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CB Car Dealers America's Choice Cars and Credit 981 North Church Street, Hazleton, PA, 18201, US
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America's Choice Cars and Credit
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America's Choice Cars and Credit company logo

America's Choice Cars and Credit

981 North Church Street, Hazleton, PA, 18201, US
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2:08 pm EDT
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The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.

America's Choice Cars and Credit - bad business, customer is always wrong

My husband and I bought a 98 white Chevy Lumina from America's Choice in December 2007. On Feb 13, 2008, I was hit head-on in an accident. America's Choice (AC) people put us into a new vehicle, a 98 maroon Lumina. I was barely out of the hospital after reconstructive surgery on my leg and ankle. AC allowed my husband to forge my name onto the documents without my knowledge, consent, or power of attorney.
Strike one.

The maroon Lumina was in disrepair from the start. The driver's side power window only worked when it felt like it and the gas gauge NEVER worked, from the moment it was driven off the lot. On the day of the sale finalizing, my husband told AC's then-manager Connie that the gas gauge wasn't working. We were told within a few weeks that fixing it would "cost too much" at $425, so they weren't going to fix it. It also had overeating issues intermittently.
Strike two.

At the end of May 2008, the car was mysteriously not turning on, occasionally and without reason. It had an antifreeze leak, and an oil drip, and the air conditioner never worked. We returned AGAIN to America's Choice for some help in fixing this piece of junk. They took the car for 5 days, said it was fixed, and we picked it up on June 7. On June 8th, we were driving towards the Jim Thorpe area for the funeral of a family friend. Since the air conditioner still did not work, we pulled over at a gas station to get some water and cool off. When we got back in, the car wouldn't start! I immediately took the cell phone and left a scathing voicemail for the new manager, Autumn, who took over when Connie was fired (allegedly for stealing).

We eventually got it running, got to the funeral LATE, and then made it home. My husband realized that although they had kept the car for 5 days, nothing was done to it and it still had all the same problems. We fixed the antifreeze leak ourselves, but then the driver's side window stopped going back up (real fun in the rain). We were told that any repairs they did would be added to the balance of the loan, even though we were also suckered into paying $35 a month for the Penn Warranty plan, which was supposed to cover repairs.
Strike three.

Throughout this whole mess, we've been timely with almost every payment, but that doesn't stop AC from calling us late on Friday afternoons, and again Saturday morning, if we haven't gotten there yet. They're very on top of things when it comes to getting payments, but nowhere to be found when their clunkers need fixing.
Last week, (July 5, 2009), with $2500 still left on the balance, I called Autumn and told her she can repo the car - we don't want it anymore. I was told that we are still under contract and still responsible for payments. I said, "I don't think so, I never signed anything."
Autumn didn't want to go there, so she said they would just come get the car, and then she hung up on me.

She called back within a few moments, but I didn't answer. She called back again, and I spoke to her. She gave some lip service about us being good customers and offered to let us trade the car in for something new. She also said they would wipe the balance clean, no down payment, and would try to reduce our weekly payments to $70.

We went to the lot on Friday, picked out a 99 Buick Century, and filled out a new application, which we dropped off on Monday. On Tuesday, we were informed that the "loan company" (which from what I understand is a subsidiary of America's Choice itself!) decided that our payments would be INCREASED to $85/week, supposedly under the premise that lower payments would take us too far over the "two year limit" which would incur more interest, implying they were trying to save us money. HA! Then she added that they would also be adding $800 onto the new loan balance for minor damage to the driver's side hood (a little dent that could be fixed in minutes), for a grand total of $9400 - for a car worth $3500 (the Buick).
Strike four.

We didn't bite. My husband and I decided to just keep the car we have and finish paying it off. Last week we obtained a printout of all of our payments, so I started running the numbers. The total payments we've made of $7020, is different than the total they show of $6820. I added up the payments on the printout THEY gave me, but got a different total! In addition, even though the interest is compiled annually at a straight 9.9%, the few times we postponed a payment, more interest was tacked onto our balance. So that means we paid interest for those weeks TWICE, and there's a $200 difference between the amount we've actually paid and the amount they say we paid, from their OWN documentation. Apparently, their computers cannot add.
Strike five.

When speaking with Autumn last week, she said she was a customer of America's Choice before she worked there. She relayed a story about her own car she bought there that had lots of issues, that she had brought it in for several days, but it was never fixed. She told us that they don't use the same garage anymore, and that when she started working there, she looked up her own name in the computer to find out that her car was never sent out. (Sounds familiar.)
Strike six.

Since we bought another car outright this past spring in a private sale, we've now decided that America's Choice can come get their junk car, and we'll be making no more payments. I'm also in the process of filing a complaint with the Better Business Bureau, and will be discussing with my attorney any further options we may have.

I will never, ever, ever purchase another vehicle from these schmoozy liars.

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michele gould
, US
Mar 27, 2022 4:12 pm EDT

We had purchased 2 vehicles from americas choice few years back & paid off both, never had any major issues just few minor issues with their service. Even sent FIVE people who bought cars from them on our referral. Drove by lot in Berwick on Jan 14, 2022 & saw car I liked so we purchased it. Have had car 7 weeks & it has been horrible since day 1! Got in car to go for a chemo treatment & car wouldnt start. Why? They shut it off even though we had set up auto payments. We were told they shut it off due to not paying. THEN they call back and say, oh our bad the girl doing your paperwork screwed up so we will turn car back on. No apology, was told me missing chemo wasnt their problem. The right rear tire has not held air since picked up car, week after spending $12,000 on it we had to replace the tire. I called them twice and just hot attitude & rudeness. On Fri Mar 24 again, get in car to go for chemo & car wont start. They tell us nobody van come get car til Mon and again heard not their problem I missed ANOTHER chemo appt due to their business & vehicle quality. At 4:00 that afternoon the rudest tow driver in the world shows up and informs me I "need to get my [censored] out of that car if I want the [censored]". Before could get out to clean out car, he loads it & leaves with my parking pass for hospital in Hershey, grandchilds carseat and a bag of my medicine I had picked up at cvs the previous day. So now I have gone 2 days without my cancer meds & was told I have to wait til Mon to even find out where the damn car was taken! Paper on window of car stated they have 2 yr warranty for parts & labor. Oh no they dont is what we are told now. So bottom line, I told numerous people to do business with them and now I will be sure to tell people under no circumstance buy a car from them. Im going to be out $12,000, miss cancer treatments, and dont even have the piece of junk at the moment. Dont know what happened at Americas Choice but their quality of vehicles & customer service have done a complete flip. Going from reputable with decent vehicles to now all I hear from others & what my experience has been in past 2 months is they are nothing but crooks who band-aid cars & lie to people just to get cars off their lot. Do not go to this business to purchase a car because what they will tell you will not match how they actually operate.

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tazdevil34us
Danville, US
Dec 14, 2011 2:43 am EST

If there was zero stars I would give them that. this company is a joke I will never get another vehicle from them again.
I got a vehicle from this place 2 years ago financed it through them it was like $6000.00 something I have paid faithfully for those past 2 years the vehicle balance is $100.00 dollars now it says in your contract that if you leave state that you must inform them so they know. I went in on 12/1/11 and paid $210.00 and told them we were going to ohio to see family we told them we would be in the following friday after we got back we were out there a week that they knew about we came home sunday and that up coming friday was when we were to make the payment but we didn't have a chance to because the day we got back they repossed the vehicle saing some how we owe them $40.00. i'm like ok so insted of telling me or leaving me a message on my answering machine they just take it over $40.00 when they knew I would be in that friday what the hell? my daughter's car seat is in there that I need that to go to make a payment. my sons boyscout fundraising popcorn was in there to be delivered. so I had to pay $120.00 today 12/13/11 to get my car back that shoulden't have been repossed and even with that payment my balance is $285.00 because they tacked on a $200.00 repo fee because of a clerical error of not putting in a note to the finance company that we were on vacation seeing family. and technicly it was only $65 left on the car because before this issue I refered a friend (regretting now) and for every friend I refered I got a $50.00 credit but they give me some crap about they have to send a check from their main office to their berwick branch which is the branch I use but the friend got his car from the berwick branch too so I don't understand why they just credit the $50 dollars to my account there to put it towards the balance but they told me they can't untill they get the check. I think that is a bunch of crap why do I have to wait for them as a company to send money to themselves? besides if they did do that it would have taken care of whatever there $40 dollar mystery fee is that I was late plus $10.00.

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