Gene Alvarez

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Gene Alvarez
Research VP
11 years at Gartner
28 years IT industry

Gene Alvarez is a VP in the Gartner CRM Research organization. Mr. Alvarez has more than 23 years of IT experience in business impact assessment, vendor management, project management, software development and delivery of complex...Read Full Bio

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Finding someone to talk to after a merger

by Gene Alvarez  |  November 12, 2008  |  1 Comment

Well I had written about my adventures of using the CT DMV site to guide me through registering a vehicle so when I went to register the second vehicle I had fewer problems with the DMV and some new ones with a bank.

I had paid off my motorcycle in 2000 however my old NY state title showed a lien, so when I went to DVM and showed the title with a lien from one defunct bank and a letter of loan satisfaction from yet another defunct bank the DVM said I would need a letter of merger stating all of these banks were one in the same to complete the registration.

Well, I first needed to find out who owned the second defunct bank. Subsequently, I googled my way to that answer then I called that bank and after pushing buttons and speaking a bunch of information I got to a person who looked for my information and could not find it.

So as a good agent they transferred me to the auto department to see if they had more information. However, after redoing all the answers to get to a person that person said they were not the auto department and then transferred me to a dead phone line.

Consequently, I went back to the web and searched the site for first defunct branch address that was on the title and luckily it was still a working branch of the new bank, then I found the automotive loan 800 number and called and got to a person who was able to send me the letter I needed.

But this time the web saved me from more transfers to nowhere and found who I had to deal with phone number.

I guess we’ll be seeing more of this, due to all the bank takeovers. So hold onto that paper work – you never know when you’ll need an address to link it all together.

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  • 1 Neil Raden   December 3, 2008 at 1:01 pm

    Gene,

    That’s a crazy story. I have one too. When I moved to California from New York in ’88, I had to transfer the title of a car because California law requires re-registering the car within 10 days. I called the bank (MidLantic, also now defunct) and asked to do that. They declined as it was a new car with a 3- or 4-year loan on it, and suggested I pay off the loan instead. I didn’t see an alternative, so I did and they sent me the New Jersey title with a stamp “Lien Released”

    Fast forward 20 years and a collection agency just sent me a bill for almost $80,000 for the unpaid balance and interest for their client, a bank I never heard of.

    So now I have to go back and try to retrieve a copy of the canceled cashier’s check (also drawn on a defunct bank – Security Pacific) or see if California still has the original NJ title with the lien removed stamp.

    Anyway, how are you doing? We haven’t spoken in ages.

    -NR
    twitter: nraden