Complaint Review: Farmers & Merchants Bank Of Long Beach

Consumer rights in California? I use to be a believer & had a lot of "faith" in our legal system. If you see someone steal your car - you call the police & have them arrested! Right? Welcome to my nightmare with Farmers & Merchants Bank of Long Beach, California that began on 12/2/2005!

In October of 2003, I got a loan to repay my Boss for cash he advanced to me to buy a 1998 Chevy Silverado Truck. It was a consumer loan agreement for $15,295.00 @ 9% interest for three years. To make sure my payments were always on time, I opened a checking account and had the bank automatically debit my payments each month. This agreement began on the very first payment & continued through the life of my loan.

On 12/2/2005 I woke to find my truck missing so I called the police department to file a theft report and was told that it had been reposessed. I called my bank & was told I had to speak with a "Mr. Shawn Allen" of the "Long Beach Branch" because he was the one who ordered my reposession & handled my account. I have never heard of this person, nor have I been to this branch EVER! I called & spoke with Mr. Allen who told me that my car had been reposessed because I was "5 to 6 months of payments behind on my note" and I was "constantly late in making my payments since the beginning of my loan".

I thought this had to be some sort of mistake because I had one payment that was due & within the ten day grace period allowed by the bank when the truck was taken. I asked Mr. Allen to fax me a statement of my account that showed which payments were missing & credited late etc? I told him that I was not behind on my payments & that I could fax him copies of my bank statement for every single month since I got the loan back in 2003 to prove this fact? He said go ahead and fax it but it won't do you any good. He would not elaborate on "why" and I faxed him copies & waited for a return phone call with an apology and instructions on where to pick up my truck. This never happened. I had to chase him down & continue to pursue him as he was rude & totally uninterested in assisting me with my problem. He basically told me that he was "god" and "could do whatever he wanted to do with my truck" and " the sooner I took his word for it & believed him the better it would be for me or my chances in ever seeing it again". I was stupid & I thought I really had "rights" as a consumer so I argued with him & demanded to know in writing why my truck was taken, how many payments the bank thought I was behin & when they were due and a total amount that I could pay to redeem my truck and pick it up. He said he was waiting for the invoice from the repo company & once he knew the price he could give me a total that I could pay at any branch & then pick up my truck from the repo yard. He never called me back & kept stalling on a total amount to pay etc. He refused to provide info on the repo company or access to my personal items so I had to call the police department back again and they gave me a number to call.

I called the repo company & was surprised to hear that Mr. Allen had never called them or requested an invoice period. The manager at the repo yard told me straight out that he did not believe my story of "how I was going to pay the arrearages & repo fee's etc. and Mr. allen was going to allow me to redeem my truck". He kept saying he would be happy to fax me a copy of the invoice but this would not help me or get my truck back. He would not elaborate why and instead said he would prove his theory by faxing the invoice as we spoke to Mr. Allen.

I called Mr. Allen after I verified that the invoice was faxed & received in his office and asked him for a total to pay to redeem my truck? I told him I did not care how many payments the bank thought I was behind - just give me a total & I will pay it and argue about it later. It was a friday and I did not want my truck sitting there over the weekend full of my work things. He told me he didn't like my attitude & the fact that I tried to "go over his head". He said he was just being nice by offering the truck for the back payments & fee's due to the bank and that he did not have to give it back to me at all. Then he said he "changed his mind" and I could not have it back unless I paid the loan off instead.

I was furious & I demanded a payoff amount in writing that he ignored for days! he told me verbally that it should be somewhere around $8,200.00 & go ahead and refinance for that amount. There is no way the principal could be anywhere near that amount when I was in the last year of a three year loan with payments close to $500.00 per month? The depreciation schedule from the banks website has a calculator that showed I owed less then $4,000.00 after my last payment was credited? There is a law on repo fee's & interest right? He told me to go ahead and argue with him about it and see what happens? He told me if I complained about him to anyone or any group that he would in turn add additional money to my payoff in retaliation. He suggested I just forget about my truck & accept the fact that I am a "loser" who failed to make payments and thus lost the truck.

I faxed numerous requests in writing to his office, to the attention of his supervisor and to the Orange Branch office where I bank and got the loan from. I mailed the same requests & demands certified & verfied that my letters were all received by all three parties etc. I continued to call & ask for anyone who could help me with this problem and I could not get them to put anything in writing or tell me what the problem was on why I could not have my truck back? It was bizzaire!

The law says that you can "cure" a default for reason of non payment by paying the back owed payments & repo fee's etc to the bank and redeem your vehicle and continue the loan as scheduled. You can exercise this right two times in every twelve month period. I have never used this right and I requested and demanded it and was ignored instead.

I contacted a credit union who agreed to refinance the loan and they approved $8,600.00. This was less then a week after it was taken & should have been plenty to pay off the note. They contacted Mr. Allen and requested a payoff be faxed with a certified title etc. He ignored them. They continued to call & fax requests and had three supervisors speak with him and they all got no where. He just continued to raise the payoff by hundreds of dollars in the same day - and sometimes in the same phone call at will. They told him they could not fund on a verbal payoff because they could not verify they would get a clean title? He didn't care & would not give them anything in writing and this blocked the refinance of my vehicle. So I complained to the better business buerau thinking they would help me?

They did an investigation & he had an attorney respond to my requests for copys of my contract & statement of all payments recorded by the bank etc. The attorney recapped everything that he had already told me about being 5 to 6 months behind & constantly late & he gave me copies of a loan contract and closed his response with "and as you were already warned - all you have done for youself by attempting to complain is raise your payoff amount by $750.00". He added another $750.00 with a description of Misc. to my loan.

I spoke with his a supervisor a Mr. Darrel Van Es who attempted to help me and said he would allow the redemption of my car for the principal amount due and he would remove the interest and additional fee's added etc. I agreed & thought my prayers were answered! He told me to go to the police deparment and pay them for a release and bring that with me to the credit union. He said he would fax them all the docs they needed before I got there so all I had to do was give them the release and sign the note & take the check to the orange branch where I bank and they would authorize the release of my truck from the repo yard!

So I did as instructed & hand carried the release from the PD to the credit union just to be told that they could not read his fax and they called his office to have it re faxed just to be transfered back to mr allen who refused to re fax anything. He also said Mr. Van Es was not available and he would not say when he would be available again. It was 1030am so I sat there at the credit union determined to get this accomplished. I continued to call over and over thinking he was out for lunch & would return etc. I asked to talk to anyone else who could help? I got nothing in return. They would not even verify if he was going to come back to work? At 345 the credit union wanted to close & I had to go home without my truck once more.

I complained to the FDIC who said it was not a depository problem and they suggested the Federal Reserve, the attorney generals website & consumer affairs and file a complaint against the bank. So I did all of the above! This should be an easy thing to fix? Right? Show my payments and ask for a correction on my billing on my account?

No one could help me or would do anything. The attorney generals website takes your complaint and keeps it on record until they have several on the same topic with the same company and then they investigate without your involvement. The BBB downgraded the banks rating to a CCC due to 4 other complaints in the past six months on the same topic. They cannot give out specifics due to financial privacy laws. The Consumer Affairs department took a complaint and contacted the bank and told them to respond directly to me. The bank did. They sent a letter saying that I have just "mistaken" some facts on my account. They said they would be happy to speak with me and assist me with seeing that " I have never had a preauthorized debit plan for my payments" and made all my payments by mailing a check. They stated that I attempted to set up a payment plan to be debited on my checking account on August 25, 2005 and then closed my bank account before they could debit the first payment. Then they told me that I was wrong about all my facts on my account. They said I got the loan at the long beach branch in person in january of 2004 and my first payment was due in February 2004 and that's why my principal payoff on my loan was quoted so high by Mr. Allen. They invited me to contact them to clear up this matter and when I called the person responding a Mr. John Lopez told me that the bank did not wish to speak with me and that I was never to contact them again. He said call their attorney, but it will cost me again just as it did before etc. He only pretended to be happy to assist me because it's what they are suppose to do with the Federal reserve when a consumer has reported a billing mistake or problem that needs to be fixed.

I have my original loan contract and it was with the orange branch office on the date of 10/8/2003 and my first payment was taken from my checking account on 11/22/2003 and continued to debit each month after all on time etc. I have faxed this information, mailed it certified and regular mail, and I have verbally told anyone who would listen to me because I want my truck back.

This truck is worth $14,500.00 before the $7,500.00 in aftermarket accessorys I added on like the lift kit, the wheel package or the custom Billet bow tie on the grille. It's a real bargain for the bank at a pricipal balance due of less then $4,000.00. I still to the date of this complaint have never received a single notice on why the truck was reposessed, or what my rights are or who has the truck etc. I was told not to worry that they would not dispose of it until this was settled and that the bank wanted to keep it in exchange for my amount due without the need for an auction. Where does my truck go when the bank elects to keep it without documenting a sale at an auction? I think this Mr. Allen is operating an auto theft ring where he hunts certain models of cars for prearranged buyers and he preys on poor victims like myself who are clueless on what to do to stop this and financially unable to fight his rich bank?

Kandi
fullerton, California
U.S.A.

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