Consumer complaint received 2016-02-23
Product: Mortgage — VA mortgage
Issue: Loan servicing, payments, escrow account — 
Company: Stearns Ventures, LLC (NJ)

XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from the mortgage lender who service my loan. This letter informed to me about changes on the amount of my mortgage bill. Concerned from the exorbitant increase on my monthly payment, I called numerous times to Stearns Lending LLC costumer support requesting clarification, no one could give me an straight answer. I was even told that my case escalated to upper management and I need to wait and call on 5 business days to get a response back. All a bunch of lies, they did n't even know what was going on after the 5th day when I returned the call. After performing an investigation and trying to understand why my mortgage payments went {$400.00} high, I noticed that Stearn 's Lending, LLC averaged my taxes based on previous tax records that did not justify their claiming. It seems to be that Stearn 's Lending, LLC can pick the phone up and get it right with the local tax office who assess my yearly taxes. 
I bought a new house XX/XX/XXXX. During the first second and third quarter I was paying only taxes for the land. During the fourth quarter a lump sum bill was charged to me to pay in order to be introduced in the system like everyone else who pay taxes on a property. They used the lump sun bill amount plus the first and second quarter payment vouchers for the 2016 year and added together giving me an exorbitant Yearly Tax payment amount. How is it possible that after giving them official documents that state of how much your property is assessed by the tax assessor and the interest rate the municipality is charging for the property, Stearn 's Lending LLC ca n't calculate and determine the exact amount of your taxes for the upcoming year. It really showed that I was dealing with a bunch of incompetent and unwilling individuals. 
It seems to be that I am doing their job, gathering documents that they should be the ones requesting form the official entities. I am facing with a {$400.00} dollars increased mortgage payment, and its putting the burden on my finances. I have supplied official documents from my tax office declaring the official amount charged to my property and Stearn 's Lending LLC can even get it right. The tax assessor from my locality, faxed the forms, and mail them. After 5 business days I called them asking for the status of this documents. It seems to be that no-one received and no-one knows anything about it. I personally Mailed them a second copy of those official documents, after another 5 days I called them and I got the same response. No-one knows where those documents are. I email them over their secure system and I obtained by second time their tracking number, I called their customer support and they told me that they have n't received those documents. Third time I called customer support and I asked them whats the status of the Tax documents, they told me that there is not such thing on the system. I decided to send them the third time right on the spot. I asked the customer service attendant to verify if they got my documents after reading to them the ticket number sequence. They finally saw it, they told me that the will send those documents to the respective attendant and I still waiting. No response, no confirmation, they can not resolve the problem. 

I have multiple terrible experiences with customer service. Emails never responded to. Promises for calls back never received. Talked in circles rather than addressed or issues. 

I am nauseated of dealing with this company.