Consumer complaint received 2020-01-03
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (MA)

Summary : Seven weeks after initiating an online billpay for a {$3400.00} mortgage payment and having those funds debited from my checking account but never applied to the mortgage loan, neither the bank who issued the payment ( Ally Bank ), the mortgage company who received the payment ( Ally Mortgage / XXXX  ), or the third party billpay provider who processed the payment ( XXXX / XXXX ) can provide me with any reliable information as to where the funds are currently located, when or if they will be returned to me, or when or if they will be applied to the mortgage loan. At this point I am concerned that my {$3400.00} has been misappropriated. 
Details follow. 

After closing on my refinance mortgage with Ally Mortgage in early XXXX, I initiated an electronic recurring bill payment at my bank, Ally Bank using the loan account number, payee name, payee address, and payment amount listed on the payment coupon provided to me by the closing attorney at the time of closing ( closing date XX/XX/XXXX ). The bill payments were set to begin on XX/XX/XXXX, more than a month after closing the loan. 
Funds for the initial payment were debited from my Ally Bank checking account on XX/XX/XXXX, which matched my online instructions. 
In early XX/XX/XXXX I received a courtesy call from my mortgage provider Ally Mortgage. When I followed up with Ally Mortgage they declared that no payment had been received. The initial customer service rep noted that it was likely that when the original XX/XX/XXXX payment was sent that " there was no account set up yet '' for my loan number since it was so new, and that the funds could be immediately recovered by the sending bank. When I circled back to Ally Bank, who made the bill payment on my behalf, they countered that in fact the payment was completed electronically to Ally Mortgage ( XXXX ) and provided me with specific confirmation documentation of the completed payment, including all the information I had provided including the loan account number, payee name, payee address, and payment amount listed on the payment coupon provided to me by the closing attorney at the time of closing more than a month prior to the initial payment being sent. 
When I returned to Ally Mortgage with this information including a copy of Ally Bank 's disbursement confirmation, after numerous escalations and research, a customer service rep XXXX XXXX ( spelling? ) from Ally Mortgage contacted me on XX/XX/XXXX confirming that the funds had been received from an intermediary billpay provider ( " XXXX '' ) but without the loan number that I originally provided to Ally Bank and that Ally Bank 's disbursement confirmation also show. Ally Mortgage 's service supervisor told me that the funds had been returned to the intermediary billpay provider " XXXX '' and provided me with a check number for the payment that had been returned to XXXX. 
When I returned to Ally Bank with this information several times over the ensuing weeks to inquire if funds had been returned from Ally Mortgage or XXXX, no customer service rep that I spoke with was able to confirm the existence of a third-party billpay provider or locate any record of any funds being returned to Ally Bank or to me from Ally Mortgage ( XXXX  ). 
In frustration, I then returned to Ally Mortgage on XX/XX/XXXX, where a customer service supervisor XXXX XXXX again confirmed that Ally Bank does in fact utilize XXXX as an intermediary billpay provider and that my funds had been returned to XXXX. Together we contacted Ally Bank customer service. At this point we did speak with a service rep who confirmed the existence of XXXX as a provider and was able to liase directly with Ally bank 's billpay group / XXXX. Mr. XXXX and I were not permitted to speak directly with the billpay contacts via Ally bank customer service. The service rep in contact with Ally bank 's billpay group told me on XX/XX/XXXX that they had no record of any funds being returned to them and stated that the " check must have been lost in the mail '' from Ally Mortgage ( XXXX ) to XXXX. We left off with Mr. XXXX agreeing to research whether Ally Mortgage could document that the check from Ally Mortgage to XXXX had been sent and/or cashed. 
On Thursday XX/XX/XXXX, Mr. XXXX from Ally Mortgage ( XXXX  ) contacted me to say that he had verified that the check representing my returned funds had been received and cashed by XXXX. He provided me with an image of the cashed check. After reviewing the image of the check, I noted that there appeared to be no identifying information whatsoever ( name, account number, etc. ) that would instruct XXXX to return the funds to Ally Bank and ultimately to me. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Ally Bank and provided them with a copy of the cashed check and asked that the funds in question be returned to my account immediately, given that over 7 weeks had passed since my original payment debit and that it appeared that they and or their subcontractor had failed to complete the payment as instructed. The customer service manager declined to credit the funds but told me that they would research the issue and respond to me. While he hoped that there would be resolution in 3 or so business days, he could not provide me with a firm commitment to any timeframe. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I also contacted Ally Mortgage ( XXXX  ) to ask if there was in fact any identifying information on the returned payment that they sent to XXXX that would direct the funds back to Ally Bank and to me and also to inquire why the check number provided to me on XX/XX/XXXX does not match the check number on the check image that was provided to me on XX/XX/XXXX. Customer service supervisor XXXX XXXX could not confirm any of those items but agreed to research the issue and respond to me soon. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I contacted XXXX ( XXXX ) directly to see if they could provide any assistance since both Ally Bank and Ally Mortgage seem to be placing the missing funds in their ( XXXX 's ) possession. The customer service rep that I spoke to could only tell me that Ally Bank has its own internal billpay team that would have to resolve my issue but that in all likelihood a paper check made payable to " XXXX '' ( as the image that had been provided to me by Ally Mortgage shows ) would not have any way of being credited back to Ally Bank or to my personal account. 
Having diligently and politely chased down the whereabouts of my funds for weeks, I am no closer to any resolution than I was when I began. I am concerned that the funds have been misappropriated, that I have been shortchanged the interest that the funds would have accrued had they not left my account, that the principal and interest on my mortgage loan that should have been paid as of XX/XX/XXXX has not been paid, and that I have lost numerous hours of my time endlessly going around in circles with customer service at Ally Bank, Ally Mortgage, and XXXX with no resolution.