US Bank, Council Bluffs, IA - attempted to repossess car - upset with lack of communication with US Bank

Complaints.com received the following consumer message on December 11, 2002:

From:

RE: US Bank, Council Bluffs, IA - attempted to repossess car - upset with lack of communication with US Bank

The US Bank I referred to is out of Council Bluffs, Iowa. However, our calls to them were rerouted numerous times through 800 numbers so where the calls actually ended up is unknown.

Wondering if I were the only one experiencing problems with US Bank, I decided to check out complaints on the internet. The post from Mike Bogan hit home so hard I had to write.

My husband and I were requested to open a checking account with them when they financed our car loan. We would deposit just a little over the amount of our loan payment, and it was used strictly for that purpose. In the few years we have been paying on this loan we have repeatedly had deposits which were "lost", and once found our account was credited for the amount of the deposit only not taking into account the overdraft fees they had charged on both the loan payment and the checking account.

The third time I had gone to our bank and complained about this I was made to feel as though it were my mistake, and was even told if it happened again they would not cover the od charges?! I wisened up and closed the checking account and make the payments directly to them, rather than through the checking account they said we had to have to get the loan. But that was the least of my problems with them.

My husband was diagnosed this past year with a rare terminal illness. Because of the extensive medical bills we filed bankruptcy, one of the hardest things we've had to do, but are hoping it will help us get a fresh start on his future medical. Anyway, the court allowed us to keep our one and only vehicle, which was the one financed through US Bank. One late night we were woken by a tow truck and two repo men there to take our car. We tried explaining to them repeatedly but they wouldn't listen.

My husband got into the car to pull it into the garage until the sheriff could get there and they proceeded in chasing him around our yard in the tow truck. It was a nightmare. The sheriff convinced them to leave and give us time to reach our attorney but we got no sleep at all, afraid they'd come back. The next morning my husband called US Bank, of course it took forever to actually get a real person on the line, then he was passed from one person to the next. When he finally was able to speak to the person in charge of the bankruptcy department he was told that they had sent our attorney papers which he did not return.

Furious that our attorney could have made such a mistake we confronted him in anger only to be told that he had received no such papers. The attorney then called this same US Bank employee who then changed her story saying that we were two months behind on payments, When we produced all our payment receipts for the attorney he then called them back and got yet another excuse, but was told then that they would not bother us anymore and that we need not be worried. Yeah right!!

They have no idea what they put us through. Out of curiosity we ran our own credit check and found that they have listed our vehicle as "surrendered" on the credit report which basically makes it look as though they have a legal right to take it back whenever they want. That leaves us to believe that the nightmare with them is far from over. They're getting their money but want the car too!

I can not understand how they manage to keep getting by with the way they treat their customers. Shouldn't a financial institute know bookkeeping and proper record keeping? Shouldn't there be an open line for communication when a problem arises? I think they know exactly what they are doing and their whole purpose is to take all they can from the people who put their trust in them.