Consumer complaint received 2020-11-23
Company: TMX Finance LLC
State: MO
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Title loan
Issue: Vehicle was repossessed or sold the vehicle

Complaint:
I am a consumer and I took out a loan with titlemax back in XX/XX/XXXX at the titlemax in XXXX XXXX. In XXXX I received a letter from the president of Titlemax XXXX XXXX stating that due to the pandemic to help out its customers they have stopped at involuntary collection of vehicles as well as additional fees if you were to fall behind. I explained to the general manager of the store starting in XXXX that my husband was furloughed and we were doing our best to make the payments and because the account was still occurring interest I was able to only Pay as much as I could. Last week around the beginning to middle of XXXX I was working with the general manager named XXXX XXXX. He stated that because the account was passed due it might have been in my better interest to either pay the account in full of XXXX or pay the passed due to XXXX. I explained that I got paid on weds XX/XX/XXXX and I would be calling to make that payment in full. Long story short he was fired and let go from titlemax and in the mean time I contracted XXXX XXXX. I was hospitalized and titlemax kept continuing to contact me but I was unable to call them back. I get out of the hospital this past Friday to find that they have repossessed my vehicle while I was out of state in Missouri where I now am residing. I was able to locate the vehicle with the company who resposesssd it and I found out that titlemax moves very quickly with the auction process and gives the consumers very little time to get the car back. With being closed on weekends and the upcoming holiday being right after I get paid it means I would have to drive to Illinois where they move the vehicle to ( the auction lot ) 2 days after picking it up and I would have to at the earliest get the vehicle on Monday the XXXX because the vehicle will be auctioned on XXXX. None the less as a consumer I thought I was protected, here I just spoke with the general manager, I have a letter saying that they are not repossessing and here I am sick. They put the driver at risk who picked up the vehicle because they exposed them to XXXX and here I am also without a vehicle and in more of a financial mess because I am having to fork out hundreds of dollars more just to get my car back and prevent it from being auctioned off. Consumers need to know and know that just because you get this email you are not protected. What you are told and what you rely on is not the truth and they are very shady. When contacting the company I was told they will not talk to me, when I mentioned an attorney they put a gag order on my account. Something needs to be done. When I contacted an attorney I was told this would fall under UDAP under a violation of the FTC. I was told by the store that they resumed repossession collections about a month and a half ago, yet they did not tell consumers nor did they give a right to cure letter or ever tell me Im at risk. This is very deceptive and it shows their intent but convincing consumers they have time and their protected so they fall behind and the company makes money by collecting their vehicles and making them pay outrageous amounts to get the vehicle back or they lose them. Something needs to be done and the public needs to know about this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation