Consumer complaint received 2016-07-28
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: Specialized Loan Servicing Holdings LLC (GA)

A few months back, I had received a letter via mail explaining that my escrow amount on my mortgage will be increasing without notifying a set date. I went about making my usual payments until I received a call this XX/XX/XXXX stating that I have not made a payment to SLS. I notified the representative that I had made a payment in XX/XX/XXXX for XX/XX/XXXX. It turns out that the escrow amount had kicked in without a prior notification ( via mail or on the portal ). I was about {$66.00} short on my payment. I asked the representative to withdraw a {$100.00} applying the {$66.00} to escrow and the remaining from that balance to my principal. I was assured that a late payment will not be charged and there will not be any payment fee since I had asked the representative to help me with applying my payment. As I looked through the sls portal yesterday, it turns out that the sls portal was showing me a different amount and the mortgage statement was not updated and reflected a late charge of {$76.00}. Along with that, I looked at my bank statement and I was charged a fees of {$9.00} simply because the representative had helped me with the payment. I called SLS at XXXX. XXXX from SLS picked up the phone. I explained the situation to her and I was disconnected from the line after 11 minutes. I called again and this time XXXX from SLS picked up. I explained the situation and it was forwarded to another representative which was XXXX who was an account executive. I told her that I would like to speak to a manager/supervisor. I was asked to hold on and I hung up at XXXX since I was unable to get a hold of anyone which was another 10 minutes. I called back again at XXXX XXXX from SLS picked up this time and told me that she will not be able to transfer me to anyone until I tell her what I need. I told her the entire story again and I was transferred to XXXX once again. I repeated my story again to XXXX. She explained that all that she can do is to send in a request to the cash department for " consideration '' of my late payment for {$37.00} and my fee for {$9.00}. They may/may not apply that money to the principal but I can check back after 2 days. I told her that the amount on the mortgage statement shows {$76.00} as a late fee charge. She said it is a network error and she will waive the {$38.00} charge. I asked her how much do I have to pay for XX/XX/XXXX since the amount listed on the mortgage statement was different than what was listed on the login portal which was different than what she was saying. She told me that the login portal will be updated with the correct payment information on XXXX XXXX. Keep in mind most of the consumers ( like me ) have made their payment by this time to avoid late charges. I asked XXXX if I can talk to some manager/supervisor on duty. She explained that there was no one on duty at her call center. I asked if I can have a corporate phone number to call. She explained that there was no other phone number but I can send a written mail to their Colorado location. This last call took approximately 26 minutes. Thus, after wasting an hour explaining the situation to XXXX different people ( XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX ), there was no resolution. I still have to call after 2 days. There is no transparency pertaining to what a customer has to pay on their monthly mortgage if issues like this come up. Either the representatives simply hang up, transfer you to another representative, or put you on hold. Even if a representative does answers, no resolution is reached. This was a horrible customer experience. Financial information is very crucial and SLS is doing a very poor job handling this. Mortgage is not a few dollars. It is an investment where hundreds of thousands of dollars are involved as in my case. I believe this is a serious concern. I will really appreciate if some actions are taken to address these concerns.