Poor Processes and Poor Customer Service

While a resident in Virginia, I bought a car at a dealership in Virginia and financed the vehicle through CitiFinancial Auto. I recently moved from Virginia to Washington, DC. Getting a new driver's license and registration was required due to the change of address. DC DMV requires the finance company to send them the vehicle's title before a driver can register the car. On February 26, I faxed CitiFiancial a "Letter of Guarantee" requesting that the title be sent to the DC DMV.

On March 10, the DC DMV still did not show any record of receiving the title from CitiFinancial. I called Citi and spoke to a customer service rep named, 'Peter.' Peter barely spoke English. He informed me that the title had been sent to the DC DMV on March 2. Peter assured me that the DMV would have the title within the next couple of days; although he was unable to tell me if the title had been sent via Certified Mail (therefore traceable).

I called the DC DMV. The DC DMV told me that as long as I have a tracking number for a certified letter containing a title that was signed for by the DC DMV then I would be permitted to proceed with registering my vehicle.

I called CitiFinancial back. This time I spoke with 'Jake, ' whom also had significant difficulty with the English language. Jake had no idea what I was talking about when I asked him how the titles were mailed to the respective DMVs. 'Are the titles mailed by Certified Mail?' I asked. 'No. They are sent by mail. It will be there in two days by electronic.' What? I asked for a supervisor. I was connected with 'Salvador.' Salvador was much better with English and understood my question. He put me on hold so he could find out the information.

Salvador then explained the following:

CitiFinancial did not have a title on file for my vehicle. The title was on file electronically with the Virginia DMV when I purchased the car at the dealership. Citi had to request that the Virginia DMV send them a hard copy of the title. This had been done on March 2. It takes between 2-3 weeks to receive the title from the Virginia DMV. Upon receipt of the title from Virginia, CitiFinancial will then mail the title to the DC DMV so that I can finally properly register my vehicle where I live.

Summary:
The customer service reps at CitiFinacial are completely incompetent about what is going on with the accounts they're accessing. It took a supervisor to figure out that the title was not on the way to the DC DMV; it was on the way to CitiFinancial from the Virginia DMV, and it will take 3-4 more weeks for the entire process to be completed.

CitiFinancial doesn't manage the titles for the vehicles they finance. Apparently, they leave it to the DMV. This is surprising to me given that the DMV has little or no stake in the vehicle, but the financing company has a great deal at stake/ownership.

Recommendation:
Do not finance anything with this company. They don't properly handle their own interests; it's hard to believe they will properly handle anyone else's.

They are taking my money and my payment coupons are not right. I owe 350.00 a month and over pay everymonth. Now they want 566.00 this month...they tell me it is because I over paid last month...DUH...how does that make my payment higher...????? The fact that I have been over paying for over a year now I figured I shouldn't even get a bill...and they tell me I have over paid only 200.o0 and now they want MORE...The girl Kim says I can not talk with anyone else...She was the only one on the floor to help me and she has no idea on any of this...THEY SCREWED UP AND I want some answers...I will never use citifinancial again if this is how we get treated.

Lynn

To the person that works for Citifinancial Auto who claims that the company works with customers. I read your post on the complaints board regarding Citifinancial Auto and every one of these people have a legitimate complaint about a company you seem to have NO clue about. I'm sorry but I have sat on the phone with my sister, who is a Citifinancial customer, and listened to one rep after another say the matter has been taken care of and the account is clear. My sister pays her loan every month ON TIME via wire transfer. The company calls us I'd say an average of 4 times a week asking us to call them telling her her CHECK bounced.. check??? She pays by wire transfer thru Money Gram, if it bounced it would never have gone thru in the first place, then they argued with her that she sent in a check which she did not. Five times we've worked with the same person to "correct" the lapse in insurance error claiming she has insurance and it only lapsed one month and she paid the one month as instructed by yet another CSR, they told her that she needs to pay $87 dollars now then an additional $87 dollars with her next payment which she did. Then they send her a letter claiming she now owes over $1400.00, when she calls she's now told she owes over $1500.00 from the date of the letter it's gone up $100 in 1 week? Then she gets another letter stating that they've credited her back the $1700.00...$1700.00???? WTF last week it was $1500.00. So she figures she's all clear and continues making payments as usual, then her freaking car gets repossesed. So before you go around saying that unless you are 100+ days past due they won't repossess your car then you're delusional. She is current with all her payments never missed a payment yet she still gets harrassed, sent to 3 different people WHO DO NOT MAKE NOTES IN THE COMPUTER BY THE WAY, because if they did we wouldnt' have to sit on the phone for 2 hours retelling the story 3 different times. No notes are made nothing stating that she was told to make the $87 dollar insurance payment or the next make up payment. And the rep tells her to get her insurance company to "back date" the insurance coverage to show she was covered for that one month when she was not. She tells them "that's insurance fraud, I'll pay the one month." What kind of advice is that to commit insurance fraud???

Last year my sister signed up for help with her payment while she was unemployed. She paid it like she was supposed to then they called her up after she finished and stated she paid short for the last 6 months and why was she only making a payment of $200. When she told them she'd signed up for the discount payment for six months they said NO YOU DIDN'T. She even faxed them the paperwork she was sent regarding the discount payment to show them and had even asked the woman that offered it to her if she needed to "sign" anything and she was told NO. Yet they have NO RECORD OF THIS ONCE AGAIN??

You really need to get your head out of your butt if you think that Citifinancial isn't lieing to their customers and scamming them along the way, I've sat on those calls as a WITNESS to what the reps are telling my sister because she got tired of being told one thing then something totally different from another rep who had no clue what transpired previously. I work in the customer service industry and your company has a lot to learn about customer service and making customers happy.

This is the worst company I've ever had the misfortune of NOT dealing with, if I decide to get another car it better not get financed by Citifinancial because I will walk from the deal and bicycle if they are my only option. Who the hell wants to be harrassed weekly when you are making your payments on time?

Not once did I EVER hear from my loan company when I had a car loan, the only time I heard from them was when I paid off my car and they sent me my title.

Don't want to repossess your car my ass. They credit her the insurance charges back she continues to make her payments monthly thinking all is well and yet your company still reposessed the damn car.

I have had several issues with Citifinancial Auto. The first came when I had called in September of 2005 and requested to have my automatic payment date changed to the 16th. They did not make the change correctly instead they set it for the week before. Caused $614 in overdraft fees had my account messed up for a month. I also spoke with an Andrew who assured me for 2 weeks that the problem would be fixed. It took them 2 payments and 4 weeks to get it straight. In order for this to happen I had to be on the phone everyday talking to 5 different people before it was cleared up. I had to change banks. It took 5 months after that to get all of my other creditors back on track.

In August of 2006 I ended up losing my job and got behind in my payments. I received so many calls from them that my message center on my homephone was filled. I understand that the calls need to be made, I tried communicating with the representatives only to be told that it was my fault and if I was more responsible I would not be in this mess. When I got another job I tried to make arrangements to catch up. I received calls from a person named Darren. I was threatened, I was told that if I did not make 2 payments that day which was a Wednesday the car would be picked up. I told him that I could not do anything until that friday which was my payday and that I did not have all of the money. I was told to go to a pay day advance place and if I didn't come up with the money they car would be picked up. I was told that I had to pay by quick collect because they were not accepting any other form of payment.

I could not get the payday advance so I was given until 9:00am on Friday to get the money. I missed the deadline due to bad road conditions I received a nasty call from Darren saying that I was given a deadline and i did not meet that deadline I tried to explain about the road conditions I could not meet the deadline because I was going to be late for work I told him that I would take an early lunch in about 15 mins and would pay it then. He yelled at me saying that is not what I told you to do, you did not meet the deadline we are picking up the car all other arrangements are off and hung up the phone. I was literally in tears. I have never been spoken to like that. I made the two payments and a third payment 2 weeks later. I was told that I could not be late anymore and he was the last straw, when the file get to his desk that means my car is going to be reposssed. I am currently due for November and December payment according to them. I know that I had been behind, I had made a serious effort to catch up. After making those 3 payments I still received calls on my job, at my home, and my cell phone. Yet after all this harassment I have yet to receive anything in writing from them stating that my car will be repossessed. Each time the threat is made I am asked where the car is. Before I started working with Darren someone showed up at my home asking for payment. Left a note for me to call a representative who happened to be on vacation everytime I would call.

After making 3 payments in one month in an effort to become current I still received harassing phone calls. By different representatives and all making threats, when I stated that nothing could be done until my next payday, I was told that answer was unacceptable. When I lost my job I became behind in all my bills. I had been trying to correct the problem since I received another job. I found that there is no reasoning with them. Is there an attorney out there that can give advice on how to stop these people. Does law say that when you stop answering the phone after a creditor makes repeated calls they can come to your home and harass you?

This company has really gotten out of hand. I can't refinance at this time because my credit is not favorable because of being out of work. I have not been on my current job long enough to show stability. What can I do?

I will never ever ever ever get an auto loan through citifinancial auto again. everything about them has been extremely inconvenient and ridiculous. I needed to get a due date change and so I had been making payments on a certain day of the month EVERY single month which yes was a little late but not late enough to get late fees. I never could get my due date changed because you have to wait 48 hours after your check clears and then call back and try to change it.
The stupidest thing is that if you are even 1 day late you can not access your account online. I called them about a fee I had seen on my paper bill and I had 2 more days until the day that my check would be going through and they said they had been charging me these fees always (which never was i made aware nor were they on any other statements) of course i cant go online to look at history so she says they will have to mail it to me.
They do not accept partial payments either for some reason which sucks for me because I used to always pay half on one payday and half on another so I didnt have one large sum coming out.
This is the worst company to have your car loan through and I have tried in every way to get refinanced by another company to get away from them but I am too upside down in my car that I cant.
STAY AWAY IF YOU CAN