Legal Question in Consumer Law in California

wHAT SHOULD I DO?...WHAT LEGAL RIGHTS DO I HAVE?

I purchased a car from Drivetime 09/05/2009, and to this date; 07/12/2010, I have never received my license plates, registration, or tags. Yes, almost a year later and still nothing! I contacted Drivetime three times since the beginning of the year. Each time, Drivetime stated they had sent the information off, and that I should contact the DMV. I contacted the DMV; only to find out that they had sent the license plates to the wrong address. I then updated that info with the DMV, and they still did not show up.

Sunday, March 21st, 2010, while on our way to church; a police officer pulled us over for no plates. He took my info and said that, "[He] could see that the registration and license was good; but for whatever reason, my plates were in lieu and hadn�t been released.� The officer seemed puzzled at the entire case, and gave me a fix it ticket for July 6th, 2010. Then he urged my husband and me, to call the DMV and our dealership.

Monday, 03/22/2010, I called Drivetime and the DMV about the situation at hand; both representative attempted to blame one another for the delay of sending out my plates, registration, and tags. The DMV rep stated that they had never received information for the items. While Drivetime admittedly professed that they had sent those documents off in 11/2009.

Fast-forward to the morning of Wednesday, June 30th, 2010; I was pulled over by Hawthorne Police on my way to work while entering the N405 FWY from Imperial. The officer asked, �where are your license plates?�. I proceeded to tell him of how I never received them or my tags. He then requested my license, and registration and proof of insurance. I told him that I never received my registration, and I gave him my license. He came back to my vehicle and stated that my license was expired and suspended (which I wasn�t aware of) and that he would have to impound my car. He gave me a ticket that said license suspended. Nothing about why he pulled me over initially being no plates. Plates, tags, and registration that obviously DMV or Drivetime never sent!

I call the DMV and tell them what happened, they said that they saw in their system where the plate number on my Title belonged to a 2000 Honda; but my car purchased from Drivetime is a 2003 Buick Century! The DMV rep also claimed that they had never received ay paperwork from my dealership and I requested another address change to get my plates sent to me once and for all. The rep than said that I had a failure to pay for a 2006 ticket in San Bernardino County Barstow Traffic. I paid that ticket in full ($812.00) and the affidavit to remove the hold. She said to come down to the DMV and pay to reinstate and renew my driver�s license and receive my driving record, all totaling $91.00. I did so on 07/02/2010. I then drive down to the Hawthorne Police Traffic Bureau to show them my paperwork, only to be told by the Officer in Command that, �We need your registration. Something is wrong with it. This car has not been registered to an owner since 2006. You need to contact you dealer.� I exclaimed that, �I have been paying a $400.00 car note since 09/2009, and never once ever receiving any tags, registration, or plates!� The officer then stated, �I suggest you call your dealership, because as far as we are concerned, you�ve been paying for a car that isn�t registered to you and has been registered in over 4years to anyone. You might have a legal case on your hands!� I also paid to reinstate my insurance ($129.00).

I called Drivetime a requested an extension to make my car payment and made them aware that my car had been impounded due to never receiving my plates and that the Hawthorne police stated that my Dealership never registered my car. I then stated that I would not be paying them any more payments until they could show me proof that they had sent off the required documents to register me as the owner of the car. Drivetime faxed me a copy of the title. I took the copy of the title, reinstated and renewed driver�s license, and print out of driving record and attempted to get a copy of registration. The agent then said, �it [the system] will not let me update the registration, because the plate number on the title doesn�t match what the DMV records have.� I asked what the discrepancy was because I shouldn�t have to pay for replacement tags, plates, and registration that I had never received in the 1st place. I paid for those services to be followed thru when I bought the car ($161. Tags,registration,title; $15.00, plates), in good faith that it would be done. She then replied, �Well I can not do that anyway, because the two numbers don�t match, plus your registration has been suspended!��I cried, and said that I couldn�t understand how every corporations Department is seeing something different. She then too responded, �You need to contact our dealership!�

So after being told by three different reps; from 3 different corporations to check with my dealership, I spoke with several of the following people:

Max- General Manager; Drivetime Torrance 310/793166

-Is at the Dealership I bought the car at. He said that they sent off the documents and received documents back in 11/2009. Then he faxed me a copy of the title. (The title that later I was told did not have the correct plate # that matched the DMV records). Later, he stopped excepting my calls.

Jennifer- Customer Serv. Rep; Drivetime Mira Costa 909-926-1111

-Is the person that explained to me that the plate number was in fact correct and didn�t understand why the DMV told them the title was registered to a 2000 Honda?

Jorge- Financial Rep.; Drivetime Arizona Corp. Financial Office 310 542-5600

-Is the rep that told me that he could extend my payments out to the end of August possibly, seeming as how I�ve had to pay out over $1000+. He then stead that I should wait on faxing in all my receipts until I received the receipt from the impound once I got my car out; so that I could include that in the extension as well. He said that he would document my account with this info, so I wouldn�t show as outstanding. (He never did this, and I will explain the importance of this later.)

Claudia- Regional Manager; Drivetime Corporate Northern Ca Office 480/813-5323

-She is whom I spoke with that supposedly investigated the entire situation. She found that on Drivetime�s end, they sent off the documents and that the title was never incorrect and that since the police officer only wrote down on the ticket suspended license, and not the addition of the initial pull-over being no plates and tags; that it would look as if it was my fault! She did however; state that there did appear to be some confusion between Drivetime and the DMV. I requested that they pick up my car from the impound, because I couldn�t afford to get it out. (Never once EVER stating that this would cost me anything!)

Regina- Corporate Supervisor; Drivetime Arizona Corp. 1800 967-8879 ext 5362

-She is whom I spoke to that said she�d place a cease and desist on my account so I wouldn�t receive collection calls. She also said that she could extend my payments; due to the hardship I had been going thru. She forwarded all my info to Claudia.

Linda- Redemption Rep; Drivetime Arizona Financing Impound Dept. 800967-9712/8879 ext7135

-She is the last person I spoke to up to date 07/12/2010. She stated that, �due to your [my] car payment being behind one payment ($260.00); that they used Drivetime�s Repossession Dept. services to get my car out of the impound. They are charging me $325 for the balanced to the impound that they paid; ok!...But to charge me $404.00 for them using their Repossession Services; after not even telling me about the charge prior to getting it out, is completely unfair. Especially when my car isn�t being repossessed, and after two Drivetime employees (Regina and Jorge) explained that they�d defer my payments out due to the hardship and place the Cease and Desist on my account!!!

In all, Drivetime wants me to pay a total of $729.00 just to get my car back; on top of the $65.00 + $10 per day storage fee the Manheim California Auto Auction in Fontanna (909-922-2261) is charging me since last Friday, 07/09/2010; to hold my belongings and car!!! I refuse, because I feel that from the beginning the DMV and Drivetime had confusion between their entities! I am requesting the help of someone in Consumer Affairs. They are threatening to auction off my car if I do not pay them buy 07/30/2010, and then they expect for me to turn right back around and pay them a car note by 08/03/2010!!!!!!!!...Please help me, as I feel that Drivetime has dragged their feet with other customers as well!

As a result, I�ve been without a car, missing days of work, and over all; stressing about the entire situation!. I can not make payments or pay any fees if I can not get to work. I can not get to work, church, or my kids school without a car. I need my car! I have had to borrow money from several sources and I am now in the hole and still expected to pay fees to a company that is having correspondence issues with the DMV!!!!.


Asked on 7/12/10, 4:35 pm

1 Answer from Attorneys
Michael Stone Law Offices of Michael B. Stone Toll Free 1-855-USE-MIKE

You need to see a lawyer about suing the dealership! It's been over a year!! What are you waiting for, for the legal time limit to expire so you won't be able to sue anymore??? If this were my case I can think of about 10 different things I could sue them for, starting with fraud. You could be out of luck for some of the incidents that happened later on in time because the judge is going to think you are brain-dead for waiting so long (the legal term is "failure to mitigate damages"). (You've already blown the six-month legal time limit for filling a claim with the DMV.) You also use lots of words like "told," "stated," "contacted," "said," "asked," "spoke with," and "called," didn't you ever, even once, write them a letter??!? Didn't you ever learn to write letters back in high school???? Do you have a paper trail of what happened, or at least a diary of what date and time and numbers you called and the names of the people you spoke to??

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Answered on 7/12/10, 8:04 pm


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