Some of you may remember the battle I'm fighting with Ford Motor Credit. As an update, here is a letter I sent tonight via planetfeedback. I'll also send the same letter via certified mail in the morning. June 19, 2001 TO: Phillippe Paillart, CEO Ford Motor Credit Company P.O.Box 1899 Dearborn , MI 48121 FROM: DaveLV RE: PLANETFEEDBACK REFERENCE NUMBER xxxxxx Dear Mr. Paillart, Please help me with this problem I've been having with your company. I feel I've exhausted all other avenues open to me other than filing suit. I honestly do not want the matter I'm about to describe to you to end up in court, with either your company or myself as the plaintiff. In 1996 I financed a Ford Probe with Ford Motor Credit. In 1998 my wife was involved in a serious accident while driving this car. The car was a total loss, and my insurance company ended up paying a sum of money to Ford Motor Credit. The accident occurred in September, 1998. My insurance company advised me they would be paying off the loan, so in order to use my available funds to purchase a replacement car, I stopped making payments on my existing loan. From November 1998 through March 2001 I heard nothing from Ford Motor Credit. In March, 2001 I received a letter from the law office of Friedman & Patenaude demanding I pay Ford $2,029.11. The very next day I wrote to this law office asking why Ford had never contacted me, and asking them to provide an accounting of how Ford Motor Credit arrived at the amount due. I did not refuse to pay, I just wanted to know what I was paying. On the same week, I requested copies of my credit reports from all three credit reporting agencies. I was shocked to see that Ford Motor Credit is listing my account as a repossession with a balance due of $8,540. Stop for a moment and think about this. I have lived at the same address with the same phone number and have been employed at the same place since the accident in 1998. Ford Motor Credit never informed me that there was a balance due on my loan. Please also consider that the law firm Ford Motor Credit retained is asking for payment of $2,029.11 not $8,540. Add to this the fact that the car was totaled in an accident, not repossessed and you can see why I'm so upset. The law firm never responded to my request for a detailed report of my account. Instead they sent me an offer to settle for an undisclosed amount, saying I'd have to call them on the telephone to discuss the account. I'd be happy to settle and pay whatever I need to pay in this matter. I wrote the law firm asking them to give me the details of their settlement offer in writing. I wanted to keep our exchanges in writing, because I feel there have been some terrible inaccuracies in the way this account has been handled. I also advised them that as part of any settlement, I would want the false notation of a repossession on my credit reports deleted. This correspondence was exchanged several weeks ago and I still have received no reply. I have also written to the local office of Ford Motor Credit in San Diego asking them to please delete the false information in my credit reports. Although they have signed for my certified letters, I have received no answer from their office. I feel at this time I have no recourse but to file suit on the basis that Ford Motor Credit has violated the Fair Credit Reporting Act by knowingly reporting false information to the credit reporting agencies. I really do not want to go through the time and expense to do this but I don't know how else to proceed to get Ford Motor Credit's attention. I am asking that your office please help me with this matter. My account number is XXXXXXXX. What I ask is that Ford Motor Credit provide me with a detailed accounting of the activity on my account so I may pay what I owe. I also want Ford Motor Credit to delete their entries from my personal credit reports with all three agencies. I don't understand why my written correspondence to both the San Diego office of Ford Motor Credit and to the law office of Friedman & Patenaude is being ignored. I will be happy to provide copies of all correspondence I've sent in this matter since March, along with the return receipts from the certified mailings. Please help me straighten out this matter as quickly as possible. Thank you in advance for your time. Sincerely, DaveLV
That's real good Dave. Did you make it public? <grin> I hope they get it straightened out for you. breeze
I guess you never found out how much the insurance company paid to Ford Motor Credit, if any? I would be leaning on the insurance company to document the payment--especially since they told you they would be paying off your loan.
I've since tried to get the details out of the insurance company but they are not cooperating. It was a no name insurance company (at least I had never heard of them before -- they were just cheap), AIG. They cancelled my policy after the claim and seem to have no desire to even talk to me on the phone anymore. I've learned my lesson, and my policy is with Travelers Insurance now.
AIG isn't a no-name. They're big. NV insurance commission will make them answer you. If you still have the policy and claim info, send AIG a letter, and tell them they xxx days to respond (this is probably archived) and if they don't answer you you will file a complaint. They'll answer. breeze
Ah... interesting information. I'll do that. On a related note, the reason I'm so upset about this tonight is that I heard back from Discover today. You might remember I wrote them a letter asking them if I could salvage my account. In response they credited me about $100 in fees and treated my letter as an application for new credit. That's why I saw an inquiry from Discover on Privista this week. I got a denial letter from them today. The only reason listed for the denial is REPOSSESSION. The repo is the only really terrible thing on my Equifax report. This means if I can get this off my report within the next month I stand a good chance of Discover reopening my account. It's funny. Out of all the negative information on my credit reports it's the only legitimate error that is causing me the most heartburn right now. Ironic, isn't it.
Count on the fact that the repo is not the only reason Discover refused you. They only needed one bad one to pick on to use as their reason. They picked on the worst one and used it as their reason. They only needed one, not the whole bag. Any one of your negatives could have been used by them just as easily.
You could be right, Bill. But as a person who has received denial letters in the past with more than one reason stamped on them, I'm still going to hold out a little hope. Especially since I now have the name of a real person to talk to that seems to have some sort of authority there.
