Consumer complaint received 2021-11-30
Company: Fay Servicing, LLC
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
To whom It May Concern : In advance I would like to apologize for this lengthy letter. I am just trying to get my point across and hope you understand my frustration dealing with Fay Mortgage Servicing for the past several months. 
It is ironic that I am placing another complaint for the same exact issue with this company a little over a year later and this time it is NOT covid related. My purpose for filing a second complaint is exactly for the same reason as my first complaint in XXXX. 
I have tried every way possible to work with Fay Mortgage Servicing in order to make my monthly mortgage payments on a bi-weekly schedule as I had done in previous years, and at this point I have ran out of options and I hope you can help me resolve this once and for all. 
All I have been asking and still asking is to split my total monthly mortgage payment in XXXX ( bi-weekly payments ) and to pay half on an agreed upon date and the other half XXXX weeks later, as long as both payments are credited to my account before the XXXX of each month since payments are due on the XXXX of each month and there is a XXXX grace period. The bi-weekly payment option, by the way, is highly advertised and encouraged on their website and phone system which is a nothing but a gimmick and only a tactic to make themselves look good. 
I have filled out the bi-weekly draft form 2 or 3 times and sent them by mail, email and fax. Their policy for setting up bi-weekly payments is that a full payment must be paid a month in advance and the account needs to be current. In order to conform to their policy I have sent out all the forms they have requested along with voided checks from my bank account several times, and due to their incompetence and delay tactics I have ended up paying XXXX FULL mortgage payments XXXX for XXXX and XXXX for XXXX, XXXX, and Fay Servicing still cant get it right and still keeps giving me the runaround. 
Just to emphasize their incompetency in processing my request, on XX/XX/XXXX they even sent a letter in the mail ( attached ) confirming that my request had been accepted and that auto drafts would begin on XX/XX/XXXX for the amount of {$970.00} ( which is correct and is half of the monthly payment amount of {$1900.00} ) and would be drafted each month on the date requested whereas it should have said the amount would be drafted on a bi-weekly basis ( or 2 times a month or every other week ) and NOT each month. It is so perplexing that a company that is supposedly a Mortgage Servicer who deals with customer accounts, billing, payment processing, etc., etc. daily has such a hard time processing a simple request. It has been a nightmare dealing with this company throughout. 

The past 2 months have placed a big hardship on my household finances and I will be behind on my other bill obligations once again this month and even though my household income has not improved and has even declined over the past year, I am still making every effort in good faith to stay current with my mortgage payments and making bi-weekly mortgage payments is the only way I can manage to do that. 
More importantly I am trying to avoid having to pay a late payment fee of {$55.00} ( which I was charged several times this year ) for payments being applied to my account past the grace period, which has been due to their own error and which they never want to admit. Frankly at this point I believe it is this companys Fraudulent practice of cheating their customers out of their hard-earned money just to make a buck, even to the extent of sending notices by mail ( see attached ) with the language that late or delinquent accounts are reported to the credit bureaus which will have a negative impact on their credit reports ( as if customers are stupid enough not to know that much ). 
By the way, each time I call it takes anywhere between 15 minutes to 45 minutes to actually talk to a live rep and even then, I end up having to talk to XXXX to XXXX other people and explain the whole story all over again. At times I have had to be on the phone for over an hour. Also I believe another tactic this company uses to delay processing customer billing concerns ( again to charge more and more late fees ) is that they constantly change their customer service age1nts almost on a daily basis so every time customers call they are talking to a new person and when I ask to talk to the person ( s ) I had previously spoke to, they either say they dont have anyone with that name, or they say the person is not currently available ( at lunch or on another line ) or is not working today, etc., etc. Just to elaborate on this below are the names of agents and the dates I have spoken with them in the past several months and ALL for the same issue : Name Date XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX The evidence of all the facts mentioned above are outlined below : The whole purpose for all this is that : I would like my account to always be current I would like to make bi-weekly mortgage payments that is a service they offer and since I am paid by my employer on a bi-weekly schedule it easier for me to keep up with my other monthly bill payment obligations To NOT to have to PAY to simply PAY my mortgage payments Below are the methods for making mortgage payments ( so they claim ) : Pay by mail : No way of knowing if the check was received in time before a late payment is assessed unless I send a payment by Certified Mail or Registered Mail which requires me to PAY for those payment methods. 

Pay By Phone ( automated ) : The recorded automated phone system says that you have an option to make less than the full amount but when you try doing that it says to hold to speak to an account representative ( the phone system is really only designed to accept FULL payment amounts which defeats the whole purpose of trying to make XXXX payments as opposed to XXXX before the end of the grace period. This again this is another XXXX of their tactics to throw the consumers off thinking they are provided with an opportunity to take advantage of it and have the convenience to make smaller payment amounts. What they dont know is that they are being lied to. 




Pay By Phone ( With a Live Representative ) : {$12.00} fee Pay Online : Free but FULL payments only ( Partial payments are NOT accepted ) XXXX XXXX Payment : Call XXXX to locate the nearest XXXX agent. Complete the XXXX form, providing your name and Fay Servicing loan number. The Fay Servicing Receive Code is XXXX. All XXXX transactions require cash. The agent will charge a fee for this service. Fay Servicing does not charge a fee for this service. 

Pay by Bi-Weekly Auto Draft from checking account : ( I have been trying to set up this option and below is what I have been faced with for the past 3 months ) They said I didnt fill out the form correctly and that was the reason it did not work They said I had to make a FULL payment 30 days before applying for auto draft and that was the reason it was rejected ( I had paid 45 days in advance ) Next time I called, the agent said someone had input my bank account number incorrectly and had added an extra zero and that was the reason it was not going through Next time I called the agent said there were XXXX different bank account numbers in my profile and that was the reason it did not work and said he would remove the old bank account and that would take care of everything Next time I called to confirm whether the auto draft had been scheduled and was going to take place and they said YES ( I checked my bank account online every day and the amount had not been deducted ) Next time I called they said my bank had declined the auto draft and that was the reason I asked to pay over the phone with the rep and gave them the SAME BANK ACCOUNT info they had in their system the whole time and by the next day the payment had been processed ( I had to pay {$12.00} phone rep processing fee ) I was charged XXXX late fees of {$55.00} each ( {$160.00} ) due to their system auto draft date error and after explaining the situation to one account manager he agreed to remove XXXX of the late fees. As of writing this letter I am still not sure whether my bi-weekly payment option has been confirmed or not, and as of 2 days ago, XX/XX/XXXX ( which is the last day to make payments before being assessed a late fee ) I made the XXXX partial payment for XXXX with an agent of course ( except she agreed to not charge the {$12.00} fee ) but today I checked my bank and the payment was debited yesterday, XXXX XXXX as opposed to the XXXX which is the day I made the payment, and so I have a feeling that most likely they have already assessed another late fee which will show up on my next month statement. 
Sorry again for the long letter. Please process this request at your earliest convenience. Im sure it will help other customers as well if this company gets their act right. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) XXXX Important Update : I have been delayed in sending this letter but on XXXX XXXX, XXXX I spoke with a Fay Servicing representative ( XXXX ) to inquire about my auto bi-weekly auto draft approval status and she confirmed that the payment plan was approved by the billing department and the auto draft payments would begin on XX/XX/XXXX and continue every XXXX weeks thereafter. 
Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter ( dated XXXX XXXX, XXXX ) saying my auto draft has been cancelled ( see attached letter ). 
How does a payment plan that was apparently approved a few days prior by their own billing department be cancelled before it has even taken place? 
I REST MY CASE.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation