Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Banks are the worst....I must vent!

We traded in our minivan for a suburban back in August. It's all good and fun til you have to throw banks into the mix.

Here's what happened...we still had a "payoff" on our minivan which we knew before going in. When we started working with #'s, they asked us about how much we thought we had left so we told them. They went, wherever it is that they go just before they come back to try and convince you that the amount they are giving is "the best they can do"...came back and said that it was actually about $2000 less than we had said. Why would we even question them? They're the car dealership, they obviously have some magical way of knowing all, right? WRONG!! We got the car, went home all happy like, only to get a call a week or 2 later saying that the payoff was more than they had told us originally (funny, it turned out to be the amount we told them.) and so they needed Josiah to come in and sign for the new loan amount. Why they asked us first and then didn't take our word for it? I'll never know. They mentioned to him that they were still going to try for a longer term to get the payment down a little more. A couple weeks later we got a letter from a bank that bought the loan and a statement a couple days later. I went ahead and made that payment, only to receive a new letter a few days after that saying that they had bought the new loan. When I recieved a statement for the new loan and it had a different account # from the first loan, we immdiately called them to let them know they needed to transfer our payment from the first account to the new one. In the meantime, we needed to pay the difference of the loan amounts so we wouldn't be behind. Cool! No big deal, right? WRONG!! I made that payment on the new account a few days later, but for curiosity sakes, I checked out the status of the original loan account. What the poo?! The payment had been taken off that one and that account was now showing past due, but the payment hadn't been transferred to the new account?! I had Josiah call them again to see what the deal was. You would think it'd be a fairly simple thing to take care of. But NO! Over the next few weeks we had them calling us every few days wondering where our payment was. We got really good at telling the story over and over. Fortunately, someone finally smartened up and put it in the notes, which was apparently hidden, because we were still getting calls and would have to start telling the story til they found the notes 1/2 way through it. Anyway, the next payment would be due the 9th of October which I was really hesitant to pay, since they couldn't even seem to find where our first payment was hanging around at. So that we wouldn't become even more past due and have our car taken away, I went ahead and logged into my account to make it, only because it's a day after the due date, it is now showing 60 days in the deliquent status AND I can't even make the payment online, I have to call "Customer Care!" UGH! So I do. And I wait, and wait......and wait. And for the record, they have the WORST selection of music playing. After a few minutes of waiting I think maybe they aren't actually accepting calls yet and see that they have a 24 hour payment line, so stupid me hangs up and attempts to use that only to hear them tell me that I can't make a payment through there and need to call "Customer Care"......AAaarrrrrgh!!! I call back and do the waiting thing again and finally some chick picks up. I start telling her why I'm calling and once she hears the part about me wanting to make a payment, she immediately transfers...withOUT informing me first I might add, to......the automated payment system!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY CRAP!!! So in all my calmness, thinking maybe she had pressed a magical button that would now let me make the payment, I attempt again, to no avail! I slammed the phone on the desk, irritated that this chick had actually done this to me. Immediately the phone rang and I was sure it was her calling back to apologize for accidentally transfering me but no....it was...THE HOLD MUSIC!! It was haunting me now, I just knew it. I waited forever again. Finally some dood picked up and I started explaining the reason for my call and he transfers me, thankfully, to a supervisor that might understand my call better. After a few minutes of talking to her, I thought we had a clear communication (only she was hispanic and had an accent, so I assume I did to her, and that may have been where we went wrong...) I could have sworn that she said a payment for $500 and some odd dollars had posted to my account on Sept 23rd so I figured we were all good and finally squared away. So I gave her my payment info and she verifies everything,...

...then she asks "when do you think you'll be able to make the payment for October?"

me........."I'll make it in November when it's due....isn't that acceptable?"

her.."Ok, but you'll continue to be 30 days past due every month."

.....me "What?!" Didn't you just say that the payment was posted to my account on the 23rd of September?!"

her..."blah blah blah blah blah" (at this point my blood pressure had risen quite a bit so all I could hear was it boiling.)

As calmly as possbile I explained that we had a misunderstanding and that the payment had been made on 9/7 and cleared my checking account on 9/11 and that I have a confirmation # and that the payment had been made to the first account and it just needed to be brought out of limboville and placed on the new account. She said there were notes there that the check had come back unpaid and had a void on it?! I told her that it was taken out of my account and was never returned, so unless they're doing some dishonest juggling of my money, it should be placed on our loan account. She was going to email the whole thing to someone else, so now, I get to sit here taking out all my frustration in blogland, while I wait for her to call me back and inform me further on how they can screw things up.

I did call my bank after getting off the phone w/her, to verify that what I was seeing on my account online was correct and that they did NOT actually receive it back. Which they haven't. So we wait...thankfully without a terrible selection of 70's-80's crappy country. Or whatever it was they had going.

7 comments:

Jenna said...

What an absolute nightmare. I think they should have eaten the error in the beginning since THEY made it. You should have been off the hook!

idahohubers said...

That is so incredibly LAME! Sounds a lot like the hassle we went thru with our insurance after the twins were born...took us 2 years to settle all the pmts at their doctor. The whole we paid - "but we don't see your payment on our system" junk. It won't take that long for you I'm sure.

Take a break and think of a nice place for us to lunch when i get to AZ. We drive out on the 15th of Nov.

YogaNana said...

But take it easy on the phone rep -- I do this for a living and it ain't fun, having to justify what the people who employ you have done wrong and get it untangled.

You shall overcome.

Anonymous said...

ah sarah so sorry. hope this eases up for you very soon. this sounds like such a nightmare. good vibes to you, kathleen

Hannah said...

That does not sound like fun Sarah. I'm sorry. I had to go through some similar crap with Directv a few months back. After many phone calls and me getting more and more irritated, we figured out that it was Mike's fault. He ahd written the check to the wrong account number. Eventually it did get taken care of though.

Crazymamaof6 said...

oh my gosh! that is so lame! i hate paying the bills, i do it, but when stuff happens i lose it! huge bummer! hope they get that all figured out soon!

Anonymous said...

hi sarah:
thanks for stopping by tonight. i like it when you stop by. yes, it is nice how they made me feel loved. just what i needed/wanted today. hope your yickies here are getting better. take care, kathleen

ps. if you enable your email in your profile, it is easier to respond directly to your comments. if you need or want help finding it, just ask me.