Consumer complaint received 2020-02-20
Company: UNIVERSAL ACCEPTANCE CORPORATION (NE)
State: WA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle

Complaint:
So, I am a young  XXXX male  consumer of carhop in XXXX, wa. Unfortunately i have encountered some of their unfair practices. My car is a XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX. Things were ok when I first purchased this vehicle and some their disorganization and trustworthiness started to diminish as I ran into issues. I have missed a couple of these payments in XXXX and I made two payments in prior months and became current on my payments on XX/XX/XXXX. Prior to these dates my car was inoperable. My check engine light was on and I was already reassured by carhop that they most likely would not recover it. I paid my bill late but surely was not aware of any disabling device prior to buying the car or at this point. My bill was current and my car was inoperable as of XX/XX/XXXX so I had no clue to what was the issue with car was. My friend as a kindness decided to fix my vehicle but even he had trouble with the vehicle and even figuring out what was the actual issue with it. Having no prior knowledge of an interlock device installed on my vehicle, I presumed it was a mechanical issue. My car was stuck at my job for several days and I had to rely on my friends knowledge of cars and kindness on vehicles. During this time I was not contacted once by carhop and was convinced it was a mechanical issue. I had to troubleshoot my own car during work hours and after work. He checked the starter, the battery, the alternator, all of the fuses, and all of the other parts as well. He spent 4 days of this while I spent the money troubleshooting for a car that had all of these problems. It wasn't until my friend told me that there was an interlock on the car that I realized the issue on the vehicle. He unconnected unknowingly trying to figure out what was wrong with it after several days of troubleshooting and me purchasing parts! He disconnected it and it started up every single time. I don't have that much knowledge of cars so my friend put it back on. So, at this point after them not fixing a mechanical issue with the car, installing a device on the car without my knowledge, and disabling the car I had little faith in this company overall and their abusive practices. I am a legal driver in the state of Washington and installing a device on a vehicle without my knowledge is illegal. Later on next month I had two fraudulent charges, charged to my bank account. This offset me but I paid two car payments on the XXXX and thought that this put me ahead. My bank reset my account and I thought I was in the clear. My automatic payments were disconnected from my bank account but I had no inclination to this until a couple of days ago. Carhop and their reposession service took my car 2 days ago with no messages or no letters on my behalf stating that there was late payments.These practices seem unfair and abusive to me, and from reading their reviews they tend to prey on younger victims trying to fix their credit. Also during this time I have a XXXX  XXXX and have been sent home from work because of it, and not having a car is making my life more difficult. I was already supposed to pick up my XXXX  yesterday and I couldnt because I did not have a vehicle. I feel very attacked and harassed by this company, even though prior to XXXX all of my payments were on time. I arrived to the lot in a XXXX, and I spoke to customer service even though they were very dismissive. They promptly put me on the phone with customer service and told me I owed a total of 4 missed payments of {$190.00} and a {$380.00} fee for the repossession for a total of XXXX. But if you look at the dates between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX for a total of XXXX, which is less than a biweekly period my account should have been current. They also informed me that I would have to check if the device was tampered with and call my employer as well. Their customer service members agent was very rude and told me I was lucky to get it back.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation