Richard bought a vehicle, returned it and bought another from the same dealership. He says Wachovia erroneously paid off the second loan instead of the first. Once he got the finance department to correct the mistake — a process that took a month — Wachovia started hassling him to make a payment for which he was never billed.

He sent us the letter he wrote to Wachovia:

My name is Richard [redacted], I have a loan with your dealer services department on a car loan. My problem lies with the constant harassing phone calls from your recovery department and its personnel. My loan was opened in June of this year for a Dodge Ram truck (financed through your company) at [redacted]. Within a week of purchasing the vehicle my wife and I returned it to the dealer, unhappy with it and purchased another vehicle, (also financed with your company) a Chevrolet Trailblazer.

Through the return and purchase your finance company, after I paid my first payment on time paid off the wrong vehicle and was still sending us payments for the Dodge instead of the Chevrolet (which they had already paid off). This mistake was resolved by our effort, but the time frame took over a month to make clear. After learning of your mistake, with our help your finance company reopened a new loan for the Trailblazer. During the month in which your company fixing their mistake we did not send a payment, due to the fact we had no account, or amount for the new vehicle to send not to mention where it would end up. In the end, the problem was solved but they dated the new loan for the opening in June.

This put a month behind, which we thought they would just add to the back of the loan and proceed forward. This was not the case and in the economy the way it is I was laid off and my wife is supporting our household. We have tried in everyway to make this work and have talked to numerous people of the problem, but seem to get no where. We have even added $70 dollars and $30 to our last two payments in an effort to show were making an effort. This seems to not be enough for your company and receive 3-4 calls a day, harrassing us for the payment. My wife and I have never had a problem with making past car payments and dont seem to understand why we can’t seem to come to mutual aggreement on how to fix the problem.

This mistake is becoming a major burden on our family in these tough times and were hoping for some resolution. All we’re asking for is to just add the difference to the back of the loan or stop harassing us, when our effort is more than yours. I appreciate your time and if you can’t help me I hope you can pass it on to somebody who will.

I wonder if Richard could refinance through another bank, which could reset the loan amount and make the phantom payment vanish. He shouldn’t be forced to go through the hassle, though. What would you do in his situation?

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