Consumer complaint received 2018-06-22
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: WA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem accessing account

Complaint:
I recently applied for HUD subsidized housing. As a HUD requirement, HUD must contact any banks to obtain financial records from them.

- A request was submitted to Ally Bank on Fri, XX/XX/XXXX for them with a simple request to provide an average of my account balance over the past 6 months. As of Friday XX/XX/XXXX and after multiple requests from the Housing Agency in which Ally Bank failed to respond in any way, I was contacted by the Housing Agency to find out what was the delay and told that the bank 's failure to respond could result in not being approved for housing assistance at this time.

- I called Ally Bank and was told that they are backlogged. I was told that as a matter of policy they take up to 5 business days for this kind of request. I pointed out that it was currently the 5th business day so by their own policy, it should be handled by the end of the day. I was told they would not be able to fulfill this request. I explained that this was an unreasonable amount of time for such a request and even the 5 business day policy was too long. I explained that this should be a common request for them to receive as it is a HUD requirement and asked why, as they advertise themselves as a 24/7 bank, that they could not have a faster turn around or have implemented an automated process to handle these kinds of requests. 

- The only solution that was offered to me was that they could escalate the request, but this could be another 24-48 hours. I asked if this meant by the clock, and was told that this meant " business hours '' and assumed that to mean it could take another 6-8 days for an 8 hour work day, based on how they have misrepresented themselves and their hours in the past. I told them this was not acceptable and since this is a HUD requirement and that my housing security was at stake that this was horrible service that could cost me housing and a lot of money. The customer service supervisor, XXXX, stated that she called the " back desk '' and spoke with someone ( a real person ) and explained the issue but they refused to budge on their " 24-48 hour '' policy. I told her that I was appalled that she spoke to a real person, who after explaining the situation, still refused to do something to take care of this already delayed request that could have such a profound impact if not completed in a timely manner. 

- I was told by XXXX, that because they have so many customers, it takes them longer to handle these requests than they have in the past. I told them that excuse was unacceptable, because if they have more customers, they need to hire more staff to accommodate them. Their insistence on cutting corners in this manner is causing their customers financial hardship and needs to be stopped. If Ally Bank can not adequately take care of their customers, they do not deserve to have them. 

- This is one example of many where this business has failed to live up to it's advertising that it is a 24/7 bank. On many occasions on this phone call I was given excuses about their problems with handling requests after the " end of business '' and unable to handle issues " on the weekend ''. 

- I am incredibly frustrated that Ally Bank continues to fail me as a customer and I'm very concerned that this particular failure to provide adequate and timely service could personally cost me hundreds to thousands of dollars as well as my housing security.

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