Consumer complaint received 2018-01-26
Product: Vehicle loan or lease — Loan
Issue: Problems at the end of the loan or lease — Problem with paying off the loan
Company: TIDEWATER FINANCE COMPANY, INC. (CA)

We believe XXXX XXXX XXXX is practicing unfair business practices. In XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX we bought a car and Tidewater financed it. The contract would 'mature ' on XX/XX/XXXX ( see attached ). We tried our best but fell behind on payments many times during those six years, but via e-mails we always requested how much we owed to bring our account current, and did so. According to our contract ( see attached ), Tidewater will notify us before the last scheduled payment was due of any changes in what we must pay. A quick search on XXXX shows that people in a similar situation usually receive a notification two months prior to the last scheduled payment if they still owe a balance. We 've never received such a notification. We never received any notification other than the monthly statements that never show how much the balance is over the years but does have a line where they could add any " Delinquent Payment Due ''. In the last 6 or 7 months, it was blank. Thinking we paid what we owed ( and trusting Tidewater would let us know if we had n't ) the, what we believed to be, last statement ( see attached ) showed a " Delinquent Payment Due '' of {$440.00}. Shocked to see that, we wrote them immediately to ask what that amount was for since they never notified us of that amount in those months prior. More than a month later, we still did n't receive a response. They called vigilantly and ultimately wrote us an e-mail ( see attached ) on XX/XX/XXXX. I wrote them back on XX/XX/XXXX ( attached ) and told them we were waiting for their written response to our letter, asking what that {$440.00} was for. We finally received their email response on XX/XX/XXXX ( attached ), and it was a shocker. According to the Tidewater rep, we did n't owe them {$440.00} but a whopping {$3600.00}! You can imagine how shocked we were to discover that amount! We wanted to respond quickly but tragedy struck our family and we went into mourning. We could n't focus on anything at that time. But when we were strong enough to respond, we decided to offer Tidewater a fair pay-off. On XX/XX/XXXX, we sent them a letter with a pay-off offer ( attached ). We heard nothing back. After the XXXX XXXX, we sent them a follow-up letter ( attached ), giving them until XX/XX/XXXX to respond. On XX/XX/XXXX, we finally received a response ( attached ) but it was sorely lacking. NO mention of our offer. NO yes or no answer. Instead, they ignored our offer completely but *did* say that they 'd honor our 'cease and desist ' - something we 've never asked for! Then, on XX/XX/XXXX, Tidewater sent a repo-man to husband 's place of employment, and since he was off that day, the repo-man came *into* the store and spoke with an underling of his. He just discovered that this morning! Aside from this being embarrassing, this move risked having him lose his job. There is a ZERO tolerance of debt collectors. The parking lot is n't large. It 's on private property and one strip of parking spots only. The repo-man did *not* have to get out his tow truck to see that the car was not there. There was no need for him to come inside the store, which is a high-end XXXX store with high-end customers. This is not how a business conducts fair business practices. We are at our wits end. We believe we 're, contractually, in the right but it appears Tidewater is n't listening to us and we hope you 'll have more luck. We 're not looking for a handout but we 've already paid the car twice and we do n't want to overpay what we contractually owe. This is why we filed this complaint with the CFPB.