Finally, Brian Moynihan got my memo.

From the story on All Things Considered today, I'm guessing Bank of America CEO Brian Moynihan finally read my blog. I told ya'all (and him) right here last October that Bank of America was too big for its britches, with its 100,000+ employees, that there seems to be no such thing as interdepartmental communication, and that I felt he needed to start cleaning house instead of working on his golf game.
Here we are, almost a year later, and he's finally figured it out. Maybe he read the results of the customer service satisfaction survey I received from them last year.
Hey Brian, I'm still waiting for your office to let someone know that it's okay to take my call so that Margaret's mortgage can be reinstated. Several weeks ago I received a letter from your office (from Sandi Womack) telling me to call a negotiator by the name of Ken Scifo. Ms. Womack gave me a 'direct' line and extension to call. I followed her instructions, but that number? Not direct. That extension? They refused to pass me through until the President's office said it was ok. They called you to make sure it was alright; you never answered. Nobody ever answered. They finally decided to get in touch with Mr. Scifo and let him know I was on the horn. He never answered. They  left a message for him asking him to call me since ya'all won't let me call him, but nobody's called me back. It's been about a month.
Ya'all must play golf a lot.

Only 8.5 Billion?

This just in, courtesy of the Associated Press and National Public Radio:

Bank of America and its Countrywide unit will pay $8.5 billion to settle claims that the lenders sold poor-quality mortgage-backed securities that went sour when the housing market collapsed.
The Charlotte, N.C., bank says the settlement with 22 investors is subject to court approval and covers 530 trusts with original principal balance of $424 billion.
As a result of the settlement, Bank of America put its second-quarter loss at $8.6 billion to $9.1 billion. Excluding the settlement and other charges, the bank expects to post a quarterly loss of $3.2 billion to $3.7 billion.
Shares of Bank of America Corp. jumped 4 percent before the market opened, with investors happy that the bank can put very big uncertainty behind it.

All I have to say about this is.....unfortunately, while this court decision means Bank of America is being forced to be held accountable for some of their gross negligences, they're still not being held accountable to THEIR CLIENTS. They're only being held accountable at this point to the big spenders (like Freddie Mac and Freddie Mae) who backed the loans. 

By the way, according to NPR, 8.5 billion is about equal to the amount of the profit Bank of America would've otherwise pocketed this year. Poor, poor Bank of America. Sure hope you can still make your mortgage payments this year.

Does Bank of America N.A. stand for Bank of America - NOT ACCOUNTABLE?

Before I tell you what happened after I sat down and wrote a letter to the Oregon Attorney General's office, let me tell you what happened on Thursday and Friday, just to give you a snippet of how the crap gets flung around when somebody screws up a foreclosure in a major way.
Thank goodness I keep notes.
1. Real estate agent Patti Denton showed up a 2nd time, this time trying to convince Margaret's brother to quit paying his meager rent of $300 (which covers about half of the mortgage payment) to Margaret, and instead sign a rental agreement with Fannie Mae, and start paying them, still convinced that Fannie Mae owned the home. So Fannie Mae owns the mortgage?
2. Right about this time, Bank of America generated a letter informing Margaret that from now on, they'd like her to make her mortgage payments out to Bank of America N.A. instead of B.A.C. servicing. So Bank of America owns the mortgage?
3. Then, Bank of America sent me an email filled with factual errors that led them to believe Fannie Mae has the home, and that Margaret's only course of action was to follow the instructions on how to either move out or begin renting her home from Fannie Mae. So Fannie Mae owns the mortgage?!
I corrected the errors...so many of them...and sent the email back, urging BofA to dig a little deeper, actually investigate the issue instead of barely glancing at the notes and making some pretty big, bold statements based on very little actual information, and then get back to me.
4. Fannie Mae generated a letter on Friday, "Pleased" to let me know that the title is still in Fannie Mae's name, and therefore they own it. OK, so you all seem pretty convinced that Fannie Mae owns this mortgage.
5. Finally, on that same day, Friday, I received another email back from Bank of America finally admitting that yes indeedy, they do own it, and they will work in earnest to get a reinstatement quote to me on Monday. So Bank of America owns the mortgage?!?!?!
Could you people just sit down together, hash this out and then get back to us?

A Little Behind The Times

A real estate agent from Prudential-Seaboard Realty showed up at my mother-in-law's home the other day, with a "Know Your Options" notice that she taped onto the door and then high tailed it outta there. A Know Your Options notice is when Fannie Mae has foreclosed on a home, and decides its time to capitalize on their move. So they hire what is called an Asset Management company, which in turn subcontracts out to an unfortunate real estate agent like Patti Denton in Coos Bay, Oregon to do their dirty work.
Now I don't blame poor Patti. She's probably in a situation where she can't sell a house to save her life in this awful market, but if you can capitalize in kicking people out of their homes, cleaning up the mess, changing the locks and selling it for Fannie Mae, well...at least you can eat.
Well, I do blame Patti a little bit. But it's only because she's a faithful servant, carrying out her ill-informed marching orders from what she claims to be Fannie Mae.
So Patti came to the home...and then of course the shit hit the fan.
Because Fannie Mae doesn't own this property.
If you're a follower of this blog, then you may remember that last August, Fannie Mae investigated the improper foreclosure on my mother-in-law's home, deemed that it was huge bungle on Bank of America's part, and approved a recision of the foreclosure. They gave it back to Bank of America, and closed it out of their system.
Then for two months I worked with Bank of America to try to get them to reinstate the mortgage, so that my mother-in-law could start giving them money every month again.
In November, right after BofA halted foreclosures nationally, they quit returning my phone calls. I waited patiently for another 7 months. During that time we received no calls, no correspondence, no nuthin' from nobody. Until Patti showed up on Monday, June 6, 2011.
She had a document prepared one year ago showing that the home was in the hands of Fannie Mae. I told her she was behind the times, and had old, outdated info. She told me to prove it. I told her Bank of America refused, because in their opinion, the actual customer is considered 'a third party' and they don't have to share that information.
I called Fannie Mae, asking for proof. They said they'd open another investigation. They told me that their system showed the home had been transferred back to Bank of America. So where did this real estate agent really get her marching orders from? In our initial conversation, the real estate agent had given me a phone number for her supposed supervisor, and a name: Jeffrey Aiken. She said he was an attorney. I called the number, it was disconnected. The man I spoke to at Fannie Mae said I really needed to get in touch with the Oregon Attorney General's office.
And that's when things got really interesting, real quick-like.
Hey, I gotta go take a call from the Attorney General's Chief of Staff.

Bank of America has looked in the mirror, surprised by blemishes!

Today's Headlines from the AP:

Bank of America making changes in foreclosure

Bank of America says it's making changes in foreclosure process after review

Marcy Gordon, AP Business Writer, On Tuesday November 16, 2010, 2:19 pm EST

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Bank of America is telling a Senate panel it is making changes in its foreclosure process after an extensive review found areas needing improvement.
The bank is one of several big mortgage lenders that recently suspended foreclosures temporarily because of concern over flawed documents. Bank of America found in its review that its foreclosure decisions weren't based on inaccurate documents but did see ways the paperwork could be improved, a bank executive says in testimony prepared for a hearing Tuesday by the Senate Banking Committee.
Among the changes, the legal documents used in the process will each be reviewed by the signer and promptly notarized, said Barbara Desoer, president of the bank's home loans division.
Desoer said the bank is replacing and resubmitting affidavits that were filed previously in about 102,000 foreclosure cases that haven't yet gone to judgment in the 23 states where courts play a role in the process. Also, Charlotte, N.C.-based Bank of America is putting in new procedures for selecting and monitoring the law firms it retains to process foreclosures.
"We are taking the need for improvement very seriously and are implementing changes accordingly," Desoer said in her testimony.
The Senate banking panel was examining the issue amid growing concern over the disarray stemming from flawed foreclosure documents. A congressional watchdog said in a report issued Tuesday that the disarray could threaten major banks with billions of dollars in losses, deepen the disruption in the housing market and hurt the government's effort to keep people in their homes.
Revelations that several big mortgage companies sped through thousands of home foreclosures without properly checking paperwork already have raised alarm in Washington. If the irregularities are widespread, the consequences could be severe, the Congressional Oversight Panel said in the report. The full impact is still unclear, the report cautions.
Employees or contractors of several major banks have testified in court cases that they signed, and in some cases backdated, thousands of certifying documents for home seizures. Financial firms that service a total $6.4 trillion in mortgages are involved, according to the new report. In addition to Bank of America Corp., JPMorgan Chase & Co. and Ally Financial Inc.'s GMAC Mortgage have suspended foreclosures for some period because of flawed documents.
Federal and state regulators, including the Federal Reserve and attorneys general in all 50 states, are investigating whether mortgage companies cut corners on their own procedures when they moved to foreclose on people's homes.
Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, who is leading the states' probe, was scheduled to testify at the hearing Tuesday afternoon. Also expected to appear was the head of Chase's home loan division and the CEO of Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc., or MERS, the system set up so that banks could track a mortgage and avoid paying fees each time one was transferred. Lawyers for homeowners have argued that MERS lacks the documentation to prove mortgage ownership.

They thought the Titanic was too big to sink too.

With customer service and a predatory attitude like Bank of America's does anyone find it shocking that their stock has dropped 40%?

Read on, dear friends, about poor, troubled Bank of America.

Shedding a teensy weensy tear for you.

Bank of America Is in Deep Trouble, and There May Be Financial Disaster on the Horizon AlterNet

Dear Brian Moynihan, somebody thinks you suck at your job.

Another brand new gem from The Rip-Off Report, and I swear I didn't write it!

It was some guy named Joe in Lake Tahoe. 

B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan SUCKS At His Job.  B of A cannot properly post payments nor keep track of what they've done or haven't done.  Please see my e-mail conversation with B of A where B of A just stole my $11,500 payments they had posted as pre-paid, then just disappeared it all off their records ($11,500!!) when they promised me in writing a 84 month loan mod but instead did only a 60 month.

B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan SUCKS At His Job.  Brian T. Moynihan, B of A CEO, has refused to look at or consider my B of A original mortgage statements, my cashed checks to B of A nor my bank statements nor the Washoe County RecordersOfficer where B of A still illegally has their Notice of Default filed against my home because B of A's incorrect records NOW have no records of their Notice of Default.

B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan SUCKS At His Job.  Although Nevada AB 149 requires it, B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan REFUSED United States Representative (Rep) Dean Heller’s request for the required mediation with Lance Allen.

B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan SUCKS At His Job.  B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan WON'T look at the Washoe County Recorder's records where their illegal Notice of Default is still filed because B of A's internal records NOW incorrectly have noNotice of Default records?!

B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan SUCKS At His Job.  B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan WON'T look at their B of A original mortgage statements, my cashed checks to B of A nor my bank statements for when B of A was posting my payments as $11,500 pre-paid because B of A's internal records NOW incorrectly have no such records?!  My $11,500 just disappeared off the B of A books.

B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan SUCKS At His Job.  B of A's CEO Brian T. Moynihan has refused to honor the 84 month loan mod contract they sent me in writing and I relied on and paid them UPFRONT for.    For unknown reasons, B of A changed our contract without my permission or prior knowledge to 60 months.

Joe, good luck to you. Your situation totally SUCKS.