"Nightmare" is the only word to describe our experience with Countrywide. Admittedly, we had an unusual situation, but we explained that to them in our initial contact and were assured that it was no problem, and that they would be able to get a mortgage for us within 10 days.
41 days later, no mortgage. During that entire time, Countrywide never once initiated a phone call to us. I called them 2 or 3 times a week to follow up. Sometimes I could get someone on the phone, other times I could not. When I was actually able to reach someone, I was always assured that they had everything they needed, and they would call the next day. They never did. When I would call back to check the status, they would say "Oh, we're almost ready, but we need such-and-such, " in spite of having told me 2 days before that they had all the information & documentation they needed. This happened no less than six times.
At one point, our representative told me that they could not get any work done on our file because I was calling constantly. As I said, I called 2 or 3 times per week—and that was because they *never* called us or followed up as promised.
In addition, they assured us that we should not worry; the loan would be approved in time, and it was safe to go ahead and give our notice to our landlord. We did, and when they failed to deliver, we ended up living in a hotel for almost 3 weeks.
I would urge everyone to run, not walk, far, far away from Countrywide. After wasting 6 weeks with them and getting nowhere, we dumped them and switched to Bank of America Mortgage. We were able to close on our house 2 weeks after we applied with BofA and had no problems whatsoever. I have nothing but good things to say about Bank of America Mortgage... They really came through for us after Countrywide screwed us over.
I have never, ever dealt with a company as disorganized, dishonest, and uncaring about its customers as Countrywide. I am determined to make sure that as many people as possible know about our experience with them. This is the mortgage company from hell.
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