Consumer complaint received 2020-11-28
Company: Fidelity National Financial, Inc
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage

Complaint:
I had a mortgage through XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) and it was refinanced through XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The date of the closing was XX/XX/20 and XXXX XXXX made arrangements for Service Link to handle the closing. I then reached out to XXXX and requested a payoff statement for that date for my own purposes ( the lender requested their own ). As you can see on the attached correspondence from XXXX, the payoff amount for that date would be {$140000.00} and the daily interest amount was {$16.00}. Prior to this closing, Service Link sent me out a final settlement statement and the amount that they were saying was to go to XXXX was not correct based on what I had received from XXXX ; it has my current lender receiving {$140000.00}. I notified XXXX XXXX at Service Link about this and they sent me out a revised final settlement statement. That one too had the incorrect payoff amount ; {$140000.00}. I figured I may owe XXXX  approximately {$180.00} once this was all said and done and went through with the closing. Closing did occur as scheduled on XX/XX/20 without any problems. 

On XX/XX/20 I received a call from XXXX about XXXX being short on the amount due to them. She explained that I still owed XXXX {$330.00} and told me that XXXX at XXXX promised not to charge me interest for all of the days this was past due if I could wire XXXX  that amount that day. XXXX urgently emphasized that this had to be done immediately or I would incur a lot of extra interest charges. I then wired XXXX the requested amount with an additional {$6.00} charge for the wiring fee. 

Several days later when I looked over all of this, I discovered that this {$330.00} was well over what I should have paid. Based on the attached payoff statement XXXX  sent me, I owed them an additional {$180.00}. Even if I factored three days ( for the right of rescission ), I still could not arrive at the {$330.00} amount I just paid. I called XXXX and she blamed this all on XXXX for lying to her about their alleged promise not to charge interest and for not processing the monies sent to them in a timely fashion. 

None of this sounded believable, so I contacted XXXX about the matter. XXXX felt that this was so important that they actually called me back on a Saturday. I spoke with XXXX at XXXX and she told me that there was no promise by them to not charge for back interest. In addition to that, XXXX was at a loss at how Service Link ( or XXXX XXXX ) came up with the {$140000.00} that was sent. That number was not what they were told by XXXX. As far as the dispute about XXXX not processing this in a timely fashion, XXXX sent me a copy of the check Service Link sent them ( copy attached ) and it is dated XX/XX/20. XXXX added that this was overnighted to them through XXXX and the XXXX label for this delivery showed that it was created on XX/XX/20. XXXX processed the transaction the next business day and that is when they contacted Service Link about the shortage. XXXX added that the amount of time taken for this check to get to them after closing is not what normally happens in this industry. She has never experienced one taking so long before this. 

I subsequently sent XXXX an e-mail about what I had learned, and later received a call from her. She was somewhat frantic on the telephone discussing the matter and it was hard for me to get a word in edgewise. She would ask questions and while explaining to her the answer, she would interrupt me. After several minutes of this, I asked her to let me speak. Regardless of what I said or explained, XXXX said she did not understand what I was telling her. In discussing why it had taken so long for the check to make it to XXXX, XXXX attempted to deflect the blame on XXXX until I directed her attention to the date of the check as well as the mailing label. She then attempted to blame XXXX XXXX for getting Service Link the monies late. XXXX said she could provide me information on that money being received late by them and kept looking while we spoke. Finally she gave up and said a gentleman would call me back with that information in the next day or two. To date, I have never received anything ( e-mail, phone call, or letter ) from Service Link since this last phone call. 

I do not think it is fair for Service Link to have {$150000.00} of my money for two weeks to do whatever they want with. I do not know if they spent the money to pay bills, invested it, or used it for other purposes. All I can say is that I had to pay {$16.00} for each day that they failed to honor their obligations. I take exception to Service Link first blaming XXXX and then XXXX XXXX for something that was obviously their fault. Not only did they fail to mail this check out in a timely fashion, they also failed to submit the correct amount. I can not say with any certainty if they misused the monies sent to them by XXXX XXXX or if they are just overwhelmed and can not fulfill their obligations as one would expect them to. What I can say with conviction is that I refuse to pay extra interest on monies that should have been properly transferred in a timely fashion.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief