In December of I called Drive Financial to change the due date of my autopay draft that reoccurs every month from my bank on the 2nd. I requested that the date be changed to the 25th of every month, as my rent check comes out around the 1st of every month and I cannot afford both my rent and car payment at the same time of month. The associate then changed my monthly due date to the 25th of every month.
On the evening of Saturday, January 5th, I checked my online banking account and saw that Drive Financial had still autodrafted my car payment of $263.28 from my account on January 2nd. This caused my bank account to be overdrawn and immediately, a $36.50 charge was assessed. I had some other ACH payments that would be coming out and knew that those, too, would be assessed overdraft fees.
I tried to call Drive Financial right away but they had already closed and no one would be available until Monday. I did, however, send an email to Drive's customer service explaining my situation, but figured no one would be around to read it until Monday.
On Sunday, 1/6/07, I called my bank and spoke with a rep. He was very helpful and told me that if Drive refunded the $263.28 then my bank would also reverse every overdraft fee that occurred due to Drive's negligence.
Around 9:00am on 1/7/08, I called Drive Financial and spoke with a Customer Service Associate (CSA), Deann*. I explained the situation and requested a supervisor right away. She put me on hold and after holding for about 8 minutes, I was disconnected. This, of course, did not make me happy. I called back again at about 10:30 and this time talked to a CSA named Sandra*. Sandra transferred me to a supervisor, Irene*. I had to explain my situation again to Irene, and she told me that if I faxed in a refund request to accounting, they could issue me a refund. I asked if I could just speak with the department myself and she said that was not possible and all she had was a fax number for them. So, I faxed them my bank statement, along with my refund request. Irene told me it takes 3-5 days for a refund to occur but stated she would put a "rush" on it for me, as I have no money in my bank account.
I immediately faxed the request to the Accounting department at Drive and received confirmation from my fax machine that it transmitted OK. I called my bank back, to again clarify that if Drive refunded the payment then my bank would reverse the overdraft fees that occur. I spoke with a bank rep, and she did indeed confirm this.
Today, 1/8/08, I called Drive again to make sure that they are on the ball with processing my refund request. I spoke with a CSA, Karen*, and told her I would like to talk to Accounting to make sure they got my fax and were taking care of my request. She did not seem to know anything of my situation, as there were apparently no notes in their system about my issue. Furthermore, she said, Accounting was only accessible by fax and I could not talk to them and neither could she. I then requested that my autodrafts each month be cancelled, as I did not want this to happen again. She said that I had to fax my request in writing at least 30 days in advance before my next autodraft. Fuming, I hung up.
But I was not satisfied with this recent conversation and decided to do some web research about Drive Financial. To my dismay, I came across many unhappy reviews of customers of Drive Financial. This disturbed me. Even more worried about Drive's customer policies and procedures, I called them back, determined to mine more info about my case and why they made such a bad error with my payment.
I reached Deann, whom I had spoken with on 1/7/08. I again demanded a supervisor and she transferred me right away, to Irene again. I told Irene that Karen had no notes in the system about my issue and Irene seemed confused. She had all the information in front of her, so why Karen didn't was beyond me, and Irene, too, apparently. However, I politely insisted on speaking with Accounting, and like Karen, Irene told me that the department was only accessible by fax. I stated that "they can't possibly be inaccessible." Were there guards blocking the department with a stone wall around it? She said to try calling back in a couple more days to see if there was an update from Accounting in the system regarding a refund for me. I asked that she herself try to reach them and find out for me if my fax was at least received. She said that she wasn't sure and that the call volume was pretty high and that I would most likely have to wait awhile. I told her that was fine I didn't mind the hold time. She muttered something under her breath, to which I'm not sure what it was, and put me on hold for about 20 minutes.
The conversation that follows next was so upsetting that it was what fueled my decision to file a dispute against Drive's auto payment and thus form this site. A woman picked up the line and asked if she could help me. I said "Hello. Is this Accounting?" The woman said that no, it was not. I was confused "I thought Irene transferred me to Accounting, " I said, and the woman said that she was a supervisor, at my request. Hmm. I had thought Irene was a supervisor, but anyways. I explained my situation to this new woman, who called herself "Ms. Johnson*." When I explained that I wanted Accounting to refund me for Drive's error, she got very condescending with me. She said that it was my job to change my autodraft date with Drive apparently online. She said that although my due date for my payment was changed to the 25th, it was my responsibility to also make sure the autodraft date was changed to the 25th. I explained that I thought that was taken care of in December when I called to have my date changed.
She said that just because my due date changed doesn't mean the autodraft date changed to the 25th"it can't change itself!" she remarked. I told her that in December, the CSA whom I had spoken with should've let me know that the autopay date had to be changed its an automatic assumption that when you change your due date, that's when the payment will be deducted from your bank! She claimed that it was in no way Drive's fault that I didn't realize this. She said I needed to go online and fix it myself.
So, with Ms. Johnson on the phone, I went into Drive's website, went into my account and searched all over for the section where I change my autopay date. It was not to be found. I kept telling her this, and she kept telling me "well, it should be on there!" And, it wasn't.
Finally, Ms. Johnson must have believed me that it wasn't on there, so she put me on hold. When she got back on the phone, she told me again that it wasn't Drive's fault and "not to be sarcastic, ma'am, but it really is your fault."
I proceeded to argue with her that Drive's CSA should've have told me that the autodraft needed to be changed as well. Why else would I change my due date? There's no point in changing it to the 25th and still having it deducted on the 2nd! That's not going to help me out in any way! I said that someone there must be capable of changing it in their system over the phone for me. Ms. Johnson said that no one at Drive Financial can change my autodraft date except for me online. She insisted to fax in a request to change my autodraft date, which is odd, because I had thought that no one there could do it for me (since she just told me that it could only be done online!).
I also requested again that my autodrafts be stopped and she said to fax that in, too. She also said that Drive will not issue me a refund and that they will also not be paying any of my overdraft fees, as it was my fault in the first place. I yelled, "so Drive is not going to be paying any of my overdraft fees, either?" to which she raised her voice, and in a very exasperated tone and stated "no!" I was very upset, as Irene had assured me that I could get a refund.
As we still continued to argue, I hung up on her eventually.By this time, I was in tears. I calledmy bank, yet again, and spoke with a very nice rep. I told him the whole scenario. He said that he would get a dispute started for me and also informed me that I would be getting at least four more overdraft charges. He said that a dispute won't happen right away and that it would take some time. He faxed me a dispute form for me to sign and made sure I attached a document showing my monthly due date for Drive when I faxed it back.
I tried one last time to talk to a competent person at Drive. I went to their website, went into my account, and clicked on "Online Chat." An associate named Carla* chatted with me, and what was curious was that Carla told me that she wasn't so sure I would even have access to change my autodraft date online, which was the opposite of what Ms. Johnson told me. With Carla's help, I was actually able to discontinue my autodrafts with Drive so that this does not happen again. However, the issue with a refund and my loss of money is still in progress.
*Name has been changed for privacy
Anonymous
Anonymous, Oregon
U.S.A.
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