I was a little late paying the Nov. 2003 payment, which was due Nov 19th. When the collector called on Dec. 6th, my wife arranged a payment by phone and asked if we could skip a month and add it to the end of the loan. The agent told us instead to have an amendment done to our account to lower the payment. She told my wife NOT to pay the December payment until the amendment went through and it would take around a week.
After two weeks, the payment went past due and my wife called AT LEAST 7 times and was always told that someone would call us within 48 hours. No one ever called. Three times collectors called. We would explain the situation and would again be told that someone would call within 48 hours. Again no one ever called.
Finally on Jan 12, concerned about the December payment that Arcadia told us NOT to pay, My wife called Arcadia. Her call was routed to a VERY RUDE young man. He told her she needed to make a payment. She told him that she was calling to inquire about the amendment, not to make a payment and could she speak to the amendment people. He said they don't answer phones, they just email.
She then asked to speak to a supervisor. He said that Arcadia's policy was that nobody spoke to a supervisor until they made a payment. She asked again to speak to a supervisor. He replied that she wanted to talk to someone else just because she didn't like what he was telling her. He said he would "Bottom-line it for her, until she makes a payment she ain't speaking to anyone." When she said that she It's not our fault that Arcadia messed up the amendment process, he replied "It's not my fault that you have to get an amendment. An amendment is a PRIVELEGE, Not a RIGHT." He then went on to tell her that it was "My way or the highway." By this time my wife was in tears and she said she would call back.
When she called back, my wife talked to an agent who said there was no such policy and that she would put a hold on our account until the amendment could be sorted out. Again she told us to hold off on making the payment. She gave my wife the number of the conflict resolution dept, where we left two messages but STILL have not heard a reply from (3 days later).
THE NEXT DAY, a collector called and told me that I needed to make a payment. Once again, like always, he knew nothing of a hold or amendment. When I pressed him about the amendment, he said it was denied. I couldn't believe that no one had called us through this whole thing. I set up a post-dated check with him for the following friday. He informed me that it would show up on our credit as an over 30. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was connected to a supervisor's voice mail. I left a message and still to this day, have not gotten a return phone call.
Thinking about it, I called back and moved the post-dated check up a few days to Mon, 1/19/04, which was the due date and Arcadia assured me that it would not show up on my credit as an over-30. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was again connected to a supervisor's voice mail. I hung up and called back and asked to speak to a supervisor NOT her voicemail and I was given to a supervisor named Bianca.
Bianca listened to my whole story without saying much and then asked me to hold. She put me on hold at 3:20. At 4:05, I hung up. I couldn't believe that she had put a disgruntled customer on hold for 45 minutes without coming back on the line even once.
I called back and asked to speak to Bianca. I was put into her voice mail. I called back and asked to speak to Bianca's boss. At this point I was given to a Manager named Mrs Haddick. She listened to my whole story and didn't say much. She said she would look into it. That's it. Not even so much as an apology.
When my wife got home from work, she heard my story and thought we should be due some sort of compensation for the trouble that Arcadia has called us. She called to see if they could just make December a skip month and add the payment to the end of the loan like many creditors do. She talked to Mrs Haddick who said they could not do it. Finally Mrs Haddick agreed to waive the $22 late fee and that was it. My wife agreed, as we were still waiting for the conflict resolution dept to call. The whole time we were treated like deadbeat customers and they never once admitted any fault.
The next day, Wed 1/14, I checked the balance of my checking account and found that $422 had been debited from my checking account. The amount was supposed to be $401 and it wasn't supposed to come out until Mon 1/19. If I understand the law correctly, THIS IS ILLEGAL. I had already paid bills for this week and now my account is deficient $422, which is going to cause several checks to possibly bounce and may add up to a considerable amount of money.
My wife called about this issue and they were going to let her talk to a vice president named Dwayne Houston. All of a sudden they decided that they couldn't speak to my wife because her name wasn't on the account.
So I called and asked for Dwayne Houston and suddenly he was nowhere to be found. They connected me to a manager named Mrs Lee. She listened to my whole story and said that they could refund any bad check charges that we incur due to their error. I asked her about everything else: the rude agent, the times we were told NOT to pay the Dec. Bill, the times we were told someone would call in 48 hours and nobody ever called, the fact that we were in this dilemma due to Arcadia's incompetence. She didn't have much to say. She apologized, offered to reimburse us for bad check fees, and said that a lot of this was due to training issues. I find it interesting that they are so rude to us up to the point where they do something illegal and then all of a sudden someone becomes civil to us. I will be pursuing this further.
Scott
Greenwood, Missouri
U.S.A.
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