Springleaf Financial RIPPED OFF by Springleaf Financial. Scammers. Whittier California

I have a loan with these LOAN SHARKS.  Usually I would not partake in going into one of these locations, but I had fell on some hard times.  They asked for my car as collaterol for the small loan and I agreed.

They contacted me at work on December 3, 2013 and told me that they did not receive my payment.  I informed them that all the payments I have made have been becuase I have called in and informed them that I didn't receive a bill and that if they can do online billing, where an email was sent.  They said it was not possible.  They also called me to my office to ask if my company was hiring, which I thought was unprofessional, but they felt comfortable enough to contact me and my manager about this subject, unprofessional to say the least.  They called my manager to verify my employment and I didn't think they would call for personal reasons.

Anyways they called me on December 3 and I told them again, I didn't receive a bill.  However I was happy to give them my checking infromation over the phone so they can process a payment right away.  I used my business checking account for this transaction, since it was the only account I had handy.  Also that day I informed them I had recently moved, gave them my new address and new cell phone number.  I didn't hear from them again.

On January 3 I contacted customer service and told them I didn't have the bill, but if I can get my account number so I can register online and keep track of my bills.  She verified the account, asked for my social security number, address and phone number.  It checked out, she gave me my account number and I signed up for account access online.  Since I made the december payment over the phone and with my business checking, I have to receive my statement so I can go back and consolidate all the payments I have made.  It was not that time yet, since I usually receive my statement around the 7th of each month for the precvious month.  When I signed up online, I didn't see there was anything that I should be alarmed, it said I had made every payment, and I was able to make the new payment.

On Janary 6, Springleaf sends a towtruck at 1am to get my car.  My family and I were arriving home from a wedding when we saw the towtruck, they would not let me get my mother in law's medication from the trunk, even though  I told them she needed it since she is a diabetic.  Instead the tow truck driver sits on the trunk to prevent me from opening it.  They drove off with the car.

I retrieved my car the next day and had to pay around $800, $500 of that was a fee for Springleaf Financial. 

 I called the local office and they would not give me any information.  Instead the manager laughed at me, taunted me, and then asked how my employer could let me talk on the phone for over 20 minutes and then he hung up on me.  So instead of explaining to me what went wrong, he just said that I needed to pay $800 or lose my car, that was it, and then he hung up. 

It turns out that the payment that they collected over the phone on December 3 had 3 extra numbers attached to the checking account that I didn't give them.  Somehow the person that took the information got it wrong.  I didn't realize this until this happened and no one in that office called me to tell me about it.  They can call me to work to ask for work, but they cannot call me to tell me there was something wrong with my payment.  Also they never once called me to my cell phone, which they had the updated number.  That office said that they didn't have my new cell phone number, however when I called the customer service number to get my account number, they verified my information and they did have my new phone number, so they had it.  ALSO, the payment I made on January 3 should have covered that December payment that was returned due to their own error, so my payment was technically only 13 days late.  They took my car for that and I had to pay them a "fee" of $500 to them for the inconvenience.  In addition I had to pay the tow truck company around $300.

Their written response to my complaint is that after I made the payment ONLINE, I should not have followed the instructions given to the customer online, instead they think it is reasonable for a customer to also call their local office to inform them you just made a payment.  How is that a convenience?  Isnt the point of having online access and payment options is to make it easier.  If they expect the customer to call their local office after you made the payment, then I should just skip the online payment process and call the local office to take the payment directly.  It is ridiculous.

I have yet to get any correspondence from them about this. 

They are fraudulent.  If they can call me to work to ask for a job, or call me to work to collect payment, why didn't they call me to verify the account since they knew early on there was something wrong.  My bank says that I had no NSF that month, they don't show that check as coming in.

This is how fraudulent they are.  Before the "manager" hung up on me, he said I needed to bring $800, however when I arrived it turned out it was more than what I was told over the phone.  When I asked why, the person in the front said that it included the payment that was due on February 15.  I went online at the end of January and also to send a message about what had happened to my complaint.  I get a response and in the back and forth I had with them, it was mentioned that my January 15th payment was incomplete.  This is how fraudulent they are, they told me the 1/15 payment was being collected early when I paid to retrieve my car, however they didn't collect all the payment, they only collected $115 from the $171 that is the payment.  Why would they do that if not to confuse people, so this can stay open and show late and then they send another tow truck to collect the car and then we start all over again, paying them $500 again.  I asked why they told me they collected the january payment and they didn't, and she said she didn't know.  FRAUD.  RIP OFF. 

I want my money back.  I want the money they charged me to retrieve my car and what I paid for the tow truck, since this was not my fault, it was their error and I should not have to pay for their errors or their horrible work ethic of not checking up on customers, updating their account, and making sure their car is eligible to be repossessed.  If they would have refreshed their customer list, I would not have been on that list, since the payment I made had been made and cleared 3 days before they came and took the car.