Folks, you are about to read a story about a young woman named Darlene, a car, a fraud and how it changed the path of her entire life.
This tale is just one example of so many out there, wherein lives are impacted forever and no one on the outside is the wiser. Names may have been changed to protect innocent people.
The story begins in the early 1980s in Tampa, Fla. Darlene, who only three years prior had lost her father to heart disease, had just completed her undergraduate degree, paid for via long hours of sweat and hard work. Darlene came out of college virtually debt free, running up approximately $3,000 in student loans.
At the time, she knew only her college friends and wished to remain in the area. She took a job selling life insurance and had a nice apartment she shared with a college friend. The apartment was lovely. It had a sunken living room, a fireplace and outdoor patios off each bedroom and the living room. The place had tennis courts, a pool and a clubhouse, and Darlene’s 50 percent portion of the rent was only $167 monthly. Life was pretty good.
Darlene wanted to reward herself, so she negotiated a deal on a Volkswagen Rabbit convertible. She could have purchased it but was told that leasing it was a “better deal.” So Darlene entered into a lease contract with the dealership for her Rabbit, at $300 per month.
Her insurance costs went up as well, so her payments now totaled $450 per month, but she was happy and she was worth it. Darlene drove that convertible proudly and never once had any trouble making her monthly payments.
One day, as Darlene was making her payment, she took stock and realized that she was paying three times as much for her car as she was for her apartment. She called the leasing company to see what, if anything, could be done to end the lease early. Company officials seemed to understand the situation and told her very nicely and in a calm voice, “That’s no problem at all – just bring it back and we’ll call it a voluntary repo.”
Darlene was ecstatic and vowed to be more careful with her money going forward.
Downward spiral
What Darlene did not realize was that a “voluntary repo” was the same thing as a repossession – and that her good credit record and her very life were about to go spiraling downward.
Darlene drove the car to the dealership, dropped off the keys and let out a sigh of relief. She picked up a much more affordable, used car and paid for it in full.
Approximately 30 days later her Visa card was declined in a restaurant. She used another one. Then the mail came and it showed that her Maas Brothers card, her Macy’s card and her Union 76 card were all being canceled.
A light bulb went on: voluntary repo. Darlene knew that she was scammed, and she felt there was nothing she could do about it. She could not afford a lawyer, and even if she could, who knew anything about this area of law and who would fight for her?
Soon after, adding insult to injury, a lawsuit was filed against Darlene, suing her for the remainder of the leased car contract. She avoided the process server by leaving the state behind.
She was sued in absentia, and to further show the injustice of it all, without even having an attorney to fight for her, the court only awarded the leasing company approximately 60 percent of the amount sued for.
The court judgment, the repossession and the canceled credit cards followed Darlene around for seven years on her credit record, no matter where she went, no matter what state or what neighborhood she lived in – and she lived in quite a few.
Whenever she applied for a job, the problems were always there, just below the surface.
Darlene went into the underground economy – the cash economy. This allowed her to live just under the radar, working legitimate jobs mostly for cash, like waiting on tables, so as not to be hounded by the bandits who stole her life via a few fancy words and their agents, the collection folks.
Her situation did not allow her to have nice cars or nice homes or even a family, as she had hoped for, because they would suffer from her fateful mistake.
Two decades later, Darlene, who had persevered to live her best life, outlived the judgment and poor credit reports. She rebuilt her credit record and joined the rest of the folks outside of the shadows. She was able to get out of the cash world, and even attend graduate school and become an attorney.
The nice twist in this story is that while she never intended for this result, for a living, Darlene now sues car dealers who cheat consumers. Her life has come full circle, and scamming car dealers throughout California had best watch out, as karma may soon come calling.
Scott Kaufman is a consumer-protection attorney and founder of California Lemon Lawyers. For more information, call (408) 727-8882 or visit 140 Third St., Los Altos.
