Consumer complaint received 2024-09-06
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Billing problem
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY (MS)

In XX/XX/XXXX, my son and I bought a XXXX XXXX XXXX  which was financed through Wells Fargo Bank. Within a few months, we began having problems with our payments not being credited correctly, timely, or not being credited at all. We called several times to try to get the matter resolved and we were given a different response every time. We also never talked to the same representative twice in a row. It was always someone different. When we asked about information that a different representative had given us, they would claim there was no record of that in our file or nothing in the notes about our previous concern or conversation. Sometimes they even claimed that a call had not been made or that there was no record of a call. We were first told that the bank we used ( XXXX  ) was not sending the payment through the bill pay system that we had sent up and were advised to call the bank. When we did, the bank said that the payments had been sent. When we called Wells Fargo back, they indicated that our bank must have sent them to the wrong place. After verifying the payment information with Wells Fargo, we called Regions back and that was the information they had in our file. It wasn't long after that, we began receiving phone calls from Wells Fargo that our payments were late and hadn't been made. Depending on who we talked to, it ranged from more than 30 days late to more than 80 days late. They also reported to our credit bureau that the payments were late in different months than they even told us. When it was repossessed, they reported the repossesion on my credit report and my son 's credit report as two differnet months and could never get their story straight. Neither of our credit reports match at all as far as when they are saying we are late or didn't make a payment. My credit was excellent and over 800 when all of this started because i have always been very protective of it and now its down to barely XXXX. We offered to send our statements from the bank with the dates the payments had been made. We were given a fax number and sent the statements. Wells Fargo stated that they had never received them. When we tried again, Wells Fargo said they must have gone to a different department. After verifying the fax number to the right department, which was the number we had, we sent them a third time and they " still didn't receive them. '' We requested twice for a payment history, once by mail and once by email but never received them. Wells Fargo suggested we use another payment method so we began making a few payments online and making some of the payments over the phone with a representative with our debit card. Late charges and other odd fees started showing up on our statements. Also the date of the payment was never the same as the date we made the payments and several times after a payment had been made a " payment reversal '' was done. The representative at Wells Fargo was telling us that it had been unpaid by the bank. After a few months, according to Well Fargo we were once again " late. '' When we called to figure out why it was late, one representative would tell us a month that a payment hadn't been made but when we would speak to another in the same week it would be a differnet month. We could never get the same answer for any question from any two people. We filed a dispute which supposedly went to the " Office of the President. '' Within a day or two, someone who claimed to be with that office called and said he was handling our claim. We thought we had finally gotten somewhere. We were also told not to make a payment until the dispute was resolved, which, in their words, took two or three days but no more than a week. During that time we were locked out of the app and online access. In XX/XX/XXXX, after months of trying everything we knew to do to get to the bottom of it all, we found out that a notice of repossession had been filed without our knowledge. We were at a loss. When we called Wells Fargo, they denied several of the things they had outright told us and when we asked for the recordings of the phone conversations to be reviewed they claimed to " not be able to find them. '' In XX/XX/XXXX, they picked up our vehicle. We were told it would remain local and as soon as we paid what they claimed we were behind, the repossession fee, and the payment for XXXX, we could pick it up. When we made the payment of {$2900.00} on XX/XX/XXXX we found out that they had taken it to Georgia, two states away and we would have to pick it up. According to the representative of Wells Fargo, we wouldn't owe another payment until the XXXX payment due XX/XX/XXXX. On XXXX XXXX, we paid XXXX. For the payments due in XXXX and XXXX trying to stay ahead and curtail all of the trouble we had before. On XX/XX/XXXX, we made another regular payment that should have been due XX/XX/XXXX. So the next payment should have been due XX/XX/XXXX. We made a regular payment on XX/XX/XXXX to cover the XXXX payment. On XX/XX/XXXX, we made another regular payment that should have been due XX/XX/XXXX. By this time, Wells Fargo had started calling us again about our payments being late. There is no way after everything that happened we were going to let this get by us again so we had tried to stay on top of it. We also had still been making payments with our debit card over the phone with a representative exclusively because we knew the payment would be processed by the bank immediately and there shouldn't be a reason for a mix up on the statement. During the time since we got the vehicle back, Wells Fargo had been charging a late fee between {$5.00} and {$150.00} every month and could never tell us why. When we began to push back once again, the " payment reversal '' fiasco started again. I called a representative and I was extremely frustrated. After hearing about everything that had happened, the Wells Fargo representative said, " I'm sorry. I don't know what to say. '' I asked once again for a payment history and never received it. We also had gotten more than one statement in XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX and no one could tell us why. He asked that we make a payment to pay some of the things that they claimed were late but I told him according to my records, nothing was late so we would contine making payments like always. We made a regular payment on XX/XX/XXXX for the payment due on XX/XX/XXXX. We even paid a little more to cover any late fee that might have accrued because it was due on the XXXX. When we called to dispute the reversals and the confusing information on our statements, the representative even looked back at our loan history and said, " Yeah, there have been alot of them and I don't know why. '' He also stated that the payments were not marked as a debit card payment but as a bill payment through the bank when they all had been made over the phone with a debit card with a representative. He offered to once again send a dispute request to the " Office of the President. '' I knew we had this experience before and didn't expect much to come from it so we once again made a regular payment on XX/XX/XXXX for the payment due XX/XX/XXXX. Just this week we received a letter in the mail demanding payment in full for the full amount of the loan. We were only given a few option. Full payment of the {$30000.00} loan, split the balance into three months and pay {$7600.00} per month for four months and then divide the balance by 12 months, or we could voluntarily surrender the vehicle before they repossessed it. The offered to let us refinance with another company but told us because we hadn't made much progress on our loan that no one would refinance it for us. They refused to let us make any more regular payments. The only payments they would accept would be one of their payment options. They also told us that if they repossessed the vehicle that they would sell it at auction and we would be responsible for the balance in the payment arrangement only they approve and in the time frame that only they approve or they would garnish our wages for those amounts. If they did, it would be significantly more than even our combined paychecks for the whole month. When we asked about the review that was supposedly given to the " Office of the President, " they claimed that there was no review on the account. Somebody was not telling the truth or the former representative didn't do what they said they would do which seemed to have happened even more than I realized. They seemed to tell us one thing and do something completely different. Or they would know what was going on with our account or actions that had been taken and just tell us what they thought we wanted to hear. We also found out that our loan maturity date, that we thought was XX/XX/XXXXXXXX  was actually sometime in XXXX according to the Wells Fargo website. That seemed to change once we started to question the actions on our account. So, once again we have been locked out of the app and the online access. I am just thankful I had screenshot the statements when I did. It has been a nightmare I wouldn't wish on anyone.