Consumer complaint received 2022-07-24
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: IL
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2020, my vehicle was repossessed by XXXX XXXX, for Ally Financial. The repossession agent with XXXX XXXX unlawfully repossessed my vehicle by breaching the peach when they damaged my vehicle and towed my vehicle from my private property that was secured. When I learned of the repossession that morning after seeing that they entered my secured property, I reached out to Ally Financial to learn why. The company had never sent me any notice for potential repossession, and I wasn't that far behind on payments. The agents in the auto department refused to speak with me about the matter and directed me to their repossession department. Every time I called the repossession department, I was either on hold for several hours or they would disconnect the call on their end. After about 7 days of constant calling back in forth to recover my car, I finally spoke to someone. The agent refused to give me their names, but stated that in order to get my car, I would need to wire transfer the past balance. They would not accept online or certified funds. The agent gave me the account number to make the payment and I wired transferred the money as soon as they gave me the information. I called the following day to get the information for my car location, and the agents alleged that they never received the payment and that they could not release the location or phone number of the vehicle. I went back to the XXXX XXXX and resent another payment. The repossession department had kept me on hold for about 2.5 hours before they gave me the location of my vehicle. 

Upon arriving to the location of the car storage area that my vehicle was stored, I spoke with their office about my car and gave all the required identification and information given by the repossession department with Ally. They were very hostile during the process. They attempted to withhold my vehicle because I expressed I didn't feel comfortable signing their required forms for redemption prior to inspecting my car. The agent eventually allowed me to inspect my vehicle before asking for my signature. 

When the agents working in the lot finally brought my car to the entrance, I noticed that my car had been damaged and many of my personal property items were bagged and placed in my trunk. Additionally, my original car key fob did not work on my vehicle anymore. The car fob that the worker gave to me was old, damaged and not my original. Additionally, my car horn had been disabled, and the dashboard had said that my anti-theft system was disabled. The agent then attempted to reprogram new keys. I went back into the office and told them I was not signing the documents asking me to release the company from liability for property damage because they had. 

Later, I called Ally to tell them that my car had been damaged and they told me that it was nothing they could do about it. Eventually they gave me an email to escalate the situation. On XX/XX/2020, a representative from the XXXX XXXX department with Ally reached out and forwarded my complaint to XXXX. XXXX told me to take my car to a dealership and pay for the inspection and if that was the issue, they would reimburse me. However, I didnt not have the money to pay for a inspection and get reimburse later. The issue was never resolved. Additionally, I had a XXXX XXXX, XXXX and XXXX XXXX  my car the night it was repossessed, and they were not in the bags that was in my trunk when I went through it. The company never responded to my inquiry about retrieving those items. Since then, Ally placed a fee on my account, that has caused me to accumulate many late fees. When I inquired about the late charges between XXXX, an agent finally communicated that I was getting late fees because I had not pay the repossession fee. So all payments I made for my car payment, did not go to my car payment, but to the Miscellaneous charges. This has caused me to have a very negative credit history, despite making timely payments most months. Eventually, the late charges accumulation made it difficult to keep up with payments, and I have a very negative credit history because of these actions.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation