Consumer complaint received 2022-11-14
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: FL
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:
Thank you for your attention to this matter. I am sorry to bore you with all the details. Please take what you need, leave out what you dont. I look forward to discussing it further. 

In RE : Ally Auto XXXX violations of FDCPA ; FCRA. 

MEMORANDUM OF CLAIM Summary : XXXX : I can support the assertions herein with documents and execute a detailed sworn affidavit. Some of the documents are attached. 

Note : This is not an auto-accident claim. 

The gist is simple. Because of Allys continuous and ongoing failure and refusal to collect a payment issued by the XXXX insurer for the balance on my auto loan, Ally has harassed me and provided negative credit reporting going on XXXX months now. I have spent multiple hours on the phone with Ally trying to resolve this matter, to no avail. Please see Exhibit B ( attachment to email ). 

Perhaps the best illustration is a XX/XX/XXXX letter from Ally Auto to the dealership, advising the dealer not to mail the Gap proceeds check to Ally. Exhibit A. Per the letter, Ally allegedly would debit the amount from the dealers account in a few days instead. Ally is still to debit the funds as they said they would in the letter! Instead, XXXX harassing me with collection calls and ruining my credit for several months now. 

Id like to take legal action against Ally, because all my good-faith attempts to resolve this very simple matter failed due to Allys awful business and operational practices and stonewalling. 

Specifically, I seek injunctive relief of Ally restoring my credit, at a minimum. Besides costs and attorney fees, damages for all the unnecessary and unjustified stress Allys caused me and my wife through their negligence and incompetence, would be more than fair. Also, punitive damages would be great in the public interest, BECAUSE, as indicated by XXXX XXXX out of XXXX rating and complaints on public websites, their predatory practices are hurting many members of the public, I am not the only XXXX. 

The underlying factual history of the claim is more fully detailed as follows : In XXXX, I refinanced a personal vehicle ( XXXX ) with Ally Auto XXXX ( creditor ). The vehicle was purchased from XXXX of XXXX XXXX ( dealer ). 

In addition to full auto insurance coverage, I purchased additional XXXX coverage through XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  covers the difference between the payment by the main insurer and the amount owed on the auto loan in the event of a total loss of the vehicle ). Exhibit C, attached to email. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, while driving the XXXX, I was involved in an auto accident in XXXX XXXX, Florida. 

As a result of the accident, an appraiser from the auto insurance company XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and its agent XXXX XXXX ) determined the XXXX to be a total loss ( meaning, instead of repairs, the insurer pays out the estimated value of the vehicle ). Exhibit D, insurers vehicle value estimate. 

I promptly notified the creditor, Ally Auto, of the accident and the insurance claim. This when I first encountered XXXX alarming incompetence in matters one would think routine with an auto finance company. To wit, Ally refused or failed to provide documentation/paperwork regarding the vehicle financing when I requested it for the insurer. Ally agent advised me they could not provide a copy of my loan agreement (??? ) It should be noted that throughout this ordeal, all the other parties involved ( primary insurer, car dealership, XXXX insurer ) worked more or less efficiently, competently, and timely ; the only problems were with Ally, and they were constant. 

In addition to the claim for the total loss accident with XXXX XXXX, I started a claim with XXXX XXXX XXXX for the XXXX  coverage. XXXX. B Then XXXX XXXX issued and mailed a check to Ally Auto for the total loss of the XXXX. This payment covered most of the amount still owed on the loan, leaving a balance of approx. {$800.00}. See Exh B for the approx. breakdown. 

To cover that difference is precisely XXXX XXXX of Gap insurance, and the Gap insurer did in XXXX of XXXX. 

The XXXX coverage was purchased through the dealer, as is customary. 

Accordingly, the XXXX insurance company, XXXX, issued a check/payment for approximately {$800.00} to cover the remainder of the auto loan balance. XXXX XXXX. 

The Gap insurer, XXXX, sent the above check to the dealer ; this is their procedure, I dont know why ; the dealer had no additional charges, and was going to forward the payment from Gap policy to Ally to cover the remaining balance on the auto loan. 

In XXXX of XXXX, I contacted the dealer and verified that they received the XXXX check to cover the amount still outstanding on the auto loan with Ally. However, the dealer advised that they would only forward it directly to Ally as the creditor and XXXX holder, and that I am to contact Ally to ensure that Ally collects the Gap payment from the dealer, and provide Ally with the dealer info, etc. According to the dealer, all Ally had to do was to call the dealer, and they would forward the payment to Ally. 

Meanwhile, all this time, I am calling Ally regarding these matters. Ally personnel, especially their international call centers, were inevitably clueless and self-contradicting and unable to help. Nobody at Ally knew anything about processing and crediting gap coverage or the specifics of my account in the aftermath of the total loss. I kept getting bounced from XXXX agent or department to another, phone tag, hold time of XXXX or more minutes. On some occasions I would end up speaking to XXXX different agents at Ally, where, after verifying all the information in grueling detail and hearing about my issue, they would forward my call to another agent, and the exact same drill would repeat over and over. I had to verify my address, vehicle info etc. several times on the same call and explain the history and the issue, only to be transferred to another clueless operator. Anyway, I wasted hours on the phone with Ally, just trying to get them to debit or collect the Gap coverage payment, or figure out how I could assist the creditor with getting these payoff funds sent to them! The incompetence was really mind-boggling. Usually, these transactions happen more or less automatically in the ordinary course of business ( insurer payment to the lender on an auto loan ). Not with Ally. 


Ultimately, I was told by Ally that the dealer had to contact them to forward the Gap insurance proceeds. The dealer contacted ally on XXXX occasions with that question, to no avail. 

In XXXX of XXXX, I spoke to a manager at the dealership again regarding this matter. She provided me with a copy of the letter from Ally, which expressly instructed the dealer not to forward the payment to Ally, and that Ally would debit the amount from the dealers account in a few days. Exhibit A, letter from Ally to dealer. 

Ally never debited the dealers account to this day. Instead, their collections department is contacting me regarding this amount all the time and reporting the account as past due. 

I made multiple calls to Ally regarding this, and again was confronted with total cluelessness, incompetence, endless forwarding, and inability to answer simple questions on the status of the gap payment. I was told often conflicting things, e.g., that the dealer/insurer had to send the check to Ally ( contrary to XXXX letter XXXX, or that they had to issue the check to me to send to Ally. This was extremely frustrating, again, because the matter boils down to creditor Ally arranging to receive the Gap insurance proceeds payment, which was already issued and waiting for Ally to accept and credit it. 

Collections activity by Ally : instead of simply collecting the Gap payment back in XX/XX/XXXX (! ), when it was issued, Ally continues to bombard me with calls and letters, demanding payment of that difference between auto loan balance and primary insurer pay out ( the gap ). XXXX scripted monkeys simply dont know anything about the Gap payment status or how and when it will be processed. Its like talking to a wall. 

XXXX example of XXXX cluelessness was when they sent me a letter in the summer of XXXX, threatening to repossess the XXXX (! ) The XXXX, of course, was totaled, towed away, and likely scrapped by insurance co. many months before, back in XXXX XXXX, the last time I saw it. Shows how accurate and coordinated XXXX operations are. 

MOST IMPORTANTLY, though Ally Auto wrongfully and recklessly ruined my credit rating with their reporting to credit bureaus. 

This, despite insurance companies timely issuing payments to cover the entire loan amount many months ago, and my many efforts to resolve this situation with Ally. Ally has now forwarded the account to collections. 

The incompetent, erroneous, and negligent handling of my loan pay off matter by Ally, has largely undermined my efforts to repair credit. 


The negative credit reporting by Ally has caused me to lose a significant amount of money due to inability to refinance my current vehicle at a more favorable rate. 

Moreover, my wife and I are expecting a baby in XX/XX/XXXX. We are not able to upgrade to a bigger vehicle from our tiny sedan because of my credit rating, which is largely due to the false and wrongful negative reporting by Ally in the course of the past XXXX months. 


Allys incessant collection calls in recent months have cause me a significant loss of time and productivity, as well as emotional distress to my pregnant wife. 

This despite my repeated diligent efforts since XXXX of XXXX (! ) to advise Ally of the payment from XXXX  insurer, which will settle the balance on the auto loan, if only Ally processes the payment. Which evidently, they fail to do because of completely wacky operations practices. 

As stated, I seek injunctive relief, attorney fees and costs, and ideally damages for this horrendous experience which has no reason other than Ally Autos astounding incompetence, delays, negligence, and stonewalling in handling my routine loan pay off matter. 

I can provide additional documentation for all the different aspects of this claim, per request. The ones Ive attached hopefully suffice for a preliminary review. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, FL XXXX ( XXXX ) 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 non-monetary relief