Like millions of others, we've been having trouble with our mortgage. My husband hasn't been able to get hired and I was forced to find a different job due to my hours being cut. (I used to work retail.) I did what everyone tells you to do, and contacted our lender, Wells Fargo Home Mortgage. Being somewhat idealistic, I believed what everyone has been peddling as far as 'your lender wants to keep you in your home' they don't want to foreclose, etc. We started the process in July of but my regular contact with them begain in August, when I called to state that I would be unable to make the 2nd installment of a plan. The day I called was a few days before the payment was due. I was informed during the call on 8/18 that the plan was in fact broken since the 2nd payment was late. When I stated the info I had previously been given, I was told "that's why we recommend people keep the forms we send." I stated I never received anything in the mail. Since 8/18/08, I have spoken to at least 18 different people in loss mitigation. This is due to the fact that once our loan was in review, we were told to call every week to check on the status. I was very rarely given the same information twice. I faxed numerous documents to them.
I think the worst part of this was on 9/5 when a representative named Miles, with the clear assistance of someone else, set me up on a plan with an initial payment amount of $556.03. Now this amount was lower than our mortgage payment, but he assured me it was ok. I could hear someone assisting him with the process. He advised me that as long as I paid that on or before 9/15, I would be set up on a new plan. I would shortly get some paperwork in the mail about it. Believing everything was ok, I hung up and on 9/15 made my payment at a Wells Fargo branch. The following week when I called in, I was told I broke the plan because my payment was less than the $721.95 required as a monthly payment. When I tried explaining to the rep that this was the plan I had been set up on by Miles on 9/5, I got a stone wall and an offer of a senior representative. I explained to the senior rep that I never would've made a partial payment if I hadn't been assured it was ok to do so. I even suggested trying to locate the call and pull it to find out that's what he told me to do. All she said was that they showed I was supposed to have paid $721.95 and also that my payment was late. When I disputed this, as I had a dated receipt, her attitude was "oh well, too bad."
Thus continued a long series of phone calls, each week, with different info being given. At one point, after faxing back the financial packet where on one form I had filled in the space provided the reason for hardship, I was informed that my file was on hold because they still needed a hardship letter and another paystub. (I had been told I only needed to send one.) The following day, just to find out what information I would get, I asked what I still needed to send. This time I was told 2 paystubs, the first two pages of our last 1040 form, and a hardship letter! After this was done, I continued to call every week. One week, I got a statement showing that the money I'd paid was in a suspense acct. During that week's call, (10/27) I asked a rep what that meant and David explained that it wasn't applied due to being a smaller amount. However, if I could pay an amount that brought it up to $721.95, it would apply. I did the math, and figured that $266 would more than do the trick. (At this point, some of the money in "suspense" had been used to cover late fees.) Imagine my surprise when the next time I got a statement, the money I had paid did not bring it up to the proper amount because during the time between my phone call & payment, more money had been deducted for various fees. This suspense balance was later used to pay for insurance/taxes/late fees. I was advised that my loan was in review and that I should STOP MAKING PAYMENTS altogether. (However I also began to put what we could aside each week, so just in case they asked what we could put down, we would be able to give them something.)
Believing I was doing the right thing, since I bought into the whole "your lender wants to help you" bit, I called every week to check status. I was continually advised that it was in review, not to worry, the home was not in foreclosure. I did mention that I had gotten notices by mail advising that "foreclosure preparation" had begun and was told by the loss mitigation representatives not to worry about it, it was not in foreclosure; the loan was in review for a modification and everything would work out. At various points I updated financials, our transportation expenses went down, income went up. (At my new job, we got a raise once finished with training, then another if we worked a later shift. The income was not saved, however as I updated it to the final figure first on 11/21 and again on 12/5.)
On 12/4/08, a negotiator finally called. She left an 800 # to reach her... Which routed me to the "1st available representative." On 12/5 when I called the provided #, Lavonda (the first available representative) then explained that they just needed to update my income... The figure she quoted me at that time was the pre-11/21 amount. I did so and figured that was it. Had another message from Amanda later on in the day.
On 12/8, I called again. I was told that they were unable to transfer me to a negotiator. The rep said she sent an email with the best time to call me. My cut off time was 11:15am, as I had to leave for work shortly thereafter. Amanda called that afternoon. On 12/9, I waited for a call, was almost late to work due to trying to find out if Amanda would actually call back. She did at 12:44 that afternoon.
On 12/10, I called and a rep in loss mit stated that not only could nobody be transfered to a negotiator, they were unable to email negotiators. The emails were sent to a separate department and forwarded! She said there were some questions involving the Hope for Homeowners program that Amanda needed to ask me, and that she would note the account. I pressed her until she asked me the questionnaire herself, explaining that I needed to resolve this now, not later. She filled out the questionnaire, and advised me to call back in 2 days to check with Hope for Homeowners to find out what was going on. Not quite believing that she'd done what she said, I called again a few minutes later and a rep named Lakeesha (who I had spoken with previously in October and, when I asked if certain info had been recieved told me "well I don't see it but you have ALOT of stuff in your file."), informed me that she had to verify me before transferring me to a supervisor as I requested. I explained the reason for wanting a supervisor - to express my frustration at my situation with them and to verify a task was completed -and was told that she was required to assist me if it was something she could do. She then rudely informed me that our file was now part of Hope for Homeowners and that I could speak to one of their supervisors. She offered to transfer me, provided a phone number and hung up on me! When I called the number provided I got a completely different business, where a man, with a tired sigh, suggested that I call 866 instead of 800 in the number. He said Wells Fargo keeps giving out the wrong number to people. I called Hope for Homeowners (the guy at the wrong number was correct on the prefix) and was put on hold while she contacted Wells Fargo. They told her that our loan was still in review, she explained that I needed to be paitent, and to check back with them. That day, Amanda called again when nobody was able to answer the phone. That night, I used the information request form online to send an email where I stated I had been unable to reach my negotiator and I was unable to take a day off work to sit around and wait for someone to call me. I mean, how do you call someone back when nobody will transfer you?
On 12/11, I decided to call the Fort Mill, SC phone number on my caller ID. Lo & behold, it was Amanda's voicemail. I left a message stating the best time to contact me and that I'd been trying to reach her since 12/5. She didn't call that day until almost 4pm. That night, I found that I had a reply to my email that had all the usual apologies for inconvenience and that an outbound call from the negotiator was unsuccessful. (Yeah, because she called too late!)
On 12/12, Amanda actually called at 8:27 and said "I've been trying to reach you since 12/4." To which I replied and I've been trying to reach you since 12/5. She mentioned how busy she was and that she can't always be in the office. Amanda informed me that due to the small deficit in our income, we did not qualify for any of their assistance. We went over the financial info again, and at one point, after discussing what was paid to our Discover card, she actually made the comment well, you should've been paying your mortgage. (This was said with a chuckle.) She also asked me all of the Hope for Homeowner questions again, leading me to believe that the info was not saved from the previous time. She said our info would be sent over to Hope for Homeowners to see if we qualified. I asked, what if we don't? At that point she said that our loan was in an active foreclosure status. I got very upset and asked when did this happen and she her reply was that it was now 5 months past due, so this can happen. She said that at this time, that the case was no longer Loss Mitigation, the file would be closed. If somehow our income increased by about $350-$400 a month, and if this happened in the next few weeks, we could call back to have the file reopened to try to qualify for a plan again. I explained to her that the only notice we ever received having anything to do with foreclosure was a message in the margin of a statement from 11/19 saying it was in foreclosure preparation. I had referenced that to other reps from loss mitigation and was told not to worry, it wasn't in foreclosure yet, but that everything would work out. Amanda said who told you that? I said other people in loss mitigation, to which she replied well, I'm from loss mitmust have been customer service representatives. I replied that I knew she worked in loss mitigation, and yes, it was reps.
A little later on, I called back to find out what the total due, right now, was on the loan. A rep named Vance said $3668.89. I said thank you, that's what I needed, he then said that was an estimated payment amount. When I wanted to know what he meant, he said that since the home was in foreclosure, it had been sent over to a lawyer, so we had to call them for the re-instatement amount. I also asked when it happened, as we have received no notification, and was told well, it only happened on the 9th so you probably haven't gotten anything yet. I called the law office and was informed that it would take them 1-2 business days to find out and they would get back to me. Less than half an hour later, I called again to Wells Fargo to verify the amount and was given $4.468.89. When I demanded to know how it could increase by so much in less than an hour, I was told that it includes $800 worth of foreclosure feesso far. (Interestingly, later in the day, my husband called the law office and was able to get an amount from them - $6062.23. He was unable to get anyone to tell him a breakdown of these fees.)
We have still not received any written notice that the home is in foreclosure status. We got a notice on 12/12 that they will no longer accept any payments other than the full amount required to bring the home current, but it does not actually state anything about foreclosure and also contains the contact info for the collections department. (Who when I called in once told me I had to speak with Loss Mitigation... Which was who I thought I was calling.)
We are lucky enough to have family members who are able to assist us with this. We didn't turn to them earlier simply because we were trying to take care of things ourselves and I believed that our lender would be able to help us. We have been told that in order for our family member to speak to them, we must fax in written permission. A rep mailed out a packet per my request. Also, on Friday, my husband spoke to 3 different people about faxing in our own document, was given 3 different sets of information, finally settling on the last representative's info who actually provided a fax number and what the document needed to state.instead, they have given inconsistent and sometimes inaccurate information, and caused us no end of stress and aggravation. Our mortgage was one of over a million that was sold to Wells Fargo a few years ago, we originally had Washington Mutual.
If anyone reading this has a choice, do not go with Wells Fargo Home Mortgage as your lender.in fact, do not bank with them at all.
Tanya
Glendale, Arizona
U.S.A.
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