Consumer complaint received 2020-05-26
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
State: WV
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Loan sold or transferred to another company

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I purchased a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX from XXXX XXXX XXXX with {$20000.00} financing secured through Gateway One Lending XXXX XXXX. I have continued making my payments to Gateway One up until I received a letter from Santander Consumer USA in XXXX of XXXX notifying me that my loan with Gateway One had been sold to Santander Consumer USA ; The letter informed me that I would make my payments to Santander under the same terms of my original contract with Gateway One. 
Once I received the letter from Santander Consumer USA, I contacted them to inquire how to activate my account online ; I was informed I would not have access to an online account because of my bankruptcy filing in XXXX and I would need to call in every month to make my payments. 
During this first phone call in XXXX, I asked for my payment history to be sent to me because there was a significant discrepancy in the payoff amount Santander was showing and what I was told by Gateway One Lending when I spoke to them in XXXX and it was over a {$1000.00} difference ; Santander saying I owe more than what I was told I owed by Gateway One. 
Approximately 2 weeks after my first phone call, I received a printed payment history from Santander followed by a second letter from Santander, dated XX/XX/XXXX stating the following : Dear [ Name Omitted ], Gateway One Lending XXXX XXXX XXXX. ( Gateway ), a XXXX XXXX XXXX   XXXX, recently transferred the servicing of their vehicle financial accounts to Santander Consumer USA Inc. ( Santander ) and ceased operations. You may have received a communication from Santander, dated XX/XX/XXXX, related to this activity. Due to the above-referenced account being closed and resolved with Gateway, the communication was sent to you in error. Your account should not have been included in the communication from Santander. Please disregard any previous communications. 
Please note that neither Santander nor Gateway will pursue collections on this account. 
We apologize for any confusion this may have caused. 
Sincerely, Gateway One Lending XXXX XXXX, XXXX. And Santander Consumer USA Inc. 

After receiving this letter, I called Santander and was told BOTH LETTERS I received from Santander were sent to me in error and I should disregard them. I asked if I would be receiving that in writing and the rep did not have an answer except to state, again, both letters I received from Santander were sent to me in error. The Santander rep had no further information for me so I ended the phone call. 
I called again at the end of XXXX to inquire about making a payment and the automated system said I owed over {$1000.00} in payments. I continued to make the payment I originally planned on making, {$400.00}, and requested to speak to a representative. The representative proceeded to argue with me about missed payments that I was showing were in fact made and then denied that Santander ever sent me a payment history. I told the representative that I had the payment history in my hand, on Santander Consumer USA letterhead, and I am looking at the 2 payments she was saying I did not pay. The representative then told me to hold on to speak to finance services and after about 10 seconds the phone disconnected. I immediately called back and reached the same representative who told me there is no one to transfer you to in finance services ; she only placed me on hold. I again started to explain that the payments she said I owed, I actually see on the payment history Santander sent me and she again told me Santander never sent me a payment history. By the end of that fruitless phone call, I was told my information would be passed on for review and someone would be getting back to me to clear this up. It has been over a month and no one has contacted me ; Santander is still saying, through the automated message, that I am {$1000.00} behind in payments which is not true.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation