Consumer complaint received 2016-09-08
Company: Friendly Finance Corporation
State: DC
Product: Consumer Loan
Sub-product: Vehicle loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease

Complaint:
Dated XXXX XXXX, XXXX : This letter is in reference a XXXX XXXX XXXX ( Vin # XXXX ) purchased at XXXX located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX, MD XXXX on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. Shortly after my purchase Friendly Finance Corporation contacted me to schedule a time to have a GPS system installed in my vehicle. 


Shortly after installation my car started giving me dependability/safety concerns. My vehicle will not start and this has been interminably for the past seven months dating back to XXXX XXXX. I had an open case with XXXX because I was spending XXXX of dollars on repairs and the issue still occurred. I have been working with the XXXX dealer and from their Certified Technician professional reference the GPS device that is required per my contract with Friendly Finance Corporation to have placed on my car has interference with other factory electrical components in my car causing it to be inoperable. From the professional reference of the XXXX Certified Technician there is no safe location within the car that this device can be place without causing interference. 


This is causing me an extreme amount of inconvenience, safety concerns for my family as I travel with my minor children and excessive money due to towing, service on my car, financial losses ( rental car payments, cab services and days missed at work ) and leave usage on my job. I attempted to speak with someone on the leadership team several times last week regarding this matter leaving messages requesting a call back last no one has returned my call. I have reached out and obtain counsel because this is a requirement that Friendly Finance Corporation has chosen per my contract and it has caused a great deal of cost and safety issues/concerns that I will not be held liable to consume. This GPS system needs to be removed immediately. My car has been inoperable for months now. The XXXX dealers can not fix the issue. The car is inoperable and Friendly finance is trying to hold me accountable for issues caused by their GPS Issue. Today is XXXX XXXX, XXXX and the car is this inoperable. 

Friendly Finance Corporation XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, MD XXXX Update : Today is XXXX XXXX, XXXX, the owner of friendly finance along with the legal team contacted me shortly after my first complaint to the CFPB in XXXX XXXX. Before then it was extremely hard getting anyone to listen. The owner agreed to have my car repaired. Only problem was that when payment needed to be rendered/confirmed, No one returned my calls nor did they return the call of the mechanics. This was back in late XXXX XXXX Because no one was ever able to be contacted. I picked up my car a couple of weeks later and drove home. The next morning I could not start it Again! At that point I have been dealing with this issue for 9-10 months. I ca n't believe anything Friendly Finance says because they are untruthful, they claimed the owner was out of town and unavailable. He would contact me shortly after his return, which never happen. 

I spoke with someone in charge of my account to set up some sort of arrangement as far a payment. I understand that I owed on this car. That has never been the issue but, the car has not been in working order and safe to drive. I lost out all around the board on no fault of my own. I lost my down payment along with all the money spent on repairs/ rental cars/ loss of work etc. This issued occurred with a faulty GPS system that I myself would have never agreed to install. This was all the doing of Friendly finance. Friendly Finance agreed to hold my account and get the car repaired but 3 weeks later a very rude employee of friendly finance calls to schedule a repo. The car had been in my yard for about 6 weeks since it last stopped working. Meanwhile the owner of friendly finance not available for my calls and never returned mines.

Company public response: Company believes complaint caused principally by actions of third party outside the control or direction of the company
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation