Lincoln Automotive Financial Services

Extremely poor customer service from Lincoln Automotive Financial Services and West Point Lincoln. Dealership and lender failed to properly communicate with our arrangement. We leased a 2019 Navigator and paid for the entire lease up front. When we returned the vehicle, nobody at the West Point Lincoln dealership said anything about anything. We turned in the car, they inspected it and thanked us for our business. Off we go. Eight months later, I receive a letter from a collection agency indicating I owed $395 to Ford. My credit score dropped more than 100 points overnight. Since we leased the Navigator, we had moved to a new home and I sold my company. I had a US Postal Service mail forwarding order in place for me and my family and I still owned the property and had a renter. I did have a different phone number since that was part of the company sale. I also purchased a Ford Bronco (paid in full up front). So, I was confused as to why I would receive a collection notice involving Ford. I searched through my email, and I found one email in my spam folder. It was automatically placed into spam because it appeared to be a phishing scam. I opened the email in a safe sandbox environment, and the email had the big blue oval Ford logo on it indicating there was a message for me in my Ford account and I needed to sign in to read it. Clearly this was spam or a scam because I never registered for a Ford portal account. After further investigation, it was determined the debt was actual for Lincoln Financial Services. I reached out to the dealership attempting to learn why I was not told of this when I dropped of the car and why I was not charged at that time. I learned the dealership had since been sold, and nobody there was willing to help me because my transaction occurred with previous ownership. I reached out to Lincoln Automotive Financial Services to try to better understand the situation as well as resolve it. They would not accept payment because they had already turned it over to collections. So, I immediately paid the collection agency and provided proof. Too late. Lincoln Automotive Financial Services communicated it had exhausted its resources in attempting to contact me regarding the debt, and there was nothing more they would do. Exhausted its resources attempting to contact me? One email -- and not even from Lincoln but from Ford? Since I just bought a Bronco, Ford had my updated email, phone number and address, and Ford owns Lincoln -- so my information was accessible in their database. Years of work to build up my credit score only to have it destroyed for $395 I would have happily paid at the time I turned in the vehicle.