Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance Co ripoff! Maryville, Tennessee

Enduring YEARS of Ripoff with Vanderbilt Mortgage and Finance in Maryville, Tennessee!

We purchased a doublewide mobile home Luv Mobile Homes in Dec. of 1996 (an Oak Creek costing $75,000) after our home burned to the ground months earlier! We put $10,000 down on the home initially - so we DID invest quite a bit in the home. We have had trouble with Vanderbilt almost ever since!

Things went fine for the first several months but in Sept.of 1997, my husband lost his job due to a heart condition and bad knees. He had to file for SS disability - and while awaiting the results (which he got on first try - but had to wait 6 months for the money to start coming in), we got behind two notes on the house - after not missing a note since we purchased it PLUS the large down payment! My salary alone could not meet all of our bills - and we were struggling, but did Vanderbilt care??? NO.....they were going to foreclose on us IF we didn't have the whole amount due by a certain date(this was the whole amount left on the loan - not just the two payments missed). No working with us, etc. We were forced into bankruptcy JUST to save our home and the ONLY reason we did that was because we hated to lose all the money we had in it. Life after that was intolerable.

The bankruptcy saved the home initially but from that moment on, Vanderbilt looked for one excuse or another - and their collection staff is sheer hell to work with. They must all be leeches and vultures with NO compassion whatsoever. I cannot believe they get by with so much aggressiveness. First, (and this was through our lawyer) - we were suddenly behind a payment or we had not paid enough -- it was always something! We made payments as we were supposed to and yet they say we were behind a month (and still do) just so they could make sure we do not get over ONE day past due! As I said... we have had misery the whole time we have had the loan with them.

We finally dropped the bankruptcy as, really, the only thing we declared it for was the house and it was a mute point. We were fighting a losing battle. They did send us a new payment book the first of this year - stating our payments went down almost $100 BUT....EVERY month they call to make sure we have sent the payment and if they haven't received it, they want us to do an extra payment by phone! Then, just yesterday, they called telling us that we owed them an extra $43 on this last payment they just received (ALWAYS something for harrassment) and they were yelling at my husband over the phone (I could hear them all the way across the room!). He kept saying he couldn't send them the money right now nor make a payment by phone (I have been through two surgeries and in the hospital 6 times since Feb. after just being diagnosed with cancer so we are again going through difficulties) but that wasn't MY point. I wasn't paying without knowing WHY we owed an extra $43!

I took the phone from my husband and this rude, brazen woman with a shrill voice was telling me that she did NOT have to tell me WHY I owed the $43 - but if I called the 800 number (which she never gave us), they would tell me. I told her I was NOT paying the extra money until I knew why- and then she told me that our payments had also (already - ? and we knew nothing of it?) gone up $69 a month because our insurance had lapsed (it had not and I have the letters to prove it) ...which doesn't even add up. If our payments had gone up that much, where does $43 come in? She refused to discuss it with me and would not give us the number unless we gave her the payment - and refused to deposit the check we sent for our house payment (making it now way past due) because it is $43 short!

They make up their own rules as they go and the consumers are left in the dark! This was at 4:30 pm on a Friday. She realized I was NOT paying it until I found out why - and since she wasn't telling me - she finally just said "M'am, your house WILL be defaulted Monday and have a nice weekend" and hung up on me. All efforts to call Vanderbilt back and find out any information was fruitless. I did get two people to answer the phone but they kept putting me on hold until after 5:00 - and when I used my second phone to call again (while still holding to the "please hold till an attendant answers), I got the normal Vanderbilt recording, asking for your account number, etc. then stating they were already closed!!!

These people play so dirty, they call on a Friday afternoon - tell you that you owe money you know nothing about - don't give you the phone number so you can disagree and PROVE you have insurance (and have had it ALL along!) and this is their main play tactics! They are unfair, lousy creditors to deal with! I have never had an account with anyone like these people! As it stands right now (Sat. afternoon), it seems after all we have been through, they are going to try to foreclose anyway (of course, they say we are still behind one month - although even the payment book they sent was right on schedule with us) and now that they are holding the payment we sent, that will make it in default by the two payments PLUS they say we have NO insurance!! Ain't life grand working with an upbeat company as Vanderbilt? I wonder HOW they sleep at night!!!

My advice to anyone is NEVER do business with these people! They are bloodsuckers and have NO human traits at all.

Linda
Lufkin, Texas
U.S.A.