You probably plug in your automatic bill payments every month and don't think much more about it.
That's what a New Hampshire woman did, until she realized her car payment was lost somewhere.
Doris Padellaro of Nashua has a 2020 Hyundai Tucson, and an automatic car payment scheduled for withdrawal from her checking account the 5th of each month.
But there was a problem in February.
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"I got a notice that I was seven days delinquent," said Padellaro. "I went into my bank and it had been deducted. It came out of my account and it went to Hyundai and it was showing in Hyundai, but not posted to the account."
Padellaro says she called Hyundai Motor Finance to find out what happened to her payment.
"I finally got through to them by phone a week later," said Padellaro. "They said, 'Oh, we'll take care of that.' I waited a few days and it still wasn't taken care of."
She says she called multiple times with no results.
"I would get customer service first, then they said, 'No, you need customer assistance,' then I would wait for customer assistance," said Padellaro. "Customer assistance said it's back in accounting, they'll take care of it. I said, 'Well, let me talk to someone in accounting,' and 'Oh no, they don't take phone calls back there.' I would ask for supervisors, I would leave messages, I mean, it was multiple contacts."
Padellaro says she even mailed and faxed the company letters asking for help with the situation, but says she got no response. She did, however, hear from their collection division.
"They said, 'This is an attempt to collect the debt,' and I said, 'No, it's not an attempt to collect the debt, my car payment is there, just look at my account,'" said Padellaro. "They would be like, you know, 'You have to call customer assistance,' and I'm like, 'I have tried and I've been trying to get this straightened out and nobody seems to help me or want to help me.'"
Doris contacted NBC10 Boston Responds just before she realized her March payment hadn't been credited to her account, either.
We reached out to Hyundai Motor Finance to find out what was going on, and they responded.
"I got an email saying that Hyundai had been contacted and within 48 hours, Hyundai was calling me from the corporate office," said Padellaro. 'And a very nice lady called me, very, 'Oh, I'm so sorry for the mistake.'"
"Customer satisfaction is extremely important to Hyundai Motor Finance and we are pleased to have resolved this issue with the customer," the company told NBC10 Boston in a statement. "We regret any inconvenience this customer experienced."
Padellaro's payments are finally back on track.
"I'm just pleased with the outcome and I really appreciate your help," she said. "I don't think I would be sitting here with a smile on my face if you hadn't stepped in and helped me out."
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