LITHIA SPRINGS, Ga. — Following the abrupt closure of U.S. Auto Sales locations throughout the Southeast, employees are left wondering how they will be able to support their families and pay their bills.
The Lawrenceville-based car dealer operates 39 locations across the region. But just days later, customers and employees are still left searching for answers.
“I busted out on Monday with two cars already sold, one on layaway, and I'm like okay, this is gonna be a good week,” said Te’ona Bol, an employee at U.S. Auto Sales.
But little did she know she was about to be in for a big surprise.
“I got an email saying clock out immediately. All locations are going to be currently closed and I didn't have any answers. I was just told to clock out and leave,” added Bol, as she described being told about the U.S. Auto Sales location where she works being shut down indefinitely, leaving her and her workers in limbo.
“We didn’t get told anything pertaining to payment or severance package or anything like that so now I'm wondering, you know, for the next steps, how am I gonna handle these bills because I have a car note, I pay rent, all of that. So it's pretty upsetting,” said Jullian Woodard, another employee who also said the writing was on the wall.
“I kind of saw the trajectory of the company a little bit. They started laying people off around March if I’m not mistaken, so when I saw that I was like this might be a problem,” Woodard explained.
In addition to the layoffs, Woodard said U.S. Auto Sales began offering incentives to help increase sales, so 11Alive took that information and tried to get answers. But our calls to corporate wouldn’t go through and when we went to one of the closed locations, the one person inside wouldn’t answer the door and instead walked away from the windows so we couldn’t see him.
But in an email to employees, the CEO of U.S. Auto Sales wrote they are "working around the clock" to resume business.
The letter states that while they have made progress, an agreement with shareholders to reopen has not been met. So, operations remain suspended until further notice.
In the meantime, both employees say their lives have been turned upside down.
“I would say if anyone else is hiring or reaching out, definitely we would appreciate it a lot because it is, I mean, it blindsided us. We have no idea what's going on as of right now,” Woodard said.
For Bol, being out of a job right now means not being able to provide for her family.
“I'm a single mother so without a job I can't provide for my son,” Bol added.
The CEO's email also stated their related loan servicing company will continue to work with all current account holders and be available to service customers and their accounts.