Santander Consumer USA Santander Failed to credit payoff claims account late , Internet

After the first two months of Santander servicing the loan (again by auto-debit), I traded in the vehicle and the dealership paid it off. Let me repeat that: the vehicle was paid off. I have evidence of this in the form of a payoff notice from Santander themselves, the actual title to the vehicle (released to me by the state DMV), and also a copy of the cashed check that the dealer remitted to Santander, including the date when Santander cashed it, all routing numbers, and a letter from the business office of the dealership (a nationwide chain) stating that they have repeatedly contacted Santander to ensure that the payoff is properly credited to my account.

As of today, Santander continues to report that the account is not paid off, despite the fact that they cashed the dealership's payoff check, and despite the fact that the payoff amount provided by the dealer actually exceeds the payoff amount for the vehicle.  Worse, Santander reports that the account is actually past due by 22 days, despite the fact that the last monthly payment was made on time, again by auto-debit, debited by Santander.  They claim that the account is late stemming from 2007 - in essence claiming that the account has been past due for *3 years* - from a point before they actually even serviced the loan, and also despite the fact that they previously transacted two payments on the account without indicating the account was past due, and despite the fact that Citibank previously transacted 3 years worth of payments on the account, also without ever indicating that the account was past due (BECAUSE IT WASN'T).

Synopsis: I have a vehicle that has been paid off - There is incontrovertible evidence to this effect in the form of the payoff check actually cashed by Santander, the date it was cashed, amount, etc.  In addition, the note has never been paid late - I also have evidence to this effect in the form of statements from Citibank AND Santander indicating that the account is not past due.  Yet against this, Santander continues to indicate that the account is not paid off, and also has the temerity to add insult to injury by claiming the account is past due.

Santander is absolutely terrible to deal with.  There is no way to directly contact anyone within their organization who can be of any real assistance in resolving these issues - the same answer is always given no matter how many times you call them to complain (we will send it to our accounts dept for review.) Even the business office for the dealer - who has paid out over ten thousand dollars to Santander that has not been applied to the payoff account - gets this same answer.

I've seen other complaints online about being told by Santander that they were past due after having their loans taken over by them, despite the fact that the original loan holders never considered or reported the loans late. This behavior seems obviously reprehensible at best, and on the surface certainly appears fraudulent in nature - claiming accounts were late when there are years of payment history without even a hint of late payments seems both irrational and absolutely manufactured in nature.  I hope to God someone sues them and wins; they are the absolutely worst company I have ever had the displeasure of dealing with.  In my case, they are demonstrably in the wrong (not only am I not late, the vehicle is actually paid off), yet I cannot get ANY satisfaction from them with respect to resolving the issue.