Consumer complaint received 01-01-2017 about Consumer Loan (Installment loan) with Home Loan Center, Inc. (CA).
Issue: Shopping for a loan or lease

Complaint: This company takes little responsibility in taking care not to ding consumers credit scores during the process of seeking lenders to assist with various consumer lending products & companies willing to assist. Some of their reps are willing to stay on the phone to walk you through the tedious process of navigating their complicated web site, others just want to get off the phone because they lack patience and true customer service skills. I called this company over the weekend to navigate the process of trying to find lenders that would actually be willing to help me. What this company does n't tell you is these companies may not really help even though they claim they " match your profile or credit score ''. It 's simply a gimic. I called several of those companies, had my score dinged and found it was not true & that their credit criteria is way too harsh for someone with lower than XXXX XXXX scores! What a waste of time & now I have inquiries on my reports lowering my scores even more along with them staying on my reports for 2 years! When I called the first person I spoke to was prepared to walk me through the site to make sure I did n't have any issues but some how she disconnected our call. No way for them to call you back either which is stupid. The next person I got was not so willing to help. He got off the phone very quickly because there was n't anything in it for him. Men make the absolute worst customer service people because they lack focus & patience! When he hung up I ended up having problems trying to figure out how to get back to certain pages while in the approval system to get the names of lenders. I hit the back button 4 times, then had to repeat all of my personal info just to get back to the same page to show the lenders! When I did I had NO idea that it was dinging my credit & sending apps that I did n't agree to, to lenders. I found out because I signed onto my email & found several decline emails for lenders that I had n't applied to knowingly or willingly. One I already have an open account with & had spoke to them prior to about the ability to assist. They were unable to based on the length of time I 've had the account. I called them when I got the decline email & asked if that was a hard hit. They said yes & confirmed that any lender sending a decline will likely have hit my actual scores. They said since my account was around 6 mos. they would 've done a hard pull. I was not happy to hear that, explained how it came about & they suggested disputing it with the company. When I went back to them, the rep I got was rude & condescending as most reps in many companies tend to be! She did n't want to listen & proceeded to argue with me about the why 's involving it. We passed unkind words with each other including my letting her know she was a terrible listener & rude. She declined to help & gave even more attitude afterward. Needless to say I got no where, now have who knows how many inquiries on my report that I will not likely be able to have removed because of the complications with this site to get back to a previous page without running credit XXXX times. This company has a notorious rep for doing this to consumers & maybe it 's not time to look into their practices to bring them to the right way of doing business. If they want to be a lender referral service then their site needs to be set up better to not ding people 's credit by continually sending info to lenders to ding credit scores. They 're very irresponsible! I believe they 're getting kick backs from this service if a loan is approved therefore why should they care what happens to mine or anyone else 's scores? There are several companies out there that are doing this. It needs to stop! I consider this predatory lending on people with lower scores & who may be desperate for assistance to get out of debt. It 's just plain wrong!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation