Chase Automotive Finance

Chase Automotive Finance

September 29, 2005

I have a dilemma with a bank. While living in Utah, I financed a vehicle in March 2002 with Chase Manhattan bank (via the auto dealership). I was diligent about paying on time each month and even worked towards paying it off early. About a year ago I moved to and registered the car in Virginia while the car still had a lien on it. About two months ago I decided to sell my car, and on 8/31/05 I found someone to buy it. I submitted payment the same day via Chase's online website to pay off the loan. The website said that it would take five business days to process, and I informed my buyer accordingly. I called Chase's customer service the next day to ask about where my title and lien release would be sent since I had moved from the state where I bought it. The representative proceeded to tell me that the title and lien release letter would be mailed to me and that my payoff request had already been processed. I called a few more times over the course of the next week to ensure that I would get the title when I needed, and attempted to find ways to speed up the process when it appeared that there would be additional time for mailing. I received conflicting information from several different representatives--some saying that it was mailed out on 9/1/05, some saying that it wouldn't be mailed out until the fifth business day (in which case I could have it FedExed overnight), and others saying that it would actually take nine business days to process because I had paid with a personal account. None of them could tell me exactly where my title was, and none seemed to really want to help me out after I expressed my urgency at needing to get the title so I could get it to my buyer, who was without a car of his own as he had just moved back to the States from being stationed overseas. This was how the process worked and that was all they could do. Needless to say, I was not happy, but not even all the sweet- and pathetic-talking, or even yelling in the world could get anyone there (including managers) to budge. So it turned out that some of the representatives had been right. The title had already been put in the

mail because I received a Utah title and letter of lien release in the mail on 9/10/05. It was a day too

late, though, because my buyer had informed me a couple of days before that he and his wife were

leaving on vacation for the next 2.5 weeks (borrowing their in-laws car) on that day. So we had to wait

until they returned to make the car/title/money exchange. During this waiting period, I had no

indication from Chase that anything should be wrong with my account and thought that everything was taken care of. I did find it a little strange that I wasn't seeing the money being deducted from my account, but I had also had experiences in the past where it had taken a long time for some transactions to finally post online. Because I hadn't heard anything from Chase to indicate there was a problem I decided that I would look into it further if the money wasn't deducted by the beginning of October. That was an error on my part. On 9/26/05, my buyer arrived back in town and we made the exchange with the title, car and money that evening. I received an email from my buyer 9/28/05 informing me that he also needed the VA vehicle registration to register the car since the title was out of state. I didn't have the registration on me since I was at work so I decided to call the VA DMV to find out if I could get a copy from them more quickly. It was at this point that the DMV informed me that, according to their system, there was still a hold on the electronic lien in their system. How could this be? The loan was paid off and I had my title. I immediately called Chase after learning this information, and it was at this point that they

informed me that about two weeks previously they had to do a reverse payment on my loan: there had been some problem with getting the funds from the bank. To this day, we still don't know why that happened--the funds were there, the account # and routing information was correct, and my bank has no record of Chase attempting to take the money. I asked what my options were, and you can bet that I was extremely upset when I was informed I would have to go through the process of paying off the loan all...over...again. Even after I explained that the car was no longer in my hands, and that my buyer could not register the car until the lien was released, I got little help from the representative. He told me I could overnight a cashier's check to their Payoff Department, but that it would still take up to three business days to process and an additional two to three business days to do everything else. In addition, they would have to look into why the VA DMV had an electronic lien since their records showed a UT title. I informed them over three weeks ago about this, but they only decided at this point to look into it.

In another call to the customer service line, I asked if I could do a bank to bank wire transfer, and it was only then that I was told that I could (this would be faster since it would get there that day). Why couldn't the other representative have suggested that?! I was told that it would take 1-2 business days to process the payment. I then asked about doing an emergency lien release with the VA DMV, as

described on the VA DMV website. I was told they didn't do that so I asked to speak to someone from

some department (titling, maybe?) who could figure out how to do it because I needed this lien released ASAP (my tone of frustration shown-through clearly at this point). I was then put in contact with another representative who told me it could be done, but that I would have to call back after the payment had been processed before they could do it--1 to 2 business days--because there was no way of flagging my account in their system. I called back later to re-confirm the wire information and the payoff amount and was told that it wouldn't be 1 to 2 business days, but three business days. Who had the correct information here?? I logged a complaint with Chase through their online system, and the response I received from the

representative was appalling at best. She indicated that excelling in customer service was their number

one priority, but then gave me no information on how I or they could assuage my present situation (which I described in detail in my complaint). To top it off, when I asked why I hadn't been notified earlier about the reverse payment, I was informed that they didn't have the capability of notifying their customers when such actions occur, and that oftentimes customers are the ones who initiate the reverse payments so they would already know about it. I could not believe what I was hearing! Who cares if I initiated it or not? It is better to get too many notifications about something important than none at all! I am notified by other institutions when there is something awry with my accounts. They should have the common courtesy to do the same. If they had, I could have resolved all of this when there was more time (i.e., while my buyer was still out of town). At this point I've resolved to call Chase everyday to bug them until this gets taken care of completely. It

seems to me that this whole process should be simpler, and that I shouldn't have to fight with them to get them to pick up the pace to get me what I need when I need it--especially in an age of instant information and collaboration, and especially when I don't feel like I am the victim. These customer service reps have no credibility because each one giving conflicting information. I have no way of knowing which one to believe. No one can think creatively to let me know how I can speed up something that needs to be done, and no one can let me know when something has

gone wrong. I feel like I have had to initiate everything in this process, and that my options are

few.

Luckily, my buyer has been more than patient about this whole incident--even declining to let me lower

the price we agreed on. In most situations a buyer would have backed out long ago in this process and

gone elsewhere to find his/her vehicle because they wouldn't be willing to put up with all this. I count

myself blessed everyday to have found such a gem during this whole ordeal. Nevertheless, I feel like this whole experience is just one big nightmare and that one day I will wake up

and be given the customer service experience I feel I deserve. My buyer and I shouldn't be the ones who have to pay the consequences of this institution's actions, and yet that's exactly what is happening. So my questions are... have I handled this correctly? Is there something that I should be doing to get the results that I need? Is it normal to have customer service that is this horrendous and unhelpful and for banking institutions to have so few options for helping customers in need? Is it normal for banking institutions to not be able to coordinate information between departments so that processes can be better tracked? Is it normal for banking institutions to not notify their customers when something has gone wrong with a payment? Am I wrong in expecting a more rose-colored experience? I would love your advice and insight on this matter? Thank you for listening. Sincerely, Lori Click this link to e-mail the message author: Email User