Consumer complaint received 2017-01-31
Company: Fleet Financial Inc.
State: CO
Product: Consumer Loan
Sub-product: Vehicle lease
Issue: Taking out the loan or lease

Complaint:
Dear Examiners, I will preface this complaint with the following statement. I am a compliance manager in the financial industry and have been in compliance related roles since XXXX. This complaint is coming an informed consumer, not a baseless accusation. This complaint is against Fleet Financial , Inc - DBA - XXXX of XXXX, CO. I retained the services of a broker to skip the hassle of going into a dealership, never was I informed or disclosed any such document to indicate there was a fee for broker services, nor an exact amount. The broker worked for the company, the company negotiated the car price, I assumed they made money on the back end with the dealership. After all, the dealership did n't have to acquire the business, it was brought to them. The transaction occurred in XXXX XXXX ; I am submitting this now because of my most recent conversations with Fleet Financial. I never received a copy of my signed loan documents ( Lease ). When I requested them, they directed me to contact the dealership and advised that I did not complete my transaction with Fleet, but directly with the dealership. I never stepped foot in a dealership for this transaction, I signed loan documents in the parking lot of Fleet 's office in XXXX with my broker and with a manager, both are no longer employed with fleet. I am now learning that Fleet placed erroneous fees that have nothing to do with the transaction aka fee padding which is what the CFPB cracked down on title companies for in the past. My assumption is that Fleet does this on every transaction and has made millions from it. My broker can testify to that as we 're still in contact. Furthermore, I learned that fleet added thousands of dollars to the price of my vehicle without my knowledge or consent, thus making the price and overall monthly payment more expensive. In the mortgage industry, a lender can not charge or assess a fee unless it is properly disclosed and acknowledged, I assume, the same should apply for auto financing since it is a financial disclosure. 

In the same transaction I traded in a vehicle, which Fleet paid much lower than market value for because they informed me that they do n't have a used car lot or even a process to selling cars and that they would have to mark-up the price to either sell wholesale or retail, either way, their intention was to re-sell and refused to pay XXXX. I later learned that they used my car as a tax write-off by giving it away for FREE to a family who experienced tragedy. Not only did they rip me off for the value of my car, they used it to their advantage by writing it off on their taxes as a charitable donation. If I did not complete my transaction with Fleet as they suggested, then who did I trade my car into? How did they give it away for free? How did they pad fees and increase the cost of my loan? How did they make money? Who paid off my vehicle? And why was I asked by a fleet employee, XXXX, to sign paperwork that they lost and to have it backdated to the date I traded in my car? Yes, they lost the bill of sale or title document relinquishing ownership of my vehicle, to Fleet, and required that I re-sign and backdate it. If I did not comply, they would have rescinded my transaction. 

I am asking the CFPB to step-in, review my case, and three others who experienced the same/similar issues that I did. I am also asking for a refund of all monies charged by fleet for this transaction, including, but not limited to the amount added to the loan to increase their profit, due to failing to provide a reasonable fee disclosure.

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