The Rod Shop, Inc.

Review: I purchased a vehicle from Rod Shop and have been increasingly unsatisfied with their customer service ever since. A woman by the name of '[redacted]' has been unreasonably rude, and come across with a hateful, bitter attitude literally every time I have had contact with her.

Recently, we have hit a difficult phase with an unexpected cut in our salary which did leave us behind on our payments. My wife typically manages our budget so when I received the call about the late payment I asked her to call and set something up. She called and spoke to someone (I don't know her name) but she was dealt with very rudely when she stated the date she would make the payment. The woman demanded the payment sooner, however when my said we wouldn't have it before then she simply said 'ok, I will make a note on the file and let my manager know'.

Seconds later, my phone rang and I was literally shouted at by [redacted] who was demanding money from me. She very aggressively asked if that vehicle was the only vehicle we had, to which I said 'no' and asked if she was needing to come and collect the vehicle. She said 'no, that wasn't what they were trying to do'.

I made the payment arrangement with her, even lodged a complaint later that same day with the company due to her very aggressive nature. My complaint was never answered. We had an issue with our payroll not coming in on time so I ended up having to make the payment on a Monday rather than the agreed upon Saturday. My car was running fine, I made the payment of $200 on Monday which covered the past due amount and then some of the bill that had just recently come due. So I was days late on my current bill and suddenly when I am leaving for work I realize my car will not start. I had to have it towed to a mechanic who had me call and ask if the dealer had a shut off device on the vehicle and if that had been activated. I called, and was told that there was no cut off report found in the file. I spend hundreds of dollars on parts and labor only to discover that yes, it was the shut off device afterall......?

I was never contacted by anyone from Rod shop to be informed that this was going to take place and I was TOLD by an employee of theirs that it was NOT the shut off device. I am again out hundreds of dollars due to their dishonesty. I have NEVER done business with any company who shuts something off (particularly a vehicle) for being days late on a payment. I also think to shut the vehicle off and not even take the time to make a courtesy call is just poor customer service. But worse is to shut the vehicle off and then tell the customer it has not been shut off resulting in hundreds of dollars of expenses. I can provide receipts for work was done to the vehicle as we tried to figure out what had happened. I expect these expenses to be paid by Rod Shop. Had I known it was this device - I could have spent the borrowed money to pay the bill to rodshop rather than bills to a mechanic for parts that were not needed.Desired Settlement: Refund money spent due to their dishonesty.

Business

Response:

This is in response to the rather lengthy complaint by a customer who is not satisfied with

his alleged treatment by myself and my staff whose purpose if ¡s to collect on past due

accounts, verify insurance coverage, and disable vehicles of customers who do not make

payments on time, do not keep promises to pay or whose full coverage insurance lapses,

expires, or is cancelled to which we are notified by Insurance companies.

I have attached for your review, a copy of the following:

1) Snapshot of account, which shows only 2 of 10 payments mode on time.

2) Account Transactions, which show the erratic way this account has been paid

3) Notes from the account, which show the conversation Mr. [redacted] and I had promising

a full payment on 1/25/2014.and the subsequent calls after vehicle was disabled.

4)Letter of affidavit from [redacted] on the conversation between them.

5) Copy of the VA Law Contract, which clearly outline our rights, and he signed

6) Copy of the delivery& Acceptance in which he not only signed but initialed in 10

different spaces stating he understood his rights as well as ours.

7) Addendum to Contract, which gives terms and conditions of GPS tracking device, and a

copy of the GPS history on this vehicle, clearly showing when it was disabled.

8) Buyers Order, which shows Vehicle Sold AS IS NO WARRANTY

9) Email from customer about a problem with the vehicle

10) 2 Separate Goodwill Repair Acknowledgements, where we did service for free.

I feel no need to go into a lengthy response, as the paperwork provided shows we are not

only well within our rights, but that Mr. [redacted] has not paid as agreed to in the

Contract . The fact that he feels as if he is being mistreated in any way is not only

offensive, it is laughable, due to arrogance of a man whose wife and he will state what they

will pay, not what they are expected to and then simply hang up as if dismissing my

employees.

Had they had better communications, and paid their payments on time. I would not have

gotten involved with their account, I am called in when they are constantly past due, as

indicated on Account Balance Summary.

For Mr. [redacted] to say that an employee told him the vehicle was not shut off is an

outright lie as stated by Mr. [redacted] he has no access to that information, and was called on

Saturday Jan 25th. I did not shut the vehicle off until Monday Jan 27th. as indicated in the

GPS History Report, when I arrived and no payments had been made as promised.

On Tuesday morning when I arrived a payment of $200.00 had been made on line Monday

evening after 6:00 pm and was posted on Tuesday Jon. 28th as indicated in the Account

Transaction report.

Mr. [redacted] who claims to be a contractor doesn't seem to understand that a Contract is

just that, and a Due Date is The Date it was agreed upon to be paid by both parties, not 30

to 60 days later. As a business if he does not get paid, I am sure he makes Collection calls

and when someone promises to pay, he is expecting that to be the case, if not I'm sure he

will continue to call until he does get paid or he will not be in business very long.

Are we responsible for any work he has had done to his vehicle? No, we are, not as indicated

in the AS-IS NO Warranty on the Buyers Guide, however the Parts and Labor done to his

vehicle on two separate occasions where he was not charged anything due to our Customer

commitment does say something for us. The fact that he called on a Saturday and asked if

his vehicle was disabled, when it wasn't until Monday, leads us to believe he was already

having a starting issue, and when it was at the Shop where work was done and we disabled it,

they asked him if it had a devise on it that is when he contacted us on Tuesday the 29th. and

this barrage of calls and demands started again 2 weeks after the original conversation

about his account, and his first letter of complaint about me.

Last but not least, it seems Mr. [redacted]'s biggest problem is having to deal with a female

as on authority figure, or anyone who can dictate to him what is expected of him. As I told

him, this is a signed contract with scheduled terms he is expected to adhere to, not a

negotiation and not something to be haggled over, regardless of his constant demands as to

what he will, or will not do, or when he chooses to do so.

He is free however to Voluntarily Surrender the vehicle anytime he chooses which will of

course not help his already very poor Beacon Score, caused by not making scheduled

payments on time to any creditor, and our reason for charging a higher interest rate as he

is what we cons¡der a High Risk customer who moves around a lot.

Sincerely,

Manager

Credit & Collections

Rod Shop Inc.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

Once again, I find myself absolutely appalled with this

company. [redacted]’s letter in response back to my original complaint not only

show’s her own disregard for truth, but Rod Shop’s as well. This was a rather

desperate attempt to completely disregard the original complaint and provide a

fairly lengthy message herself about issues that are absolutely irrelevant to

the concern I stated. Merely an attempt to change focus and take the attention

away from what SHE KNOWS was not legal on her side.

I will once AGAIN state my concern, in hopes that it will

actually be addressed this time around. My vehicle was shut off on Monday, per

[redacted]’s own words. My payment however,

was NOT made on Monday after 6:00pm as stated by [redacted]. My payment was made

Monday morning on Rod Shops web site as soon as my pay check arrived in my

account. My vehicle was shut off AFTER this payment was received. [redacted]

herself admitted this the day I spoke with her when attempting to get the

vehicle turned back on. Her reasoning, that day, for turning my vehicle off is

not that she did not receive the payment, but rather that the payment received was

not in the amount that we had said we would pay.

I paid the amount to

cover the balance on the past due bill and even a portion of the bill that had

just come due. This left me with a balance of $198 on the bill that had just

come due. My vehicle was shut off for a balance of $198 on a bill that had just

come due – merely DAYS late? Absolutely pathetic!

In addition to the flat out lie of when we made the payment

and when the vehicle was shut off – [redacted] also stated in her response that we

contacted Rod Shop on a Saturday due to the vehicle not starting. This

statement is also not true. My vehicle

was in [redacted], SC on Saturday – my wife and I made the entire drive all the

way back into [redacted], NC that day – which would pretty clearly state that my

vehicle was indeed working. My vehicle was working perfectly fine until Rod

shop unnecessarily and without any notice – simply shut it off. It began

working perfectly yet again once it was turned back on. So to say that we were

already having issues with the vehicle is a lie. Again – [redacted]’s attempt to remove blame and

not have to take responsibility. I have any number of people who can speak for

that car working fine until Monday.

[redacted] is a liar and will do anything she can to manipulate

her way out of something she knows was not handled properly. I called on a MONDAY evening to ask about

the vehicles status. It was somewhere around 6:00pm when I phoned in, and I was

told by a gentleman working there that he had looked into the file and there

was not a shut off notice in the file, like there would be in such a situation.

He ended the comment with so, no it doesn’t appear to be our device causing the

vehicle not to start. I have a witness who stood not three feet away from me

during this entire phone call, who also heard the whole thing.

Let’s just think about this logically for a moment if we can…..

Let’s assume, as [redacted] claims that we were indeed told that this person would

not have that information. It would make sense then that we would call again to

find out if the vehicle had or hadn’t been shut off, before taking the vehicle

to a mechanic and spending hundreds of dollars.

[redacted]’s scenario does not even begin to make any logical sense. Had we

been told that the vehicle was being shut off we could have used the money we

borrowed for parts, on the actual bill!

But, let’s just go back to the vehicle being shut off

because A PORTION of the bill, not even the entire bill was days late. To

simply shut a vehicle off without any form of notice is horrible customer

service. I do not know of a SINGLE other company who operates this way. A cell

phone carrier, a water company, AEP, even an internet provided provides a grace

period for late payments and at the very least provided you with a date that

the service is going to be terminated.

So to simply shut the vehicle off, with NO WARNING – EVEN

AFTER RECEIVING PAYMENT – and then to LIE when we call in asking about is

horrible customer service.

Not to mention the nightmare we went through trying to get

the vehicle turned back on. [redacted] had our payment – the original payment we

made on the Monday morning – it was a WEDNESDAY before this woman turned our

vehicle back on. When we phoned her we were told things like “oh, well – I will

see what I can do to locate it and get it set back up” or “well, when I get

around to it, I will see what I can do”. Etc…

At the very least, turn the car back one when you do see

that payment has been received????

We should have at the very least received a notice, or been

told that the car had been shut off – and the car should have been turned back on

in a reasonable time frame once they did see that payment had been made.

I am confident that if this situation ends up in court, Rod

Shop WILL BE responsible for this pathetic way of doing business – the money it

cost me at the mechanic as well as the days out of work due to [redacted] refusing

to turn the car back on in a reasonable time frame.

There are literally complaints ALL OVER THE INTERNET about

this woman – this is certainly not the first time she has been caught in a

mountain of lies. In nearly every

complaint I can find regarding Rod Shop reviews on the internet there is someone

complaining about [redacted]’s lies, deception and just over all horrible customer

service. She is rude, dishonest and

absolutely manipulative. I would urge ANYONE reading this message or any of the

other reviews out there to think twice about doing business with this company.

You, like so many others WILL REGRET THE DECESION.

Business

Response:

[redacted],

Once agin I find myself appalled that I continue to have to respond to a Customer who cheief complaint is that he didnt pay his payment on time and his vehicle was disabled.

I originally attached all copies of this customers file to include when the GPS disabled the vehicle, there is no doubt my account is the accurate one. It was his responsbility to pay on time, to call if there was a problem and to know the contract he signed and what it entailed. He cannot now plead begein ignorance to the facts.

We as a company have done nothing wrong and I am doing my job, its not personal, but as I have pointed out before we must as a Company take these precautions to secure vehicles of Customers, whose Credit, or other factors deem them as "High Risk" not just by our company standards, but by many dealerships now Nationwide, and many will disable the vehicle within 48 hrs of payment not being made.

There is an epidemic of Bad Credit in this country and people no longer care if they do or dont pay their bills as is obvious by their FICO Scores.

As far as this Customer, I could not enable the vehicle when it was asked due to the fact he had it at a Shop in another State, where the Battery was disconnected, once he remedied that situation, the vehicle was enabled, as I heard nothing from him untill his complaint to the Revdex.com.

I have however since the original response to your office received a call from this customer, stating that he read, in paperwork I submitted to you) he had to notify us within 30 days if he was moving out of State, I told him yes that was true, he informed me on February, 6, 2014 they would be relocating to somewhere in IL. He was informed of what he had to do to register and title the vehicle there.

This will not deter our efforts to have payments made in a timly fashion, to disable or locate the vehicle if necessary. This is presicely the reason so many dealers now install them, and we make it a requirement of the contract, as they can pick up and leave without any notice, or anyway for us to ensure payments or track down the vehicle if necessary for Repossession.

Rod Shop Inc.

Review: The loan officer, [redacted], is unprofessional and should not be in the business field. She does not return any calls I have made involving my vehicle, insurance confirmation from my insurance company, and has cussed at me.Desired Settlement: I need someone to contact me regarding the balance I need to pay, to prevent further problems. I have tried communicating, and can send proof from my insurance company confirmation of faxes as well as printed emails. I cannot get a response on how much I need to pay on my account to get it paid to a current balance.

Business

Response:

Thursday, October 10, 2013 In response to the complaint by “Mr. [redacted]”, whom I’m pretty sure was written by his wife [redacted] as Mr. [redacted] has never tried to contact me by text, and our only two conversations since he abruptly left our employment were as follows: On Oct. 3, he called the office and asked what he needed to provide so his wife could speak to me in regards to his past due account, I told him he said fine, and hung up. On Monday October 7 of this week I had Mr. [redacted] Cadillac which we are the lien holder Repossessed, as I still did not have proof of Insurance, account was past due, Mr. [redacted] does not have a Valid Drivers Permit, and his wife had still not come to see me to try to work out arrangements on account, as she had been promising since Friday Sept. 27th 2013 When I returned from court that afternoon, Mr. [redacted] called and asked if I had his vehicle repossessed, I told him I did, and the reasons why, he immediately started threating me, and the company with information he supposedly knows, and I told him he should do whatever he felt necessary as he left our employment on bad terms, he took items which did not belong to him and up to now we had decided not to press charges, but still reserved that right. He then said he just wanted his belongings out of vehicle, my response was that he was more than welcome to his belongings, when he returned the factory Stereo, he took out, and the keys to the vehicle. I also mentioned that he had taken the Air Ride off the after-market Stereo was missing, as well as the Rims & Wheels, His comment was they belonged to him, I reminded him that the law states that if it is installed it must stay or be replaced with original. To that Mr. [redacted] turned belligerent; he said he would just return the Motorcycle by end of business day and the keys to the car, in very explicit language to which he called me several names and made slanderous remarks. I asked him to refrain and I told him that was the best scenario for all involved and we would be expecting it by end of day. (Knowing him I had the entire conversation witnessed by two other people, the only curse words came from Mr. [redacted].) As far as not responding to Text, I had to block Mr. [redacted] wife’s Text to my personal cell phone due to the fact that she has a habit of sending 05-10 in a row at all hours of the night when she is intoxicated complaining about anything from his Physical abuse to his being a thief and a liar to all those around him, and how he hates me and has it out for me, so I need to be careful. If at any time she or he wished to contact me, either could have very well called my office, as he did on Monday, not my personal phone, nor on other employees phones who also do not wish to be bothered by their constant petty, money, domestic and drug or alcohol related issues. We have still not received Proof of Insurance (and I have checked both offices daily since the original promise on September 27th.) on the Motorcycle and find it hard to believe that any Insurance Company will insure a Motorcycle in both names when he has no Drivers permit and she has no Motorcycle’s permit. If Mr. [redacted] is not happy then he should do as he said he would and return the motorcycle and the keys to the vehicle, his accusations are a moot point as Mr. [redacted] reputation as a thief and a liar are more than well known in this town, as is his temper, and violent nature. Sincerely [redacted] Manager Rod Shop Inc.

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below. Since the last response, we have gotten things provisionally straight about the bike account through the owner, mr. David Thompson, he was very gracious and nice to deal with and agreed to set up a phone meeting to further discuss the matter in hopes to getting a definitive resolution. I am satisfied with the immediate response from David Thompson on this matter; however, my phone calls to rod shop account staff and east main financial have still not been of any help and have not returned calls. Mr. Thompson was contacted on his personal cellphone and said that we would have a phone meeting Monday, to discuss arrangements to be made. Thank you for your help in this matter, all we wanted was a fair resolution Thanks, [redacted] and [redacted]

Review: My grandmother and I purchased a truck in June 2011, she died this past year and because there was a lien on the vehicle DMV would not issue the sticker for the vehicle. I went to DMV and this is what I was told. Thye vehicle was registed in both of our names with right to survivorship. [redacted] at the Rod Shop stated I would need to bring the vehicle in and voluntarly surrounder it and she would order the title from the bank and this whole process would take 7-10 days. In the mean time there were some mechanical things that were wrong witht he truck and she stated she would get them fixed and would add it on to the balance of the truck. The process took 19-days. I finally got the truck back and had to go resign all papers. They added all fees back onto the truck 269.00 processing fee,$ 327.48 in sales tax,$ 495.00 pre-delivery fee, dealers business tax$ 16.37 online systems filing fee$ 9.75. These fees were already charged in 2011 when I purchased the truck and I was not told that all these fees would be added back on to the vehicle. The interest rate went up from 19% to 21%. I do understand the DMV fees to be paid , however I do not concur that all the origional fees were to be added back on to the vehicle. My name was on the origional loan and was told this was the only thing they could do. I guess so when they added another $2000.00 plus to the loan. I was told the work on the vehicle was $1000.00 I was not given an itemized statement on what they did, what parts cost, and how much labor was involved. I had already replaced the brakes front and back recently. [redacted] was exceptionaly rude to my mother and she did not deserve to be talked to by anyone like this. She even spoke with the owner and he stated it was a tuff job but she was effective. (Dave Thompson).

What do I want, I want an itemized bill for all work they did on the vehicle, I want the $495.00 predelivery fee taken off. What was this for? I honestly don't feel like this was fair charging me for this as I have already paid it on the origional loan back in June 2011. The interest rate needs to come back to 19%, we are very upside down on the value on the vehicle.

Thanks for taking this complaint.

[redacted]Desired Settlement: Interest rate back to origional

Fees to come off that were already paid back in 2011

Itemized bill of work they said they did of $1000.00

Business

Response:

To whom it may concern in Response to the complaint by [redacted] A [redacted].

Mr. [redacted] whom was a driver for the Rod Shop Inc. left on mutual terms,

wished to purchase a vehicle and was told due to Credit Issues he required a

Co-signer, so on 6/3/2011 his grandmother [redacted] signed as a Primary

and he as the Secondary, everythíng was in both names to include the

Insurance, the account was given at a Fair rate, for questionable credit, and

was paid late all but 4 of the 28 times paid until its refinance on 11/22/2013.

(Attachment # 1)

I was informed of Ms. [redacted]s passing in May 2013. at which time I

personally informed Mr. [redacted]'s mother [redacted] that I could not

discuss account with her as she did not have a Power of Attorney, she was

not on the loan, and her son's choices were limited as to what could be done

when the Tags ran out later that year. I informed Ms. [redacted] that she had

to inform the DMV and that if she was executor of the Estate she could

easily get a Power of Attorney and sign her deceased mothers name to get it

off the title. If she waited her choices would be even more limited, as I

have been through this many times in when estates are not settled ASAP.

The last week of October Ms. [redacted] called for her son in a panic that the

tags were running out at the end of the month, it needed a lot of work for

which she had an entire list and no money to spend, she also had no intention

of putting estate in her name or the vehicle for that matter, Her reason for

not co-signing going on the contract or title because she did not want it to

interfere with benefits she was getting from the government. I informed

her the option was to voluntarily surrender the vehicle, we would at that

time apply for a Repossession Title, do the work and refinance it to them at

the same cost as what was owed, just adding work done, tax, tag, title

processing fee, and GAP coverage, which we put on every vehicle we finance,

and there are no exceptions, as we are taking all the risks with this clientele.

They cannot purchase a vehicle anywhere without paying the State and Local

taxes, and all dealers have a processing fee, they are in essence changing

the owner so it is a new deal with the DMV, they require the taxes tags and

title to be changed which could have been avoided if the estate had been

dealt with properly and the Power of Attorney was issued to Ms. [redacted] who

came to my office or called several times over the course of a couple of

weeks while we were waiting on Title to be returned from the Bank, then to

come back from DMV while the repairs were being done. The APR going up

2% was due to past payment history and could have gone up to 29% he should

feel fortunate to have a vehicle at all and especially one at that low of APR

with the payment history he has had. The Pre-delivery fee is GAP Insurance,

and yes he did have it before, but his grandmother was the primary and she

has been deceased for some time so everything had to be redone in just his

name, as explained to them in depth many times, and he signed the contract

several places which indicated that charge, and he never said a word.

On 11/22/2013 when Ms. [redacted] was informed the work had been

completed on vehicle it had been inspected (as required by law) and was

ready for papers to be signed, she insisted she come in and sign them for

her son, I informed her once again I was not going to allow her to do

something illegal, and that if he was not incapacitated, or physically unable

where she had a POA, he had to sign for himself, she said he was out of

town, I informed her we would wait. Within the hour her son Mr. [redacted]

showed up and signed all the papers and the contract that were explained to

him in full with his mother standing outside on the lot making a spectacle of

herself to anyone who's attention she could get, by her frequent outburst

and constant opinions on morality.

Her remarks to the owner, F&I Mgr. and others fell on deaf ears as she

tried for 3 weeks to manipulate and bully us to allow her to break the law so

it would suit her and her son without any regard for our licensee or the

trouble it could have caused for us as a Dealer, with the State of VA DMV

or the Motor Vehicle Dealer Board. And when I explained to her that if we

allowed her to sign for him, then we would never have any recourse of action

in order to get our vehicle or money back if he had not actually signed for

himself , she laughed and said we wouldn't get anything anyway he is on

Disability, and so it didn't matter.

Although we were more than fair I have included a copy of work done, which

could not have been done anywhere any cheaper, the average in this town is

$85.00 per hour Labor rate we charged $50.00, per hour.

If she was upset about the time frame why did she wait till the last minute

to get the work done, and why did she call back more than several times to

add on potential problems, why have us do it at all? Simply because No-one

else would do that much work and allow them to refinance it into the original

loan amount. And no-one else would have been as nice as we were to a woman

who was rude, hateful, and a bully about her predicament she insisted on

blaming on everyone else, yet had no-one to blame but herself.

In addition I have included the breakdown of all State and local fees, and

although we do not believe for one second Mr. [redacted] wrote this complaint

we felt more than obliged to answer it with this:

If you Ms. [redacted] believe it was such a bad deal, and you were treated so

unfairly, by all means have your son bring the vehicle back. We will consider

it a Voluntarily Surrender, and you and he can go see if anyone else in this

town will give your grown son, with his issues, credit problems, past payment

history, who does not keep vehicle maintained, another vehicle, I doubt it.

And if they do, they also will end up having problems with you, due your

constant interference in everything that is none of your business, but feel it

necessary to complain about others. Once again had you paid more attention

to the affairs of your deceased mother and her Estate your grown son would

not be in this situation.

Sincerely

Manager

Credit & Collections

Consumer

Response:

I have reviewed the response offer made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.

I have looked over the documents that were attached to my response from the Rod Shop and there are some discrepancies. I went to the Rod Shop to see if this could be resolved and Ms [redacted] pointed her finger at me and stated that if I were one day late she would re-posses this vehicle. Along with the accusations against my mother and the other issues at state here I will seek legal representation to get this resolved. At best word of mouth is the best medicine and believe me I do want people to know what they are getting into if they decide to get involved with this organization.

Thank you for your input and help with this matter,