Absolutely abyssmal customer service at our bank (long and ranty)

[Primer]

I think anyone who owns a house has horror stories about the mortgage process.

I refuse to use Alamo Title ever again for anything. They "lost" all my paperwork, and I had to go through closing a second time, about a month later. Then they "lost" everything again! At least the second time, they "found" it all a few weeks later, and finally filed everything at the court house.

My original bank sold my mortgage after about a year. I found out when I received a notice from the new bank saying they now held the mortgage, and by the way, I'm being foreclosed on unless I could come up with a years' worth of payments. I have NEVER cursed on the phone before, or after, the call to the original bank asking (yelling) "where in the did my payments go?" At least they did get it straightened out fairly quickly.

[Andara Bledin]

Pretty much every bank has some horror story about their customer service. I've heard them from BofA, Wells Fargo, WaMu, F&M, City National, Citybank, etc, etc, etc. It usually comes down to specific clerks, and sometimes the whole branch.

In this case, your clerk is a complete ass. Good luck with getting things ironed out despite that.

^-.-^

[wagegoth]

By the way, it's Bank of America.

Honestly, I knew that as soon as you started describing the way they were treating you. BofA decided a number of years ago to focus on business customers, as they believed they would make more money. Wrong. Businesses have a tendency to fail more often than consumers, and when businesses are incorporated it's nearly impossible to collect money from the officers or board. So BofA lost billions of dollars, then decided that maybe they should be kinda nice to their consumer customers again. But they seriously fail at it. They consider consumer customers small potatoes, and treat them that way. I had an account with them over 20 years ago, for less than a year, because they screwed up on a monthly basis.


I wish you the best, Maggie. Keep us updated.

[MaggieTheCat]

Thanks guys. We went with BoA because my husband has had an account with them for several years and has never had issues with them, and they had good interest rates.

As I mentioned, they called last night stating they needed documents from our apartment office. We called all day today trying to get ahold of them to confirm whether they sent those documents to the office, and whether they had gotten them back. We never got ahold of the contact person whose number we were given, so my husband finally went through the automated system to find a live person to talk to (we called and left numerous messages, none of which were returned.) They confirmed that they had received the documents back from the apartment office, but the documents have not been looked at yet and likely will not be today. Since tomorrow is considered a holiday (Good Friday) we will not be ready to close Monday morning. We may be able to close Monday afternoon, depending on how quick the bank gets around to approving these documents. I just hope it's sometime next week, at least.

[Imprl59]

If you close on Monday it will be a bigger miracle than the parting of the red sea. I would go ahead and give up on that now and avoid the stress... Like you said hopefully by the end of next week.

me again

[Merriweather]

You so have my sympathy - hugs and cookies to you, and a large stiff drink.

We were SO lucky when we bought our house. We'd rented for 20 years while DH was in the military, as we couldn't afford to take a chance on being able to sell quick when transferred all the tme, and enlisted man pay sure can't cover mortgage at the old command and rent at the new, no matter for how short a time.

Anyway, we were older but naive when we bought our first house. We first got lucky with an estate agent who held our hands all the way, was way patient with our pickiness, even told us things that actually kept us from buying certain houses that she'd have made a better commission on (such as pointing out she recognized the siding as a type that was in a class action suit....).

When we found a house, she put us in touch with a wonderful mortgage broker, who again, held our hands, answered our questions, and was our go-between all thru the process.

I can't say everything always went a smooth as ice, but we always had someone to turn to that we really felt gave a damn.

Anyone looking for a house in the Portland/Salem Oregon area, email me, I'll gladly recommend a real estate agent and a broker, LOL.

[Sapphire Silk]

By the way, it's Bank of America.

I'm sorry.

I refuse to do business with BoA ever since they screwed me on a credit card and my 401K. I'm not surprised you've had mortgage difficulties.

I used a credit union to buy my house. I was surprised by how easy it was. Simple application form. They checked my credit report and asked me to fix a few things, which I did. Bingo! Approved.

Closing was a snap. The only difficult part was dealing with the seller (he was an ass).

I'll be using the credit union next time I need to buy a car.

[MaggieTheCat]

I used a credit union to buy my house.

I really wish we could've used my husband's credit union for our mortgage. There is one affiliated with where he works, that he got his car loan from several years ago, and he really likes them. Unfortunately, they don't deal with home mortgages, so we had to go elsewhere, and neither of us have worked with any other credit unions.

The latest update is that the bank just approved the documents they got today from our apartment office, and they are preparing to send everything to the title company. Once the title company gets it, it should go pretty quick, since they've been much more on top of things since we've been dealing with them. Unfortunately, the title company is closed now until Monday morning, so nothing will get done till then. We're keeping our fingers crossed that the bank gets everything faxed tonight or tomorrow and doesn't miss anything or screw anything up (although I'm not holding my breath there) so it's waiting for the title company on Monday and that we can close on Tuesday.

[fma_fanatic]

I suspected as much.

BoA is notorious for doing things like this and trust me when I say it won't get better anytime soon. They've actually gotten an attitude since they took over Countrywide (the company that had our mortgage before).

They also like sending multiple e-mails to: remind you that a payment is due, tell you that they got your payment, tell you when a payment is due. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[neetsmcgee]

I registered just so I could reply. I heartily suggest a mortgage broker next time. They can usually get you better rates and you have a personal contact. I used to process loans and our company NEVER would have treated you like that. Sure mistakes happen but not the unholy mess you went through.

[ralerin]

Oh dear god, if they took over Countrywide, then THAT explains the dozen+ calls we've been getting, every day, from our mortgage company, that cost $22 every time you pick it up and start talking. We figured out fairly quickly that if you pick up the phone and hang up really fast, they slow and stop with the calls. For a month or two. Then they start again.

[Ironclad Alibi]

So...what? We get our mortgage through this bank, and they can just turn around and give it to another bank without so much as a by your leave from us? I really dislike the bank we're working with now, but I don't want our finances messed with without our knowledge or approval. Can you tell me more about this?

Somewhere in all the papers you will be signing at closing is one that gives them permission to sell your loan to another entity. When we got a mortgage through our credit union many years ago, that particular paper was pointed out and explained to us.

[wagegoth]

Oh dear god, if they took over Countrywide, then THAT explains the dozen+ calls we've been getting, every day, from our mortgage company, that cost $22 every time you pick it up and start talking.

What the hell?

[Mystic]

I feel your pain. We're in the process of buying a house as well, though we still haven't found one we've really liked since the one we did like was bought out from under our noses.

One thing I do know is that there is no way I would ever get a mortgage through a national bank. You have my sympathy on it, but I prefer working with a smaller local bank (mind you, I live in a town of 1,000 people at the moment so my banks know me well) because I find their service is better 10 fold.

[lordlundar]

Your finances are as secure as they were before. No more, no less.

Given the way the banking system is in the US right now, that's not really a comforting choice of words.