Consumer complaint received 2022-03-08
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: PA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Home equity loan or line of credit (HELOC)
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Parties involved Bank of America employees XXXX ( loss or escalation dept ) XXXX XXXX ( escalation dept ) XXXX XXXX ( mgr escalation dept. ) XXXX ( CSR ) Account one I had the unfortunate privilege of having Bank Of America hold two mortgages on properties that I own. One my primary residence and another a rental property. During Covid I was instructed that I could take advantage of a forbearance option and the company made it quite easy to continue to do that over the 16 month. When prompted to explain how this was going to work at the end of the crisis I was repeatedly told that more than likely it would just extend the life of my loan adding the payments that were missed to the back end. ( I was told after the crisis that a heloc would not have qualified for that option and that I never should have been told that ) this seemed plausible at the time because they had a precedent of doing that prior to Covid by paying taxes of their own accord and applying that sum to be paid by the maturity date of the loan. During my 16 month forbearance a few payments had slipped through my bill pay from my bank and were received and deposited at Bank of America. After contacting them and explaining my clerical error I requested to have these payments reversed and they informed me at that time that would not be an issue and would easily be accomplished. NOT the case. I requested these payments be reversed several times over the entire 16 months. they were eventually reversed BUT not before the forbearance option had been closed XX/XX/XXXX. At this point Ive been contacted to bring the account current and I repeatedly brought the multiple missing reversals to the attention of the people who were harassing me for payments. this went on for several weeks until finally I was able to get in touch with XXXX who was the only employee of Bank Of America who would provide me a phone number. After speaking with him over several weeks ( further exacerbating my delinquent position ) waiting for a straight answer as to where the payments went. I was repeatedly told they did not know where they were that they had processed it and that I shouldve received it. After bouncing back-and-forth between my bank telling me that they hadnt sent it and Bank of America telling me that they had, and me providing all manner of common sense solutions to get no resolution. .miraculously after bringing to their attention that I was about to file criminal charges the money showed up a week and a half later. ( these were electronic payments I still have received no explanation as to why it took so long to process ) I only added that information to the complaint to show history of information lag and Inability to grasp their own processes. and how my patience was exhausted by countless hours trying to surmount their gauntlet of misinformation, poor interoffice communication and XXXX employees. For any customer to succeed in this environment would take a level of tenacity very few people possess or have the spare time for in XXXX. 

Now this is where it starts to get really ridiculous. upon finally settling on an actual total and actual months missed. I was constantly given misinformation on what it would take to reinstate the loan back on track to where I was prior to Covid. Weeks went by with me continuing to bring to their attention that I was more than capable of paying all of the missed mortgage payments if they would continue to do what theyve done in the past which is move the taxes or leave them on the back end as well as the late charges. I would be prepared to do that BUT because theyre employees are XXXX poorly trained, understaffed and unable to answer questions intelligently in a timely fashion I was incorrectly and repeatedly informed that was not an option that was available to me. ( which I came to find out in the XXXX hour that it was. ) when I finally spoke to XXXX It was her that brought it to my attention that if I rectify these amounts prior to XX/XX/XXXX that it would reinstate the loan and I could continue to make my regular monthly payment. I felt it was ridiculous that it took me that long to get to an intelligent employee in their organization that can help me get through this troubling time with the only option that I had available to bring the loan current. but because the usual MO of this company is to not know what its talking about i instictivly asked to speak to a supervisor. surely since i was in jeopardy it would be that day NOPE >>>>SEVEN DAYS passed and I was finally contacted by XXXX XXXX who I was told was a manager of the escalation department. At that time not only did XXXX corroborate XXXX ( in escalations ) information after conversing with her and after picking her brain and explaining my situation in more detail another option was presented to me that if I brought the loan current to under 90 days late the option of spreading those three last payments out over the next six months for a total of {$150.00} per month would be available to me. She also provided her email at that time at my request. Since I was on the road when she called I was unable to make the payment at that time. When I finally called in to make the payment. I was connected with XXXX. I informed XXXX of my call with XXXX and what I was trying to accomplish and that I would like to make the account under 90 day late and spread the remainder of the balance broken down over the next six months at the amount of {$150.00} additional per month going forward 180 days. ( keep in mind XXXX knew that I need to satisfy the parameters of the escalation letter and at no point did she informed me that I would not accomplish my goal by proceeding in this manner. I had AND STILL DO the full balance to be applied ) the payment was made I received a confirmation # it was at this point I was informed the payment needed to post before we could set up a repayment plan and that I would just have to answer a few questions but that I should call back monday XXXX XXXX ( 2 days after deadline ) to process but not a problem ( this was all not true ) when I called on monday the amount to spread over the 6 month period had jumped to {$10000.00} and the escalation had proceeded. When I raised my concerns I was forwarded to the escalation department ( XXXX ) who told me that XXXX XXXX had over stepped and had not given me the right info but that it was too late. Now I would HAVE to do a loan modification If I wanted to TRY to keep the house ( but as usual no guarantee that this would not stop the foreclosure process. 

ACCOUNT two ( Fri the XXXX XXXX XXXX ) After finishing with XXXX I decided to make a separate phone call to another agent to corroborate and see if she would facilitate the same out come with the other account ( because that is what I have been conditioned to do because no two employees will provide the same answer. But due to the fact that the after hours voicemail tells you that business hours are monday thru friday till XXXX XXXX  ( which is not true its XXXX XXXX on friday ) I Called at XXXX and was at the mercy of the auto payment system which would not take a partial payment. ( because at this point I was still operating under XXXX  direction to bring it in under 90 days late. I sent an email to XXXX to inform her of my intentions and update her of my progress and that email is still unanswered and no return phone call has been made as of XXXX XXXX. I am still prepared to satisfy the total of the missed payments if the resolution can be agreed upon since the 6 month repayment plan has never actually been an option that was available to me ( even thought it was couched as a viable solution by 3 employees ) in summary what i have learned is that this company expects clients to be patient while employees cut their teeth on new programs and practices poor communication and resurfacing tech issues all while giving Zero leeway for clients who are left out in the cold due to poor timing and customer service that is too slow to meet their own inflexible deadlines which fall on a weekend. BUT let 's be honest no one would have been able to help me in a timely fashion even if they were open because their company is designed to provide information too slow for the client to act on it and when you do act on it? it was the wrong direction anyway. Which is the best recipe to make it look like you are not actively trying to steal houses. 

IF it looks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a home stealing duck.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation