Consumer complaint received 2019-07-01
Company: Advance America, Cash Advance Centers, Inc.
State: CA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Title loan
Issue: Vehicle was repossessed or sold the vehicle

Complaint:
This is not a new loan. I've already paid more than I borrowed, but because of the very high interest, the loan balance continued. I fell behind 2 months and my vehicle was towed the morning of Thursday XX/XX/2019 at XXXX. 

Thursday morning XXXX I received a call from a man mispronouncing my name and yelling. Thinking its crank call, I hang up Thursday morning XXXX Awake, I walk to my vehicle to head to a 24hr. fast food restaurant, I notice my vehicle hooked up on a Un-marked tow truck. That's when I learned that the tow driver called me moments ago. The driver was loud, rude and confrontational. He would not allow me to get some belongings out my vehicle and refused to provide me ANY information, despite my asking, repeatedly. The driver would not provide me any information regarding his company, his name - nothing. 

The following day, I went to Advance America and spoke to every person inside informing them that my vehicle was towed and that I need information to the tow company for me to get my work belongings and my work equipment. I was the only there at the time. It took an hour for them to provide me a company name and number. This information was given to me on a sticky note containing only a hand written name and number. They would not give me the address to the towing company. I was told that I have 30 days to contact them. I made many attempts to call that week to no avail, and they had no voice mail machine. The following week, I was at a work conference on the east Coast. The week after that I called multiple times again to no avail and repeated the same the week following that. Realizing that I am in the 4th week, and the 30 day mark ends on the weekend. I went back to Advance America to complain that no one was answering. I demanded that they give me an address again, and again they would not give me the address. I also complained that I have not received anything in the mail - nothing. They called their District Manager XXXX XXXX and I repeated everything I have complained to the office staff. So far, everybody made it clear that they are not familiar with their repo policies and asked me to bare with them as they figure this out. I reminded them that the clock is ticking and, in all fairness, I have a right to retrieve my property. Also during this time, I was informed that my vehicle was moved to several locations over the past 4 weeks. They said they will call me once they get information to where my vehicle is. They also assured me that the information they gave me was accurate and that I should keep trying. they told me they would call me once they have more information. in the mean time, I continued to call throughout the week, with the help of some friends, I got their address online and went to the location that weekend. They were closed, but the owner operator was there and explained to me that they never towed, nor ever had my vehicle. At this point, this is the 29th day of the 30 window. I returned to Advance America the following Monday ( day 31 ) to complain. I insisted that they cease the auction phase because they gave me false information. For the week, XXXX was trying to locate my vehicle. She gave me a number to another place late that week. The company name was XXXX. I got their address and arrived on a Friday to retrieve me belongings. To my surprise, the vehicle was cleaned out AND, I discovered this was an auction house. When I complained about the problems I was having, they looked in their system to identify the tow company they got the vehicles from. That company is XXXX XXXX. I called XXXX concerned that my vehicles was at an auction company and nervously, she stated that she didn't know what she was doing, shamed me and escalated me to her regional manager XXXX. I called XXXX  ( who was already familiar with my case ). I repeated everything up to that point. XXXX informed me that she is not familiar with their repo policy and stated that she will call me Monday. She called me from her personal cell phone Monday. because of my work, I missed her call. understand that everyone I spoke to up to this point, I gave them permission to leave me detailed messages because of the likelihood of me missing their call and each of them agreed to do so. because I work out of town, I returned her call Friday. She informed me that she needed to hear from me before Tuesday ( with a tuff luck, snobby attitude ). she continued to ridicule and patronize me until an argument began. She then hang up on me. 

In summation, My vehicle was towed, the driver refused to provide any information. 

Advance America gave me false information. To this day, no formal information has been received. I only received a sticky note with the wrong tow company name and number. They have been very callus when informed of this fact. Everyone at Advance America has informed me that my vehicle was moved to at least 3 different locations during up to that time. It wasn't until I got to the auction house that I received information on the tow company. When brought to the attention of Advance America, Regional Manager XXXX finally admitted that they knew who the original tow company was all along. Around the 35th day, I retrieved my property from the original tow company - in bad shape, and some items were missing. They still never stopped the auction process. in short, they lead me astray and sold my vehicle for greater profit. This is Grand Theft

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation