When you have a problem with a company, you call customer service, but an NBC 5 viewer says that's when her real problems began.
When Murphy resident Rhonda Bellamy Hodge paid her mortgage by phone, the company claimed they never received it. She spent hours on the phone, but no one would help.
That was especially frustrating for Hodge, who runs her own business and makes a practice of good customer service. She makes soaps sold at Whole Foods, running the small business from the comfort of her dining room.
And Hodge takes care of home too, carefully watching her family finances.
"I call myself the Chief Home Executive Officer," she said. "Part of my job is to make sure our bills are paid. They're paid on time, and I watch our money."
Hodge remembers the morning she called her mortgage servicer, Nationstar Mortgage, to pay her January bill.
"He says, 'Well, do I have your authorization to go ahead and take the payment?'" she said. "I said, 'Yes, take the regular payment.'"
Local
The latest news from around North Texas.
At that point, she thought it was done. But it wasn't done according the Nationstar. She called customer service a week later.
"She said, 'Well, I have no record that you called or that you made the payment,'" she recalled. "But then I looked and see the amount, and they had not only taken our regular mortgage payment, but they had taken in excess of $200 more."
Hodge's mortgage payment is a little more than $1,400, but her account clearly showed Nationstar had been paid more than $1,600. She sent a transaction detail to Nationstar as proof of the payment.
"They said they would start researching it," she said. "I give them a day or so, but then they start to call my house and demanding payment."
Nationstar Mortgage then sent a bill complete with late payment fees. Hodge said she spent almost five hours on the phone with customer service agents who were of little help.
Unresolved customer service complaints largely account for Nationstar's F rating with the Better Business Bureau. In an email to NBC 5 Responds, a spokesman disputed the rating.
"We do not believe the rating is reflective of the vast majority of customers we serve," the spokesman said. "We have been in touch with Ms. Rhonda Bellamy Hodge and have apologized for the bad experience she had with us. In her case, there was a series of coincidental events that ultimately resulted from human error. Her payment has been corrected, and we have sent her a check for the amount that was overpaid."
But Hodge hopes her experience provides motivation for more customer service training.
"It was just the little things they could have done better along the way that would have made my experience a whole lot more pleasant," she said.
Nationstar officials told NBC5 Responds they are working on customer service in a statement:
"Our customers are our first priority, and last year we started on a journey to improve their experience with us, specifically reducing call transfers, providing more rapid responses, and investing in technology and training to make the home loan process simpler. We saw a 40% decrease in customer complaints last year, and we currently only receive 0.7 complaints per 1,000 loans we service. Unfortunately, Ms. Bellamy did not get the positive experience we are aiming for."
Southern Methodist University marketing professor Dan Howard, who studies customer service trends, thinks customer service has been getting worse across the spectrum. He advises customers ask to speak to a manager instead of hanging up if you're not getting proper help. If that doesn't help, ask to speak to his manager. If that doesn't work,. go public: Facebook, Twitter, online reviews and call NBC 5 Responds at 844-573-7763.
If you have a problem with your lender or mortgage servicer, you should also complain to the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Reserve board.
