Complaint Review: SOBAK FINANCIAL - Murrieta California

Beware of being hustled like I was by Tony Sobak and Sobak Financial.  I believe Tony represents he can do things he may not be able to do and is a smooth talker. 

I saw a different RipOff Report on Tony Sobak and Sobak Financial and although it said it was resolved, I felt it appropriate to add my own experience since it cost me $2,000, a wasted 1 1/2 years of my time, a ton of stress, false hope and no results.  I was also promised follow up more than once which never happened.  A refund was also discussed and which also never happened.  Once we were denied, they washed their hands of us. 

Although my incident concluded in 2015, I have never gotten over being ripped off.  Maybe this will help someone else when they make a decision whether to work with Anthony Sobak and Sobak Financial.

In 2014 I was contacted by phone several times by Tony Sobak with cold calls looking for business.  I normally ignore these but Tony is a very smooth talker, intelligent and comes across as really knowing his business, being a very positive person and really making you feel he completely understands your financial struggle with your mortgage payments.  He says he can help you and really talks like he can and he cares. 

He explains how the banks often violate federal lending laws and how they rip you off.  He explains in detail if your bank mortgage holder made even a fraction of a mistake on the interest they charged you, and other potential errors, then the bank has no choice but to work with you on a refinance because they don't want the bad publicity, they are in violation of Federal laws, subject to heavy fines which are far more than what it would cost them to work with you.  He explains how this leverage helps you and the bank will work with you if there is an error.  He wanted me to pay for the "audit" which reviews the bank loan records for our mortgage.  If there were errors, we could move forward. 

I explained numerous times, in our conversations, I felt uncomfortable because the bank would think we made too much money even though we were really struggling to make our mortgage.  We made every effort to pay on time and do the right thing but it was extremely difficult for us.  I didn't want to pay for an audit for $2000 and find out there were no errors and waste our time and money.  He said how much we make is irrelevant and that Sean and Cheri were superstars and could work wonders and not to worry. 

He made an "exception" and asked for only a $500 deposit up front.  He would run an audit and see if  he was comfortable moving forward to get Bank of America to modify our loan based on any errors he may find in the audit.  We were on vacation and actually went out of our way and found and went straight to a branch of his bank to deposit a $500 check into his account because he felt so sure he could help us and we needed to get moving right away.  Everything was "great" and "terrific" and super positive because Tony was going to help us.  He didn't need any paperwork or loan docs since he could access all that through their programs.  Not to worry.  Tony would take care of it.

Tony ran the "audit" and discovered a couple of small errors.  He actually made a mistake and thought it was a larger  APR percentage error than it actually was, but even with the smaller percentage error, he felt "comfortable" moving forward and "helping us."  I asked if the smaller error would make it more difficult and he said, "I don't care if it's only a $100 error, they are liable".  He said they would feel compelled to work with us because of the errors and we had the leverage and the upper hand.  So based on what he said, I thought we had legal ground to stand on and a strong case for modification.  I was convinced.

So we began the process and gave him a check for an additional $1500 to pursue the modification. 

We found out after we paid the full $2,000, we were supposed to have signed a contract FIRST which Cheri later forwarded to us for signature.  Tony didn't follow through with this important detail much to Cheri's dismay.  I didn't realize this would be a pattern.

After over a year of documents and communicating with Bank of America and doing everything we were asked to do, BofA repeatedly refused to modify our loan.  We hit refusals based on everything from Statute of Limitations (which Tony should have been aware of whether applicable or not) and too much income.  The basic reason was, you guessed it, we didn't qualify because we made too much money.  My worst fears were realized and everything I was worried about and was assured by Tony I should not worry about came true.

I was told the BofA errors would be the base of our application for modificaiton.  I was told Sean was on our case.  Sean disappeared and Cheri helped us.  Cheri is knolwedgeable; however, I found out late in the game she was pursing the modification from a dsiability hardship application rather than the legal errors which is what Tony told me we would do.  Sean had left and she didn't get the memo.  We ended up with failure and no where to turn.  Once the hardship failed, BofA had already dug in and wouldn't consider anything at all.  The APR errors, etc., which now became secondary instead of primary, were denied with Statute of Limitations among other things.  I can'r remember every detail at this point but it was a lost cause and we pursued it backwards as far as I can tell.  When I asked why we were pursuing the modification based on a different type of claim, I was told that's what she thought we were doing.  The ball dropped when Sean left and there was lack of communiation in the office.  No follow through on the original representations by Tony.

Once we were denied, we were told by Sobak Financial to reapply if our situation changed or to contact a Real Estate Attorney!  Are you kidding! 

After repeated efforts to contact Tony, he finally spoke with me.  I was told the following.

I was assured Cheri was fighting with BofA for us on our file.  We never heard another word on this.  As far as I can see, all lies and no follow through.

BofA was basing the claim on gross pay.  I stated this concern in the beginning and he told me not to worry about that.  More lies as far as I can see.

Tony also told me he was communicating with Cheri as to why BofA won't act.  He felt the problem is because we were still "current" on our loan (even though we were still struggling terribly).  This was the situation in the very beginning and it had never changed.  Tony told me it didn't matter as long as there were errors committed by BofA on our loan as discovered by the "audit" which we paid for and which he felt comfortable with in the beginning! 

Tony said he was trying to figure out an "angle" for us.  He was going to call his "attorney friend."  He had mentioned his attorney friend before.  He was going to "get back to me."  Nothing came of it.  No call back; no follow through; just more lies as far as I can see.

He was reading the letters to BofA and their responses.  BofA was trying to blow us off.  So I felt he was now itrying to blame it on BofA.  True they denied the claim but it's not their fault he doesn't follow through with me and misled me as to what he could accomplish.

I told Tony I felt a refund was fair under the circumstances since he did not do what he represented he could do.  He said he wants to refund us and doesn't know why BofA won't respond to the "fraud" claim (the errors cited in the audit report).  I offered to accept a $1500 refund instead of the entire $2000 since the $500 paid for the audit and I felt that was fair.  I felt he agreed with me. 

He was goinig to talk to his "attorney friend" and get back to me.  Yeah right, Tony.  Never heard from you.  More lies. 

So we are out the $2,000 which we never recovered a dime of and it still hurts our pocket book to this day. 

Beware to anyone else in our situation who Tony says he can help.