Our home mortgage was originally with First Charter. We also had a 2nd mtg. equity line with them. Service and communication was excellent. Then, 5/3 Bank bought First Charter. Around the 3rd month after they because our mortgage company...a member of their collections department left a message on the answering machine at my husband's office, where the secretary was the person who took messages off the machine and anyone standing in the area could hear it!!! Message -- we hadn't paid our mortgage that month and now we would incur a late charge. Funny thing about that, we had always had the mortgage payment automatically deducted from our account...and it HAD BEEN deducted that month. When I called the person who left the message he informed me that we WERE late even after I explained that the payment was drafted from our account by them. He claimed he was collections and had no way of knowing that a payment had been made. Wow, just wow.
Next up -- our homeowner's insurance and taxes are escrowed and paid by the mortgage company. I got the annual notice that both had been paid, filed it. Three months later I get a letter from 5/3 telling me that I didn't have homeowner's insurance and 5/3 was going to charge me for insurance and my mortgage payment was going up. When I called the guy who sent the letter he insisted they had no record of us having insurance and I needed to provide proof. I told him they had proof and he'd better go find the files. It wasn't my job to give him proof of something they not only had, but had paid for three months earlier!
Next up -- we decided this year to refinance since rates were so low. Our closing was held up a month because 5/3 had recorded our 2nd mortgage with the county twice!!! Once right after they purchased First Charter and again 6 months later...yep, great bank. When the bank we were doing the refi with let me know this she told me 5/3 said they could not deal with her only the homeowner could request a fix. So, I called the 800 number (and don't even give me space to complain about their automated system). I got a young man (emphasis on young) who said, oh yes, I see it's recorded twice. When I asked him to have it fixed and let my refi bank know, he said "I'm an inbound call center, I can't make calls out". Great customer service. Just Great! and...he promised he'd take care of my problem.
Two weeks go by, I get another call from my refi person, no, the 2nd mortgage double recording has not been fixed. At this point I want to beat someone over the head with my phone. So, I called the local branch and spoke to a nice guy, Wes, who actually got back to me in no time and explained...get this, all my refi person needed to do was fax them a copy of the Title Company's report of the double recording and they'd fix it. Hmmm, the refi person CAN do this? The homeowner isn't the "only" person who can request the fix? Great customer service, yep yep.
It isn't over folks. The closing went thru on the 11th, the funds were wired on the 15th. The day my mtg payment used to be due. Yes, you know where this is going. 5/3 (ok, I gotta say this, the stupidest name for a bank ever, because if they think that they are 1 and 2/3 better than any other bank they got another think coming) ok, back to my sentence, they deducted the mortgage payment EVEN THO the mortgage was paid off.
I called Wes, since he was the man who managed to get something done before, only to learn that "tough @$#! consumer, your money will be mailed in 3 to 5 business days. And WE should have notified the company that does the payment thingy to stop. And I should have pulled this info from where? my @ss? First Charter never told me and 5/3 certainly never did. And guess what, banks can wire transfer money around the world but 5/3 can't put my money back that way. A credit card company can. Wachovia Bank fixed an error for us immediately, put the money right back in my checking.
Sad footnote, the lady helping with my refi...she has a 5/3 mtg and she was so sympathetic because she's had problems with them too! I see a refi in her future.