Consumer complaint received 2024-05-09
Product: Payday loan, title loan, personal loan, or advance loan — Installment loan
Issue: Problem when making payments — 
Company: Alorica Inc. (VA)

The purpose of this complaint is about fraudulent and abusive tactics being performed by SST servicing in order to avoid fulfilling contractual obligations committed to by XXXX XXXX in their original loan agreements. The company customer service line presents confusing and obfuscatory information that is only partially addressed if the caller is willing to demand speaking to a supervisor and is able to wait a lengthy period of time on hold to do so. 

This loan was transferred for servicing to SST from XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. The original loan agreement with XXXX allowed for one deferred payment for each 12 months of on-time payments. I requested my deferred payment for the XX/XX/XXXX payment. I was told by the SST servicer at that time that I was not eligible as I only had 11 months of on-time payments. I told them that was not correct since my previously deferred payment had been in XX/XX/XXXX. Thus from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX I had accumulated another 12 months of on-time payments. In XX/XX/XXXX ( approx ) I called back to ask that my payment be deferred. I was again told by the agent that I only had 11 months of on-time payments. Only after demanding to speak to a supervisor was I able to resolve that I was eligible for a deferral. The supervisor agreed to defer my XX/XX/XXXX payment. I asked for an email or written confirmation to be sent and was told they could not do that but they ensured it would be deferred. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the payment was withdrawn from checking account and not deferred as promised. I called again on XX/XX/XXXX and was told by the service agent that the correct process was not followed by the SST supervisor in order to defer my payment and that I could request a refund by sending in an email with documentation that the payment had processed through my account. 

I sent an email as required, with a screen shot from my checking account showing that they payment had been withdrawn from my account. On XXXX I received an email saying that I needed to call the company. I called again on XXXX and a service agent told me that my screenshot did not include the word " posted '' indicating that the payment was taken from my account and that I would need to resubmit my request. I told them that the word posted is not used on my checking on-line or statements and that clearly the screenshot indicated the payment had been made. I asked for a supervisor. 

After a lengthy hold, the supervisor, XXXX, told me that the statement was not necessary at this point and that he would contact the accounting department to see if my refund " could be pushed through '' and that he would call me back. At this point, regardless of whether my refund is ever made, it is clear that SST is using evasive tactics to avoid honoring the loan commitment of payment deferrals and is deliberately making the customer jump through multiple unreasonable hoops in order to avail themselves of previously make loan commitments. In addition to this complaint, what other recourse is available when a loan servicer does not honor the original loan commitments?