Consumer complaint received 2024-04-20
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — Payment process
Company: LAKEVIEW LOAN SERVICING, LLC (FL)

Summary. 
Lakeview Loan Servicing took {$3000.00} from our account that they should not have taken. 
They admitted that it was there mistake. 
They should have immediately corrected their mistake by returning the funds via XXXX to my bank account, the same way they took them out. 
Instead they forced me to follow their Refund Process to get my funds back on Saturday XX/XX/2024, 17 days later in the form of a check. 
Lakeviews keeping of my funds for 17 days, forcing me to follow their Refund Process and finally returning my funds in the form of a check and not to my bank account is an unacceptable business practice to correct XXXX admitted mistake. 

We had a payment of {$3000.00} scheduled for XX/XX/2024 I received an email that alerted me to a change in our payment to a new amount of {$2700.00} XXXX deleted the scheduled payment of {$3000.00} When I attempted to schedule payment for the new amount of {$2700.00} on XX/XX/2024 I received an error message. 
I called the XXXXr Lakeview loan XXXX XXXX. I explained the situation to the representative. 
She also could not schedule a payment of {$2700.00} on XX/XX/2024, she received the same error message. 
I asked her to verify that the {$3000.00} was deleted and that it would not be taken from our account. She assured me that it would not. 
The representatives work-around was to schedule the payment of {$2700.00} for XX/XX/2024, the following day. 
On XX/XX/2024 Lakeview took an XXXX debit of {$3000.00} from our account. 
On XX/XX/2024 Lakeview took an XXXX debit of {$2700.00} from our account. 

On Monday morning XX/XX/2024 I called and explained what had happened. The representative review their records and confirmed that it was their mistake. I was then informed that I would have to follow Lakeviews Refund Process which they would only give me over the phone. 

The refund process as it was explained to me : I need to produce bank statements in PDF format that prove that the funds were transferred to Lakeview. They must include beginning and ending balances after each transaction, the banks name, bank account number, and our names. Then it would be a few days for them to review it and issue a refund by check. 

I told the representative that this was unacceptable it was their mistake, why should I have to prove anything. I then asked to escalate this issue. I spoke with the escalation XXXX for a long time but after hearing the same robotic replies that the Refund Process was the only method to recover my funds I asked to escalate higher. I was told that they would do this and that I would receive a pone call within XXXX hours. 

After XXXX hours I once again called XXXX. I asked about my escalation on this matter. I was told that they tried to call me at XXXX but that no one answered. I check my phone, I had no calls anywhere near that time. I once again ask to speak with someone who could get my funds returned to my account and once again was told that the Refund Process was my only method to do this. 

Realizing that I had hit the proverbial brick wall and that I was not going to get my funds returned unless I did it Lakeviews way I began the Refund Process. During the Refund Process I made many calls to XXXX to insure that the there was to hold up to getting my refund as quick as possible. I did receive XXXX Call from XXXX and was told that he had approved my refund request and that he would call me back after the check was sent out over night to me. When I did not receive a follow up XXXX from XXXX I called XXXX and was informed that they could not overnight the check and that it had been sent out as regular mail. 

Lakeviews keeping of my funds for 17 days, forcing me to follow their Refund Process and finally returning my funds in the form of a check and not to my bank account is an unacceptable business practice and must change. It was NEVER a refund issue, it was correcting their illegal taking of my funds, they made a mistake, removed funds from my account after they explicitly told me they would not. 


I would like {$1000.00} in statutory fines for my time and frustration I believe that large punitive fines should also be imposed to force XXXX to change this business practices. I am fortunate to be in a position that I could weather the removal of {$3000.00} from my checking account. For others it could have been disastrous with bounced checks and late payments with penalties. XXXX should not be allowed make a mistake and keep consumers money for any length of time. Adding insult to injury I was forced to prove that XXXX received the funds, this is ludicrous and insulting. XXXX took the money out of my account, they can easily check their records and with my bank to establish payment status, this must be on them and not me or any other consumer.