Just consider me a foul mouthed irritable [******] for the next year...
Caution! Extreme rant proceeding!
1) Capital One Auto Finance
No hassle my ass! I was purchasing the Viper from a local owner (who is an awesome guy, btw). I looked for nearly two months before settling on this '94 RT/10 solid black beauty. Capital One Auto Finance had given me a loan to pay for part of the Viper. The previous owner also had a lien on the vehicle through Capital One as well (although not as big as I was loaning out). I figured it would be easier and quicker for the transfer to happen because all the money would be transferring in-house due to having the same lender. HELL NO! It was nearly a two month ordeal! After getting the run around from both Capital One customer service people as well as their managers we were stuck in limbo. I received my loan check and was given false information by a manager to make the loan check to the current owner of the Viper so he could cash the money and pay off his loan (then receive the title to give to me). After days upon days of calling to verify that things were proceeding normally we found out this was the incorrect way of doing things (even after verifying from a manager that we must do it this was since we both had the same lender), and then I had to get another loan check to make back out to Capital One (reference the previous owners account number and pay off his loan and then they'd send him any leftover money). After days of waiting after that we called back and found out that the loan check had been received but they just couldn't understand why I wrote the check right back to the lender!!! I told them I was told to make the check back out to Capital One and reference it to pay off the previous owners lien. They didn't really know how to handle it and even told me they lost the previous owners account number (it was referenced both on the check and included on a nice letter I sent the check with). A week later they had everything in order. I then asked how long it would take for the previous owner to receive a check for the leftover amount he is owed by Capital One after his lien was paid off by my loan check. Answer: 45-60 days!!! ***! How can business operate like this? In my business that I operate, if I decided to pay other businesses what I owed to them (either due to bill, reimbursement, etc), I'd be shut down in less than a week! Yet these assholes get to keep the money that is somebody else's for 45-60 days and collect interest! After calls upon calls a manager finally told me "Sorry but that's our policy and we're not gonna change it for anybody". The funny part was that by mistake they had sent ME the title to the car (they are supposed to keep it, or in the very least send it to the previous owner because he paid off his loan). I told one of the managers I had received the title and I may just consider the contract between Capital One and I dissolved (they hadn't live up to half of what I was entitled to in the contract), and get another loan from another lender (and leave them in a big bind in the process). The only response was "You are free to go get another loan from whoever you want". Very nice business praticeses. Anyhow, the previous owner received the check for the leftover money within 45 days then deposited it (another 10-20 days waiting time initiated by his bank for funds to clear) and I took receipt of the car nearly a full three months since the ordeal began (I made two payments on the loan before ever receiving the car).
2) Daimler Chrysler Warranty Center
The car still has an extended warranty available until 2007. Before selling me the car the previous owner had verified the warranty was transferable to another party ($50 fee) and had sent him the transfer papers. The week after taking receipt of the car I sent in the transfer papers along with the $50 check. The check was deposited. It's been about three months since that date and no warranty number. A week ago during a Sunday night my belt broke into shreds and also broke off a pulley. I called the warranty emergency number while being stranded on the side of the road. By looking up the VIN number they couldn't even pull up an extended warranty reference at all, not even with the previous owner (pretty much the lady told me that no information at all was available under that VIN number). She said I would have to call later in the week during normal business hours to the warranty department (a different department than the emergency warranty number) and make a claim to reimburse my expenses to have the car towed and then any labor/parts costs that are covered IF my warranty turns out to be valid. Anyway, instead of leaving the open RT/10 on the side of the road in rain I decided to have it towed to my Viper Tech (Keith Laxson of All Pro Automotive in Dallas, awesome guy!) at my cost and attempt to get reimbursement later when all this mess is sorted out. The following Monday I called warranty services and verified that the transfer papers had been received and the check cashed (but they said the warranty is still registered under the previous owners name). When I asked how long it takes to transfer the warranty they told me up to 30 days. After telling them it has been almost 90 days they had no answer for me other than call back later in the week! So I'm down a nice $130+ towing fee and maybe some warranty work costs (not sure if the pulley would be considered secondary damage or not). Not a big hit, but it's the principle that nobody has their [******] together that ****** me off! So I let Keith fix the car up and went ahead and had some maintenance done that I had been planning on doing. Got the car back late this past week and everythings awesome (besides the asses at warranty center)! But looks like the warranty center is gonna give me their best shot to give me the run around and hope I finally give up on getting my warranty transfered.
3) Life
I'm went to Fort Worth this weekend to visit my mother and when I left on Saturday to come back to Dallas smoke started coming out from under the hood! The smell of antifreeze was overwhelming. The car never overheated but was definetely on it's way. I quickly pulled back into my mom's place and shut the Viper down. Coolant had been sprayed all over my engine compartment!!! I'm looking all over the place for a hose that had come unhooked or split open but see nothing. After letting the car cool I pour some water into the bottle (which was completely dry), and suddenly hear it dripping! I look under the car and it's nearly pouring out underneath as fast as I'm putting it in the bottle! Then I see a puddle of antifreeze in underneath the intake manifold resting nicely on top of the block in between the heads! I can't be sure but it looks like it's coming from the front of the engine (I call Keith and we're thinking something with the water pump or surrounding area, possibly damaged last week when the belt/pulley went nuts). I check all hoses I can see and everything looks fine with them. We start the engine up just for a few seconds and water is just spraying out the sides (the belt is throwing water all over the places), but still can't see where it's coming from. I finally get it towed to Keith's and we put it up on the lift. To my dismay, nothing is wrong with the hoses or even with the waterpump, instead it looks like the water is almost free flowing out from underneath the heads on the passenger side (Blown head gasket or worse)! Keith is going to verify that is the case this following week but from the short time we took a look I'm almost sure that is the case. Maybe the week before when the belt came off the engine could've overheated enough to cause enough pressure for the gasket to blow (it shot up quickly to nearly 250 degrees for about 30 seconds before I could get it off the road and shut down), or maybe just bad luck. When we took a look at the other side of the engine you can actually see were some leakage had occured from underneath the THAT head too (you could wipe down some discoloration that looked like it was coming from underneath the head with your finger, so it's pretty fresh). The engine has been sent to arrow before and had a rebuild for the head gasket problem thousands of miles ago (it's at 52,000 now, I'd say the rebuild was done anywhere between 25,000 - 30,000 but I don't have the documentation with me right now). Anyhow, looks like I've got some major problems, and to boot I have a warranty center that seems to have everything in order to make it as hard as possible for me to get this fixed.
So, this is my story... And this: is pretty much what you can expect from me for a while! My only comfort is that the help both the previous owner and my mechanic are outstanding, I don't know where I'd be without them!
Follow up soon...
Caution! Extreme rant proceeding!
1) Capital One Auto Finance
No hassle my ass! I was purchasing the Viper from a local owner (who is an awesome guy, btw). I looked for nearly two months before settling on this '94 RT/10 solid black beauty. Capital One Auto Finance had given me a loan to pay for part of the Viper. The previous owner also had a lien on the vehicle through Capital One as well (although not as big as I was loaning out). I figured it would be easier and quicker for the transfer to happen because all the money would be transferring in-house due to having the same lender. HELL NO! It was nearly a two month ordeal! After getting the run around from both Capital One customer service people as well as their managers we were stuck in limbo. I received my loan check and was given false information by a manager to make the loan check to the current owner of the Viper so he could cash the money and pay off his loan (then receive the title to give to me). After days upon days of calling to verify that things were proceeding normally we found out this was the incorrect way of doing things (even after verifying from a manager that we must do it this was since we both had the same lender), and then I had to get another loan check to make back out to Capital One (reference the previous owners account number and pay off his loan and then they'd send him any leftover money). After days of waiting after that we called back and found out that the loan check had been received but they just couldn't understand why I wrote the check right back to the lender!!! I told them I was told to make the check back out to Capital One and reference it to pay off the previous owners lien. They didn't really know how to handle it and even told me they lost the previous owners account number (it was referenced both on the check and included on a nice letter I sent the check with). A week later they had everything in order. I then asked how long it would take for the previous owner to receive a check for the leftover amount he is owed by Capital One after his lien was paid off by my loan check. Answer: 45-60 days!!! ***! How can business operate like this? In my business that I operate, if I decided to pay other businesses what I owed to them (either due to bill, reimbursement, etc), I'd be shut down in less than a week! Yet these assholes get to keep the money that is somebody else's for 45-60 days and collect interest! After calls upon calls a manager finally told me "Sorry but that's our policy and we're not gonna change it for anybody". The funny part was that by mistake they had sent ME the title to the car (they are supposed to keep it, or in the very least send it to the previous owner because he paid off his loan). I told one of the managers I had received the title and I may just consider the contract between Capital One and I dissolved (they hadn't live up to half of what I was entitled to in the contract), and get another loan from another lender (and leave them in a big bind in the process). The only response was "You are free to go get another loan from whoever you want". Very nice business praticeses. Anyhow, the previous owner received the check for the leftover money within 45 days then deposited it (another 10-20 days waiting time initiated by his bank for funds to clear) and I took receipt of the car nearly a full three months since the ordeal began (I made two payments on the loan before ever receiving the car).
2) Daimler Chrysler Warranty Center
The car still has an extended warranty available until 2007. Before selling me the car the previous owner had verified the warranty was transferable to another party ($50 fee) and had sent him the transfer papers. The week after taking receipt of the car I sent in the transfer papers along with the $50 check. The check was deposited. It's been about three months since that date and no warranty number. A week ago during a Sunday night my belt broke into shreds and also broke off a pulley. I called the warranty emergency number while being stranded on the side of the road. By looking up the VIN number they couldn't even pull up an extended warranty reference at all, not even with the previous owner (pretty much the lady told me that no information at all was available under that VIN number). She said I would have to call later in the week during normal business hours to the warranty department (a different department than the emergency warranty number) and make a claim to reimburse my expenses to have the car towed and then any labor/parts costs that are covered IF my warranty turns out to be valid. Anyway, instead of leaving the open RT/10 on the side of the road in rain I decided to have it towed to my Viper Tech (Keith Laxson of All Pro Automotive in Dallas, awesome guy!) at my cost and attempt to get reimbursement later when all this mess is sorted out. The following Monday I called warranty services and verified that the transfer papers had been received and the check cashed (but they said the warranty is still registered under the previous owners name). When I asked how long it takes to transfer the warranty they told me up to 30 days. After telling them it has been almost 90 days they had no answer for me other than call back later in the week! So I'm down a nice $130+ towing fee and maybe some warranty work costs (not sure if the pulley would be considered secondary damage or not). Not a big hit, but it's the principle that nobody has their [******] together that ****** me off! So I let Keith fix the car up and went ahead and had some maintenance done that I had been planning on doing. Got the car back late this past week and everythings awesome (besides the asses at warranty center)! But looks like the warranty center is gonna give me their best shot to give me the run around and hope I finally give up on getting my warranty transfered.
3) Life
I'm went to Fort Worth this weekend to visit my mother and when I left on Saturday to come back to Dallas smoke started coming out from under the hood! The smell of antifreeze was overwhelming. The car never overheated but was definetely on it's way. I quickly pulled back into my mom's place and shut the Viper down. Coolant had been sprayed all over my engine compartment!!! I'm looking all over the place for a hose that had come unhooked or split open but see nothing. After letting the car cool I pour some water into the bottle (which was completely dry), and suddenly hear it dripping! I look under the car and it's nearly pouring out underneath as fast as I'm putting it in the bottle! Then I see a puddle of antifreeze in underneath the intake manifold resting nicely on top of the block in between the heads! I can't be sure but it looks like it's coming from the front of the engine (I call Keith and we're thinking something with the water pump or surrounding area, possibly damaged last week when the belt/pulley went nuts). I check all hoses I can see and everything looks fine with them. We start the engine up just for a few seconds and water is just spraying out the sides (the belt is throwing water all over the places), but still can't see where it's coming from. I finally get it towed to Keith's and we put it up on the lift. To my dismay, nothing is wrong with the hoses or even with the waterpump, instead it looks like the water is almost free flowing out from underneath the heads on the passenger side (Blown head gasket or worse)! Keith is going to verify that is the case this following week but from the short time we took a look I'm almost sure that is the case. Maybe the week before when the belt came off the engine could've overheated enough to cause enough pressure for the gasket to blow (it shot up quickly to nearly 250 degrees for about 30 seconds before I could get it off the road and shut down), or maybe just bad luck. When we took a look at the other side of the engine you can actually see were some leakage had occured from underneath the THAT head too (you could wipe down some discoloration that looked like it was coming from underneath the head with your finger, so it's pretty fresh). The engine has been sent to arrow before and had a rebuild for the head gasket problem thousands of miles ago (it's at 52,000 now, I'd say the rebuild was done anywhere between 25,000 - 30,000 but I don't have the documentation with me right now). Anyhow, looks like I've got some major problems, and to boot I have a warranty center that seems to have everything in order to make it as hard as possible for me to get this fixed.
So, this is my story... And this: is pretty much what you can expect from me for a while! My only comfort is that the help both the previous owner and my mechanic are outstanding, I don't know where I'd be without them!
Follow up soon...
