Consumer complaint received 2017-11-28
Company: SUNTRUST BANKS, INC.
State: FL
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle

Complaint:
Hello CFPB, ( the recordings are to large to attach ) in a brief note.. my wife and i were making a XXXX ton of money, i got sick and her fired over a 1.5 year period and paid XXXX per month for one drug. we had 3 cars repo'ed with other banks. 

the loan listed below is a XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) very rare and it 's my dream car. at the end of last year we used monies from the insurance companies returning money for the meds to catch up the auto loan. last payment we sent them for XXXX ( estimate ) was in the spring, we missed one month and paid them again in XX/XX/XXXX - however, they never credited the account properly. a person named XXXX XXXX called and left a voicemail calling herself a detective ( which is legal ) however when you returned the call back it was very similar to calling the police and a message saying if you have an emergency to call XXXX. 

during the call i asked where she was calling from, she said " the XXXX police department '' i asked was the car reported stolen because my state of residence is polk and the XXXX county sheriff department should be involved. she responded i 'm not sure it just was sent to our office. i threaten to XXXX anyone on my property that did not have proper credentials or they could fax the order to us to prove they are really the police. 

more of the details are below however we did pay SunTrust over 20k in cash to get the auto loan caught up however we were told the loan was written off and no more interest would be applied as long as we made our normal scheduled monthly payments. 

we set aside about 15,000 of funds since i refused to send suntrust any money until they " found '' the missing XXXX. i think it was 2 or 3 weeks ago the wire was returned to my XXXX XXXX XXXX account .... 

i did record a few of the conversations with SunTrust, the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX etc using the law in Florida that allows me to record if the other party did not agree in cases where i think fraud was in play. lawyers want to charge me 1500 - 5000 to get started ... and i need help i did n't even realize this agency existing until watching the recent cnn news coverage where there are two acting directors and it seems the trump org wants to shut this agency down. please help me before it 's to late i submitted to the FTC, justice department, and fbi to review this for fraud related. 

From : XXXX XXXX Sent : Friday, XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX To : XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX ; XXXX Subject : Potential Fraud at the Repo Department of Suntrust Bank Hello leaders of Suntrust Bank, After a week of unresolved attempts to identify a solution excluding this type of email from hitting your desk, Im forced to reach out in an effort to understand why it appears that representatives in the Auto Repo department are either committing crimes by either falsely misrepresenting themselves as XXXX police department or involved in a cover-up involving an agent acting on behalf of Suntrust repo department. I also have an issue with a lost wire payment from XX/XX/XXXX and multiple faxed attempts to provide proof of said payment having been worthless. Below I will outline the events and high points of my week. Please also note that as I continue to call Suntrust and the company representing themselves as police Upon asking to record conversations I was told that was against bank policy, however I did record a few conversations that Im will send to you and you can use this email as my admission of guilt in the event you want to press criminal charges against me. Florida statue 934.04 states I cant record if you do not agree and each time I informed the reps I was recording they told me to stop or they would disconnect the call. 

Event Time Line : XX/XX/XXXX - paid over 20,000 to get XXXX XXXX from repo status XX/XX/XXXX - last recorded payment to Suntrust XX/XX/XXXX - wire clears my bank account as payment to Suntrust ( {$2500.00} ) with instructions provided by repo department but no record of wire received XX/XX/XXXX @ XXXX XXXX - XXXX receives a call from a detective XXXX XXXX ext XXXX she forwards message to me so I can call as she was not available to talk XX/XX/XXXX @ XXXX XXXX - I call the number, it asks me for an extension, I punch in XXXX as indicated by voicemail, a recording states if you have an emergency please call XXXX. After waiting about 30 seconds and a woman answers the phoneask for my name, I provide it, she says oh so you are a part of this too, I ask whatshe talks about the XXXX XXXX, I tell her it parked in my front yard, she says well Suntrust has been trying to contact me since XX/XX/XXXX to no avail, I explain I was sick, my wife was hospitalized and Im looking at my bank account and we wired {$2500.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, she says Im lying.I ask her, so again where are you calling me fromshe states the XXXX police department, auto theft division I ask why would someone from the XXXX police be calling me about auto theft when Ive never lived in XXXX and havent visited in 20 yearsshe said shes not sure it just came through their division ... she then tells me that she will show up at my house, I politely say maam dont do thatI ask her to provide documentation that shes with the police when she arrives, or via fax/email ... I tell her I have a gate, and XXXX and if she shows up here I will protect my property and family she ask, are you threating me, I say no this is a promise she then hangs up. 
XX/XX/XXXX @ XXXX XXXX - I call the XXXX police department at XXXX ask if they had a detective XXXX in auto theft.. they stated no, I asked if they could look up the phone number, person told me they didnt have a way to look up every possible number but that they have no jurisdiction in XXXX county but I need to try the XXXX XXXX police department. 
XX/XX/XXXX @ XXXX XXXX - I call the XXXX XXXX police department XXXX and ask if they have a detective XXXX in auto theft, they confirm they do not and they would not call someone in XXXX and this sounds like fraud and as always I need to call my local law enforcement and file a claim and potentially seek an attorney. 
XX/XX/XXXX @ XXXX XXXX - My wife calls Suntrust, speaks with XXXX and explains the situation. XXXX tells us a few things : cliff notesthey cant provide us with the name of the agency, its not protocol to request a supervisor call us back, and if we wanted to have any follow-up we had to call in since it wasnt protocol to have a supervisor call us back XX/XX/XXXX 2nd-5th call with XXXX -can I record, no, why not, bank rules I need to record no one will believe this.if you record Ill disconnect we cant provide you info about the agency, but during a later call she provided this : the company is XXXX XXXX XXXX their number is XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX - 1 5th call with XXXX : we do not have your account, hang up call Suntrust we emailed them and they accepted this account Im not sure why they are telling you that, call back to XXXX When we call XXXX we are told : we do not have any idea why you are calling us and we have never reached out to you and if we did we would not represent ourselves as the police and we are not in Florida we are in XXXXI thought she meant XXXX as you will hear in the records but she meant state after I researched. Call back to Suntrust, XXXX laughs at the issue ( slight chuckle ) places me on hold, transfers me to XXXX againon with XXXX the lady says we dont have it but if we did hypothetically why are you calling againI tell her again, she says she cant find my account, I ask to talk to a rep since she said more than once shes just a secretary or admin to speak with an agentshe states they are busy doing their job. I tell her Suntrust will just call you again, she said fine Ill ignore the calls or send you to voicemail. 
XX/XX/XXXX - last 4 hours of my day calling Suntrust, calling XXXX, being told to leave a message for XXXX, or a lady supervisor that someone will call me back in 24-48 hours, calling back getting a new person on the phone, telling same story, requesting they call and listen to the recording, being told by XXXX specifically we are used to stuff like this and handle this all the time, but youre not making your payments, explaining the lost wire, treated like crapplaced another voicemail in supervisors ( woman ) queueetc., etc., etc., XX/XX/XXXX - called talked to different rep, explained my situation asked why I hadnt gotten a call back, was placed on hold and told that she wasnt available but she did get a message to tell me the call has been escalated and XXXX ( XXXX is the CEO of XXXX XXXX XXXX ) will contact me in 24 hoursI ask the rep to try and find a supervisor again, knowing she would say no one was available giving me enough time to conference in XXXX XXXX XXXXwith XXXX and Suntrust on the line I ask XXXX if they ever contacted me, they said no I just keep calling them I then asked Suntrust did you send this account to anyone else, no answer so I said to Suntrustyou told me you sent this account to XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXXand you didnt send the account to anyone else, and XXXX is saying they never contacted me and they have not sent my information to anyone elsemy next statement was someone has to be lying, either XXXX is lying and committing a felony, or Suntrust is committing a felony, or Suntrust is covering up for the company that is committing a felony the lady at XXXX says XXXX has been out of the office and will call back later, Suntrust says there is nothing else they can do. 
XX/XX/XXXX - I look up the number to Suntrust fraudI get someone in debit card fraud, they take my information and try to call a different area. The number is XXXX the person sat on with me for almost 2 hours trying to resolve this only to find out that the department doesnt clear the queuehe apologies and hopes this gets resolved XX/XX/XXXX - I call into the fraud department and speak to XXXX XXXX XXXX. She has been the most helpful person at Suntrust and you all need more employees like this I even tried to have her let me call repo and not inform them she was on the phone and her ethics are above reproach and she said no ( way to go XXXX ) explained the entire situation to hershe called me back after XXXX today with a few items for homework on my part like checking my credit report for collection companies related to this auto loan since they cant pull up the details XX/XX/XXXX - I asked my wife to call Suntrust to try and talk to a supervisor or manager and resolve our issues under cooler heads -she got no where but was told to leave a message for a supervisor and hopefully theyll call us back XX/XX/XXXX XXXX received a voicemail from XXXX in the fraud department informing her of new information regarding our account. When XXXX calls back she is only told that a manager is willing to talk to her, that she needs to call in to the repo department again at XXXX. XXXX informed her that weve spoken to that department dozens of times already and no manager or supervisor will speak with us there. They only escalate us to the company that we suspect of fraud. After various rounds of XXXX trying to get a manager on the phone XXXX only was willing to tell us she did her research and that we had to call back the Repo department. 
XX/XX/XXXX - We hang up with XXXX and call back to the repo department, where XXXX answers. XXXX spoken to her previously. She informs us that no supervisor or manager is available to speak with us, that we can leave another voicemail, but nothing further. She reminds us the car is in repo status and tries to tell us how much we owe to catch up the loan, but addresses none of our concerns. XXXX also stated that she doesnt know the name of her managers manager. 

So I digress Im writing this email to avoid any legal issues. Im not asking for the repo to be lifted though it would be nice, Im not asking for any favors just a proper investigation into this issue and the folks involved made accountable and if XXXX is using these tactics remove them from you partner list and fine them if necessary Please help me, this is not for any financial gain but for doing the right thingthe police even said get a lawyer but I still believe in the decency of humans and I hope you can help me out.. 

Thank you for your time in hearing my story. 

Regards, XXXX XXXX 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 explanation