Consumer complaint received 2016-10-12
Product: Mortgage — Conventional fixed mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: PLAZA HOME MORTGAGE, INC. (OH)

Plaza Mortgage messed up our escrow account so that when they re-assessed our payment it was set to be {$900.00} more per month. When we saw this we questioned it immediately via e-mail but got no response. So, we called but were on hold so long I decided to investigate it further to see if I could figure out how this happened. I went through every transaction and found an extra property tax payment that we did n't have on our bill from the county. Going through the county records I was able to discover that Plaza had paid for our neighbor 's tax bill on top of ours. 
So, I e-mailed them and called them with this information. They said they 'd take care of it. That was XX/XX/XXXX. They were scheduled to up our payment beginning XX/XX/XXXX. 
When XX/XX/XXXX came around and our account showed our automatic draft would be for the higher amount I called and questioned them. I was told it would be fixed by XX/XX/XXXX When it was still on the website showing the higher amount I called again and was told that there was nothing they could do about it. Since the statement had already been created their hands were tied. Well, it 's not our fault that it was n't done before XX/XX/XXXX. They did have our corrected payment scheduled to begin on XX/XX/XXXX. But in the meantime they expected the full payment by the due date or it would be late. And furthermore, if we paid any lesser amount, it would n't be credited to our account until the extra {$900.00} was paid. 
I asked to speak to the supervisor. 
She was completely unsympathetic. She refused to acknowledge that I should not have to pay anything for their mistake. She claimed there were federal regulations that made it impossible to change the amount we owed. I asked to speak to her supervisor. She said she was the highest level I could talk to. So I asked how I could seek remediation. She then gave me the address to send a complaint to but no contact person to address it to. It was the same address as the main customer service address. Basically, this would just go straight back to her. Then she suggested I talk to the collections department to make a payment plan. I was infuriated! I did n't owe this money! They made the mistake! 
I decided that I 'd talk to the collection department to see if we could get some kind of extension while we disputed it. This person suggested many payment options but could see that we were intent on not paying this extra amount no matter what. He then suggested that I call back the next day and speak with the escrow department. I wondered why the customer service supervisor had n't suggested that. And if she had I could 've caught them that night before they closed. 
So, I rushed home from work the next day and called again asking for the escrow department. This representative was more respectful of me and recognized the awful situation they 'd put us in. She talked to her supervisor and they were able to request an immediate escrow re-evaluation and said it would be done in a week and they offered to extend the payment grace period to accommodate that time. It was at that point that I learned that this was not some special escrow department. It was actually just the regular customer service department. All the things they were capable of, the prior supervisor was also capable of. 
So, even though my problem appears to be getting resolved, I am intent on making a complaint to a higher level about the handling of the overall situation.