Consumer complaint received 2018-02-06
Company: CARRINGTON MORTGAGE SERVICES, LLC
State: WI
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Three weeks ago, I received a letter from my ( former ) mortgage lender, XXXX  XXXX XXXX, that my mortgage had been purchased by Carrington Mortgage Services, to be effective XX/XX/XXXX. Every day between XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, I went to the CMS website to learn what my new account number would be, so that my mortgage payment, due on the XXXX, would not be missed, and to set up automated payments. According to their site, they were " unable to locate your account at this time, '' which was understandable. So, on the XXXX, I called their Loan Servicing number. Here is where the nature of my complaint and issues began. 

After entering the last four of my social security number, I connected with an agent. She then had me verify my social security number several times. Even though I entered the information and verified it, the agent stated that she has my loan information up on the screen and called be by another person 's name. It wasn't until after I told her she had the wrong information, after verifying both my name and social security number once again, did she say she doesn't have any information on me. I explained to her the mortgage purchase, to which she replied not to worry as I have a 60 day grace period, penalty free. 

I then began to conduct some research on CMS, going through numerous reviews and consumer complaint pages. Not liking what I was seeing, I went back to the CMS website and saw that they wanted complaints to be physically mailed ; working in XX/XX/XXXX, I believed that that would prove futile as there would be no record of my wanting information : having a digital copy makes good business sense, especially in verifying verbal information. Scrolling down, I did find an email address for " Customer Advocacy ''. I sent an email to verify the grace period, to try to get my account number, and to question how someone else 's information could come up and be presented after having verified my information. 

The response I got was for me to provide my CMS loan number or my property address. Nothing further was touched upon. 

I emailed the agent who had replied, giving him my address ; the response that follwed was for me to go to the CMS website, log in, and get my account number. This not only proved useless as the site still states " we are unable to locate '', but it also didn't address anything I had asked about or was in need of written verification. 

With that, I emailed the same agent again, repeating my initial email. The agent replied, asking for my phone number. Between my next response and this email, I called Loan Servicing once again. As before, I entered my social, verified it with the agent once I connected, and before he was able to speak I asked him to verify the name on the account ( I explained to him why ). Once again, it was that other person 's account ... same one as before. This time, the agent offered to change the person 's name to match mine! After I questioned the agent as to why he would do that, he then told me that my grace period was only until the end of the month ( XX/XX/XXXX ). 

As the new grace period was a far cry from what I was originally told, and with this agent offering to change the account holder 's information, I emailed my reply to the Advocacy agent once again. Besides asking about the last phone call, I explained in the email that I am writing and working with this from work, that I would not be able to speak at length on the phone as I was at work, and that email was my preferred method as it maintained a digital record of the correspondence. I finished by adding that it shouldn't be this hard to get written confirmation about the grace period. 

That was yesterday. This afternoon I received a response stating " I am unable to continue to try to assist you over email per our company policy ''. However, it should be noted that I am welcome to mail my payment. 

So then, after repeated contact with the company in trying to get written confirmation or verification on the grace period, after trying to get written answers as to how after giving my information another person 's account comes up, I felt that this is the next logical course. Please keep in mind that I am seeking written confirmation so that I have something documented in the chance that something should go wrong with my account, and that I only sought this method after having read dozens of customer reviews on the company.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation