards actually) they sent me a bill for the difference between what I still owed and what they sold my car for. I still owed them $2,500.

Recently I called GM Financial and made payment arrangements. I'm trying to clear my debts a little at a time to clear my credit. I paid them off last year and I have the letter from stating that my debt to them is over and done with.

There is a collection agency that buys old and unpaid debts and they get fucking nasty about it. They have recently started calling me about the $2,500 I "still owe" (please note the sneer quotes) and have threatened to call the police on me, have threatened to send people to my house to get their money one way or another, have threatened to everyone about how I'm dodging my debt including my boss (not that I think that they know who I work for, but just to be on the safe side I took my letter to them and explained that I already paid the debt off and am in the clear with GM Financial).

And no, telling them that I can fax the letter from GM did not get them off of my backs. Nowadays I just violently ignore them. I made a 30 second ringtone that was nothing but a blank MP3 file. Just a perfect flat line, not even static. 30 seconds of silence. Now when they (or anyone else I don't want to deal with calls I don't even notice it unless I happen to be looking at the phone at the time.

Fuckers never leave a voicemail anyway so who cares. If they make good on their threats of coming over I can call the police and have them removed from my property and if they *do* anything I can have them arrested. Having the paper from GM means that I am in the right and that they can go and pound sand up their ass.

[Glados]

I have never dealt with repo people but I have had a similar experience with third party debt collectors. I discovered a charge off on my credit report that I was unaware of. After researching the charge I discovered that it was from an account that I had cancelled several years ago. The company and the debt collector both had my current contact info but had made no attempt to collect or notify me of this "debt".

I had to fight the charge for 18 months but finally was able to get it reversed through the original company. I offered to provide the collection agency the documents that showed the debt reversed to the original date. They refused to accept any proof. I ultimately had to contact the attorney general to file a complaint in order to have the incorrect information removed from my credit report.

Throughout this process the debt collector was just nasty. Yelling, screaming, and hanging up on me are just a few examples of how they behaved.

[Andara Bledin]

They have recently started calling me about the $2,500 I "still owe" (please note the sneer quotes)

The thing about debt collectors is that if you're in the US (and they're not very stupid), you can tell them in no uncertain terms that they are to never call you ever again or you will file harassment charges. I had a debt collector with the same situation - old debt, paid off through an agreement with the original lender - who when he called started in almost immediately with the threats and was actually yelling at me over the phone after I told him that I never wanted to hear from them ever again. Of course, since everything he said was utter bullshit, and I was in the right, they never did call again.

^-.-^

[Rageaholic]

I absolutely hate people who threaten innocent animals over the actions of a human. Not that it would be better to threaten people the same way, but the animals have no part in the squabble.

I hope his ass gets canned.

[crashhelmet]

One of the many side jobs I had when I was trying to survive on a teacher's salary was repossessing cars. It was one of the funnest and scariest things I've ever done.

When repossessing a car, you can not make ANY threats what so ever. You can't threaten to call the police to arrest them for interfering or failing to comply and you CERTAINLY can't threaten harm to the person, their pets, or their property.

[bara]

I absolutely hate people who threaten innocent animals over the actions of a human. Not that it would be better to threaten people the same way, but the animals have no part in the squabble.

I hope his ass gets canned.

It wont. They are encouarged to be assholes.

And the second they threatened to call the cops, I would tell them to go for it. Since they in fact have no grounds to call the cops.

[Nekojin]

Just speaking for a moment to corroborate Andara's OP. I was within hearing range (leaning against the car, in fact) when Repo Dude #1 made the threat to kill the dogs. Repo Dude #2 never said a word the entire time they were there. I think he was a little embarrassed by Dude #1's behavior in antagonizing Andara's brother.

[bara]

Just speaking for a moment to corroborate Andara's OP. I was within hearing range (leaning against the car, in fact) when Repo Dude #1 made the threat to kill the dogs. Repo Dude #2 never said a word the entire time they were there. I think he was a little embarrassed by Dude #1's behavior in antagonizing Andara's brother.

Yeah, I can see that. I figure most people are just trying to earn a paycheck. But you are always going to get those a-holes too. Had a collection company calling me a couple months back.. 2 of the 3 people I talked to were very professional and helpful. The third person was trying to be a bully. Repo people are probably the same way.

[crashhelmet]

Repossessers don't need to make threats. If you won't let us take it when we show up, we will come back at 3am and take it or we'll wait for you to go to work and we'll take it then. The only thing that you can do to keep us from taking it is to park it in your garage or someone else's.

[Andara Bledin]

In this case, I parked my car part-way across the driveway. They weren't getting to the one they were after without possibly doing damage to my rather shiny late model and paid-up vehicle. Plus, with the dogs on the property, nobody gets in without us hearing, so they were SoL.

The car is no longer at my house and won't be at my house until things are settled, so there's not going to be any more of that nonsense.

^-.-^

[Tanasi]

So why won't he let them have the car???

[bex1218]

II only watch those shows for the entertainment. Never had I heard anyone threatening to kill a animal, though. Thats just wrong.

[Silverharp]

Is why I like Repo Games. It's fun.
The other shows justmake me go "Oh look, more manufactured drama...."