Lauren,
Yours is similar to our experience with the lovely and talented Ms. BofA. Them not delivering docs to you because of some extenuating circumstance (flood/weather?), canceling or declining your/their loan mod review and then *blaming it on you* are CLASSIC tactics of the lovely and talented Ms. BofA. They tell you one thing on a call with one rep then another rep tells you something slightly (or even entirely) different that same day or a few days/weeks later.
We haven’t been able to make a payment in 13 months but have been in the loan mod review process 4 or 5 different times during that time frame. I think we were never actually OUT of the process; they just decline us and immediately re-submit our account to be reviewed for “another” program. If I remember right they were reviewing our account for loan-mod programs specific to *conventional* loans for the first 6 to 7 months before they realized we had a govt-backed loan!?!?! They kept saying we didn’t qualify for those programs!?!?! To quote a man who I believe could give BHO a run for his life in 2012 – “Doh!!!” (thanks, Homer) So much mis-communication on their part.
Many times I have been told I *can*, *should* or *must* do a particular thing (e.g. FAX my financial document package into them ASAP) only to call back and have another rep tell me “you CAN’T do that” (e.g. you CAN’T FAX your package in, we can’t accept FAXed copies!?!?! Learned on a subsequent it was a gov’t regulation on our type of loan!?!?!) Many conversations have consisted of spending the first 10 to 15 minutes helping yet-another-rep-who-knows-nothing-about-our-mortgage-account get up to speed on where we are at in the process.
While we are grateful to still be in our house and grateful the lovely and talented Ms. BofA is still wanting to figure out a way to help us keep our house, the process has been excruciating to say the least. I would never knowingly, willingly do business with the lovely and talented Ms. BofA ever again for any reason whatsoever. There are too many good local credit unions out there who are offering mortgages now.
The collections department continue to call many times each month to ask if/when I can make a payment. I have learned I need to answer EACH time they call or CALL THEM at least 2x per week. Their communication leaves much to be desired; their automated dialing system routinely calls me and hangs up on me BEFORE I even can get to talk to a human. I have also had many times when I called them (back) and their automated phone answering system has hung up on me!! After multiple requests to speak with a supervisor, etc. I found out they are still working out the bugs of the new computerized phone/dialing system.
Some things that may help your situation –
1. I have called them enough times to know that if I talk to someone and something does not sound right I either hang up and *immediately* call them back to get another customer service rep OR I immediately, politely yet FIRMLY ask to speak to the supervisor, manager or division vice president currently on duty. Threatening to start calling Executive Vice Presidents at all hours of the night has also magically produced employees who provide accurate, consistent and helpful answers to my questions.
2. if you haven’t done the following already, start NOW!
A. Create a folder of ANY and ALL of the paperwork related to your loan mod and keep it somewhere safe. This is a dot-your-I’s & cross-your-T’s process.
AND
B. Start documenting ALL correspondence with them – create your own Call Log in Excel, or whatever works for you and take copious notes in it DURING and RIGHT AFTER each conversation, or record EVERY conversation you have with anyone employed by them (BTW, I LOVE how they say “this call may be recorded for quality assurance” each time I call them!!! I have come back with “yes, this call may also be recorded to MONITOR BofA’s “quality assurance”)
My .02,
R
PS: Be diligent and persistent with them!!! One of the lovely and talented Ms. BofA’s reps told us recently they are working hard to help us keep our house.
PPS:Great to hear of your new hip; God Bless you in your nursing career!
Source: biblemoneymatters.com