Consumer complaint received 2018-11-29
Company: Yamaha Motor Finance Corporation USA
State: CA
Product: Payday loan, title loan, or personal loan
Sub-product: Title loan
Issue: Charged fees or interest you didn't expect

Complaint:
In addition to charging fees that I didn't expect, Yamaha Motor Finance USA Inc. went out of their way to make it inconvenient to pay off my loan. 

On XX/XX/2018, I attempted to pay a {$600.00} installation for my loan to finance a new XXXX XXXX motorcycle via ACH bank transfer. Note that ACH bank transfer is one of the only user friendly methods of paying off the loan that Yamaha Motor Finance allows, as credit and debit cards are not permitted. From the beginning I found their website ( https :  //yamahamotorfinanceusa.com/ ) difficult to use. There was an error in the account information that I provided. Most financial services will allow either direct banking login or micro deposits to authenticate a bank, but not Yamaha Motor Finance. They attempted to charge the bank with incorrect info, and gave me a returned-check fee of {$27.00}. I corrected my bank account info promptly on XX/XX/2018 and provided a payment of {$600.00}, when Yamaha Motor Finance had informed me that my check had been returned. Note that at the time that Yamaha Motor Finance informed me my check had been informed they did NOT inform me about the {$27.00} returned check fee, but hid it in the account statements. 

The next month, I had difficulty with Yamaha Motor Finance 's website. I attempted to make another {$600.00} payment on XX/XX/2018, but because of their user interface, I charged myself {$6000.00}. I did not find this out until I read the ~8pt font on my confirmation page. I immediately called Yamaha Motor Finance 's customer service line, and they informed me that they could not cancel the charge once it was sent, and that I would have to call my bank to stop payment, which I did. 

Once again, I was charged a {$27.00} returned check fee. Luckily, I was able to submit another {$600.00} payment to Yamaha Motor Finance that was cleared ( XX/XX/2018 ) BEFORE Yamaha Motor Finance penalized  my account for issuing a stop-payment. I'll explain this soon. When I called the customer service desk to request that my fee be waived, I was confronted by a very abrasive customer service team that essentially blamed me for making an error, which I believe is dishonest, because I have never made errors using any other financial institution 's website. 

Finally, my greatest complaint comes from XX/XX/2018, when I again attempted to to make an ACH payment, being especially careful to pay attention to the dollar amounts and banking info. When I attempted to process the payment, I was given an error code. When I called customer service, the first level customer service agent told me that I would no longer be able to use ACH payments to pay my card, without any definite end term, and that this was essentially a penalty for issuing a stop-payment. Then the agent cheerfully told me that I was welcome to use either XXXX or XXXX XXXX to issue the payment, or pay with a banking check via mail. This type of extortion resembles XXXX XXXX   Scams. 

When I tried to escalate this issue to an accounts manager, she rudely informed me that if I had read the account disclosures that I would know that such a penalty exists. While on the phone with the accounts manager, I used the website to bring up PDFs of all the account disclosures. I searched the accounts disclosures for any reference to the stop payment ACH restriction penalty, and could find none. I asked the manager where in the account disclosures it was, and she could not give me an answer. She proceeded to put me on hold for about 10 minutes. Then came back on the phone to tell me that she could not find the place where this penalty was referenced, but that it was in the cardholder agreement. 

Yamaha Motor Finance 's poor website design, aggressive fee schedule, and inaccessible cardholder agreements, along with the way they specifically make it difficult and inconvenient to make payments on a loan, are designed specifically to garnish fees and push customers to default on their loans. This has been the worst loan service I have ever received. I warn all to be very careful when financing with this company.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation