Consumer complaint received 2022-02-16
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: MA
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:
Here is the copy of the complaint letter I sent Ally Financial. It contains the details of my vehicle repossession. The letter does not contain the conclusion, which happened yesterday. It involved me being harassed, sweared at, and intimidated by the two large men at the tow company where I collected my vehicle. That incident left me shaking so badly that I could not drive my car home and had to sit on the side of the road in 20 degree weather until I regained control. 
I have called the company many times, emailed them, contacted them through social media. I have only received direction to send them the letter pasted below. That's it. 


XX/XX/XXXX Ally Financial Complaint Department XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, MN XXXX RE : Account XXXX Dear Sir/Madam, On the afternoon of Saturday, XX/XX/XXXX, my family, and I experienced a devastating and humiliating act of having our XXXX XXXX XXXX repossessed publicly in front of several friends and family. The event was traumatic for my children and humiliated us in front of people that we will live with and see during our everyday life. This event has affected us beyond that day. 
The reason for this letter is because the event that was ordered by Ally Financial was not necessary. I have spent the last three days speaking with representatives at Ally to figure out why this happened. 
Here is what I discovered : 1. There appears to have been a lapse in payment around the time Ally purchased our loan. This was not communicated to us. We have paid the monthly fee requested but did not recognize that there was any issue with the payments we were consistently making. 
2. There was no phone call nor was there a noticed mailed as required by Massachusetts law ( Ref Massachusetts Motor Vehicle Sales Act ). An Ally representative with access to my account verbally told me that an attempt had been made to an old number, but the secondary number was not called. And she confirmed no warning notice was ever mailed. 
XXXX. Upon review of past statements, the amount due is confusing. There are several amount totals on the statement. There was no intention of not paying the Ally loan. Regular payments have been made over the year of our agreement. 
Ally Financial did not communicate or attempt to follow the Massachusetts Motor Vehicle Sales act to address the issues with our account status. 
Additionally, the process for getting my car back is still unresolved as I write this letter. Here is the process of recovering my unjustly-confiscated vehicle : 1. Once the Ally repossession office opened Monday morning, I quickly called and settled the payment. Settling the payment took 2 hours because Ally would not take a debit card or let me pay through the Ally website. I had to go to a XXXX and use the same debit card to generate a moneygraham which incurred an {$8.00} fee. 
2. After confirming the payment had been received and waiting for a representative ( 3rd representative I spoke to on XX/XX/XXXX ) I was given a phone number for XXXX XXXX XXXX. I called that number and received no answer. I called a second time and got a dial directory that sent me to a call back request. I called Ally back for assistance and they told me to just wait in the line. I did this a few more times. 
3. When I reached a repo office representative on the phone number provided, she answered with a different company name than XXXX XXXX. Still, she was able to locate my account, but told me that no approval for release was received. I called Ally back ( 5th Ally representative of the day ) and requested help communicating with the repossession company main office in Tennessee. I was not provided with communication assistance, but the Ally representative resubmitted my release approval document. 
6. I made a 3rd call to the company XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX not sure what the real company is called ). They were able to locate my release document from Ally and provide me with the name of the contractor that towed my car 2 days earlier. They gave me the company name XXXX and a phone number of XXXX. 
7. I called the phone number provided. It was not a working number. I did a web search for the company and the phone number. The first result was snarerecovery.com. On their website the phone number was listed as XXXX, not XXXX. I called this number and spoke to a man who did not identify himself. He told me to go to the XXXX XXXXebsite and schedule an appointment. I hung up and took the first appointment which was for the following day, XX/XX/XXXX at noon. 
8. I received a text confirmation for the appointment time, but no location. I called XXXX back at XXXX. The same man answered, and I explained I was the one just called and that I had created an appointment for tomorrow but received no information of where that appointment was to be. The man said that I should have gotten an email, not a text message and to just wait for the email. 
9. After waiting for a couple hours, I called Ally back again to ask for assistance with getting the location of my vehicle. I wanted to no this in order to determine if I needed to take another day off of work to drive there or if it was closer to me. The ally representative ( 6th Ally representative ) and he said he called the number listed in their system and got no answer. I confirmed with the representative that he had the wrong number for XXXX and provided him with the correct number. He put me on hold again while he called the new number. After about 2 minutes I was disconnected. I waited 20 minutes and no attempt was made to call me back. So, I called Ally again. 
XXXX. During this 7th call to Ally in one day, I began to fill out a complaint online with the MA attorney generals office over this matter. I asked the Ally representative to call the XXXX number XXXX to confirm that the needed documents were received and to confirm the location of my appointment. 
The Ally representative would not assist me with calling XXXX. She told me that someone from XXXX has to let me know where to go. They dont want people coming early to their appointments. At that point, I gave up seeking assistance and requested contact for sending a formal complaint to Ally. The representative gave me the main XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, MN XXXX. 

I still do not know the location of my car and Ally is not willing or able assisting me. 


I am requesting : 1. To be reimbursed for the {$400.00} impound/towing fee or to have that amount applied to my loan. 
2. To be reimbursed for the {$8.00} moneygraham fee or to have that amount applied to my loan.

3. A lower APR rate on the remaining balance of my loan. The current rate is 12.04 % 4. I was advised that there could be additional charges sent to me over the next 45 days such as key replicating charges. Since the tow driver didnt ask for my key, this could be possible. I would like to be reimbursed for any expenses such as this that may come between now and when we resolve this conflict.

I believe that this is a fair request given the unjust action that was taken against my family. 

I can be reached at : Phone : XXXX Mail : XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, MA XXXX Email : XXXX This communication has been sent via registered mail. I am requesting a response within 21 days of receipt. If a response is not made or if the response does not address the damages I have suffered ( listed above ) I will proceed with filing a formal complaint through my attorney. 
I do hope that we can resolve this out of a court setting and that Ally Financial can improve its communication and customer support practices. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX Ally Account # XXXX CC : XXXX XXXX XXXX of the Attorney General XXXX XXXX XXXX Fl XXXX XXXX, MA XXXX

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