Our experience with fedmod (FEDERAL LOAN MODIFICATION and/or ANZ AND ASSOICIATES) began in the beginning of February. We were a few months behind on our mortgage payments and saw FLMs commercial on tv. My husband called them and spoke with a James Cote, who obtained his debit card number. Mr. Cote told William that he could lower our interest rate, and therefore our monthly payments, and make it so we probably wouldn't owe the money that we were behind. He also mentioned possibly being able to get our principal lowered to what the value is now, rather than when we bought it. Mr. Cote a told William that there is a money back guarantee.in fact, at my request, my husband called back and clarified that there was, in fact, a money back guarantee. We received an email from Mr. Cote with some paperwork attached and some numbers to reach him by.
After some thought on this, however, we decided that we were uncomfortable giving these people this money for this service, when we in fact could just give it to our mortgage company instead. (Which is what we did, we are completely current as of the day BEFORE FLM removed the money from our account). I asked William to call and cancel the service, and request the money not be taken out of our account. When William called, he was told that there was no James Cote that worked there. Then they transferred his call to someone named Stephanie, whom William spoke with about cancelling the service. We were told that if the money hadn't been taken out, this wouldn't be a problem. She then told William there was a James Cote that worked there, and that she would be emailing him a message to not take out the money, and they she would be sending an email to accounting to not take the money, and that her or Mr. Cote would be calling him back that same day. No one ever called back.
I checked my balance online for three days, and the money was never taken out. 2/20/09 However, on Friday of that week, I signed into my account and saw that 1495.00 had been removed by FLM. Since we had been a little uncomfortable with the reaction we received to our request for a cancellation (promises of emailing people instead of direct contact, and being told "if" the money hadn't been already removed) I decided to go to my bank first and see if there was anything they could do to get the money back. The representative at the bank requested that we first contact FLM to request a refund, to avoid a double refund happening. I called and asked my husband to handle it since he had been dealing with them himself thus far. He called them and was hung up on 5 times before finally reaching someone that told him the accounting department would be contacting him. When I told the bank representative about this, she decided it would be prudent to begin a dispute.
As we were working on the paperwork necessary for this, I decided to call the company myself and see what would happen. I called and requested the accounting department. I was told nobody was in. I then requested the names and numbers of people in said department, so that I could call them directly, and was told she didn't know that information. I finally asked if I could at least be told what the accounting departments hours were, and was told that she was just the answering service and didn't have access to any of that info. She took my name and number and promised a return call from accounting, which to this date, I have not received.
About that time, the representative at the bank I was working with received a phone call from the operations department at the bank informing her that after they saw the company we were dealing with they cancelled my husbands debit card immediately. This company was known to them and they were afraid they would take even more money out of our account. After I finished the paperwork at the bank, I went home and researched this company online and absolutely horrified with what I found. They are on any and every fraud warning website I can name. They are listed with the BBB with and F rating.
At this point I became very irate and started repeatedly calling people at this company. My husband began calling them also. Every time we called, if we managed to actually reach somebody, we were given not 1, but 2 more names of the people we were supposed to be reaching, and those numbers would always go to voicemail. My husband did manage to get Mr. Cote to answer his cell phone, and Mr. Cote told William that he was no longer working for the company because of downsizing, and then said he would call William back in 30 minutes (because he was supposedly in a meeting), and never did. (Incidentally, all of these actions are mentioned in the fraud reports as being how this company operates).
As soon as his half hour was up, my husband and I began taking turns calling Mr. Cote and leaving voicemails. Repeatedly and unrelentingly. Eventually, he called me back, and gave me Karen Carpenters name, told me she was in charge of refunds, and that I should call her. I did and got her voicemail. I left a message informing her that I knew they were frauds, and that I had already contacted a lawyer. Ms. Carpenter did call me back fairly quickly, and proceeded to give me 2 MORE names and numbers of people I could reach about getting a refund if whatever she was going to do didn't pan out. I honestly don't recall what she even said she was going to do about it. We also had a very nice discussion pertaining to what I had read about them online, (in fact, I was reading to her verbatim) and her defending it, claiming they were working on modifications all over the country, and assuring me I would get my refund. Karen also called my husband this day, and transferred him to someone named Kendra, who said she was sending it to accounting as they were speaking, and that it would only take up to 3 days to have the funds reversed and back into the account. At this point, we decided to stop calling them for the day and see what would happen.
Later that night, however, my husband received a phone call from a Mr. Brian Sackett. Mr. Sackett first tried to question whether they owed us the money, but after my husband rather forcefully reminded him that either way, we hadn't received the services and there was a money back guarantee, he quickly promised us a refund. However, Mr. Sackett claimed because they didn't have a credit card number, they couldn't reverse the funds into our account and would have to send us a check. He said that this could take 5-10 days, but that if we hadn't gotten it by Wednesday of the following week we should call him again.
During the course of this conversation, he told us that he had been hired to deal with the over 600,000 complaints this company had against it. He also told my husband that Mr. Cote should have never considered doing business with us because our interest rate was already low and we weren't far enough behind. Anyhow, we decided to go ahead and wait, and we waited until 2/27/09 to contact them again.
On that day my bank representative called to say that FLM was disagreeing with the dispute and claiming they did have permission to acquire the funds. We again began trying to reach FLM. We had not received a check, and they were disagreeing with the dispute AFTER promising us a refund. We both spoke with Karen Carpenter (after several attempts using our we'll call you back until your voicemail implodes method). She reiterated to both of us that she was in the compliance department and that it was not her job to deal with our complaint or refund. She directed us both to Brian Sackett, who didn't call my husband back. After a very rude voicemail left by me, however, I did receive a call from him. As soon as I answered the phone, without even asking with whom he was speaking, Mr. Sackett launched into a very amusing long winded tirade about how his name was in fact Brian Sackett (I had questioned this very thing in the voicemail I left him) and how they were a valid and very reliable company, etc. I can't quite recall all of it, I was laughing to myself wishing all to hell the wrong person had actually answered the phone, so that he would have had to repeat it all twice. But I digress.
Mr Sackett then informed me that he didn't care who at his very reliable company had told me I would get a refund within 3,5, or even 10 days, that it would take 30-45 days and that would be after I filled out a refund request form. He then took my email address and home address (and this is about the tenth time they have required this information from us) and said he would be forwarding the refund request paperwork to me. He also informed me that he had 50 or so more Amber Jackson's to talk to in the next hour and a half and would have to hurry and get off the phone, this being when I tried to question him about some of the companies practices. For being in a such a hurry, he would get awfully long winded whenever I threw something in his face about the way we had been conned thus far. He also made the claim about being registered with the California bar, but no had answer for me when I told him I knew the company was not. He told the FLMs owners names are Jeff and Angie Broughton, which sounded fishy to me because I'm sure that one of the people we were passed through to had this name. I'm pretty sure he said the first name that came to his head, especially since the (last) names I have found associated with heading this company are Anz and Minitzer. Anyhow, I got his email.
It is NOT a refund request. It appears to be a waiver releasing them from any damages and liability! Also, after I spoke with my husband about this conversation, he realized this was the EXACT same man he had talked to the Friday before, who had claimed to be specially hired to deal with these complaints, and promised us a refund within 5-10 days. Let me reiterate this man told me he didn't know who the hell we had talked to but no one should have told us that. HE was one of the ones that told us that!
As of this date, 2/28/09, my plan is as follows. A copy of this email will be sent Mr. James Cote, Mr. Brian Sackett, and Ms. Karen Carpenter of the FLM center in California. I have already reported this company to the BBB in their area of California. I will be giving a copy of this to my bank to help them with the dispute. I will be giving a copy of this and the emails I received from James Cote and Brian Sackett to the Michigan State Police (per my lawyers advice), and to my lawyer. I am especially interested in my lawyers opinion of the supposed "refund request" I was emailed that releases FLM from any liability. I have already intiated contact with a lawyer in that area of California in case there are jurisdiction issues. I will be notifying California law enforcement and any and every member of their government that I think might take an interest in this little scam.
I am one of the lucky ones. I'm in no danger of losing the roof over my childrens heads, but so many others have suffered because of this company.
To my friends at FLM who will be the first to recieve my email-just so you know-I'm fully aware that no matter what took place between us that it was illegal for you to take the money upfront-and that I can sue you for MUCH more than what you took from me.
I sent the above account, verbatim, to FLM, (and also the California Attorney General). I recieved a reply email from Brian Sackett claiming that he never said that they recieved 600,000 complaints, the he was referring to the Better Business Bureaus numbers and how many of them had been resolved. He didn't respond to any of the other accusations, apologized, and yet again promised a quick refund.in fact, he said he would "fast track" it, whatever that is supposed to mean. Then, just a few days ago, a Michelle Morrow emailed my husband with the liability form once again, and it was once again referred to as a refund request. Lol. I have heard from the BBB and know that they have submitted the report to FLM. We have not contacted FLM since I mailed this email to them, and do not plan to unless advised by a lawyer. Basically, if my bank fails in the dispute, and there are no results from the BBB, I will sue them. I would advise ANYONE who has been taken by this company to sue them, you could get a settlement for more than they took from you in the first place, from what I've been advised. I also have copies of all emails and forms they have sent me, for anyone who might be interested.
Oh and one more note-I did figure out where I had heard the name Jeff Broughton before-I read it on this very site in another report about this company-he's one of there supposed contact workers. Lmao.
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