Consumer complaint received 2020-12-31
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Closing on a mortgage — 
Company: Dovenmuehle Mortgage, Inc. (VA)

I have had multiple issues with XXXX XXXX XXXX Dovenmuehl mortgage servicer. 

Shortly after they bought my loan in XXXX, they failed to pay my city taxes. This resulted in me getting a notice from the city as well as a late fee as they had not received my property tax payment, despite me not having any missing or late payments on my mortgage. I was able to get this resolved by calling the city as well as XXXX XXXX. 

This year in XXXX, I have been aggressively making extra payments with the goal of paying off my loan. I have been making a mortgage payment monthly in excess of the amount owed on my mortgage, sometimes making payments up to {$6000.00} in a given month on a {$740.00} mortgage payment. On two months, in XXXX and XXXX of XXXX, I also made an additional payment mid month in addition to my mortgage payment that was due. Despite these being an extra payment and being designed as a principal only payment, these were incorrectly applied as future mortgage payments. I noticed this error originally on XX/XX/XXXX when I called in preparation to pay off my loan in its entirety, but had noticed these errors with previous payments on reviewing my account. I spoke with a representative who told me the error would be corrected within 5 business days of XX/XX/XXXX ; however 5 business days later nothing had been done. I called again, and the correction was made incorrectly such that my XX/XX/XXXX payment ( instead of XX/XX/XXXX payment ) was reversed and applied to principal only and then showed up I had never made a XXXX mortgage payment. Ultimately this took until XX/XX/XXXX to get corrected. Over that period, I got late fees imposed on my account which I was able to call and get reversed. Despite my mortgage statement previously being shown as paid through XX/XX/XXXX, once they made the adjustments and after over a month had passed, it was incorrectly reflected that I was delinquent on a payment. On repeated calls, I was told to NOT pay off my mortgage until the correction to my original payment had been made, but it took over 6 calls and over a month for this to get corrected. Over the week of XXXX, I started to receive multiple calls and paperwork in the mail from XXXX XXXX stating they are attempting to collect a debt I owed, despite being current on payments owed ( I never should have even had a XXXX payment if they had corrected their previous error in a timely manner ) and having paid over {$56000.00} on my loan this calendar year alone! In addition to the stress and inconvenience of being contacted by collections, I am also afraid this could affect my excellent 800+ credit score. 

When on XX/XX/XXXX this had finally all been corrected, I called XXXX XXXX / Dovenmuehl in an attempt to make the final payment on my loan. I was told by a manager in the customer service department that if my remaining balance on the loan was less than {$1000.00} then I would not have to make a wire transfer and could simply pay off the remaining balance on the loan either by phone or online through my XXXX XXXX. My current balance on the loan was {$1000.00} so she recommended that I make a payment on the phone with her, which I did in the amount of {$500.00}. The next day I could see the {$500.00} payment was posted to my account, so I called back to pay the remaining {$590.00} as I was afraid of how my payment may get appropriated if I submitted it online. However the representative I spoke to on the phone today XX/XX/XXXX told me it would not be possible to make the payment via phone and that the only way was to submit a wire transfer. I told them that a manager in customer service the previous day had instructed me that if the balance was less than {$1000.00} then I could simply pay it off by phone, but this representative would not reference the previous call and simply told me that was wrong and they had no idea why I would have been told that previously. I was told the only way to pay off my loan was to do a wire transfer by no later than XXXX XXXX that day. So today from XXXX - XXXX XXXX I drove to various banks in my area trying to find a bank with an open appointment slot with a banker who could help me make a wire transfer. After multiple calls and driving around, I was able to find a banker who could do the wire transfer with me that day, but there is a {$45.00} fee associated with a wire transfer that I was previously told I could avoid by making the payment via phone. I went ahead and made the payment with my bank via the wire transfer as I was eager to get my mortgage paid off and had been told by South state that this was what was required to do so. 

Later when I called back to XXXX XXXX XXXX  to verify this, I was told the initial customer service manager was right that I could have just made the payment on phone, but was instead sent all over town by a different customer service representative that not only provided me with incorrect information but was also extremely rude. Ever since the previous error, payment reversals and corrections, my call automatically gets routed to the collections department and they are obtrusive with transferring you to the correct department to get help. 

I am also afraid that I may have paid additional interest beyond what I owed on the loan due to the over one month delay in correcting the error before I was able to make the final payoff. 

When I call to XXXX XXXX XXXX, I am instructed to submit a written request and am told there is nothing further they can do. 

On multiple calls I have requested a call back from a customer service rep for follow up on an issue and I have never received a call back. On multiple calls I am transferred from department to department, person to person without my consent, this often leads to my call getting dropped or sent to a manager who does not answer and no one calls me back. I am not sure if this is a bad system or a system designed to make customers of XXXX XXXX simply give up trying to remedy errors made by them. I have been very disappointed by inconsistent and incorrect information given to me by XXXX XXXX, and that no one within the company makes an effort to follow up on an issue ; even when it was due to a mistake on their behalf so that the entire burden of correcting the issue is put on the customer.