Consumer complaint received 2016-01-28
Company: Mercedes Benz Financial Services
State: AZ
Product: Consumer Loan
Sub-product: Vehicle lease
Issue: Managing the loan or lease

Complaint:
I have a lease on a XXXX seat XXXX electric smart car made by Mercedes Benz but actually very cost effective ( XXXX seat ). When you lease the car, you are advised to also sign up for a battery assurance policy, allegedly because the batteries, which have their own vin number, could fail at any time. Unfortunately the financial services for the lease and the battery assurance program, even though they are from the same company, are handled by separate offices. One office has always had auto-payment enrollment via website, and the other could until recently only be reached via fax. This past fall I attempted to enroll in the latter auto-payment via fax, and was not successful. I was contacted in XX/XX/XXXX regarding a late payment, and explained that I had enrolled. At that time I received a verbal confirmation from the office staff over the phone and an apology. Unfortunately the following month I received another late payment notice. Again, I called the office, and was at this time referred to another, recently created auto payment enrollment website. This time, after completing the web-enrollment, I received an email confirmation. I then called the staff again to make sure that the appropriate payments had been made, that the account was current, and that the issue had been resolved to their satisfaction. They assured me that everything had been taken care of, and again apologized for the inconvenience. Approximately one month passed, then suddenly, inexplicably, XXXX adverse actions from Mercedes Benz Financial Services appeared on my credit report via all three rating agencies. I immediately called the office. At first I got another apology. I faxed them a printout of the adverse actions. They were not aware that this had happened ( probably the responsibility of yet a third office ) said they had no idea what could have caused it. Also had no idea why, despite the dates listed on them, they did not post to my credit score until, suddenly, all at once, in XX/XX/XXXX. Had they actually posted as of the dates listed on them I would have escalated this dispute immediately. They confirmed that according to their system, the payments were current, and explained that they would call me back every day until it was resolved. A week passed and I received no phone calls. I called again, was again given an apology, and this time demanded to see a statement of payments made. I received a statement via email from another, unknown department ( this time " XXXX '' ) which included the attached statement of current payments. I responded to that email requesting a resolution to the issue. The sender did not reply. Finally I called again and was told the following, despite the very contrary repeat assurances I had in the past : " the failure to effectively sign up for auto payment was your fault, and when its the customer 's fault, we do n't remove the action. You are not allowed to speak with anyone else on this, all I can tell you is that they wo n't remove it because it was your fault. '' Obviously I disagree with that characterization of the events, which was totally inconsistent with what I was repeatedly told, and obviously intended to mask their own internal disarray with respect to their multiple smart-car programs and offices, these being clearly still work in progress and something the company might phase out entirely. As a final gesture, I visited the dealership where I leased the car. The sales manager there agreed that I was right, conceded that the whole smartcar operation is a mess and frankly not worth it for small amount of revenue generated for the company. They certainly seem to want to spend as little time as possible ensuring the accuracy of their files or providing service to their customers. I would advise others to stay away from Mercedes Benz Financial Services.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation