Consumer complaint received 2017-08-04
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: MI
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Problem related to refinancing

Complaint:
The short version of my complaint is that I firmly believe that XXXX/Ally purposefully refused to return my phone calls to complete the approval on my lease buyout loan so that they could turn around and deny it after the original approval expired. I firmly believe they are being discriminative towards me for a reason that I am still trying to figure out. They have continuously misled me and they have dragged this process on for almost two months now. I also firmly believe that they are either discriminating against me as a person or if not they are purposefully dragging out this process so that I owe them lease extension fees once they completely deny the loan. Here is the longer explanation of the last two months : Back on XX/XX/XXXX I decided to purchase my lease at the end of the contract. I went through all the steps that day with XXXX XXXX at XXXX/Ally to apply for financing. He took down all of my information and went over all the steps and the process. He said it would take a day or two to get the approval back and we ended the call. On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX from XXXX/Ally called me back to tell me that the loan to buy out the lease was approved and he said he was initiating the online portal for me where I could go in and drop all of the documents needed such as pay stubs, etc. I verbally accepted the offer and a day or two later I uploaded all of the needed documents to the online portal. It was after then that all of the trouble started. All of a sudden I stopped receiving phone calls from XXXX/Ally and when I would call to follow up they would just tell me that everything looks good and I have done all that is needed. In a few days I should see the closing documents online for me to sign. They offered to mail them but I said online is best for me. A few more days went by and I heard nothing so I called in again for an update at which time I was told that someone named XXXX was my new loan consultant and they transferred me to her. XXXX gave me the same info, that the process will take some time but assured me the loan was approved and they were working on drawing up my closing docs. Yet again a few more days passed with no communication from XXXX/ally and there were often times I would call and could not even get though to a loan consultant because of high call volumes. I would never let more than 3-4 days go by without following up with XXXX. Now we are at X/XX/17 which is when I decided to record all of my phone calls and communication with XXXX/Ally as I felt they were deliberately not returning my phone calls for whatever reason. I called in on XX/XX/XXXX and I was told I needed to speak to the credit department to verify some information. I was transferred to the department and they simply asked me to verify some basic information. The gentleman said he was going to transfer me to a loan consultant now but they were busy so he would have someone call me back by noon on X/XX/17. X/XX/17 at XXXX comes around and there is no phone call from XXXX/Ally. I called in later that afternoon to ask for an update and I was transferred to XXXX XXXX who said there was strangely no loan consultant assigned to my file. I told here I was working with XXXX and then XXXX but XXXX said that she would just take in my file to finish it up since she can see its been a long process. She said the loan was approved and she could see that I already uploaded all of my documents to the portal. She would work on finishing up my file and get the closing docs drawn and then call me the next day to update me. XX/XX/XXXX No call back from XXXX/Ally again so I called in again to ask for an update. XXXX no available. I continued to call in every couple of days only to be told that a loan consultant would call me back soon. I eventually asked to speak to a manager because im never getting a call back when im told that I would. Fast forward to XX/XX/XXXX which is when XXXX XXXX finally returned my phone call. She told me that she is prepping the closing docs and I would definitely see them on the web on a few days and that she would follow up with me. She apologized for the bad communication and blamed it on the fact they are really backed up and its a separate dept that draws docs. XX/XX/XXXX Im still waiting for the closing docs and a call back from XXXX. I am being patient since she said they are really backed up. I get a call today from a customer service rep who says. Your loan has been approved and we would like to talk about the offer that we have for you. I said OK but I already had an application approved so he transferred to XXXX, who I had worked with once before. She told me that it was a duplicate loan and to just ignore it and that she would delete it. She confirmed she could see the original loan in the system and that everything was fine. I asked her to email XXXX XXXX to call me back when she could. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX calls me later that day and says Yeah I had to redo the loan but it was no big deal and she would call me back as soon as she is able to correct the duplicate loan issue. She promised me that she would call me back in two days or less. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX calls me back ( First time she/XXXX/ally has ever returned my phone call ) and she told me that She received an answer back from the lender ( ally ) and the application was denied. I immediately got upset and told her that the loan was already approved and when I talked to her last week she was drawing closing docs as if the loan was already done. After asking more questions XXXX finally revealed that the original application that was approved had expired and she had to submit a new one and that one was denied but could not tell me why. I immediately asked to speak to a manager who  said they would look into the file further. He said he would call me back by EOD on XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX No phone call back, of course, so I called in and explained the situation only to be placed on hold for 40 minutes. I could not wait so I hung up and called back on XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX Called in and I was told the person I talked to, XXXX, worked in the CA office and they were not in yet. The rep was sending an email to him to have him call me when he got in. XX/XX/XXXX Never got a call from XXXX so I called in asking for an update and another manager told me that they were working with Ally managers to clear up the issue and they would call me back in a day or so. XX/XX/XXXX No phone call back again So I called in and spoke to XXXX XXXX who said the app was declined. I asked for more information as I was confused why, after all the issues, he was just simply saying its declined. I was asking for more information and he was very vague and would give me zero information on the decline. I asked him why would it be approved on the original application and not on the second application that I didnt know was being submitted. I mentioned that I had no idea my credit was being ran again and that I did not give permission for that credit pull. He just kept being very vague and dodging my questions. He did says he would start some fires and find out what changed to cause the decline. He mentioned I needed to contact ally to find out why it was declined. XX/XX/XXXX Called the lease buy out dept at ally and gave a short version of my issues and that I was directed to call them. The lady was very confused and said there was nothing she could do and she was unable to answer my questions. She was confused why XXXX divison would tell me to call an ally department directly because there is just nothing she can do. She was drafting an email to upper management on the issue and said I would receive a call the same day, if not the next business day. XX/XX/XXXX XXXX Currently still waiting for a call back.

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