Consumer complaint received 2023-08-24
Product: Mortgage — Conventional home mortgage
Issue: Trouble during payment process — 
Company: DOLLAR MUTUAL BANCORP (PA)

Sometime in late XXXX, I began noticing an extra {$30.00} being requested for my mortgage payment for a property I own in XXXX, PA. The mortgage on the property is held by Dollar Bank, XXXX. The mortgage was originated in XXXX of XXXX and has a 15 year term. I have paid every payment on time as agreed in the loan agreement documents. 

Seeing this {$30.00} charge, I contacted Dollar Bank to inquire about it. The representative ( who I can not recall as it was so long ago ) reassured me that this wasn't an actual amount owed, but would be the amount I would pay should I make my payment late. 

I took this answer at face value, and continued to make my payments on time each month. 

For some time I thought this was a normal thing to see on my statements, so I did not pay it much mind. 

During a review of my old statements, I noticed that prior to the statement dated XX/XX/XXXX, I did not have this {$30.00} charge on my statements. Upon further investigation, I discovered that there was a {$30.00} charge to my account on XX/XX/XXXX for " FAX STATEMENT FEE ''. As I did not recall ordering a fax statement, I began by contacting Dollar Bank 's customer service. 

I then called XXXX, the number for Dollar Bank customer service. The first person I spoke with on Monday, XX/XX/XXXX, was a representative named " XXXX XXXX XXXX ( extension XXXX ). I explained that I did not order a fax statement, that the charge must be in error, and kindly asked her to remove it from my account. She then told me that a third party requested records of my account, and since they charge {$30.00} for such a service, I must pay for it. I explained to her that I have never agreed in any of our signed loan documents to be responsible financially for records requests made by a third party. She refused to remove the charge, and said that my authorization by XXXX XXXX XXXX to request records allowed them to assess me this charge. I requested the document she was referring to, and she sent me through secure email the authorization document I signed with XXXX to request the records. That document is attached to this complaint. I asked her to show me where in this document was I agreeing to be financially liable for requests from third parties, and she could not do so. She then made speculative statements that ( and this is paraphrasing ) " it's probably in the documents you signed with XXXX ''. I stated that I had agreed to no such thing with XXXX, and also that such an agreement is irrelevant because the {$30.00} charge is being imposed by Dollar bank and not XXXX, but she kept denying any merit to my assertion that I haven't agreed to be financially liable for a XXXX party 's request. I stated that the document simply grants permission to XXXX to *make a request*, not that such a request can be charged to me. I stated that they could have certainly asked XXXX to pay a {$30.00} fee to receive the records, but they instead charged it to me without my consent or consultation. We went back and forth, me explaining that I never agreed to be pay for XXXX party requests, and she ignored that and continued to repeat the same thing over and over, that they will not remove the charge and that my authorization for a records requests is explicit authorization to be financially responsible for third party requests. 

Seeing that this wasn't going anywhere, I asked for a supervisor. " XXXX XXXX '' discouraged me from talking to her supervisor by saying that her supervisor would just tell me the same thing and that I am wasting my time. I insisted and she transferred me to her supervising associate, " XXXX XXXX '' ( extension XXXX ). XXXX, in similar fashion, did not attempt to provide any evidence that I had agreed to be financially responsible for XXXX party record requests. She parroted the same thing her subordinate associate said to me, which is that they would not even consider resolving their mistake of charging me a fee they are not legally allowed to collect. Similar to my discussion with " XXXX XXXX XXXX, this conversation went in circles where XXXX refused to acknowledge that the documents we went over have no wording or implication of financial responsibility for myself to cover record requests made by a third party. She said that my original loan documents would contain the wording that I supposedly agreed to cover these fees, so I asked her to obtain those documents and point out the location where this requirement is described. She said she would need a day to get my file and would send it to me. 

I then waited a day, and received no response from " XXXX H '' on Tuesday XX/XX/XXXX. The next day, Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX, I called the XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) to attempt to continue resolving this issue. The representative ( I did not get their name ) read the notes on my account, said the issue is still being worked on, and said they would have " XXXX XXXX '' contact me. 

I waited some more time, and received a call from " XXXX XXXX '' She said she pulled up the loan documents and found the portion that makes me financially responsible for third party requests. She read off a portion of this document that did not at all address anything to do with financial responsibility for third party requests. I asked her to please send me the document she is reading from. I also asked her to please initiate a complaint with her supervisor, who she stated was named " XXXX XXXX '' Similar to " XXXX XXXX '' 's subordinate, she told me that speaking with her supervisor would not help and that I would hear the same response. I continued with my request to file a complaint anyway, which she agreed to. Shortly thereafter we ended the call, as the document she sent me was long and would take some time for me to read. 

The document in question was sent through secure email, which has on its title page " XXXX TITLE COMPANY '', and is a mortgage loan document with legal wording. I read through the entire document and could not find any sentence, section, or clause that relates to third party record requests or anything related. Shortly after reading this, I was going to call back to discuss this with " XXXX XXXX '', but soon after received a call from " XXXX XXXX ''. " XXXX XXXX XXXX stated that she was a subordinate of " XXXX XXXX '' and repeated the same story her associates before her repeated. I explained that this {$30.00} charge for a XXXX party request can not be charged to me as I have not agreed to such in any loan documents. She then falsely claimed that my authorization to request records by XXXX gives them permission to charge me for any and all fees incurred, even in situations that include negligence such as ordering dozens of identical record requests. She falsely claimed that the authorization letter was allowing XXXX to " act on my behalf '' on all matters, which it does not. The authorization letter permits them to make requests of my records, but does not allow them to pass fees associated with those record requests to me. Nor does it authorize Dollar Bank to bill me for those third party record requests. 

At this point I realized that none of the customer service representatives were listening to my explanation in good faith, and I asked " XXXX XXXX '' to provide me with the address to Dollar Bank, XXXX. 's legal department. She refused to provide this information, and said I can only deal with her department on this issue. I explained that everyone I spoke to has been hostile and treated my issue in bad faith, and that I want to handle this through the legal department if possible, and she continued to refuse. In actuality, the legal departments mailing address is a public record, which I found to be Dollar Bank, XXXX, XXXX Department, XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX Floor, XXXX, PA XXXX. Despite this being public record, she discouraged me from reaching out to them and refused to provide me a means to have my grievance heard by them. 

Since I was originally told I would receive a message from " XXXX XXXX '' ( " XXXX XXXX '' 's supervisor ), I asked why she did not call me instead. I was told the reason was that " XXXX XXXX '' was unavailable. I asked if " XXXX XXXX '' could generate a formal complaint in writing to be submitted to myself and her supervisor, but was told that would not happen. When I asked why, she told me that these matters are only handled internally through voice communication. I again asked to have this in writing so that I could have a record of the communication, even if through email, and again she refused. She stated that she will notify " XXXX XXXX '' that I would like a call, and again I was told that attempting to speak with a supervisor will result in the same denial. When I asked if anything at all could be sent to me by physical mail to document this entire ordeal, I was told that the only thing they could send me is a letter stating that they will not remove the fee, despite not having any legal basis to collect it. 

My next step may be to contact the legal department, but for a charge that should never have been assessed to me, this is excessive. The customer service representatives have acted in bad faith, sending me documents claiming they prove financial burden, when in fact they don't. What should normally be a 10 minute phone call to fix an error with any other bank ( as I have dealt with in the past ) turned into a multi hour nightmare of misdirection, shirking of responsibility, and bad faith argument in Dollar Bank 's attempt to avoid fixing a legitimate mistake that they have either accidentally or intentionally done to me ( and perhaps many, many others ).