Consumer complaint received 2021-04-03
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: NY
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Lease
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Problem extending the lease

Complaint:
I had a 3 year lease on a car through Chase Auto Finance which was over in XX/XX/XXXX. In XXXX of XXXX I called the car dealership to discuss what to do. The dealer told me that Chase was offering a 6 month, month-to-month extension due to the pandemic, and all I had to do is call them, which I did. I was told that yes, I could have this extension, all I had to do was to continue to make monthly payments. I did so, by auto-deduct from my bank account ( Chase ) and in fact I am paid up through XX/XX/XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX my car was missing, and I found out through the police, whom I called to report a stolen vehicle, that it had been repossessed. I then spent many hours calling Chase. My account had been deleted and my car had been towed to somewhere about an hour from where I live. I was told the only way I could get my car back was to send {$18000.00} in cash via XXXX XXXX to XXXX  TX. Alternatively I could send a cashier 's check to a post office box in XXXX XXXX, TX but they could not tell me how long that might take nor would they given me any written instruction or guarantee that I would even get my car back. I actually did try to find out how to send this large amount of cash by XXXX XXXX and that is not even possible, at least not from the part of the country where I live! I called many XXXX XXXX and was told they do NOT sent that kind of cash, the most you could send is {$3000.00} a day, and you can only do that a few times, not the number of times you need to get to {$18000.00}. I was warned by several XXXX XXXX offices that this sounded like fraud and I might lose all my money if I even attempted it. 

I opened a dispute with Chase but the next week I was told they consider the repossession to be valid, but I was not even given a reason why, they just hang up. 
Again, I was paid up, plus I was never contacted by Chase, told I needed to do anything, and my car was just taken. I am terrified that my credit will somehow be wrecked by this. I'm a single mother of XXXX, I and my children all had XXXX and believe me, we have suffered. I am XXXX and have had to be working from home. All the time I have had to spend on this has cost me loss of income, as if I don't work I can't bill, it has caused me mental anguish and turned my life upside down. Public transportation is very limited where I live. I am having an extremely hard time getting my child who is going to hybrid school to and from school, shopping for groceries, etc. 

I would like to add that my mom, who was trying to help me, originally called the CFPB. She was told it would be okay for her to file a complaint on my behalf and she did, complaint ID XXXX. Because of that she was contacted by a XXXX XXXX who stated he was from Chase executive offices. She gave him my contact information and thereafter he only spoke to me. After about 2 weeks he called and told me the same thing I had been told after my initial dispute : the repossession is " valid '', and then he hung up on me. 
Yesterday my mother received an email from the CFPB stating " This complaint lists someone the company does not recognize as their customer ... '' and it seems that this exonerated Chase from having to respond to you, the CFPB. Even more upsetting though, is that I received an email from you, the CFPB saying " We've received your complaint with ID XXXX but I NEVER MADE A COMPLAINT! Who did this, its very strange and upsetting! it also says on the bottom that the issue is " struggling to pay your loan '' and this is not and has never been the case! I have made all my payments on time, as I stated above. 
So now I am making my own complaint against Chase, although I have no real hope that you or any consumer protection agency will actually do anything to redress my grievances against this company, which I have subsequently found out has been the object of at least one class action suit already, and has had many many complaints lodged against them for unspeakable, misleading and fraudulent practices.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief