Consumer complaint received 2019-08-08
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: Problem with paying off the loan

Complaint:
I originally had a vehicle loan through Ally. On XX/XX/2019 I was approved to refinance the loan through XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I contacted Ally and asked for the Payoff amount. They gave me the amount of {$14000.00} and said that amount would be good until XX/XX/2019. I asked if they would notate my account that I would be mailing them a check to pay off the loan. They said they notated it. I put the check in the mail on the same day, Wednesday, XX/XX/2019. Monday XX/XX/XXXX I called Ally and spoke with a Manager by the name of XXXX. He said they had not yet received the check and to keep checking my online account for it to post and call back in a few days. He said he did not see any notes in my account but would notate the account himself, that there was a check in the mail. Friday XXXX I called and was not able to speak to XXXX again and was told they had not received the check. I waited a few more days. On Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX I called Ally and was told XXXX wasn't available. So, I requested another Manager. I was told there was not a Manager available,  they were busy and one would give me a call back. I explained the situation to the United States Rep on the phone. I told her I was worried about getting any type of fees because they hadn't received the check yet. She assured me that if there were any fees assessed they would be waived and adjusted once they received the check. She also said she didn't see where there were any notes in my account but that she would write some and claimed she was writing them while we were on the phone. She promised a Manager would call me back shortly. I never got a call back. Monday XX/XX/XXXX I called Ally again. I talked to a Manager by the name of XXXX. He told me that they had not received a check, that a late fee and daily finance fees had been added to my account balance and that even if they received the check they could not accept it if it did not include an additional amount now due of {$220.00}, to cover the additional charges. I explained how I was told any fees would be waived and it doesn't make sense how they don't have the check nor, has it been returned to me. He told me Ally was not at fault here and if I wanted to pay off the loan it had to be paid in full, including the new charges. I ended the phone call and went in to XXXX XXXX to see if they could help in any way. XXXX XXXX was shocked by the behaviors of Ally and was very apologetic there was not much they could do to help, other than, completely redo the loan, cancel the 1st check and write another check. I didn't want to take another hit to our credit. Reworking the loan required another application being ran with a credit inquiry. So I left and decided to wait a few more days. Around XXXX XXXX   on XX/XX/2019, I received an automated call from Ally asking for the past due payment. The next morning XX/XX/19, I went back in to XXXX XXXX. I had them cancel the missing 1st check and write a new check with the same, original payoff amount. The Manager of the Bank offered to overnight the check through XXXX XXXX. I called Ally and confirmed the address. The 2nd check was sent through XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/19. It was received and signed for by an Ally employee in the payment processing center on Friday, XX/XX/19 at XXXX XXXX. This info I confirmed using the tracking # on the XXXX XXXX website. I called Ally and spoke to a Manager named XXXX. I explained the whole situation and told her I know for a fact they had received the 2nd check. She said she was going to track down the check and call me back. Nobody called me back and per my online account nothing had posted. I waited for a few more days. On Wednesday XX/XX/19 I received a letter from Ally and the 1st check. The letter was dated XX/XX/19, the envelope was postmarked on XX/XX/19 and I received it on XX/XX/19. The letter said the check was not correctly endorsed so they could not accept it. I took the check to XXXX XXXX and they said it was correctly and fully endorsed, there was no reason they shouldn't have accepted it. Instead of calling Ally, on Wednesday XX/XX/19, I  attempted to get help using their online chat. I have a copy of the chat I would like to submit. The result of the chat was a recommendation to call in to customer service. So once again I called Ally. This time I spoke with a Manager named XXXX. I explained the whole situation and at this point how worried I was about them reporting something to the credit bureaus. I told her I had filed a complaint with the XXXX and you all. I also told her I had consulted with an Attorney to file suit if need be. She asked for my Attorney 's name and I refused to tell her. XXXX promised she was going to do her best to help me and not to worry about anything reporting to my credit. She put me on hold several times, for over an hour, ending with her saying she would call me back. I explained how many times I had been told that and reminded her of the length of time this had been going on. She gave me her personal phone # and told me I could call her if I didn't hear from her. Again, that was on Wednesday, XX/XX/19. I didn't hear back from her so on Friday, XX/XX/19, I checked my online account with Ally. The Loan was completely gone. There was no payment history, nothing. I thought it was finally taken care of and this nightmare was over. Tuesday morning, XX/XX/19, I received an email with a negative credit alert. I opened it and it was a more than 30 days late, missed payment, reported by Ally Financial. I immediately called XXXX at Ally. She didn't answer so I left her a voicemail. I left 3 voicemails on XX/XX/19. On XX/XX/19, I received negative alerts from all 3 credit bureaus in regard to what Ally reported as well as, my Husband and I both lost over 50 points each on our credit scores. I again called XXXX and through out the day, I left 4 voice mails. Around noon on XX/XX/19 XXXX returned my call. She apologized for the delay in getting back to me. She said she had trouble locating the payment however it was now posted and the loan was paid off in full. I asked her about them reporting against our credit and she said said that it should have never happened this was all their fault and they would be submitting requests to the bureaus to remove it from our reports. Unfortunately, even if they do that, our points are gone! We ended the call.

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