Consumer complaint received 2018-01-02
Company: Uber Technologies Inc.
State: CA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Lender trying to repossess or disable the vehicle

Complaint:
It started when my Employment Authorization Card ( EAC ) expired back in XX/XX/XXXX and with that event happening my California license also expired on that day ( XX/XX/XXXX ) thus forcing me to not be able to work for XXXX any further. My vehicle, leased through XXXX XXXX, would get a weekly deduction of {$160.00} via my XXXX earnings as my lease payment. This weekly payment was taken every Monday ; the beginning of the new XXXX work week. Upon my license expiring and not being able to work for XXXX I began to miss the weekly payments. From XX/XX/XXXX up to the last payment I made in early XX/XX/XXXX I ended with a balance to pay of {$880.00} in early XX/XX/XXXX when the vehicle was taken from me. However, it was never my intention to not pay XXXX XXXX and default on payments because upon the expiration of my EAC I called XXXX XXXX and told them of the situation I was in. I was told that I would need to make my payments and to ignore the emails I would start receiving once I began to fall behind on my payments since a note would be made on my account on to why my weekly payments were n't going to be coming in. So from XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX when my last payment was made I would make payments of roughly {$500.00} sporadically throughout those months. My EAC was finally renewed late XX/XX/XXXX which is when I began to work for XXXX again. On Monday XX/XX/XXXX a weekly payment of {$57.00} was taken from my XXXX account to pay my weekly due balance. I had began to work again thus was making progress on bringing my account up to date. The vehicle was taken by XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX even though the partial payment of {$57.00} was taken out on Monday XX/XX/XXXX and since Monday XX/XX/XXXX up until Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX there was a {$150.00} balance of XXXX earnings that would go towards the amount owed to XXXX XXXX for the vehicle in question with a potential for that amount to reach roughly {$400.00} or more in XXXX earnings as I was going to continue to work until Sunday XX/XX/XXXX the cut out date. My intentions were to continue to work that week and make a bigger payment to what I had owed since I had fallen behind. Working with XXXX one has the potential to earn up to {$400.00} plus dollars in a single week if one puts in the hours driving. That was my plan and being under the impression of not worrying about the emails from XXXX XXXX because of the many calls I made to them about my situation in the months of XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX and the payments I made in those months plus the assurance that everything would be ok because they ( XXXX XXXX ) were willing to work with me as their lease costumer I kept doing just that ; ignoring the emails. Then on XX/XX/XXXX the vehicle was taken and after speaking to XXXX XXXX 's customer service over the phone and being told that the amount of {$880.00} was owed and since it was n't paid they were not going to give me my vehicle back and it was entirely my failure to pay which caused this situation. I picked up my personal belongings that were in my vehicle upon being taken on XX/XX/XXXX. But it should be noted that on XX/XX/XXXX just 4 days after my vehicle was taken and being told that I could no longer get it back XXXX XXXX via XXXX took the {$150.00} that were in my XXXX account. That money was already going to go to them ( XXXX XXXX ) for the payment anyways but even without a vehicle that money was still taken but what makes matters worst is that in the letter I received from XXXX XXXX dated on XX/XX/XXXX titled " NOTICE OF VEHICLE RECOVERY AND LEASE EARLY TERMINATION OF TRANSFER '' I was informed of what I still needed to pay to XXXX XXXX but the {$150.00} was not mentioned as being taken towards the amount of what I owed. It list everything that I owe them for example ; PAST DUE PERIODIC PAYMENTS ( where the {$150.00} should have taken effect on it since XXXX XXXX took it via my XXXX driver account ) {$880.00}, OTHER PAST DUE CHARGERS {$420.00}, DISPOSITION FEE {$250.00}, & it comes out to a total GROSS EARLY TERMINATION AMOUNT {$1500.00}. When all this was happening my sister made a complaint on my behalf to the CFPB complaint number XXXX. Almost one week after picking up my personal belongings on XX/XX/XXXX I receive a phone call on XX/XX/XXXX plus an email on XX/XX/XXXX from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Reinstatement Specialist stating and I quote her email " it 's urgent we speak with you as soon as possible concerning the recovery of your vehicle. we have reached out to you at the number on file and have not been able to make contact. please respond to this email with the best number and time to reach you '' received on XX/XX/XXXX by XXXXXXXXXXXX. Well upon reading this email I was ecstatic that I will be getting my vehicle back so I emailed her right away and told her I was available right that very moment. It was roughly XXXX and after speaking with XXXX I was told that if the balance of {$880.00} ( once again ignoring the {$150.00} that was taken ) was paid that I could pick up the vehicle after getting in contact with the towing company that had the vehicle in their possession which is the same place I had already been at to retrieve my personal belongings. I told her I was on my bicycle on my way to pick something up but I would pay it as soon as I was done with that because she also stated that she had a meeting to attend and she would contact me after her meeting to see if I had made the payment already. I at that point was willing to pay the {$880.00} to get the vehicle back with the help of my sister and completely forgetting about the {$150.00} I had worked for the week the vehicle was taken as well as that money. XXXX said the payment could be done online or via the XXXX XXXX customer service number. So I tried doing it online first and I was not allowed to access the XXXX XXXX website because I was told that I had an invalid account number. After that I called and was told that there was no way to make a payment because the account number, the telephone number, and the last name I kept giving them were not bringing up any account information on their system. Upon being told this I asked to be transferred to XXXX XXXX the Reinstatement Specialist and I was told that they could n't transfer the call since they did n't know who that was or if they even had that department. Then XXXX finally calls me and tells me she can directly transfer me so that I can make a payment and we can move forward. Upon her transfer the line she transferred me to said it was invalid and the call was hanged up. Well since I could n't reconnect with her again I simply emailed her the following " XXXX, I 'm available until XXXX. The internet service is n't working until the XX/XX/XXXX ( apparently a new system was going into play with XXXX XXXX ), I just called, and I ca n't pay via the phone because when you transferred me it said the service was unavailable and right now that I called I was told my account number does n't exist ''. I left it at that and waited for XXXX to get back to me. She replied the next day on XX/XX/XXXX with the following " The vehicle is being held at the recovery agency and we are working on the issue. We will be in touch '' and that will be the last email I received from XXXX. However something peculiar happened on XX/XX/XXXX I  received an email from XXXXXXXXXXXX telling me that they were here to help since I missed a payment of {$170.00} slightly higher from the original weekly payment of {$160.00} I would normally do when I had the vehicle but that was the problem my account was activated and I now owed a weekly payment but with no vehicle. On XX/XX/XXXX I received yet another email stating that I now was {$360.00} behind on my weekly payments. Naturally I was confused as I had not heard form XXXX and by the looks of these emails and being able to finally access the XXXX XXXX website my account was activated yet again. I emailed XXXX about these emails and I also called XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and was on hold for 35 minutes. I figured since it was the end of the year Holiday I would try again in XX/XX/XXXX since being on hold that long did n't bring any results. However I would also try to email XXXX XXXX and I kept receiving emails that the email I was using did not exist. A Delivery Status Notification ( Failure ) email for the following listed XXXX XXXX emails ( listed on their website ) that I tried to get in contact with ; XXXXXXXXXXXX ( the very email that just emailed me about what I owe ) and XXXXXXXXXXXX. Like I said both are listed on their website. It is now XX/XX/XXXX and I am curious to know what is happening. All I want is my vehicle back so that I can work for XXXX again and make my payments just like I started to do the week that the vehicle was taken.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation