Consumer complaint received 2015-06-30
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: VA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account

Complaint:
I received a letter from US Bank stating that they have mailed me an escrow refund and the check has not cleared. I called US Bank to tell them I never received the check. They told me that they would issue me a new check for a charge of {$15.00}. I told them that I should not have to pay the charge since I never lost the check. It was not received by me. I told them that If I mailed them my mortgage payment and they did not receive the payment I could n't charge them {$15.00} for not processing the payment I mailed them. They told me that the tracked the envelope to the post office that serves my home. I told them that I did not receive the check. I receive my neighbor 's mail all of the time. It could be sitting on his kitchen counter and he could have forgot about it. I objected to pay the {$15.00} fee since I did not lose the check. I asked to speak with a supervisor. I spoke with XXXX supervisors after the initial customer service person. All of them told me that they would not waive the fee. They told me that I could wait 6 months after the check was issued and then the check would be cancelled and my escrow account would be credited. I asked them why I need to wait 6 months to receive my escrow refund. If a customer calls and tells them it was not received then they need to resend the payment and not hold it hostage for {$15.00}. As of today they will not issue my refund unless I agree to the {$15.00} fee. I will not agree to the fee out of principal. They basically bully you into paying the fee. Either pay the fee or wait until next year for us to refund the money. Do n't pay the fee and we will hold your funds. I am certain many other borrowers have caved in to their demands to pay the {$15.00} fee in order to receive the refund that they never received in the XXXX place. They tell me that people call them all of the time to tell them that they never received the escrow refund. Perhaps they need to establish a better procedure to reduce the occurrence of this issue. If a problem repeats itself that tells me that you have a problem with the procedure. 

I told them that we are wasting allot of time to solve this problem and that my phone calls probably cost more than the {$15.00} fee. All of the supervisors told me that they did not have any authority to waive the fee. I told XXXX of the supervisors that if he is in management and does not have the authority to waive a fee for {$15.00} then he is not in management. What kind of manager has no authority to waive a {$15.00} fee. I asked to speak with a manager who would have the authority to waive this fee. I was told that no manager has the authority to waive this fee. 

Here is the bottom line- When a customer calls to tell you they never received the escrow refund then send them the refund and thank them for being a client of the bank. Do n't tell them that you are going to charge them {$15.00} because that is what it costs to re-issue a check. They basically are telling me that I am a liar and need to pay the fee because I lost the check.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief