Complaint Review: Homecoming Financial - Dallas Texas

Hi everyone, Rather glad to see that I'm not the only one who has gone a couple of rounds with Homecoming Finanicial. This mess started a year ago when I rather unexpectedly lost my job. I was already one month behind courtesy of another bit of unemployment, and had plans to get caught up before Christmas. Funny how things like that happen.

Anway, I tried calling them and was told to stay in touch. Around Christmas time, I recieved a phone call, telling me that it was imperitive that I contact them about the arrears. I did, and told them the same story as before, and they told me that they would send me a work out plan (which they did). I then tried doing followup, calling and got the dreaded voice mail. This went on for almost a month, and when I called the customer service line, I still got handed off to the infamous voicemail.

By mid febuary, I got notification that foreclosurer preceedings had started. I had two houses, and cars and etc, and figured it was time to start fighting a delaying battle. I filed for a chapter 7 which of course put everything on hold. A week after filing I got a job, and suddenly found I could hold onto everything.

I began contacting everyone I owed, and working out payment arrangements. Nothing makes creditors happy like the words "I've got a job, and can pay you back". It took some willing, dealing, and negotiating, but I got payments I could live with. I kept trying to get hold of Homecoming, but they kept telling me that as long as I was in bankruptcy, they legally couldn't talk to me. When I told them everyone else in the world had talked to me, they just repeated the line that they couldn't talk to me.

After running this around for a month, someone finally told me that I had to give them a letter from my lawyer saying they could. I got the letter, faxed it to them, and sent a copy registered mail. It took another week before they let me talk to anyone authorized to talk to me (it seems they lost my fax, lost the letter, and then lost the second fax).

Turns out my case was in a different department, and the same paperwork I'd assembled before, I had to send it to them again. More phone calls. This time because I was weeks away from coming out of Bankruptcy, they said they'd just as soon wait. Now the paper chase started again, and this time at least I got someone on the phone. They'd be happy to work with me, and they took all my information again, and I sent more paperwork in. Good to their word, they sent me a workout contract.

Basically, they wanted almost $1800.00 a month. Considering all the other bills I had, it was impossible. I'd explained that to them before. When I called to object, I suddenly found myself back in the middle of the old voicemail routine. There was also roughly $2000.00 of "Advances" that was never explained. They were also charging me cor homeowners insurance, but a check with my agent showed that he'd sent three copies of my insurance to them. They didn't return my agents calls either.

After a month of this, I tried one more time, only to have them lose the paperwork again and again. I finally gave up and hired an attorney to try to hash it out. He ran into the exact same stall tactics I had, and finally someone told him he had to have authorization to represent me (more letters, which they lost again). This attorney is accoustomed to working things out for his clients, and he told me he'd never encountered anything like this, and had begun to understand my position with them.

He finally got hold of someone who told him that they were so close to the sale date, that they were jsut going to go ahead with the public sell. He felt so bad, he gave me my money back.

The bottem line is that they sold the house. I'm really glad that was just our summer house, so I we didn't end up in the street. I just througt the delay tactics and such was very interesting. I don't know if it's their policies or what, but it sure seemed like the left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing up there, and that there was a general conspiracy to keep the customer bouncing.

Richard

Greeley, Colorado
U.S.A.

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