Consumer complaint received 2020-01-16
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: OH
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
i have had a mortgage with fifth third since XXXX. I have never been late with a payment. My house was for sale & I was supposed to close on the XXXX & title transfer on the XXXX of XXXX. The title company made an error & did not do their work timely so I went to another title company. Apparently they did request a payoff on the XXXX unbeknownst to me. The sale closed on XXXX XXXX a week later. The bank is now saying because they received the payoff they can not refund my money for fees that were charged in error. When we requested the payoff the number was different than what i received over the phone. There was a vacant home inspection fee for {$270.00} that was put on the account on XX/XX/XXXX. I have been calling & talking to customer service & deliquency departments.  At first no one had any idea what the fee was or where it came from. I got to a manager who said she would look into the matter & when she got bak to me she said they agreed it shouldnt have been charged & will reverse it & refund the money. In the mean time fifth third received the $ to pay off my loan. 
I just called again today XX/XX/XXXX because XXXX XXXX who had told me all THIS has stopped returning my calls. I had called her yesterday & left a message as i have done the last 2 months. I got to to another manager who escalated it ( like they did 2 months ago ) handed it off the the cares team & supposed to get bak to me in 2 days. In their notes she says it states they cant give the money bak because of the payoff. One has nothing to do with the other. They refunded {$10.00} after the payoff so that argument isnt valid. They charged fees that werent valid. They were notified & agreed & said they would reverse & refund & now are denying that & wont do what they said they would. If that was a problem I would not have had the payoff sent until i got my money bak which was a concern at the time but they never said it was a problem. Based on the timing of things it seems that they got a payoff request & used underhanded deceptive practices to hit my account with some fees before I left to get just a little more money out of me. 
Their practices seem to be not consumer friendly or legitimate. If your payment is due with a 15 day grace period why would you send a letter stating the loan is delinquent & payment is late before the grace period has ended? These letters start a whole bunch of activity that isnt true or valid. They then hit you with fees to collect more money for an issue that doesnt even exist! This happened once before when i made a payment for the wrong amount. The difference was less that {$4.00} & the same process happened. I was able to reach someone who saw I had been a customer for 25 years & never been late. They should not be able to do this to people. No less the amount of time spent to rectify something that never should have happened is crazy. Takes half an hour just to reach someone!!! Fifth Third is a horrible bank with deceptive practices, horrible customer service & steal from their customers. Shameful

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief