Woman says 'I've got no nerves left' after scrap with used car business
Lawyer says 'egregious administrative errors' by used car dealer to blame
Linda Aitken still isn't sure of all the details, but what she does know is her dealings with a used car business in Truro have left her with more damage to her credit and without the vehicle she thought she purchased.
"There's something that's not right and I know it's not right, but I'm getting the blame for something I didn't do," Aitken said.
The 61-year-old Colchester County resident makes no bones about her bad credit. It is the result of health issues that left her unable to work.
That's why she went to Mack's All Approved Auto, which advertises a 100 per cent approval rate, when she wanted to trade her Dodge Grand Caravan for another vehicle, a Dodge Journey. She thought it would use less gas on her daily one-hour trip to Halifax for medical treatments.
Purchased the Caravan at Mack's
She'd purchased the Caravan at Mack's so that's where she went to trade it in.
She was credited $7,676 dollars for her trade-in, which had been financed through Option B Solutions. She signed a new purchase and sale agreement with Option B and a few weeks later, on Sept. 29, she went back to pick up the Journey.
She says she was told financing was in place.
"He gave me the keys and said, "There you go. You're ready to go,"' Aitken said.
But that was the beginning of her problems.
Had to buy starter interrupter
Since she had poor credit, she was required to purchase a GPS starter interrupter and pay the cost to have it installed.
The starter interrupter is a device that can track vehicles and causes an alarm to sound at ignition if payments are late. It can remotely disable a vehicle if the owner is too far behind in their payments.
There was only a small difference between the payments on the two vehicles. In December, Aitken noticed Option B Solutions had stopped taking payments.
When she reviewed her bank statement, she discovered the finance company had been taking out payments for her trade-in, not her new vehicle. She says when she called the finance company, she was told there was no record of her purchase.
No financing for Journey, says Option B
An Option B spokesperson said in an email there was no financing for the Journey.
"The act of her bringing the Caravan to the dealership would not constitute a trade-in," Francesco Oliveti said.
He said there was no notification the Caravan had been traded and there was no change in ownership as far as they knew.
In a letter to the lawyer representing Mack's, Daniel Boyle, Aitken's lawyer, wrote: "We determined through conversations with representatives from Option B that Mack's failed to submit the financing paperwork signed by Ms Aitken in August 2017."
He goes on to say: "It is apparent in this case that there have been egregious administrative errors made by Mack's … and Ms Aitken has been made to pay for those mistakes."
'Apathy at best and hostility at worst'
Boyle said Aitken's attempts to rectify the situation were met with "apathy at best and hostility at worst."
To further aggravate the situation, Aitken's credit report shows her credit was checked four times by Simply Automotive, a company linked to Mack's on the provincial Registry of Joint Stock Companies. The company was dissolved Aug. 25, 2017.
The checks were made between Aug. 27, 2017 and Feb. 8, 2018. This resulted in a further reduction of her already low credit score.
On April 24, someone claiming to be from Option B, who provided no identification or paperwork authorizing repossession, showed up at her home to take the vehicle.
When she refused to hand over the keys, the starter interrupter was used to immobilize it.
After her lawyer wrote a letter to Mack's lawyer, the starter interrupter was turned off, enabling her to drive again. In May, the starter interrupter was again used to prevent her from driving the vehicle, but it was later discontinued.
Vehicle towed from airport
Everything came to head in late June when Aitken drove her sister to the airport and accompanied her inside.
When she returned to her vehicle, the starter interrupter had again been engaged. She went back into the airport to call her lawyer and when she returned to the spot where her vehicle had been, she discovered it had been towed away, stranding her an hour from her home.
A search shows Option B with a lien against Mack's All Approved Auto for the vehicle.
Aitken's lawyer is asking Mack's to reimburse her for the $7,676 she was credited for her trade-in.
He also wants Mack's to stop checking her credit and work to repair the damage it has done by the frequent checks.
Michael Moore, Mack's lawyer, said in an email that Aitken was three months behind in her Caravan payments when she went to Mack's to trade the vehicle. Moore acknowledges the situation could have been handled better.
"It wouldn't be a practice that I would recommend to have [the agreement of purchase and sale] signed and have somebody take [a vehicle] off the lot before the financing is approved, that's just bad business all the way around," Moore said in a subsequent phone interview.
Practice now to have financing in place
He said the salesperson who was dealing with Aitken was an acquaintance and the practice now is to have financing in place before a vehicle is turned over to the customer.
Aitken says she only knows the salesperson through previous business dealings.
Moore said Mack's made numerous efforts to get the vehicle back but Aitken would not return it. The company eventually booted it and took it back.
Aitken disputes that, saying she went back in the fall of 2017 to get the vehicle permit, but Mack's told her to get a copy from Service Nova Scotia, which she did.
She says the business even reimbursed her, with cash, for the expense. Both times she drove her vehicle to the business.
She says she was not given a copy of her purchase and sale agreement when she first purchased the vehicle, so she drove it to Mack's in March to ask for it.
Toll on health
She was not given the documents she signed. Instead, she was given an unsigned form dated March 1, 2018 outlining the terms of the agreement.
Moore says the bottom line is whether Aitken is really out of pocket based on what she owed on her trade-in and what she had paid on the loan.
"If she is, then she may have an action against someone," Moore said, adding if she isn't then "it's much ado about nothing."
Aitken says the whole situation has taken a toll on her overall health.
"I've got no nerves left," she said. "It's put me back in debt further than I should have been."
Aitken has borrowed money to purchase another vehicle.
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