Consumer complaint received 2021-06-25
Company: CARRINGTON MORTGAGE SERVICES, LLC
State: CA
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: FHA mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process

Complaint:
Summary Of My Complaint About Carrington Mortgage Services , LLC My mortgage was transferred from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Carrington Mortgage Services , LLC several years ago. I have never made a late payment to Carrington Mortgage Services , LLC due to my monthly mortgage payments being set up on autopay. Over the years I have received multiple phone calls and emails from Carrington Morgage Services offering to refinance my mortgage at a lower interest rate, I finally agreed in XX/XX/XXXX to proceed. Below is the sequence of events that have occurred since the refinance closed in XX/XX/XXXX. 

XXXX Refinance was completed I was advised the autopay would be set up as before since I am using the same bank account number and routing number, as on the old loan number. 
XXXX : Carrington advised me they had not set up the autopay, although my Carrington account showed it set up on XXXX. They gave me the choice of making the payment online with an additional XXXX fee or over the phone with them at a XXXX fee, I made the payment online with the additional XXXX fee. 
XXXX : Auto payment had not gone through yet. I checked my Carrington account which had a yellow flagged message A payment was returned on your account on XXXX : in the amount of XXXX due to Payment Account Not found. I had the funds in my Bank account to cover the payment ; I called Carrington they were closed. 
XXXX : I called Carrington and spoke with ( XXXX - I.D . # XXXX ) : She advised me I can request a waiver of the XXXX late fees, but I cant request a fee waiver until this months payment is made. I can make the payment now with a XXXX fee or you can make the payment online for a XXXX fee. I advised XXXX that I should not be paying any fees because my account shows the autopay was completely set up on XXXX. XXXX advised me I cant waive the payment fees but you can do it online while I hold, I will then request my supervisor waive the XXXX late fees. I again made the payment online with the additional XXXX fee. XXXX said, XXXX 's payment is scheduled for autopay on the XXXX. 
XXXX : I called to verify the late fee was waived, I spoke with ( XXXX - I.D . # XXXX ) She said the late fee of XXXX is still on your account. I asked for a supervisor, She initially told me I cant reach a supervisor I can have one call me back or you could call back later. I asked the purpose of having a supervisor call me back, and they wont be able to reach me and continue to play phone tag like I've been doing the entire week, and stated they are doing this on purpose to avoid dealing with it. I advised her when I spoke with XXXX yesterday she advised me that she would have her supervisor waive the fee. When I told XXXX that I'm not letting this go ; if it was my error and I wouldn't have a problem paying it but I did everything by the book. She then said she had a supervisor on the phone and she approved the waiver which will take 24-48 hours. I asked if I logged into my account next Tuesday or Wednesday the fee should be removed she said yes. **Note** All XXXX did the prior day was try to take my payment and charge a fee, and XXXX did not address my concern about my autopay. 
XXXX : Late fee reversed from my account. 
XXXX : I received a call from Carringtons automated system, no voice mail was left. I called Carrington and spoke with ( XXXX : he did not give his employee I.D . ) about the missed call. He said " If the payment isn't received by a certain timeframe due to COVID, because people are missing payments the automated system calls. There is nobody on that automated call system. '' XXXX said auto pay draft set up but scheduled for ( XXXX ), most likely autopay will not go through this month. Did you make any changes? '' He advised me he was going to put me on hold to check then hung up. I called back spoke with ( XXXX - I.D . # XXXX ) she said " the approval date for autopay was XX/XX/XXXX I don't know why it didn't go through last month. I told her I had the same problem last month ( XXXX ) and was charged a XXXX late fee plus a XXXX online fee. When I asked why these errors continue to happen since I did the refinance, XXXX cut me off stating " if you let me talk I can tell you what I can do. '' She said she would take the payment over the phone and have her supervisor authorize waiving the phone fee ( CF # XXXX ). She only took a 2nd payment and didn't address the autopay issue. 
XXXX : This month 's payment has been processed, however, my Carrington account now shows the next payment is due on XXXX instead of XXXX. I called Carringtons automated system and was advised the next payment is due on XXXX. '' I spoke with ( XXXX - I.D . # XXXX ), she said " your next payment is not due to XX/XX/XXXX thank you is there anything else I can help you with, '' then tried to end the call. I asked, what about XXXX payment? '' She said, the 1st payment went through on XX/XX/XXXX and another 2nd payment on XX/XX/XXXX. She said she would transfer me to XXXX on the Escalation Dept. 
I spoke with ( XXXX I.D. # XXXX EXT XXXX ), in Escalation Dept. He said, " I don't know why the last agent gave you incorrect information. '' He said he would submit a stop payment on the 2nd charge which would take 3-5 business days. 
I asked what happens when my bank charges overdraft fees due to the 2nd payment being made in error by Carrington. XXXX said, we will cover all overdraft fees. 
I mentioned several times how this has been a nightmare ever since I did the refinance. 
He asked for my Banks routing and account numbers and the address of the bank, I gave him the information. 
XXXX said, " Carrington will cover any O.D. fees, call me directly at extension XXXX and I will have the O.D. fees refunded. '' I asked him if he could send that in an email because of the constant misinformation. He said, we can't send a document but the call is being recorded and I will document your record. '' I advised him that I was skeptical of their documentation and asked what XXXX documented from yesterday, he said " she documented that the client called to make a payment and she waived the fee. No mention of the autopay. '' I said this proves my point and since you record, all calls listen to it. It's scary that she and her supervisor missed the autopay. He said the supervisors don't look at the records they just approve the waivers. '' XXXX : I called Carrington to advised XXXX of the XXXX NSF charged by my bank ; he acted as if he never spoke with me. Then said, " oh yeah now I remember. '' He said, you need to contact your bank and have them mail your bank statement showing the charge. I asked why should a customer have to spend their time and money on something that was Carringtons error, and advised him my bank cant mail me XXXX statement because the months not over yet. I asked how is Carrington going to compensate me for all the time and money Ive wasted on these calls. XXXX then transferred me to his manager XXXX. 
( XXXX XXXX - I.D . # XXXX ) : He identified himself as a Manager. Mr. XXXX said, " we can't compensate individuals for problems we caused, but we can refund charges. '' I responded, " so you're telling me that when Carrington makes mistakes causing their client frustration, time and money there is nothing you can do. '' He said " yeah. '' I said " how about this. How about firing those incompetent front-line staff. '' He said I will follow up and address that particular agent, I can't discuss what will happen but we will address it. '' XXXX stated I apologize for XXXX giving you incorrect information, he is new. You can email me a snapshot of the NSF charge from your bank and I will have the charges refunded back to your bank. I asked if he needs my bank account information again, he said, no I have it. 
XXXX advised me to email the snapshot of the NSF fee to XXXX, which I did. 
XXXX : My bank shows a deposit incoming wire for XXXX back into my account instead of the XXXX NSF Fee. 
My Carrington account now shows the next due date corrected for XXXX XXXX Carrington account still shows payment history for 2 payments XXXX & XXXX. 
XXXX : My Carrington account showed a total of 3 payments received for ( XXXX each ) on ( XXXX, XXXX, & XXXX ) and showed one payment for ( XXXX ) on XXXX, the deposit back to my bank. At this point the one payment they withdrew from my bank they deposited back. 
XXXX : I received a call from XXXX XXXX he stated : 1 ) The payment has gone through 2 ) He received my email snapshot for the NSF charge 3 ) The XXXX NSF fee will be refunded back to XXXX " no later than Wednesday '' 4 ) The autopay is set up and the next payment is scheduled for XXXX XXXX ) He will send a follow-up email by Wednesday after the NSF refund is processed. 
XXXX : I sent XXXX XXXX a follow-up email advising him the XXXX NSF refund has not been processed. XXXX XXXX never responded to my email. 
XXXX : As of today still no call or email from XXXX XXXX. I called Carrington Mortgage spoke with ( XXXX : I.D . # XXXX ), I asked to speak with XXXX XXXX, she said XXXX is in the XXXX TX office and asked if he could call you back in 30 minutes. I said ok. 
XXXX : I contacted my bank to have the XXXX NSF fee reversed. 
I never received a call back from XXXX XXXX, at which point I contacted the CFPB ( Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ). 

Summary : I have never paid my mortgage late and have used autopay with the same routing number and account number since I have been dealing with Carrington Mortgage Services , LLC . I find it impossible that all Carrington Mortgage Services staff is incompetent. This leaves only one alternative, Carrington Mortgage Services , LLC Purposefully defrauding customers with erroneous ( Fraudulent ) fees, based on Carrington agents errors. 
How many thousands of other customers is Carrington Mortgage Services harassing and intimidating into not complaining ( double billing in one month ), that do not file complaints? 
As you can see. Over the span of 3 months, this has cost me my time and money which Carrington refuses to compensate me in any way. 
I am sure I am not the only customer going through this, I have read online comments and reviews from customers with similar events. 
This brings to question, how many millions of dollars is Carrington Mortgage Services , LLC possibly collecting each month in erroneous ( Fraudulent ) fees?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation