I have been a customer of WFS for at least 6 years. I honestly haven't ever really had a problem with them until recently. I found their collectors and CSRs to be friendly and professional even when I had fallen behind. WFS was recently purchased by Wachovia. I think things changed after that.
I had been having ongoing problems with online payments. These ACH payments would go into my "pending" transaction list in my checking account and the funds would be debited from available funds. Then the ACH would be withdrawn just to be submitted again several business days later. This didn't happen when I did a payment by phone. I checked with my bank's ACH department to make sure that there wasn't a problem on their end. They explained the process that was happening as I just explained it. The result of WFS's ACH processing sometimes meant that I'd end up with NSF fees and/or WFS would charge me an NSF fee and a late payment fee.
Well, I made the mistake of assuming that the matter had been addressed when Wachovia took over. I made an online payment. I read on my receipt where it clearly states that the payment will process the next business day. I looked at my account the next day and found the payment in my pending transactions. I thought all was well until I received a call from Wachovia yesterday stating that my "check" had been returned NSF. After getting the dates from the collection rep, we determined that the same thing was occuring again. She said she noticed it only happened on ACH payments. I asked her if I was the only customer experiencing these problems and she said "no" and that their IT department was working on the issue. I set up a check by phone payment with her for today, at which point she confirmed that it was an IT problem because the system would not have taken the phone payment if it wasn't. Then the nightmare began.
I had to call today to see if we could move the pay date back a day as a deposit I was expecting did not come in. I just wanted to be sure there were no hiccups. The local collection rep I was talking to was very rude. She said they shouldn't have any accepted a payment from me in the first place and there was NO WAY THEY WOULD CHANGE THE DATE! Her attitude was so bad. I asked to speak to her supervisor. Then a man got on the phone and picked up where she left off. He wouldn't even let me speak. He said he knew what I was going to say and the answer was NO! I asked if he was psychic cause I don't know how he would no what I was going to say. I tried to go over what the rep had said the day before but he said she didn't tell the truth. I asked if he said she had lied to me and he said yes. He became even more rude and belligerant than the previous rep! I asked to speak to his supervisor and he refused. I continued to ask to speak to his supervisor and he told me he didn't have to transfer me. I told him he'd better transfer me and he said "or what". I said it could mean his job. He said "ooooo". I told him I had another lender that had been asking for my business and I will transfer my loan to them. He said "good"! He ended up hanging up on me. I called back and asked to try to talk to the rep that set up my payment and they refused to let me talk to her.
I was amazed at the total lack of professionalism by this company. I now believe that they are intentionally mishandling the ACH processing in order to be able to charge additional fees. I suspect that they will fire or severely reprimand the rep that disclosed to me that it was an issue that affected many customers. I have also had problems with them adding insurance to my account while trying to claim they never received notice of my insurance renewal (my agent has proof of them being notified). I am going to sell my vehicle as quickly as possible just to be rid of this company!
Lori
Merriam, Kansas
U.S.A.
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