Consumer complaint received 2023-11-27
Company: SANTANDER HOLDINGS USA, INC.
State: MD
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Unable to receive car title or other problem after the loan is paid off

Complaint:
Prior to me sending this email I spoke to several representatives over the past year XXXX trying to get this issue resolved ; Santander Consumer has been paid off for over a year now. Initially I tried to refinance over a year ago but during the process Santander Consumer lost the title and the other lender was never able to record a lien on my vehicle both myself and the other lender has tried to reach out and get assistance from Santander but they continued to give the run around for over a year causing the other lender to come after me financially and ruin my credit by placing additional insurances on my original loan payment for having no lien ( my payments went from {$200.00} a month to over $ XXXX a month ( no easy I could afford that ) taking my credit score from XXXX to XXXX in just a few short months because my regular monthly payments were not satisfying the new full payment. I continued to try and reach out to Santander spoke to some managers but nothing discussed was ever done. I had to reach out to legal counsel to see my options, finally after all exhausted attempts to contact Contact Santander, the other lender changed off my loan and made out arrangements for the remaining balance to be paid to them as a unsecured loan. I have requested multiple times for a lien release letter from Santander so that I can sell back the vehicle and repay the other lender who now has no interest in my vehicle I have a regular unsecured loan with them now which I make monthly payments on. on XX/XX/XXXX I was told by a agent and a manager from Santander that they would send me a lien release letter within 7 days, but I never received it, so I reached back out to them and it was escalated to XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ) and weeks later when she finally reached out to me she agreed to also send me a lien release letter but I the document was unusable when I took it to the XXXX I then reached back out to XXXX XXXX with the following email. 

Good morning XXXX XXXX, I am reaching out to you in regards to a lien release letter request that you and several other individuals in your staff received during the course of the past three weeks ; This initial issue occurred almost two years ago now. Myself, my spouse, and also several managers from my past lien holder ( XXXX XXXX  ) have tried erroneously to reach someone of authority to resolve the issue created by SANTANDER. CONSUMER USA negligence. As we discussed on XX/XX/XXXX, I need a lien release letter for my vehicle in which was paid off over a year ago ; Santander lost the title and never sent it to the correct po box for the then lien holder. The credit union and I along with several managers and complaint letters have tried to get this document but were unsuccessful for several years until finally XXXXXXXX XXXX went after me this caused me to retain a consumer protection attorney due to this entire issue being Santanders fault. Because XXXX was never able to record any liens on my vehicle they released me from the then loan contract and settled with me outside of in mediation with my attorneys. I will be going after Santander for credit damages, and for the pain suffering this has caused myself and my family. When we last spoke XXXX XXXX, even you expressed how sorry you were for this entire experience and inconvenience after hearing a portion of the journey I have had dealing with Santander. I was transferred to you because I was told # 3 weeks ago that I would be provided a lien release letter via US Postal Service but that was never sent either, so in a effort to help the situation you sent me via email what was supposed to be a lein release letter however, it was just a copy of some unofficial document that was typed up a year ago??? So I went to speak to a manager at the MVA/DMV and after explaining all of this to theMotor Vehicle Administrationand presenting them with the document that you provided me with ( see your attached document ) ; the supervisor at the MVA suggested that I file a formal complaint with the Department of Transportation in the central liens department to have this investigated for multiple reasons, she also stated that they have nothing but title issues ALL the time with your company and its ALWAYS yalls fault in most cases, which I was already aware of because I researched all of the complaints, and lawsuits against your company. The MVA manager said that these are the reasons you are out of compliance and I should file the complaint. 
1. You have given me this document that is not a lien release letter because somewhere in the verbiage it should state that Santander no longer has any security interest in this vehicle in which this is not stated anywhere ; 2. The document you provided me with is dated XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with you on XX/XX/XXXX and that is the day I received this document from you and that is what the date should reflect ; as you being the professional should already know that the MVA can NOT take stale dated documents ; but you provided me with a year old document ; 3. There are NO Signatures or any agent names on the lien release document you provided me with and MVA will NOT accept any unsigned documents ; especially with no Name at all 4. A cover sheet needs to be provided with ALL lien release letters/ correspondences. I was advised by the MVA Manager that you Santander should already know all of this and that what you provided me with was not only unacceptable and looks fraudulent, but it was also very unprofessionally drawn up ; the MVA manager said if your company deals with liens then you should have already known not to give me a document like this to take to the MVA, in which I took off from work to get this done and I got no where, so once again Santander has completely wasted my time and we are so far past a inconvenience at this point I already disclosed to you that I plan to have my attorney file a lawsuit against Santander Consumer USA that is a given, but in addition to that I am also sending several copies of this email chain and attachment along with my complaint letter to your corporate offices, XXXX XXXX, US Department of Transportation, and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - my wife is a high level federal government worker with a lot of connections, she along with my attorney XXXX XXXX XXXX ; will be assisting me with the filing of these complaints. What I would like to have from you if you are still able to assist is the following ; the manager from MVA said she will need you to forward a corrected/updated version of the attached lien letter to the below fax number, please include a cover letter, a name and signature, the vehicle information **PLEASE REMOVE the verbiage subject to final reconciliation and accounting- there is no need for this statement because Santander has been paid off in full for over a year, there will be no further reconciliation. Please make the necessary corrections and fax the document XXXX ( Motor vehicle administration lien department ) **Please if you are not able to assist me then I am asking you to escalate this to the HIGHEST LEVEL OF AUTHORITY POSSIBLE! Please feel free to contact me via email or XXXX your earliest convenience as this is a pressing and urgent matter. Thank you so much for your time.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation