We were contacted by the Birmingham, AL office of Countrywide to refi our home. We gave them some info and they said we were approved contingent ONLY on our house appraising a certain amount. We paid for the appraisal, credit report, etc. They did the same thing to us that was posted earlier by someone. They took our money and told us this beautiful time-frame they would close in so many days...never happened, still hasn't happened. Our loan status on their website says we were declined for our loan. We were upfront about the things on our credit report since we had had a lot of sickness in the last 5 years....but before taking our appraisal money we were told the credit report did not matter and were pressured to take our appraisal money. Buyers beware and run for your life. The only time-frame promise that was kept with this company is the IMMEDIATE debit to our checking account when they took the appraisal money from it. So since then all they did was pass the buck to someone else. This company absolutely promised they would do things speedily and this proved to be absolutely false. When we were finally told we were declined I requested my appraisal fee back and the loan officer forwarded the call to the "branch manager" who I informed how I felt about their practices. I informed him that we felt we were treated like a sales number not individuals. He assured me this was not the case and as I started to hang up the phone he had to ask what my name was. This has been a total 3 ring circus for us and I wish I had never answered the phone the day they called. Run as fast as you can to a mortgage company that will be honest with you. Not only our time was wasted but we were given false information and false hope that sure doesn't help when you have already been suffering from major depression for several years. This office's right hand never knew what the left hand was doing and I have never dealt with a company that was as disorganized and incompetent. Again, run don't walk away from Countrywide unless you enjoy run-a-rounds, voicemails from loan officers saying they "will be in training all day," voice mails from those individual's supervisors that never return calls, repeatedly asking for the same documents that you have previously faxed them and all along wondering why they bothered to call us trying to refi us in the beginning. By the time they decided they would deny our loan I was totally relieved that I could stay with the company we've had and rather just keep the interest rate where it is because at least I know my original mortgage company is honest. Since this happened I've learned we are not the only ones that have had similar problems, but luckily we are not financed with them because it could have been much worse as I've read many horror stories since from people who have been financed through them.