Please, Just Send Me the Document!

One of my client's is working her way, through a refinance. This used to take, about, three weeks. Not any more! True, there are unusual circumstances. Well, maybe...

Here's the deal. They were refinancing through a mortgage broker. All along, working towards a conventional refinance. The day of the closing, the attorney, looks at the documents and they are FHA forms. No, definitely, not what they were told that they were applying for. So, that closing, is shut down.

On to, another banker. A local bank. Now, the mortgage broker, has all of the documents. Originals were given to him, because he took application at their home. He is not happy that he lost the deal, so, he has not returned any of the documents to the clients. The appraisal report was a challenge, but, the attorney called and they did manage to acquire that.

Now, the bank needs to see the original Hud1 form, from their puchase date. Years ago. Again, that mortgage broker, has the clients' originals and he has no intention of returning them to the clients.

I advised them to call the closing attorney. Well, no luck there, due to a malfunction of their system, those files are gone. The attorney called the other sides attorney. That attorney's office had a flood and his records were, also, destroyed. Next idea, call the mortgage company. That worked, they furnished a copy of the Hud1. Now, here's the last straw. There was an equity loan. Now, called a HELOC. No one has that closing document, either. The mortgage company is Wells Fargo. Seems that the equity department of Wells Fargo, doesn't work along with the mortgage department. The client goes online to obtain the document. Online only offers the last two years. Need to go a little farther back. You can order it, for a fee, and receive it in ten days. Client clicks, do it.

Client asks Wells Fargo Mortgage, if there is something they can do, to speed up that delivery. They suggest a phone call to the equity department of Wells Fargo. Client did call and after more than one hour and all the verifications that they needed to even help with the question of the statement, the woman told the client that she would mail it to them, no charge. No, they already did that, online. They really need it sooner. Can you fax it or email it to the client? How about to our attorney? Oh no, it's a signed document and for your protection, we cannot do that. Can you fax it to the Wells Fargo Mortgage office? No, I can only send it to a branch. Bottom line was, after going back and forth with which office to send it to, a location is chosen. The time wasted on finding a branch, even though one was chosen immediately by the client, the lady from Wells Fargo, continued to offer locations and by the time she agreed, the branch was closed. It's about thity miles round trip for the client. No problem, they are open Saturday mornings. Apparently, the client did find the location of the branch and the document never arrived there. They remember the call, but, never received the fax. So, the signed document was either faxed to someone else, or wasn't faxed, at all. This is a document, more than five years old. For the customer's protection, it cannot be sent directly to the customer, but, can be sent to any branch, for anyone to view? Clearly, this is not good customer relations. Funny, the client told me that there was a sign in the lobby of the branch. Courteous Service is there tagline, right from the top. Didn't happen with my client!

Have these big banks, just become so removed from customer service? Do they really believe that documents are not safe with the clients or their attorneys? Even after they verifed the client's information?

I can't even imagine, how this can happen, in any market. My client, is beyond frustrated, with Wells Fargo.