Consumer complaint received 2016-09-02
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: FRANKLIN AMERICAN MORTGAGE CO. (NC)

Our loan was sold to Franklin American in XXXX 2013. We had terrible experience with their services, particularly recently when we are relocating to another state and want to pay off the loan ( ~ {$14000.00} ) to have a better debt to income ratio for a new loan application and to get our money in the escrow account back as down pay to buy a new house in the other state. This needs to be done really fast because Franklin American mailed us a letter to say they are going to sell our loan to another company and the account will be transferred to the new servicing company very soon. Below is what happened. 
1 ) We called the customer service to request information regarding payoff. The representative on phone told us he is generating a payoff statement to be mailed to us but he refused to share with us on phone any further information, such as how much we own and where to send the final payment. But later we found they actually could do so. 
2 ) While waiting for the payoff statement in mail, we used their online payment function to pay the balance. But the online payment is not designed to pay all of the balance. We tried multiple payments. Some of payment even went to the escrow account instead of principal payment, but there remained a one-dollar balance we just could not pay off. 
3 ) We never received the payoff statement in mail. So we called the customer service again the day before our loan was transferred to another company. The new representative said she could fax us the payoff statement and promised that our loan wo n't be transferred at this stage. She told us the balance on our account is XXXX dollars instead of XXXX dollar without explaining why. We were in a hurry and did n't ask much. 
4 ) We called their customer service multiple times that day to follow up because we simply did not receive the fax. But problem was not solved and we missed out the chance to pay off the loan before it was transferred to another serving company. 
5 ) We called their customer service the next morning to verify the fax and found out the {$6.00} dollar includes a {$5.00} fee for expedite service. We argued that fee should not be charged because we never received the fax. Instead their service was very slow and every time different representatives told us different or conflicting information. We even escalated the complaint to the manager of customer service, but she refused to refund us the money, but we finally got the payoff statement by fax. It says our final payoff includes {$1.00} principal and {$5.00} fee. 
6 ) We went to our bank and spent {$30.00} to wire transfer {$6.00} immediately in hope to pay off on time and get our money in escrow account as soon as possible. Even the bank teller said to us it does not make sense to spend {$30.00} wire fee to transfer only {$6.00}. However, wire transfer and cashier 's check are the only payment Franklin American accept and we were in a big hurry. 
7 ) The next day, we contacted Franklin American 's customer service again and was told that our loan WAS transferred to another serving company and we need to contact the new company to inquiry about the escrow account. 
In summary, our complaint is about ( a ) we did not receive the payoff statement on time by mail and by fax, ( b ) they charged us {$5.00} for expedite service which was really slow instead. They refused to waive the {$5.00} charge, ( c ) different customer representatives told us different, confusing or even conflicting information. We ended up spending a lot of time dealing with them, and missed our chance to payoff on time and get our escrow money refunded quickly. Now we are waiting for the new serving company to refund us the escrow money.