Consumer complaint received 2022-12-26
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Managing the loan or lease — Problem with fees charged
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (TX)

On XX/XX/XXXX I logged into my online account for Ally Auto to make the final payment on my vehicle loan. I called XXXX which is the customer service number listed on their website. The online payment portal said that due to the status of the account some functions are unavailable. The payment was due on XX/XX/XXXX. I thought there may have been an issue with the site since I had not received any notices about an issue with my loan account from Ally Auto. I waited until the after the holidays since to contact customer service as to give time for the site to be fixed and thinking that no one would be able to assist me due to no one being there. There have been many times I have been late on payments throughout the years, some by over a month and Ally Auto had never disabled my online access before. Thats why I thought it may have been an issue with the website and not the accodunt. On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX  XXXX I called customer service and was informed that they would not be able to assist me and they had to transfer me an " account specialist ''. After an extended hold I was able to speak with XXXX XXXX She asked if I would like to make a payment today, and if I was paying if off in full. I told her yes, that was why I was calling. I said there would be a {$4.00} fee to make the payment over the phone. I inquired as to why I was unable to make a payment online as I have done for the entire life of the loan. She said it was because I was at the end of my contract / loan term. She stated this several times that the account online was disabled due to being at the end of the contract / loan and the payment was required to be made over the phone or through XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Both of these options would result in a fee. I again asked why I could not pay online as I have done before, XXXX informed me that the account had been put into collections. I asked her if the account had been put into collection status. She never answered the question. After some more back and forth I felt I had no choice but to pay the fee. I felt backed into a corner. I informed her that I would pay the fee but put in a report to the CFPB. After the payment was completed, she told me that I would have contact Customer Service tomorrow at XXXX about getting the title for the vehicle. I asked for the name of her supervisor so it could be included in this report as she said that no supervisors were available, they were all in a meeting or were not there. She said she was not qualified to give me the name of her supervisor. She kept telling me to call customer service back for that information. I told her if she could not give me that information I would hold until a supervisor or XXXX was available to speak with me. During this exchange she placed me on hold multiple times without providing notice of doing so. In the end she provided me the name of her " boss '' XXXX XXXX. She informed me that he would be calling me later today XX/XX/XXXX. The call, in total, lasted XXXX hour and XXXX minutes. Most of that time was from being on hold. She was very vague, unhelpful and left me worried that the truck was going to be sent to be repossessed. I felt I had no choice but to agree to what they wanted or loose my vehicle. The final payment was under {$500.00}