Consumer complaint received 2020-08-17
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: DC
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:
XX/XX/XXXX : I purchased a car and used my current vehicle as a trade-in. When I attempted to turn in the title as part of the deal, I realized I never received the title. The vehicle has been paid off since XX/XX/XXXX. I called CITIZENS BANK ( the previous lienholder ) who said their 3rd party vendor, XXXX XXXX XXXX, was responsible for sending it. After being transferred to XXXX XXXX XXXX, they said CITIZENS BANK still hadn't released the electronic lien so they could not send the title. I called CITIZENS BANK again and now the CITIZENS BANK representative says they don't understand why XXXX XXXX XXXX reported that it was CITIZENS BANK 's responsibility, since XXXX XXXX XXXX is the company that sends out titles. I then call XXXX, as the car was purchased and titled in Pennsylvania. The DMV representative confirms that the electronic lien release has not been completed by CITIZENS BANK, however, they could independently verify in their system that the car was indeed mine and paid in full. The DMV representative said I had the option of completing some additional paperwork and paying an additional fee for a duplicate title, that would be completed once state offices reopened after the COVID shutdown. I did not feel it should be necessary for me to pay an additional fee for a title that I was still owed by CITIZENS BANK. So, I waited for XXXX offices to reopen so I could reengage with CITIZENS BANK once the title could actually be produced by XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX : I called CITIZENS BANK again. This time the representative says that a research department needed to get involved and complete an inquiry into what happened. I was given a turnaround time of 10 business days, and a reference number : XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX : About three weeks later, I called CITIZENS BANK since I hadn't received a response within the promised 10 business day turnaround. This time the representative says the first reference number ( XXXX ) was somehow lost and never assigned for action. I was told I would receive a response in 72 business hours and given reference number XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX : On the XXXX business day, I call CITIZENS BANK and the representative reports that the title had been mailed, although when asked they couldn't provide a tracking number. 

XX/XX/XXXX - After waiting about a week and a half, and still not having received the title in the mail or via any other courier service, I called CITIZENS BANK again. This time the representative says that the title was in fact, never sent, and that the prior reference number was still pending action/resolution. I was then given another reference number : XXXX. At this point, I escalated the issue to a supervisor, and was given reference number XXXX, and was told a member of the escalation team would reach out to me. 

Due to poor in-home cell reception, and calls received during work hours when I am unavailable via my cell phone, my only communication from CITIZENS BANK was via voicemails. On XX/XX/XXXX, I started receiving voicemails from XXXX ( phone number : XXXX ). For two weeks ( until XX/XX/XXXX ), she left messages with the same end result : the lien release hadnt been completed. I also gave her contact number to my car dealer so they could call, but it was to no avail, because neither of us could ever reach her on the phone, and any messages left were never returned. 

Finally, on XX/XX/XXXX, my car dealer contacts me and says without the title we dont own the car officially as part of this deal. The dealer tells me if we dont have the title for the car in a week from today, you will have to come retrieve your vehicle and repay the valuation given for your trade-in. After receiving this message, I call XXXX again, and left a voicemail relaying what I had been told by the dealer, and that she should have someone else call me first thing in the morning since she had proven ineffectual in resolving the issue to this point. That night, I also call the CITIZENS BANK customer service line ( XXXX ), and speak with XXXX, whom I ask to connect me with a supervisor. XXXX, the supervisor, is connected and about halfway through explaining my ordeal thus far, the phone is disconnected, he hangs up. I don't receive a return call. 

I decide that, regardless of whether I receive a return call from CITIZENS BANK on XX/XX/XXXX, I would have to make the 2-hour drive to XXXX, PA and pay the duplicate title fee of {$55.00} to XXXX to retrieve my title. I still called XXXX at XXXX on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, multiple times but never received an answer. After receiving my title in about 10 minutes from the XXXX XXXX, I visit the nearest CITIZENS BANK branch location ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) in downtown XXXX and speak with XXXX ( banker ) and XXXX XXXX ( manager ). After repeatedly telling me that there was nothing they could do since they dont handle CITIZENS BANK AUTO FINANCE issues in branches, they gave me the same customer service number that I had been hung up on the night before ( XXXX ). I told them I was no longer calling that number because I have been calling for months and have not had my issues resolved and the last time I called I was hung up on. I requested corporate office contact information for whichever department was responsible for electronic lien releases. Mr . XXXX  told me that " if there was contact information for the corporate office, he didn't have it and wouldn't provide it ''. Which is utterly ridiculous, and a clear attempt to create a barrier for me to be able to contact a responsible party regarding these issues, and a way for everyone there to continue to claim a lack of accountability and responsibility for having this resolved. Finally, after I pressed the issue for a few more minutes, Mr . XXXX said the reference number XXXX had been escalated to the Office of the Chairman - which was the corporate office responsible for resolving my issue, although he still refused to provide a phone number or written documentation of the fact that it was even really escalated to that office. I was turned away and told that someone would call me. 

XX/XX/XXXX : On XX/XX/XXXX, I started receiving voicemails from XXXX from the Office of the Chairman of CITIZENS BANK ( phone number : XXXX ). She is now claiming that CITIZENS BANK attempted to release the lien 3 times in XXXX, and that XXXX is currently returning an error in their system when CITIZENS BANK tries to complete the electronic lien release, and that XXXX will only speak to the vehicle 's registered owner regarding this issue - so essentially CITIZENS BANK 's hands are now tied. As I stated earlier, the DMV never reported an issue with my title on any of the occasions I spoke with them or while I was in their office, and I was able to pick it up in 10 minutes. This is now a moot point as I have already suffered the inconvenience of having to drop everything and make the 4-hour round trip drive to pay for and retrieve my own title and hand deliver to the dealer. Today, as I write this, I have called XXXX twice, with no response. This is clearly part of their continued effort to not resolve this issue, since once we speak on their recorded phone lines it creates an electronic trail which serves as evidence of their negligence. 

At this point, I no longer wish to speak to anyone from this sham of a business, CITIZENS BANK. I only wish to : 1. File this complaint with the responsible regulatory authorities, so that my experience is recorded, and they are held responsible. 
2. Be reimbursed for my gas for my outbound and inbound trips to XXXX, PA and for the additional cost of the duplicate title ( {$55.00} ) - unfortunately I can not get the time and energy back that I've wasted on this since XXXX. 

Please let me know if additional information is required.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief