"Customer NON-Service"

Times are tough.... We all feel a financial pinch these days. We are at the point that we are trying to get a modification on our mortgage loan. Let me first say...This did not happen because we bought some hugely out of our budget house. It is a comfy place that fits our family's needs at this time. We bought 2 years ago with an interest-only special loan for physicians in training. The interest only part will last for 5 years, which is fine because we will only be living here for 4....Then comes the problem.

I think we were hoodwinked...don't you love that word? Our monthly payment was manageable...we were doing fine. Then suddenly we find out that when we bought the house, the "estimated" property taxes were way under "estimated". Our payment needed to increase by over $400 a month to cover escrow! Not cool. It isn't like we were the only house on this street and the title company couldn't have known what the property taxes were going to be....hoodwinked I tell you.

So we have been working with our mortgage company to modify our loan. I am glad this option exists, or we would have had to move, but the process is infuriating. Our mortgage company's customer service is amazingly horrid. Not the people mind you....they are relatively nice, considering. It is the system the company has of dealing with folks doing these modifications.
We actually started this process last year in December. We filled out tons of paperwork and were assured we would be contacted if anything further was needed from us. After not hearing from the bank in some time, I called to see what the hold up was. "Oh didn't someone tell you... we are requesting copies of your bank statements etc." So we faxed the requested items that next day.
It turns out that the bank had "requested" those items long before I ever found out about the "request". Also they had issues with the fact that our bank statements had a web address on them....well duh....we only do online banking/paperless...Those are the only statements we have access to! So they decided to cancel/deny our request for modification....."Your only option is to start the process over." Holy Hannah!!! So we started over....vowing to call the bank weekly so they don't pull the same garbage.

The typical phone call to his bank goes something like this. "Hi, I have paperwork in process for a loan modification and am calling to check on the status, and to see if there have been any requests made for additional information from us." "What is your loan number ma'am? And the last four digits of your social security number?" (I have all these memorized now) After giving them the info they put me on hold to check things out.....I hate their elevator music. After about 5 minutes on hold, they invariably tell me that their department doesn't handle/service my loan so they will transfer me to the right department. This happens every time, no matter what number I call. I wait on hold while they transfer me, and about 40% of the time I get cut off and have to start the whole mess over. Once I reach the second department they usually say "I'm checking the notes on your account......let me put you on hold. After a long hold I usually get sent to yet another "team." Occasionally some inexperienced person will tell me that our request was already disqualified because we didn't send requested info by their deadline. My blood just boils!! "No, no, that was when we tried this process the first time and your company screwed up and made us start over!! Check again please." This system is bonkers. Why doesn't some status indicator come up to any computer in their system when our account info is typed in!?

After being transferred to four different people/teams and being on the phone for more than a half an hour....I finally reach someone who knows something (most of the time) and they tell me "Yes, we received your fax and there are no requests for additional information at this time." Praise the Heavens! I straight answer to a simple question. This is how far we got last time we tried this (before they messed everything up) So if we reach another milestone I might actually believe we will settle this some day. Or maybe they will take so long we will be finished with residency, sell our house and pay the escrow shortfall that was never our fault to begin with. Until then.... I have a weekly date with an arduous, stressful phone call....You jealous?