Countrywide extremely slow to respond to homeowners

[jenandroy]

I thought I would share our issue with you guys in regards to how Countrywide extremely slow to respond to homeowners who want to save their house.

Usually we just have been getting sporadic messages from a computer. It's just frustrating when you call them back because you have to explain everything all over again to the person on the phone, also half the time you get disconnected and have to call back. It usually takes me about 30 minutes to finally get a real person and then when I tell them that our case is assigned to Nadine and that I'd like to speak to her, they tell me that it's still in review and she will call us later. Every person I talk to tells me something different. The first time I was told that Nadine would call me tomorrow at my work number I gave them. Then, she never did. So, I call back and someone else tells me that it takes up to 5 days for the person to call you back in the Workout department. So, I waited over a week and still no call. Then I call back and they tell me that it takes a few weeks to be in review and that I'll hear from her the beginning of April. So, you can see how it can get very frustrating.



I sent this email below to several people at Countrywide hoping for a response this morning:

Subject: Countrywide ignoring homeowners who need help

We are anxious to save our home, but it's hard when we don't get any responses from Countrywide.

I've been told that Nadine Price was assigned our case in the Workout Department. It started in February when we mailed and faxed our hardship letters. I've called several times trying to get a live person to help us but I keep getting told that someone will call us the next day and then it's the next week and then the next month. Can you please let me know what is going on with our case?

Again, as stated in our hardship letter, my husband, who was the breadwinner, lost his custom home framing company due to the fact that no one is building custom homes right now. All our construction friends and contractors we know are out of work in our area. Anyway, since Roy was self-employed he was unable to collect unemployment. We drained all of our retirement and savings over the course of several months trying to keep good on our payments and pay off some of his dept to close up his corporation that was left. However, we were also forced us use credit cards for food and gas. Additionally, I was out on Family Leave in January, February and March caring for our 3 year old who is very ill with Type 1 Diabetes. I'm back to work now, but we are so behind on everything and desperately need a loan modification. We know things will get better eventually, but we can't save our house by ourselves and need Countrywide to call us back and respond to our plea for help. Just as a side note, we have a 2nd with Bank of America and they re-did our loan over the phone extremely fast several weeks ago.

I don't understand why Countrywide is ignoring us and will not have a person call us so we can work something out. Don't you have more to loose if you foreclose another home? We love our house and can't imagine moving! Our son goes to school right down the street and his best friend lives next door.

Jennifer

[Cat Damiano]

Jennifer,

Welcome to the forum and thank you for joining............

Do a QWR on your file and contact CW with some of the following contacts.......this should help.........also email to all of the contacts at the bottom with your situation and hardship letter as well........
Hope this helps you to move things along a little faster........
Please Keep us Updated on your Progress.......

Put together a QWR (Qualified Written Request)

In that letter demand your Life of Loan History, Copy of Note, Deed of Trust, Riders, all Assignments of the Deed of Trust, TIL, Right of Rescission (if refi), Lender Final HUD-1, Copy of Initial Loan Application and Final Lender Loan Application, all Disclosures and all Loan Documents in your file, Copy of Appraisal.

[jenandroy]

Thank you for your response and helpful tools. I will work on the letter and emails and keep you posted.

Jennifer

[Andrew]

And remember to keep calling daily if you can.

[jenandroy]

Yesterday I sent the email in my first post to the following people I got from bottom of the post in this thread:

ALSO I copied these people:

Dateline@NBCUNI.com, Nightly@NBC.com, Today@NBCUNI.com, WebEditors@newsweek.com, pressroom@countrywide.com

Responses were immediate!! I got an email from the VP of Finance saying that he put someone on our case right away and to personally contact him if I need any assistance. I also got a message from Nadine Price who was assigned our case over a month ago in the Workout Department, but never bothered to call me back; however I still only got the generic phone number that takes you to the collections department. On the other hand, I got a message from a Stephanie Porter who work in the President of CW's office. She left me her direct line. So, on my way home from work, I pulled over (safety first) and called Stephanie. She said that she will personall work on my case and that anything that comes through the President's office needs to be handled. She said they are taking my case from Nadine and I don't need to try and contact her anymore. I will deal directly with Stephanie, who was very nice. So last night I faxed her my bank statements and most recent pay stubs so she could have everything she needs to start working on our loan modification.

I will keep you guys posted on this thread as to what happens next and what options they offer us.

So, if you need some assistance I suggest emailing all those people and include a lot of media in the cc: section so Countrywide can respond to your needs.

Today is a good day!

Jennifer

[Cat Damiano]

Thanks Jennifer for the news emails that is a great tip..........
The rest of the emails were located in the bottom of my post on your thread here..........

I am so glad that you received a quick response and that you were able to get the direction you needed to get it from this forum...........

Good Luck and Keep us posted..........

[lesmonster]

Jennifer,

I did the EXACT same thing as you and got the EXACT same results. Two days ago (Monday) I sent my hardship letter to all of those email addresses and two hours later received a call from Stephanie Porter in the President's Office. She is not handling our case herself but gave me a timeline of 48 hours to get someone on it and, after that, a timeline of 2-3 days for that person to review it.

