Consumer complaint received 2020-10-01
Company: Yamaha Motor Finance Corporation USA
State: CA
Product: Vehicle loan or lease
Sub-product: Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease
Sub-issue: Loan sold or transferred to another company

Complaint:
I purchased a used motorcycle in XXXX of 2019. It was financed with XXXX XXXX. I set up my bill pay XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX and started making payments ( {$180.00} XXXX in XXXX. There were no issues with XXXX. Every time I got paid, I would log on to my XXXX account and make a payment with no problems. In XXXX I received notice that Yamaha Financial Services would be taking over the loan. XX/XX/XXXX I received a letter from Yamaha informing me that if I used bill pay I would need to contact my bank and update the information so that the payments would be sent to correct lender, I contacted XXXX and updated all of the information as instructed and continued to make my payments. When I received my XXXX statement it showed that I was a month behind and charged a late fee of {$39.00}. I called and Yamaha informed me that I was not behind. Confused at this point I went back through my statements to confirm that the payment was received. I noticed that the payment was returned. I immediately logged on to my bank and made my XXXX and XXXX payments and called Yamaha to inform them what I had found. I also emailed them proof of payment. I made several calls and demonstrated more than once that I had made payments on time. After my XXXX payment was returned and several phone calls and emails someone finally informed me that Yamaha does not accept payments through bill pay. This was extremely frustrating since I am now 3 payments, 6 phone calls and 2 emails deep trying to figure out what was going on. Despite a lengthy conversation on how I am just finding this out and why the heck not, I again immediately wrote a check for the full three months. I was informed that the late fees would be removed and my account would be made current. However only two of the three late fees were removed and when they received my check for three payments, they applied my payment to two of the past due payments and the late fee, the balance of my three month payment was applied to the principle of the loan. No one informed me of this and when I received my next statement it showed I was a month behind and there was another late fee. I made several more phone calls trying to figure this out. At this point I am dealing with a different person every time I call. I have to sit on hold explain everything to a new person and all they can do in inform me that they will escalate the issue for resolution. I was told that someone would contact me. I again emailed them proof of payment demonstrating that I had made all of my payments on time. I never received any calls or received any letters other than my statements. After about 5 phone calls I was informed that the issue was rejected by whoever reviewed the issue. I asked to speak with the department that handles these decisions and I was informed that it was not possible to transfer me. I requested that they send it up the chain again and I emailed a copy of everything to the person I was speaking to. He confirmed receipt and the next day I received a call back from him telling me that the issue had been resolved. I was relieved and very grateful for his help. I made my XXXX payment with no issue. The month of XXXX however is a different story. I get paid on the XXXX and my payment is due on the XXXX. The XXXX of this month was a Sunday and when payday falls on a Sunday we get paid on Monday. I got paid and deposited my check, it clears the following day and I mailed a check on the XXXX. Remember they do not accept bill pay so I am mailing checks now. They did not process the check until the XXXX. Now they are calling me to inform me that I owe them another XXXX for a late fee and that my account is past due. I have a lot of creditors and I am paying all of them on time. I have not been late on a payment with any of them in a long time and it is very rare that I have to talk to anyone of them on the phone. In the last year since Yamaha has taken over my account I have estimated that I have spent 20 hours in phone calls and correspondence with them. They have proven to be punitive and unconcerned with their customers time or how effective they manage these accounts. I would be very surprised to find that I am the only one having this problem. Can you please help me? I am currently trying to find a different company to take over my loan. However since I am most effectively reestablishing my credit and doing everything I can to improve my situation, I am still not quite there yet where refinancing is an easy task. Also I am concerned about when one institution takes over accounts of another like this that they should have to maintain the agreements and structures in place. They can't just arbitrarily change the rules and arrangements with the previous institution. I have a letter from them stating that they did accept Bill pay and that all I had to do was update the information. I will attach it with the files.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation