Update On The World's Dumbest Business Ever

It's been awhile since I last blogged, but I thought I would give you an update.

My last phone call to BofA was on March 10th. I blogged about that interaction already, so I won't go into those details again.

On March 24th BofA sent us another letter thanking us "for your recent correspondence" and telling us "we are in the process of obtaining the documentation and information necessary to address your questions and concerns. We will provide a complete response within twenty business days."

On April 2nd we got another letter "in response to your correspondence received on SEPTEMBER 09, 2009. Your request for assistance, along with your personal financial information has been received." The letter told us what we needed to do: Allow them time to review loan for possible modification and we will be contacted once they have the result of the analysis...we need to continue making payments because our loan was in normal servicing (HA!). Finally and oh so sincerely, they said we "are a valued customer...and it is their continued goal to provide the highest level of customer satisfaction....blah blah blah" Bull S*#t!

On April 22 I had a message from our home owner's insurance company, but didn't return the call until the following Monday the 26th. The insurance agent told me that BofA called them and told them to take the home owner's insurance off of our monthly billing and to change the billing to go through them instead. They would be paying the insurance in full for a year. Really? They have the right to do that? We've never missed an insurance payment...EVER! Apparently, they do have the right because they are on the deed and an owner of the property....but here's the catch-the insurance company won't insure a vacant home with this type of policy so when we cancel the policy the money paid gets refunded to the policy holder (Us!) Yep! We got a check for over $500 that the bank paid the insurance company. Another catch-we now owe the bank an additional $500...how fair is that? So when the bank sells the house short of what we owe them, they will turn the loss over to the IRS as earned income that we will have to pay taxes on.

On May 18th we received yet another letter from BofA stating "We have been unable to contact you to discuss possible workout options available for your home loan. In order to assist us in providing quality service, please contact us as soon as possible at the number below, and complete and return the following information at your earliest convenience." They wanted our address and phone number! They also asked us to fax in our pay stubs, bank statements, tax returns, hardship letter, and budget sheet...WHICH WE DID AT LEAST 6 TIMES ALREADY!!! So guess what I did? Ignored it! Bull s*#t that they couldn't contact us! I've called them a million times and sent half a million letter's to them (slightly exaggerated).

On June 1st we completed our move, canceled our insurance and utilities and waited for the promised eviction notice. On or about June 3rd, we received another letter: "Thank you for contacting us recently to discuss your home loan needs. We understand that it is becoming increasingly difficult for you to make your monthly mortgage payment, and unfortunately we are unable to offer you a workout plan at this time because: UNABLE TO CONTACT BORROWER" Seriously? They said a bunch of other BS like "we want to help you stay in your home" and "if your loan isn't brought up to date we will continue reporting all past due payments to the credit reporting agencies" and "we are the dumbest business ever and all we have done to you up to this point is jerk you around"...okay, that last part was made up...but we know it's true!

Today, June 21, I called the Newberg branch of BofA (503)538-8393 (I’m not willing to wait on hold and take hours using my cell minutes anymore. I called to let them know we were out of the house and had canceled our utilities and insurance. I talked to Diane, Manager, she said our name was no longer on home loan (used my SSN to look up) and the status showed it is foreclosed. They had our new address on file, as well as phone number, so they would have been able to contact us had they really tried. Diane said it would take some time to process any paperwork due to high volume of foreclosures and she was "sorry for our loss".

Well, that's in a nut shell (if the nut shell was in the Guinness Book of World Records).