Dealership’s Calls Continued After Plaintiff Withdrew Consent, Says TCPA Suit
DriveTime Car Sales, an automobile dealership and finance company that caters to customers with poor credit records, inundated plaintiff Keesha Willis’ cellphone with solicitations after she was approved for a car purchase “with zero balance due,” but then informed the…
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dealership she wasn’t going to move forward with the transaction, alleged her Telephone Consumer Protection Act complaint Friday (docket 1:23-cv-16094) in U.S. District Court for Northern Illinois in Chicago. Due to the “harassing and pervasive nature” of the phone calls, Willis demanded that DriveTime cease placing the calls, but it “disregarded” her multiple demands, said the complaint, which also alleges violations of the Illinois Consumer Fraud and Deceptive Business Practices Act. Willis has suffered “concrete harm” as a result of DriveTime’s actions, including invasion of her privacy and “aggravation” that accompanies unwanted phone solicitations, plus emotional distress and numerous violations “of her state and federally protected interests” to be free from DriveTime’s “harassing and abusive” conduct, it said. DriveTime’s use of prerecorded messages “brings its conduct within the ambit of the TCPA,” said her complaint. DriveTime continued placing phone calls to Willis’ cellphone “despite lacking the consent to make such calls,” as that consent was “withdrawn” through her conversations with the defendant, it said.