Complaint Review: HFC Beneficial

In June 2013, my 73 year old Mother started to get collection calls from Household Finance Corporation - HFC Beneficial but the representative could not tell her what the amount was for that they were trying to collect e.g. late fees, missed payment, etc. The calls stopped until September 2013 when they started again but the collection agent still could not give her any detailed information. 

My Mom asked me to step in when the calls continued and she could not get any clear answers. I made my first call to the customer service center on Tuesday, December 3. I spoke with a woman who said her name was Terry Allan (she spelled it for me). As nice as Terry was, she was still unable to tell me why the calls were being made or what, if any, outstanding amounts were charged to my Mother's account. As close as she got was a missed payment in November 2012 but Mom's bank records clearly show the Nov. payment clearing her bank on Nov. 17. Terry asked me to fax some records to her including one that showed when each month's HFC payment cleared Mom's bank account. The fax was sent at 10:41 a.m. on December 4. 

Terry was supposed to have called me back that same afternoon but, of course, I received no such call and since she has no direct dial number, I have no way of reaching her. This morning I called HFC and asked for Terry only to be told that they could not transfer a call to her but they would give my phone number to her and she would call me later in the day. Of course..............no call came in.  At 4:30 p.m. I called HFC again and talked to yet another HFC representative who not only "could not" transfer me to Terry but would not let me talk to his supervisor/manager. So, I went through everything once again and this time I was told that in February 2003 (YES FOLKS NEARLY 11 YEARS AGO) a payment was late and that those charges have been compounding. The November 2012 payment went to pay those compounded fees and since HFC never notified her, all payments in 2013 have been a full month behind.

Now, some of you may think that my Mom just made a mistake and forgot a payment. However, I am in the process of trying to get a detailed transaction list for all payments from the beginning of the loan because through this sequence of events I have found that there are weeks between when checks cleared Mom's bank account and payments were posted to her HFC account. Case in point, in September when the collection calls resumed, Mom sent an additional amount with her regular payment (to keep them from harrassing her). This check cleared her bank on September 6 but it posted to her HFC account on November 17 - TWO FULL MONTHS LATER.

I am already fed up with HFC, their so-called customer service team, their poor recordkeeping and lack of compassion. The HFC representative gets obnoxious and stops listening to me once he/she realizes that I am not going away and that I have complete documentation that brings their records into question. I truly never expect to get this resolved on my own so if I don't receive the transaction detail by next Friday I will turn to the State Attorney General's Office and any other agency that I can call on to assist. HFC won't get away with harrassing my elderly Mother for something that isn't even clear in their own records.