Consumer complaint received 2022-06-16
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC.
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Hello, Writing in to complain about my mortgage service provider, Ally XXXX XXXX, being late on providing me a refund of {$1100.00} to my escrow account. This stems from penalties from delinquent property tax payments due to Ally 's negligence. 
Context. Ally was late on paying our secured county property tax of {$10000.00}, and we were hit with a late penalty of $ {$1100.00} by the county. 
XX/XX/XXXX. We made Ally aware of this and wanted them to use our escrow balance of {$10000.00} to pay this off. We also requested that Ally be responsible for the penalty of $ {$1100.00} as they already had our parcel number and should have paid our property tax on time. I threaten to report to the CFPB if this is not resolved in a timely fashion. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Received response from Ally confirming receipt of complaint, but no action taken yet. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Ally confirms they used the escrow balance of {$10000.00} to pay off both the secured property tax and penalties. I immediately chat online with a representative who confirms that corporate policy is for Ally to pay off delinquent penalties with a separate corporate account. She notes that a refund of $ {$1100.00} should be provided by XX/XX/XXXX. I personally paid {$170.00} to bring out escrow account to {$0.00} once the penalty is reimbursed. 
XX/XX/XXXX : No update from Ally. I ping them again. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Ally responds that an updated completion date is XX/XX/XXXX. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Unresolved, that makes XXXX broken promises. I ping Ally again at XXXX. I threaten to report to the CFPB again if this is not resolved by XX/XX/XXXX as we've been waiting a month for Ally to follow their own policy. 
XX/XX/XXXX : Ally responds claiming they attempted to reach us on XX/XX/XXXX and left a message, which is likely not true as we did not receive any calls or texts or emails between XXXX and midnight. They instead ask us to call or chat with a representative and do not provide an updated timeframe on resolution. 
XX/XX/XXXX : I chat with a representative, who claims they can not provide a refund due to the county needing to " split our parcel ''. I did not authorize this or was aware of this and asked for proof. The representative declined to provide any citing it is private internal documentation and that I needed to contact the county directly. They claim they were informed of this yesterday on XX/XX/XXXX and did not have an estimated completion date. I asked how this is relevant to providing us a refund, and they responded by saying they needed to " wait for the parcel to be split ''. This is a clear contradiction, as we should have been provided a refund earlier if this " parcel splitting '' was only discovered yesterday. 
After this interaction, I reviewed their FAQs and could no longer find the original statement that claims that they would pay delinquent penalties with a separate corporate account. Nonetheless, I have written proof that they agreed to pay off my penalties under this original policy. I believe they've secretly removed this policy in response to my specific case. 
Conclusion. I believe Ally is XXXX ) lying to me regarding the claims about a " parcel split '' and XXXX ) has not been following their own original corporate policy and XXXX ) been wildly irresponsible and inconsistent in promptly addressing my concerns. From my perspective, Ally has effectively committed theft and is repeatedly feeding me lies in an attempt for me to give up on claiming my refund.

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