Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Roundpoint Mtge *BS (Bad Service) Customer Service



Dear Dave Worrall, President of Roundpoint Mortgage:

After a disappointing number of engagements with your staff I have decided maybe a letter to you just explaining the facts will inspire your company to do the right thing and just maybe this will be a learning lesson that will help others to understand the impact of taking care of the people who do help us pay our bills "The Customer".  I really don't need a letter of apology.  I also don't need to deal with someone who is not into "The ART of Handling The Customer" in an appropriate and timely fashion.  I just simply need someone who loves doing their job, someone who really cares about the best interest of their customer from an endearing standpoint and finally someone who will protect the image of your organization in a way that keeps your business Growing and Thriving during any economy.  Mr. Dave Worrall if you find that person and you are sure they are clear about what needs to be done here please have them contact me about this matter and explain what will be done. Here's my story. 

This coming week it's almost been a month since I began a very simple quest to resolve a very simple problem with Roundpoint Mortgage.  That simple quest has turned into an obstacle course of errors and slow responses. I will say also that this is not the first time this has happened either ( I will not explain the details of the previous other moments in this letter or else we may never get to the real problem). 

I received an Escrow overage check from Roundpoint Mortgage that I decided to cash. Upon an email from my bank which is Chase, I received a note that I missed the date by which I should have cashed it. 

Friday February 17th; I reached out to your company to request that a new check be forwarded to my attention less the money I owe your organization for that month's current payment. The representative at Roundpoint Mortgage was very cordial. They took my information and initially did not see any reason why they could not do what I had requested of them but they explained upon checking the details that they would get back to me by that following Monday or Tuesday.

Monday, February 20th; Came quickly and I clearly dismissed that I would receive a call from your representative when I recognized that Monday was President's Day, a Federal holiday, so I looked toward hearing from her on Tuesday.

Tuesday, February 21st; Being a very patient person I had much confidence in your representative getting back to me based on their confidence in communicating they would do that. Tuesday morning came and went and so I looked forward to a call Tuesday afternoon. The afternoon came and went and still no call from the Roundpoint Mortgage Customer Service Representative or any other person in your company. Unfortunately I had this happen in dealings with several of your Customer Service Representatives in the Summer of 2011. Again I will not explain this here but just wanted to let you know. When I initially talked to your Customer Service Representative on Friday she seemed to handle me with great attention to detail but something was not adding up. In the recorded call that your organization does with every customer (please ask to listen to the conversation)...you will see that as a professional in the customer care industry I did what all good professionals should do to decrease the chances of error in any engagement of open communication.  

Note: I prompted the representative about the points we talked about to be doubly sure they 

1.) Understood them and 
2.) They had them in their notes on the computer. 

I'm not sure why they did not follow-up with the return call as they assured me they would do. But their failure to contact me in a timely fashion as set by their own mouth, based on their own knowledge of what they know they can easily achieve in a normal work day, is not good customer practice. If a customer representative does this with me how many other people are experiencing the same thing? In a long term contractual agreement with people who have to depend on you there must be Good Service or the customer who is legally bound by a contract will feel very imprisoned about the experience. Somehow Customer Service Representatives have to understand this psychology of dealing with a customer. Someone has to explain this and make this a focus of consideration when dealing with customers or else there is no GREAT Experience in the experience from the customers stand point. I would welcome the opportunity to share more points with you and your members there at Roundpoint Mortgage about the most effective strategies that are being used to create the Raving Customer Passion Evangelist.  What is acceptable and key to creating winning customer service experiences? I can assure you it's when the people in every department of your business have an inward passionate drive that makes dealing with them something exciting. When it clearly appears from any outsider who coincidentally bumps into one of your representatives and has a FEELING that they just stumbled upon the most beautiful invisible interaction that they have ever known...that's when your business becomes recession proof. Well I didn't stumble upon that delightful moment. Actually the next day it really went in the wrong direction.

Wednesday, February 22nd; I get a call from a Roundpoint Mortgage representative (let's call them the 2nd Customer Representative). I thought it was the representative from last Friday but to my dismay, it was another individual from your Customer Service department. That individual did not have any clue that I had spent nearly a half hour trying to iron out this matter on the phone nearly a week ago. They were contacting me to ask me why I had not made my payment.  This was a very awkward moment as I had to explain to this representative all of what took place on last Friday's call to your organization because this new Customer Service Representative could not find any record of the conversation in the computer. It's not inspiring to hear yourself repeating an entire dialogue from a conversation you had a week ago and you're still waiting on the representative to call you back. But this is a reflection of how some of my conversations can normally go with Roundpoint Mortgage representatives. So now I've spent another thirty-three minutes and nine seconds talking about an old conversation that should have been resolved with last weeks call and I'm not thrilled about calling more of your representatives to figure out where is this representative. 

Thursday, February 23rd,
Friday, February 24th, 
Monday, February 27th, 
Tuesday, February 28th, 
Wednesday, February 29th 

Thursday, March 1; I call Roundpoint Mortgage requesting to speak to the 1st Customer Service Representative by name as I refused to allow two weeks to sneak up on me with no reply from the 1st Customer Representative. This 3rd Customer Service Representative informs me that there is only one Customer Service Representative by that name in the department and they are talking to a client so they'll have to put me on hold. When the Representative I'm holding for finally picks up the phone they are not the Customer Service Representative I'm looking for but the 4th Customer Service Representative.  They explain there are one of two people in that department with the same first name so they go by 1 and 2 for clarity. So they put me on hold and I wait to speak to that representative.  Finally I speak to the 1s Customer Representative from nearly two weeks back.  When I ask her why she never called me back she only apologized.  I informed her that she emphatically gave me her word in that conversation that she would call me back Monday February 20th or Tuesday February 21st and that she did not do that.  I told her that her lack of responsiveness opened me up to getting a call from another representative that was awkward and unprofessional on the part of your company. I told her that this was not acceptable and that she had a lot of explaining to do about this matter. When I asked her about the Escrow overage she explained that they were not going to return the check back to me at the initial amount on the face of the check that had been sent to me because now according to her the Escrow department they were not sure if I paid my Escrow payments.  I really could not believe what she was saying, when all of my Escrow payments are handled by your organization and the previous holders of the loans. So now she was telling me that I have to prove this when your organization should have that on record. Furthermore I explained I got a letter outlining why they owed me an overage payment in detail before they ever sent the check.  Then they sent the check with the line items in it.  So my question to her was why did the Escrow department fail to inform me in writing about the request for proof of payment on my Escrow? If they wrote me a letter about the escrow overage why are they now not putting this request in writing so that me or anyone in the Federal banking system could see the problem openly and clearly.  I don't get it.  Every lender that has held my mortgage is supposed to pay the escrow out of the the payments I've sent.  I informed her that it took us nearly three months last spring/summer to resolve these details and I was informed during that time that all of these matters were resolved.  To have her ask me for these details verbally and not in writing is both unprofessional and it fails to leave an audit trail.  I informed her that I'd like to speak to the Escrow department about this matter when she told me she could not do that. She actually told me that she could not put me in contact with the Escrow department. The department that sent me correspondence about the fact that Roundpoint Mortgage had collected too much money from me regarding my escrow.  In the letter they told me if I had any questions regarding this Escrow overage payment to me to contact them in the Escrow department. Now she's telling me that I can not speak to them about it when the letter I was sent initially from the escrow department disclosing the over collection of escrow payments from me was initially sent to me in writing. In that letter they sent me they politely invite me to get in contact with them if I have any problems. So after she told me that I requested the name of the President of Roundpoint Mortgage and she refused to give me the name saying she could not release that information to me. I informed her that this is rather surprising that I can not speak to the escrow department and I can not be told the name of the president. So I made one more request and that was to speak to her manager. She told me I would have to wait as she connected us.  Then I was put on hold for what seemed like an eternity only to be disconnected.  Rather than call back since I initiated the could not believe the way this matter was being handled I went for a walk. It's been 8 days and I have not heard from anyone from your company. So today I have decided to write you and inform you about this matter. If my assessor has informed me in writing every year that the escrow has been paid I can't imagine why this would be of question. Furthermore if there was a change in the discovery of any details from your Escrow department why did I not receive a letter from them?  The origination of the problem or discovery of a new problem should be handled by that department. I am being told by a Mortgage company that I can not speak to the department that handles my escrow about problems with my escrow. This is very unusual customer service and very unprofessional customer service to say the least which is why I'm writing you about this matter.  This letter is a reflection of the facts as they happened to me in my relationship with Roundpoint Mortgage. I hope you can compassionately review this matter to discover from listening to the recorded calls what has taken place.  I would also appreciate if you could explain to me why any customer representative in your company would not allow me to speak to who ever I ask to speak to including you if that's what a customer request.  Maybe customer service is being handled differently at your company and I'm fine with that Mr. Worrall. But what I am not fine with is the following: 

I am not fine with the fact that no one has given me the "Rules for Engagement" when I'm the one required to pay. 
I am not fine with customer service representatives not following-up with promises they make to the customer.
I am not fine with customer service representatives calling me about making payments when your company owes me money.
I am not fine with customer service where the customer is not endeared and taken care of in a timely fashion.
I am not fine with fairly obvious request made by a customer to speak to people or departments in your company with out being told no.
I am not fine with being in the dark on what is actually going on and sometimes going for weeks without hearing from anyone.


Mr. Worrall, I'm not expecting you to agree with me on  all points. I actually wish I could have avoided this issue altogether but it's almost been a month and I think I've been too patient about handling this matter. I look forward to your speedy reply and talking with you about this matter and seeing how we can make doing business at Roundpoint Mortgage an experience that finally makes customers feel at home again. Thanks. 

Lovingly loving you Deremiah


PS
here's my video complaint about the matter since I could not get any real assistance from your customer service department.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=g4tAmvg79sE