In late August of 2011 my car was repossessed by this company. The gentlemen came to the house while I was with a friend who was checking the tires on the car. I received a call from the person watching my child that 2 men had showed up looking for the car. They demanded that the car be returned within 15 minutes or they were going to go to the sheriff's office and report the car stolen. While my friend was on the phone with me the gentleman asked to speak to me. He informed that if I did not comply with his demand he was going to ""take papers to the sheriff's office"" to report the car stolen. I would then be charged with possessing a stolen vehicle which he wanted to make sure I understood was a felony. What happened next was what I took the biggest issue with. While my 6 year old child was standing there, the man proceeded to tell me that if he had to go to the sheriff's office he would then call Child Protective Services and have my child taken away from me because I would be arrested. I knew that what he was saying was crap. However, that did not negate the fact that what he said was an empty threat, and that was overheard by my child. When I called his bluff on the phone and told him I knew the law he did not apologize, nor did his supervisor when I went to pick up my car. The supervisor barely even acknowledged my issue. What this employee did was unethical not to mention illegal. And the fact that neither apologized is unacceptable. When the company responded they only addressed their right to threaten me with a felony charge siting an Illinois statute. I am aware of what the laws are and of the statute 720 ILCS 5/16H-35 (2008). I was not trying to withhold a car. I was bringing it back. I informed the gentleman that it was going to take longer than 10-15 minutes to return the car. At that time he threatened to called Child Protective Services and have my child taken away because he would be filling felony charges against me. For charges to be brought the sheriff?s office would have to verify that I had indeed withheld the car, which they would have seen I was not. The respondent for Precision did not address the one detail I took the greatest issue with. He has shown no statute or grounds for threatening my child IN FRONT OF MY CHILD. That is not within his legal right to do. Just because you are a repo company does not mean you can spout off any threat you wish. You may not be in the business of making people happy but you also have laws you must work within when you conduct business. I believe Precision stepped outside of those laws the night they repossessed my car. My issue is not with them taking the car but the manner in which they did it, specifically making empty threats more than once regarding calling CPS and having my child removed from my custody. A simple apology would have sufficed, but was not forthcoming. That is why I chose to file a formal complaint with the Better Business Bureau. This was also what the lender instructed me to do. This is about principal and about a company learning how to conduct business ethically.
more