Business ProfileforFirst Community Mortgage

So my mortgage was moved to FCM without my consent. In the switch they changed where my payment auto drafted from. (I have two checking accounts with my bank, one of which is set aside specifically for my mortgage.) Due to this they charged me a $30 overdraft NSF Fee when the erroneous account did not cover the amount. I called to change the accounts and the switch took days to complete and the fee could not be refunded.

Mr. ************* - We take the privacy of our borrowers very seriously and therefore cannot discuss details of loans with anyone other than the actual borrower on the loan. If you do not feel this situation has been resolved, please have the borrower call back into our servicing center and we would be more than happy to continue to work with her to resolve this situation. There are a few general things we would be happy to pass along. Yes, all of the loans we service did move to a new sub-servicer on April 1. This was not a decision we made lightly as we knew this would be an inconvenience to our customers, but we felt it was the right thing to do to improve the overall customer experience. We made every effort to inform our customers several months in advance so they could be prepared for the change. Then everyone received a 60 days grace period after the change as they made the transition to their new account. We knew it would be important to communicate and assist our customers since we do not have the ability to retain or port any of the payment information. All auto-drafts and payments information had to be re-established by our customers. Thank you for bringing your concerns to our attention.

The above review may not have been a perfect representation of the issues that occurred and have since occurred with First Community Mortgage. I will attempt to be more detailed, but before going into the issues, I will say that the issues have not been resolved.

On April 2022, we were sent a letter saying that the servicer for our mortgage would be changing and as a result the auto payment that we had previously set up would no longer be used. For April 2022 and May 2022 we were unable to make automatic payments and as a result chose to pay using our checking account rather than the saving account we had previously been auto-paying from. In May 2022, we set up the autopayment method to point to the savings account we had original set up to make auto payments from and ensured the funds were in that account. On June 1st the auto payment was withdrawn from the checking account that we had used for Apr 2022 and May 2022 payments and there were insufficient funds (since the payment amount was actually in the savings account). My bank as assessed an overdraft fee but when we called to explain what occurred we were refunded that money. We also reached out to First community Mortgage on June 13th to explain the situation and have the insufficient funds fee reversed since we did in fact have the money in the saving account that had been used for all but 2 payments. This is where several issues arose:
1. I was told several contradictory things during my calls:
1. That the fee can not be refunded and that a credit could not be provided to my account because the fee goes to the bank. When pressing further, I was told that the fee does not go to the bank but that the bank sets the fee amount that they assess.
2. When asked who I could speak to about having the fee refunded since this was the first time we have ever had insufficient funds and the issue would not have occurred had my servicer not changed and stopped my automatic payment from the correct account, I was told I was speaking to the correct department and they "could refund the fee" but that "they cannot refund me the fee".
3. I was also told that I could contact my bank to have the fee refunded but when pressing further learned that the bank would not be able to do anything.
2. I later asked where I had agreed to pay such a fee. I was told that it was in the promissory note that I signed at closing. When asked where I could see this, I was told that a request would need to be made to send it to me and this could take 24-48 hours (after talking with a manager I was provided my closing documents). Once I had time to look over the document, I was unable to find where I had agreed to such a fee. When asked to provide where I had agreed to such a fee in the promissory note, I was told that they would not walk through my mortgage agreement but that I did in fact agree.
3. In the end, they ceased working with me and hung up on me during a call.

After they hung up, I created this BBB complaint on behalf of the borrower. Almost immediately after filing this complaint I was contacted by First Community Mortgage regarding the complaint. I was asked if this was "Is this all about $30?" To which I responded with an email containing much of the above information clarifying the issues. FCM did provide me a refund for that fee but only after filing a BBB complaint. I was provided the option to receive a check in the mail or have the $30 applied to principle -- I choose principle and was told that in a few days I would see it applied to my account.

When I checked the website I saw that the $30 had been applied but that my amount owed for July had increased by $30. When I called to ask about why my bill had increased I was told that the refund had not gone through yet but it would not be reflected on any statement. A few days later I was sent a statement that showed the increase by $30. When looking online I was unable to determine what the fee was. I called again and was told again that it would be removed from the account but that it will take a few days. When I asked for email verification of that I was told that it would take 24-48 hours to receive. After speaking with a manager, I was emailed sufficient documentation that then showed that the fee was a "bad check fee" -- I called again to ask why that fee is on my account I was told that it was likely added in error and that it would be removed in a few days.

So in summary, 6+ calls later (all at least 30 minutes, some more) I have yet to see my issue of refunding the fee resolved. I have been able to come across several issues such as contradictory responses, disrespectful customer service and issues with my account that would all need to be addressed before I would consider this resolved.