I called today and left her a message to make sure she received my fax (letter, bank statements, pay stubs) and to see if our case has been assigned to anyone yet. I am hoping she will actually call me back. We shall see...

Can you please tell me which email belongs to the VP of Finance? Thanks!

Leslie

[Andrew]

Yep it seems like that game plan works.

[jenandroy]

I'll have to get that email address from my home computer for you later that I got from the VP of Finance.

I recieved a follow up email from Stephanie today indicating that she received my fax. This is what she said below. So it looks like a negotiator is going to work on our case. She didn't give me any timelines. It would be interesting to find out if she sends you the same exact email.

Ms. Anderson,

This e-mail is pursuant to your Internet inquiry dated April 7, 2008,
addressed to several executives of Countrywide Financial Corporation. This
is also in follow-up to our telephone conversation on April 7, 2008.

I have received the facsimile - 18 pages total - and all of the information
requested has been received. As discussed, the concerns in your e-mail
require a further detailed analysis; therefore, we graciously request that
you allow additional time for review. Please know that our goal is to
surpass your expectations by responding in an impartial and expeditious
manner.

As always, if you have any questions or do not receive contact from the
negotiator regarding the status of your request. Thank you for this
opportunity to be of service.

Sincerely,

Stephanie Porter

Stephanie Porter
Executive Research Specialist
Office of the President

[jenandroy]

Leslie,

Here is the email I got after I emailed all the executives at Countrywide on Monday.


Jennifer and Roy,

Good morning. I wanted to let you know that I have forwarded your e-mail to our office of the president and you should be contacted shortly. Please feel free to follow up with me if you don't hear from anyone at Countrywide. My contact information is below.

[dimodel]

Jennifer, I just wanted to see if you had any updates or heard anything else from Countrywide.

diana

[jenandroy]

No new updates. I have a negotiator I'm working with and he was very nice, gave me his direct line and is researching all the programs that we may qualify for. I did find out that Sallie Mae owns our Countrywide loan and that they have many programs. One program he was looking at that Sallie Mae offered was called a silent second with 0% interest for 6 months. This would be where all our late payments and fees would go since we aren't paying anything right now. However, you need a $200 surplus to qualify for that and we are in the negative with our current mortgage payment. So, he's back to the drawing board to see what else might work for us.

Realistically, we need forbearance for about 3 more months so my husband can get his contractors license and have an income that we can prove. He had lost his framing company that he co-owned with his partner and he was working under his partner's license who has now moved to Idaho thinking there's more work up there. Right now my husband has little stuff here and there he's able to pick up but everyone is only paying cash. At least if he has his contractor’s license and his own business then they can just pay to his license and we can start proving an income. However, even after he gets his license and some work to help supplement my income we will still be unable to afford our $2300 mortgage payment. It will be a couple of years until the construction picks up again and his income gets back up to 4K + a month. So, hopefully, we can get forbearance for a couple of more months and then a loan modification to try and get our payments under $2000. In the meantime, since we don't have the $2300 a month to pay mortgage, I'm taking what little we do have left over to chip away at our credit card dept that we racked up during these hard times.

Well, probably TMI. Sorry.

Jennifer

[jenandroy]

Update: We are still in forebarance until July. I am expecting to hear from Countrywide soon wanting to get payments going again. We have not paid our mortgage since January of this year due to our hardships. My husband is doing some part time construction work since he lost his business and is bringing in at least something. Also, we just went to a credit card dept solution company to help us negotiate our $36,000 credit card dept and lower those monthly minimum payments. We are doing everything we can to prepare and be able to afford a mortgage payment again. Right now we can afford $1200 a month but our current payment is suppose to be $2300 a month. I'm scared that they won't be able to get it down enough for us to afford it. My husband also thinks it will be too difficult on us in the morning right now if he were to be working full time until we can get our daughter on the insulin pump. Right now she needs so much care with all the injects. This is what started our hardship to begin with. My husband lost his framing company he had for 7 years because everyone stopped building customes homes. Then right after that our 3 year old daughter was diagnosed with Type 1 Diabetes. We had to live in the hospital for a while and then I had to take 2 months off of work to learn how to care for her. So, now it's June, we are so far behind in our mortgage that we'd never be able to pay 30% of our lates from what I'm reading on the forum. I'm affraid they aren't going to be able to help us but am trying to stay positive at the same time. So much has happened to our family this year that loosing our house would be devestating. Anyway, I'll keep you all posted on my story that I have here with Countrywide. I definately will be hearing from them soon since our forebearance is almost up.

Jennifer

[moving]

Hi Jennifer,

Just wanted to send you a quick note letting you know I'm sorry for all the hardships you're facing this year. I hope that Countrywide finds some sort of solution for you soon.

Our thoughts and prayers are with you,

moving

[debdog]

Could you please tell me what her stephanie's email address is because i have been trying to locate an email to the presidents office at cw since I am not getting anywhere with people on the phone.