Consumer complaint received 2016-09-16
Company: CAPITAL ONE FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TN
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
This follows from case # XXXX, submitted and reviewed by Capital One with partial remediation. I am filing this complaint as an extension of # XXXX, for while the issue that originated the complaint was partially addressed with the return of my closing costs, the outstanding issue of the monthly mortgage payment owing to the mistake Capital One acknowledged in their correspondence to me remains. 

# XXXX deals with the fact that my escrow account was underfunded owing to the fact that Capital One " accidentally '' did not collect city taxes for escrow. I dispute this claim, for the mortgage vetting process is extensive and highly reviewed, specially in recent years. Missing a standard piece of the process, e.g. one of the taxes to collect for escrow, is almost incomprehensible. The documents are reviewed so many times, as I have seen both as a consumer and participation in mortgage origination, that actually missing this detail would be sufficient for federal penalty. Following Capital One acknowledging this " error '', I was refunded my closing costs. 

A second practice ensued. I was immediately enrolled in an option to spread the payments of the remaining escrow balance over 60 months. Had I not paid attention to this item and paid off the escrow with the money returned to me by Capital One, I would have actually paid out roughly {$4000.00} over the life of this arrangement beyond the actual value of the escrow amount. This is an issue that I believe deserves federal review, as it attempts to make money off the consumer while seeming to help. This is especially onerous, given that fault was acknowledged, and Capital One still attempted to make money off of me. I called the escrow office, and I avoided this trap by paying the escrow. I was told by the representative that this would drop my payment back down, as I had effectively pre-funded the account. 

I called back the Office of the President, specifically XXXX XXXX, the original representative who contacted me, when I discovered that my monthly payment had in fact not gone down. I was told that it would not reduce. When I complained that this means the original problem still remains, given that I was now paying at least {$50.00} / month extra for the life of the loan, more than the final amount given to me at the point of closing the loan, she told me she would escalate the issue. 

My complaint now stands that I was offered a load with an artifically low amount per month to " close the deal '' at closing, and once my business was ensured by contract, Capital One now refuses to respond to the full complaint, relying upon my fatigue in attempting to deal with this issue while it is " escalated ''. I will include sample notes of one attempt at communciation on this subject demonstrating how Capital One has continued to provide no details and any contact I have had from Capital One has mysteriously come at the very end of the day, and once I call back, people are either almost immediately " out of the office '' or in once case " on vacation ''. This last experience was particularlly odd, given that the individual in question asked me on a Friday to call the following Monday, but she was then out all week. When I attempted to contact a person referenced on her voicemail as being able to help, he consistently contacted me at the close of the day, and I never was able to talk to him, even when I called back at times given by him on which to communicate. 

A final note : I was told in calling back after not being able to talk to anyone, asking if I can talk to the complaint department. I was told " you can not make a complaint, because it is being reviewed above the complaint department ''. Effectively, Capital One has adopted a policy of continued " escalation '' to avoid remediation or larger review.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation