I had an ok experience until my settlement. I asked for a settlement 11 months into my 18 month car loan as I could afford to pay it off.
After waiting on hold for an hour the agent disconnected as soon a I got through. After another 2 attempts and a combined hold time of around 3 hours I finally got through to somebody. They gave me a settlement figure of £5,273,17 for a loan that had £6,080 left - seems fair.
I then had the instructions sent to my account and transferred the sum to my account. The wording was “all you have to do is transfer £5,273,17 to X account and the account will be closed, this includes your next direct debit payment.
2 days later, with my account still open, I messaged them and got a response 4 days later that said “the settlement agreement generated was incorrect and you still need to pay your next direct debit payment of £890. I was furious.
I called an agent who said this was correct but could not give me a reason why. I then spoke to a team leader who said this information was wrong, the settlement was correct and bluntly stated that I will not have to pay my direct debit as it was a technological fault and the system hadn’t caught up. She then said she was going to raise a formal complaint and pass me through to customer service to get more assistance.
I was then transferred through to Ben, who had no idea id spoke to another agent. I repeated what the team leader has said and Ben then stated she was wrong, the settlement was incorrect and I still need to pay the direct debit. HOW CAN 5 DIFFERENT PEOPLE ALL BE ON A DIFFERENT PAGE!?
Ben then said they are doing an internal review that takes 3 days but it could take up to 8 weeks (my direct debit is due in 11 days). He said if they can’t resolve it then I can go to the Financial Ombudsman Service after the 8-week period.
The customer service is horrendous and clearly the staff are not being trained well. It’s a disgrace and they’re exploring customers for mild gains.
Reviewed on: 30th August 2022
