Consumer complaint received 2017-02-23
Company: PHH Mortgage Services Corporation
State: TX
Product: Mortgage
Sub-product: Conventional adjustable mortgage (ARM)
Issue: Application, originator, mortgage broker

Complaint:
I am filing a Complaint against PHH Mortgage Corporation for the way they handled my request to refinance my mortgage. The lack of expedient handling of the whole process can be best demonstrated through the use of a time line which will reflect numerous delays. 
*TimeLine will be attached as a supporting document. 
On analyzing the TimeLine you will see that just looking in multi-day gaps of no action there were 105 days of delays on the part of PHH. This as part of a process that most mortgage companies will require 45 - 60 days tops to close or deny a loan, PHH took 204 days ( still could not complete the process ) and still were requesting more documentation. On day 204 they informed me of a second rate increase from XXXX to XXXX to XXXX and they requested additional documentation. At that point I requested that PHH honor the previous rate quote and I was told they could not / would not honor the previous rate because the delays were my fault as I did not provide the requested documentation in a timely matter. I told them I had no desire to move forward with the process as they did not seem to be any closer to closing and approving the refinance than we were back in early XX/XX/2016. 
I should remind you PHH has been my mortgage holder for 15 years ; therefore, it is not as if I was an unknown applicant with no credit history. If this is how they treat long term customers I can only imagine how they will treat a new mortgage applicant. 

This was compounded by : not returning phone calls, ineptitude of the processing group to know what they " really '' needed to process the loan, originating group basically washing their hands of the process but acknowledging the incompetence of the underwriting group, the customer service department taking a complaint but telling me they were not going to do anything about it, that if I really wanted to file a complaint I needed to do it in writing because the 'real ' complaint department would not take phone calls? 

After spending seven ( 7 ) months trying to refinance with the mortgage lender, to whom I have paid my mortgage for the past fifteen ( 15 ) years I have come to the conclusion that their system has totally broken down. Or maybe it was a conspiracy against me and PHH going out of their way to delay the process and not have to honor the original rate quote of XXXX. Whatever the reason I truly feel that they have impacted my life and my ability to secure the best rate for a new mortgage. I was tied up in their process for 7 months just to walk away from an incompetent lender with nothing to show and my mortgage not refinanced. 
I hope I have established a pattern of delays and incompetence on the part of PHH with my timeline, summary and attached documentation. Possibly the delays were contrived by PHH to deny the XXXX rate and if that is the case they accomplished their goal. 
Now to add insult to injury I have received a letter informing me that PHH will be assessing a fee ( no dollar amount given ) to my credit card since I cancelled the application. The audacity of this group is unbelievable! They demonstrated that they did not possess the intellectual capacity to close the deal in a reasonable amount of time ( 204 days ) and now I am going to be further penalized because of their " total '' incompetence. What recourse do I have? 
I am not sure what can be done for me and my refinance process but the shoddy performance on the part of PHH should be addressed by some authority who has more leverage to address this performance and hopefully prevent a similar situation happening again. This has been a totally unacceptable conduct on the part of PHH. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter. 
Let me know if you need any additional information as I have documentation to substantiate this compliant.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation