Consumer complaint received 2023-03-08
Company: KILOWATT FINANCIAL, LLC, A SPRUCE FINANCE COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Installment loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
I tried to call Spruce few times and I was never able to speak to their representative. I emailed them shown below. 

I am a former XXXX XXXX customer and my account has been acquired to your company few years ago. My lease number was # # # # from XXXX then I was assigned to agreement number # # # # upon Spruce acquisition. There are few issues on the recent invoice XXXX and other general issues as below. 

1. Starting this month, I received the invoice with a new Agreement number which is XXXX. I was aware of the change thanks to a letter sent to me last month. Now, the problem is you are billing me {$170.00} instead of {$160.00} which was agreed on the original lease. I see that Spruce began adding State , County and District Tax for the first time. However, the lease agreement states on 2.2. ( b ) Based on current tax rates as of the date you are signing this Lease, the estimated personal property, sales and use taxes you will pay on the monthly Lease Payments during the Term are {$0.00}. I was wondering if this additional charge incurred while updating all your account with the new agreement number. Please, rectify this issue and send me the confirmation. 

2. Your data of the lease solar panel production is bogus because it shows the system continued its production during XXXX and XXXX. However, I renovated my home and the system was uninstalled on XXXX. It was out of service until XX/XX/XXXX when it was reinstalled after the construction was completed. How can the system generate the energy when it was off the grid and was on the ground by pieces. 

3. I tried to sign on the newly designed website and clicked the billing button. It did not work. To be honest, I was never a fan of your web portal because it was poorly designed and maintained from the beginning. When your letter with the new Agreement number mentioned about newly designed web portal and promised Call-back Functionality, I was hoping that would make your customer service experience better because it was never the case in the past. But then again, I tried to resolve the issues by calling and leaving my call back number. No one has called back after a day. I am very disappointed. I created another account with a different email address and a new Agreement number. It did not work either. 

4. I received the text from XXXX saying there was a service appointment to confirm. First, I ignored because the caller area code was from XXXX, CA and thought it was a scam phone call. Later, another text sent had mentioned that the work order was assigned by Spruce Finance. I'd wish if Spruce can do a better job communicating with their customers. 

Please, get back to me with the proper follow-up in timely manner. Should you have any questions, feel free to contact me.

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