AHMSI - American Home Mortgage Servicing Inc. Delay tactic in accepting payments. San Antonio, Coppell,Texas

This is the second time I have written this, I hope it will be published this time in the hopes that it will help others.

It is a shame that companies such as this are allowed to 'buy' mortgages. I too have had my loan sold, without my knowledge, to these folks and from day one it has been a nightmare. It seems they have no responsibility to the borrower other than collecting money..... which is funny, since they ARE NOT a registered mortgage company, but rather a DEBT collection company that is not trulely bound by mortgage and real estate laws as I have researched, only those of processing and debt collection. This company is not a BBB Accredited business. Businesses are under no obligation to seek BBB accreditation, and some businesses are not accredited because they have not sought BBB accreditation.To be accredited by BBB, a business must apply for accreditation and BBB must determine that the business meets BBB accreditation standards, which include a commitment to make a good faith effort to resolve any consumer complaints. BBB Accredited Businesses must pay a fee for accreditation review/monitoring and for support of BBB services to the public.

DBA Names: AHMSI, TOB Classification: Mortgage Processing ... Company failed to respond to BBB to resolve or address the complaint issues. BBB processed a total of 403 complaints about this company in the last 36 months, BBB standard reporting period. Of the total of 403 complaints closed in 36 months, 302 were closed in the last year, many were 'Administratively Closed'. (Definition: Administratively Closed - BBB determined that the complaint could not be satisfactorily settled using standard methods of voluntary dispute resolution.)

They are horrible at customer communication and service. Further, in response to what the person above said about asking/saying "My suggestion for all those who get the India call center would be to just continually ask to speak to someone in Irving, TX." I'm sorry to say, all you WILL get is the overseas line and NO ONE will give you to anyone stateside. When you ask a DIRECT question of who to ask for help, the pat response is "Sir, I do not have that information." Further, they will give disinformation such as "We have no customer service in the US or phone numbers". This is true of even the web site. This is most evasive and misleading to the consumer base, and when challenged on this point they WILL hang up. Further the person above also states: "... I guarantee you can get somewhere with this bank." The problem I have with that statement is the word "bank". I have yet to find this company under ANY US bank regeister listing. As I stated, and you can call AHSMI, THEY ARE a debt collection company first, with a TOB of Mortgage Processing company on the side....period. As far as growing pains.... phhttt. If they have the pockets to buy up a 150,000 loans, why can't they have customer services state side instead of out sourcing to another country. Is it they don't have time to deal with their customers, so they pass the buck to keep their hands clean? Don't get me wrong, I have no prob with out sourcing for a global company, but why is it that a home spun company in the US that is based in Texas can't find enough hungry folks locally to do the same job?.... or is simply that they can pay a cheap wage instead of possible helping their own country men, which in turn just might pay that loan they own. Sorry, but AHMSI built their own reputation and the service we get is what they hire, but that's my two cent opinion.

As an example: This month their online payment service went down, and YES you have to PAY to pay your bill with a service fee and is a method of gouging that irks me. The only methods that do not incur a fee are automatic withdrawal and US mail. For five days I have called and said I could not make my online payment due to this service failure. I have NEVER known an IT service to be down more than 24 hours. I have NEVER been late or missed a payment, except once when I was on vacation. I got no notification, no US mail was waiting and no E-mail was sent while I was gone and I had my laptop with the whole time. If they would have been courteous and sent me an E-mail, I would have paid on the spot. Instead,they shut my account down, yet I called them to apologize for my oversight, made payment in full with deserved late fee via certified check, I was in the wrong, so no problem in paying the fee.Why they treated me like I was 6 months behind with no means to pay and literally called me a deadbeat and called me six times a day for two weeks after I paid. When I challenged this and asked to speak to a supervisor, I was hung up on. And no, I do not curse at nor am I abusive to the consultant. When I called back I was told there are NO supervisors. When asked as to whom I may speak with to address the issue, again "I do not have that information".... Yet this is customer service. Under the present web site issue, they wanted me to pay on the phone, that's not going to happen.... I don't give my account numbers to anyone on an unsecured line per advice from lawyers and bankers, plus my plain common sense.... then to my surprise the consultant in turn gave me my bank account and routing numbers and was asking for approval to make the withdrawal from my account (they record conversations). This alarmed me to no end! I asked how was it possible for an employee (an overseas employee I might add) that was NOT management or in an accounting posistion to have access to a (supposed) secure online account numbers, as per their web page? The reply was 'We all do and we all have access'. To raise more alarm, then the consultant informed me that the web site was under construction from an outside vendor (scary, so who has access now), yet NO notice is posted on the site, nor was there ever any attempt to notify the customer base via US mail or E-mail. You can verify this point if you have an online account with them. What you do get online (as of 7-29 to 8-5-09) is this form to pay from a PDF file. It states:

REPRESENTATION OF PRINTED DOCUMENT RETURN SERVICE ONLY

Please do not send mail to this address P.O. Box 619063 Dallas, TX 75261-9063 (followed up by your loan info and tear off voucher)

Yet this is the very same address they tell you to mail your payment to and is what is on the tear off portion. VERY STRANGE if not misleading. After telling the consultant what I was experiencing, and I had to go through this with EVERY person I spoke with over the last five days, I was told that I could send my payment via Western Union or set up an account for automatic withdrawal. Now, why would I pay someone twenty bucks to pay a bill?.... also, if I'm not going to give you my bank account number to pay for this month on the phone, why on Earth would I give them free access to my bank account on a continuos monthly basis? Further, I complained that I do not expect to be charged a late fee for their service being down as I always pay online and that was a matter of record, the response was "Well, you know about it now." They threatened me with late fees and freezing my account again if I did not comply by due dates and pay now. I told them that it was their problem that the site was not functioning and they had no right to threaten nor charge fees. I wasn't refusing to pay, I just don't give out my account numbers and now I'm upset that my secure payment history can be compromised by anyone on staff. That was totally unprofessional and should be illegal. Unfortunately, there is no legal or government service that I am aware of to file a complaint that would have teeth for a follow up. They seem to be above the law for their actions.

I did manage to finally speak with a supervisor, after several tries, who also verified the above on the site online payment service being down and that employees have access to your accounts. TO me, loan accounts are one thing, but my bank account? Now this supervisor, who would not give their full name and gave me a bogus employee number (yes bogus, I checked on a follow up call to this supervisor, no such person), but was informed that I could set up with my personal bank for electronic check sending. I had tried to do this in the past, but was told they do not accept electronic bank checks when I missed my one payment.... again very strange. In any event, I got the info to do this should anyone else wish to have control over your account with them and POSSIBLY avoid identity theft and account intrusion from their supposed secure system. Info that will be necessary for your bank:

YOUR LOAN # xxxxxxxxxxxxx and their address to send payments: AHMSI PO BX 660029 Dallas, Tx. 75266-0029 Phone: (only one availe for customer service and is overseas) 877-304-3100

I did uncover this at BBB the web site: http://www.bbb.org/dallas/business-reviews/mortgage-processing/american-home-mortgage-servicing-in-coppell-tx-90019109# Name: American Home Mortgage Servicing, Inc. Phone: (214) 260-7000 Address: 1525 S Belt Line Rd Coppell, TX 75019-4913 Customer Contact: Ms. Kristina Parker, Loan Officer Additional company management personnel include: Mr. David Friedman - President Mr. Norton Wells - C.E.O. Mr. Steven Dickman - Executive Officer

Bear in mind that the bank can only send a paper check since AHMSI WILL NOT accept electronic bank transfer, yet they have no problem in getting to your account for transfer from online payment. So mail bank checks early to avoid late fees. I must also state this is the first time I am using my bank to pay them this way, so we will see what happens and if they process the check on time. Note they will receive it by the 11th of this month, late fees are incurred on the 16th. I should not see a fee if they process the payment in a timely manner and being a bank check, there should be no delays. I hope this helps someone by cutting them out of the loop to your account, plus save fees if you paid online like I did. I am hopeing that my bank will pick up my loan and I can get rid of the nightmare, as I stated, there should be a law against this and to sell your contract, without approval to a registered mortgage company, bank or customer knowledge is flat down shameful.

One more point. Just so folks are aware, this company will charge you for anything and everything under the guise of a service fee. On my personal experience, they have charged me for paying online, asking to have my bills sent to me via US mail for nearly ten months (which I never received to this date), asking for a payoff disclosure plus a healthy penalty for early buyout and processing fees, even if there was none on your original contract and you had a no penalty clause. You will have to go to court and fight for the monies back plus court costs. How can this be fair, yet if you look at their web site they tout how they follow the rules of: we comply fully with all mortgage-lending laws. These include the Fair Debt Practices Collection Act, the Real Estate Settlement Procedures Act, the Truth-in-Lending Act, the Fair Credit Reporting Act, the Fair Housing Act and the Equal Credit Opportunity Act. Yet they are a debt collection company, as per their support line..... go figure. It is my strongest hope that the government will crack down on pretend companies like this. It is IMHO, that these companies are nothing more than sharks waiting to snatch up homes and make money off the poor economic situation that many face now. This, to me, flies in the face of what America is about and that those that enter in good faith contracts that can be sold out and place all one has worked for at risk and foreclosure without recourse. It's a state of affairs that our government has allowed to bloom and has no avenue for folks like us to fall on without great personal and monetary loss. All I can say is write your congressman, voice your opinion..... help stop the madness.

EDIT: As of this date 8-29-09, AMHSI did accept the banking check without charges. I intend to continue paying this way as it seems that this does not encure any surcharges or processing fees at this time. They still will not accept electronic transfer. I would also like to point out that as of this date their online payment services are still down and they are still saying that it should be back up within 24 hrs. This is what they have said this whole month. They also insist upon phone payment (pressure), do not fall for this! Send them your payment via snail mail (if you don't have online banking) on a certified Bank draft if you need too, just be sure it gets there in time before the due date, and send it A.O.D. US mail. it's worth the $1.50 to protect yourself! If you do this they can not argue the reciept date and it will stand in court.