Loan Depot Deceptive Mortgage processing fees Nationwide

We were contacted on a cold call to refinance our home. Pre-screening was done and salesman said we qualified for the FHA fixed mortgage. In order to lock in the rate we needed to put the Appraisal Fee ($325) up front and that the fee would be refunded to us at closing. We paid this fee and processing continued on the loan for about 30 days. During that time we had recurring contacts with the underwriting team that we were on track and it had been approved by the preliminary underwriter. Appraisal of the home was above the $152,000 we would be financing. We informed them that our current mortgage company (Ocwen) would verify that there were no late payments for the last 5 years, but that Ocwen did not report our payment history because of an error by our attorney's failure to file a letter regarding our Bankruptcy in 2012. Only when it went to the final underwriter did they state that we did not qualify for the loan due to insufficient credit history. I contacted the initial salesman and he said he would put the request in for a return of the appraisal fee. During the next 3 months, each time I contacted him he said that he would follow up on the requests he had submitted. It has now been 6 months and we have heard nothing nor received any communication from Loan Depot. I feel that this is very deceptive and would not refer anyone to Loan Depot and suggest that they do not participate in ANY COLD CALL activities. VERY DISAPPOINTED AND OUT $325. My husband and I are both disabled and on Social Security. This is money we could not afford to lose.