We dealt with this branch when it was MetLife Home Loans, but the manager remains the same: Craig Doty, NMLS 242521. It was a thoroughly frustrating experience that ended up needlessly costing us hundreds of extra dollars and valuable time. If you're considering doing business with Doty, I highly recommend you keep reading...

My family lives in Chicago and, in 2009, we purchased a condo near Los Angeles. Doty's branch was one of only two financial companies authorized by our builder, so our choices were limited. First, Doty was slow in executing our mortgage application, which led to multiple delays in scheduling our closing. After it was finally scheduled, the problems continued. Following repeated assurances that everything was on track, we made plans to fly to California from Chicago to be present for the closing. We took a week's vacation and bought airline tickets. But once we arrived, we were stunned to learn that, according to Doty, our loan had been approved but not funded. Why he didn't have this information weeks, or even days, earlier is inexcusable. He assured us that the funding would come through while we were still in California. Days went by. Phone calls and emails to Doty went unreturned. You can probably guess how this ends.

The day before we were scheduled to leave California, Doty told us the documents he had earlier faxed to Metlife's underwriter were all blank due to fax machine problems. The underwriter did not bother to tell Doty, and he didn't bother to follow up. We left California without closing on the condo. Doty refused our request that he reimburse our travel costs, which we saw as an issue of principle, but what truly angered us is that he initially agreed, because of his screw-up, to pay the extra $150 notary public charge in Chicago incurred because we couldn't repeat a trip to California for the now-rescheduled closing. In the end, Doty failed to keep this simple promise as well, and we were charged for the use of the notary.

Since the closing, Doty has not returned our phone calls. We've also twice written MetLife and received no response. We're not sure if our lousy experience was the result of laziness, carelessness, incompetence, or all three - but in our opinion, Doty's inability to accomplish simple tasks - such as faxing documents, meeting his own stated deadlines on multiple occasions, and returning phone calls - should give any prospective client pause.

We're not sure why Doty is no longer affiliated with MetLife, but it would not surprise me if we weren't the only ones who've complained to the company. His resume online says PrimeLending is his third company in four years.