Consumer complaint received 2019-03-27
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: CA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Termination fees or other problem when ending the lease early

Complaint:
I had a early Auto return of my lease which was expected to end in XX/XX/XXXX. 
In early XX/XX/XXXX I contacted the Ally Financial Rep and discussed about the early return process of my leased vehicle. 
They instructed that I had a lease buyout payoff balance of {$2200.00} if I pay off by XX/XX/XXXX but was told that I will be getting a final bill of the lease buyout balance so I can pay that bill and not the upcoming payment. 

My auto lease payments were automatically recurring for {$450.00} every month and was deducted on the XXXX of every month, but the Ally Rep discontinued my auto pay after I told him that I will be returning the vehicle to the dealer to process the Early Lease Vehicle Return buyout process. 
At that point I was told I did not have to continue with the Auto recurring payment since I will be getting a final bill that I can pay off the balance for which was expected within a month or two of processing time ( Expected latest XXXX ). 


I returned the vehicle to XXXX at XXXX of XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and the lease return was processed by XXXX XXXX ( extension XXXX ) thus did not have my vehicle in possession since XX/XX/XXXX, expecting a final bill from Ally ( latest XX/XX/XXXX ), but instead my account was taken to Collections. 


I called Ally numerous times to ask about the final bill however they could not help with the process because all they can say was that it was pending and was eventually investigated that the Dealer did not perform their end of the work to submit the return back in XX/XX/XXXX when I returned it, but rather it was processed in XX/XX/XXXX. At that time, just to keep them from further hurting my credit, I gave in to pay {$1200.00} balance on XX/XX/XXXX despite receiving the final bill. 

By that time, my account was sent to Collections because I got instructed a ill-advised instruction to wait for the final payoff invoice from the Ally Representative and also the Dealer ( XXXX XXXX ) not performing their job to process the Lease Return back in XX/XX/XXXX. 


I finally got the final pay off balance bill in XX/XX/XXXX and paid off the final balance of {$730.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, however the lousy work ability of the Dealer and the ill-trained bad information of the Ally Rep from XXXX during my lease return delayed the return process further preventing Ally to formulate the final bill for my final payment in XXXX rather than XXXX. 


I have attempted 3 times with Ally to help correct this unique situation of inaccurate late payment and that the discontinuation of recurring auto payment was discontinued by the ally Rep who gave inaccurate information about the lease return payment expectations and process, however Ally did not own up to their bad information. 

My credit is damaged from XXXX to XXXX and this is causing problems. 
Please help recover this bad situation so that Ally can own up to their own bad training and ill-advised information, especially now that they have no reason to deny that I owe them since all balances were fully paid off due to their own delay mismanagement of a simple Early Lease Return on XX/XX/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