Stevens Transport and thier loan: the truth!!! Be very careful

Well folks I am back as I promise. I wrote a blog about two months ago about the Stevens Transport loan and told you that I would get back to you as soon as I got the answers on the facts. Quick reminder: I went through the Stevens Academy about a year ago. I drove for them and logged quite a few miles. I was just about to sign onto their infamous Alliance Program and just got fed up with the bull. I got tired of the all of the deductions and making $175.00 per week so I quit and went to work for Schneider National. Awesome company, but that is another blog.

OK, fast forward to now. I drove for Schneider National until last month and got an offer to go back to Afghanistan for a year as a contractor. Schneider National said I had an excellent driving record, told me to go ahead and go and a job was waiting when I got back.

Well while I my way here to Washington DC, I got a call (12 October 2010 at 1410, while I was in TN.) from a law firm named Lockhart, Morris and Montgomery. (I thought about adding the actual Lawyers name, but let’s keep it non-personal). He immediately started attacking me saying "we are taking you to court, we can put a lean on ALL of your assets, and we can take your 401k, so on and so on". I am sure you got the point. After he finished I told him very respectfully, "Sir, this is the first I have heard of this law suit, I just terminated Stevens, and I would appreciate it if you would just talk to me with some sort of respect". He immediately started in again saying “you owe us $7400.00 and if you don't pay it immediately it will be in excess of $18,000 with all of the lawyer’s fees". By this point I have this guy on speaker phone and my wife is just amazed with his attitude. So when he was done with his second set of threats, I once again said very respectfully, "Sir, I am on my way to DC for a new job, am deploying to Afghanistan in January and once I get the money I will pay you back". He once again starts the heavy language and threat of how he could ruin me financially. Now it is important to note that I spend a lot of time making sure that my credit stays in good shape because my dream is to buy my wife a house when I get back from Afghanistan, so at this point my wife is really freaked out. (Keep in mind this is all on my I-Phones speaker). Finally I got this guy to ease off and to make a really long story short this is what he said" Look Mr. XXXXXX, I have a ton of files to settle for Stevens and really don't have a lot of time to deal with this, if you are willing to settle this loan for $3000.00 within ten days then we will consider this loan owed to Stevens Transport fully paid" I told him that I did not have the money. Believe it or not his exact words to me were" you don't have any family members with money that can help you out". Pretty rude right. I told him no. He told me well then try and get a loan or we will submit the paperwork on Thursday to the court and just financially ruin you. I asked him if I could call him back in a few days and he said I had until Thursday, and this was already Tuesday. I looked at my bills, decided not to pay them for a month and called him back. He stated that once I paid the $3000.00 that the law firm would send a letter to my house in Dallas, Texas stating the loan was paid in full. I gave him the account information and they drafted the $3000, 00 out on the 22nd of October 2010. Now like I said I keep up with mu credit pretty regularly, so today I was checking my credit reports and I found out that they reported me to Experian ( as still owing $4000,00 for a student loan), and as well they reported to Equifax as be a collection for a student loan. Both negative credit reports were injected on the 22nd of November 2010, a month after I paid them. I have the receipt from my bank for the $3000.00 drafted from my account and have sent all of the credit reporting agencies a dispute. I find it very coincidental that the report says I still owe $4000, 00 after paying $3000, 00 and the total was $7000, 00. What happened was once I paid the money that the lawyer asked for, he just simply reported $4000,00 to the agencies even after he said if I paid the $3000,00 the loan would be satisfied.

Bottom line: If you are thinking about dealing once ounce with Stevens Transport, please do your homework. Everything I have ever heard about MR. Arron was nothing but good. The old timers loved this guys and his ethics. But ever since his sorry two Sons and Daughter have taken over the company, it has just been run into the ground and all they want to to is make money at the expense of all of us hard working folks that need a job. All of the Instructors on the hill will tell you that ever since his Daughter took over the recruiting and financing department that the whole thing is a major scam. The company used to care about quality drivers, now all she wants is quantity. Bodies equal money. There is a big joke out there in the truck stops" the buzzard will always look for a drive through, because they can not back". Well this is a lot more factual than you think. If you need truck driver training try and use the state funded job training money. Most states have it. If not please try and either pay for a good school cash (it was $3500 in Dunn,NC) or figure out a way to get the money, but by all means stay as far away from the Stevens school as possible. It will ruin you life financially. We had 25 students in my class an ALL have quit. Do the math on how much Stevens made. I am not writing this because I am some ticked off guy that got his feelings hurt. I started driving because I love the job. I will return to it when I get back. I am writing this to hopefully help the next guy or gal, that gets roped into the hype these companies like Stevens Transport offer in a time of desperation. Stevens is not the only rip off (I use that term very lightly). There are other starter companies that pull the same crap. I can only speak to Stevens though. STAY AWAY. I know that Swift and some other companies were looking at aquiring them, and hopefully it happens. They need some real leadership.