Consumer complaint received 2019-04-06
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: CA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Struggling to pay your loan
Sub-issue: Loan balance remaining after the vehicle is repossessed and sold

Complaint:
In XXXX, from California where I have been residing I purchased the XXXX XXXX XXXX vehicle, VIN # XXXX ...., License Plate No : XXXX ..., through a dealership in Texas for my daughter XXXX XXXX who resides in XXXX Texas. I financed this vehicle through Wells Fargo Dealer Services. Since XXXX I have paid the monthly payments on time for her car without any interruption or delay in payments. 
In XX/XX/XXXX my daughter parked her car at her sisters apartment complex in XXXX while visiting her sister and a Towing Company towed her car and delivered it to XXXX XXXX XXXX. In fact her car had been towed from the same complex twice before and we always managed to negotiate with the towing company and paid a small fee to have her car released. This time around they sent a letter notifying my daughter of the vehicle storage location and they also copied the same letter to Wells Fargo dealer services. The letter indicated that if the car was not picked up by XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX they would sell the car in an auction to receive their impound fees. ( See Exhibit A.1.1 ) As soon as I was aware of the car having been impounded and the content of the letter with the deadline date, I contacted the XXXX XXXX  XXXX to arrange to pay the negotiated fees and have my daughter pick up her car. They informed me that Wells Fargo had already picked up the vehicle on XX/XX/XXXX, that is 18 days prior to the deadline! I clearly acted within the proper and allocated window prior to the date given by the XXXX XXXX XXXX to have the car released back to my daughter ; however Wells Fargo had already taken the car in their possession in order to repossess the vehicle. 
Later on when I contacted Wells Fargo dealer services, I was told they repossessed the car because the payments were delinquent. I informed them that during the past 4 years I have never been delinquent, not even once. I was told they would look into this matter and contact me back. They called back in few days and confirmed that payments have not been late and didnt know why the car was picked up by Wells Fargo and stated there must have been a mistake! I tried several times contacting Wells Fargo Dealer Services back with no luck after their response call and finally asked them to get me in touch with the office of the president. 
As you may read in the attached letter from Wells Fargo-Office of the President, ( Exhibit A.2.1 ), the letter indicates that the car was impounded because of unauthorized parking however in the next paragraph they indicated they understand that our customers go through difficult financial periods for many reasons! It is very obvious that this was not a car abandonment due to any financial issue. 
The Wells Fargo letter is specific in its findings that the car was impounded due to unauthorized parking as indicated by the XXXX XXXX  XXXX. If Wells Fargo decided to repossess the vehicle because they thought I had financial difficulty, they were absolutely wrong. In fact they admitted I was never late in making the payments. 
Wells Fargo has now added additional repossession fees to my account and have sold the car for the fraction of the cars value and demanding a deficiency balance from me. ( See Exhibit A.3.1 ) It is clear that Wells Fargo had no authorization to pick up the car from the storage facility to repossess the vehicle due to unauthorized parking. I received no prior communication from Wells Fargo by phone, email or a letter notifying me of their intent to repossess the car. They could have easily contacted me to find out about my intentions in picking up the car but chose not to do so because this was not in their best interest. After almost 4 years of making on-time payments, majority of the interest on the loan if not all must had been paid and I would have not allowed this car to be repossessed for any reason. 
I truly believe that Wells Fargo Dealer Services has been unfair, misleading and discriminated against me in lending practices and has violated a federal consumer protection law and regulation. This is clearly an unjust Repossession bank practice.

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