Consumer complaint received 2017-03-01
Company: Santander Consumer USA Holdings Inc.
State: CA
Product: Consumer Loan
Sub-product: Vehicle lease
Issue: Taking out the loan or lease

Complaint:
In XXXX I applied to drive for XXXX and was told I could lease a new vehicle with special rates through SCUSA-Santander Consumer USA. The nearest dealership offering this program was XXXX in XXXX, CA. I went to XXXX and was told if I put down {$1000.00}. that I could lease a new XXXX with payments deducted weekly from my XXXX earnings. On XXXX, I paid XXXX {$1000.00}. cash to lease a XXXX. A week later, the contract was sent for me to sign. The term was 52 months and the weekly payment would be {$180.00} or {$870.00} monthly. At the end of the 52 months, I could purchase the car for {$1.00}. An additional {$1000.00}. deposit would also be deducted in 52 weekly payments. I accepted the terms, signed the contract and sent it back to Santander. Finally, on XXXX, XXXX from XXXX called, said the car had been funded and I picked it up the next day. I began driving for XXXX on XXXX. The first Vehicle Fee was deducted from my XXXX earnings of XXXX-XXXX in the amount of {$200.00}. SCUSA records show this as {$180.00} payment. ( {$170.00} + {$13.00} tax ) The remaining {$19.00} was for the {$1000.00}. deposit. Nearly 5 months passed. Each week I earned more than enough to cover my lease payment and deposit. The week of XXXX-XXXX, the Vehicle Fee went up to {$220.00}. Santander records list this as lease payment of {$200.00} and {$19.00} deposit. For the next 3 weeks, {$220.00} was deducted. Then, for the week of XXXX-XXXX, the Vehicle Fee deduction was {$380.00}. The next week it was {$220.00}, then week ending XXXX, Vehicle Fee was {$400.00}. After many calls to Santander resulting in being put on indefinite hold, I spoke to SCUSA rep XXXX on XXXX. She said, " I see your contract dated XXXX and it shows payments of {$200.00}. The higher deductions are to get you caught up on your loan. '' I told her my signed contract agreed only to payments of {$180.00}. and asked to speak to a supervisor. She said her manager was on another call and would call me back and asked if I wanted a copy of the contract. I said yes. She verified my address and said it would be sent within 5-7 days. I never got a call back nor did I receive the contract. Repeated calls resulted in long hold times, hang-ups and no resolution. Finally, on XXXX, I spoke to XXXX, with the Santander President 's Office. Why was unauthorized money being taken from me? After all, I have a signed contract. She responded, " The contract was wrong so they changed it. '' I told her there was no notice to me nor did I re-sign a new contract. She said, " It is what it is. I 'll send you a copy of your contract dated XXXX. '' Then she hung up. I never received this copy either. Over the past year, I was told that my loan was past due as I argued that it is not according to the terms of my signed contract. For 130 weeks I have been illegally overcharged {$14.00} per week for a total of {$1900.00}. Add this to any " past due '' amounts to make the account current. I continued to try and resolve this issue to no avail. I asked if they were going to repossess my car and was told that only after 90 days past due and if payments ceased. Each week, payments were deducted from my earnings and paid to SCUSA. Despite this, on XXXX my car was repossessed. I called SCUSA and was told that my car was repossessed due to the account being 68 days past due with no recent payments received. I told them payments were made weekly, as shown on my statements. They said there was no reinstatement in California. Upon logging in to SCUSA My Account on XXXX, it said {$400.00} was past due and payable on XXXX. SCUSA was slow to credit the weekly payments from UBer on my behalf and in addition to overcharging me, unjustly took my car.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief