Countrywide

Pros: I was able to finally get them to accept a deed in lieu of foreclosure.
Cons: Very non-responsive.

Extremely poor customer service.  Your wait times most often will exceed 10 minutes per transfer and then you have to go thru their debt collection department if you are trying to resolve anything.  Very non-responsive non-caring customer service and very ruthless impolite debt department.  
They lost paperwork I faxed twice causing additional delays then acted as if it were my fault. 
I finally hired an attorney who was well aware of Countrywide and apparently had other customers who were treated poorly as well.  They lost the paperwork he faxed as well.  

Pros: nice web site, user friendly
Cons: ineffective,apparently uninformed service personnel and supervisors.motive in business is avarice, not profit.

I spoke with three "customer service" clerks to solve a bogus fee (for "payoff demand statement") added to my mortgage payment.Since I didn't order it, I shouldn't pay it. Not according to Angela. Countrywide bills the customer when this request is made. Terry said Countrywide bills the company that makes the request. Kim immediately rescinded the charge.Were they wearing me down? Mandy (the supervisor) said she couldn't tell me anything. Countrywide comes across as duplicitous in their business practice and disingenuous in customer service. After 90 minutes trying to resolve this situation I get a "McDonalds" type "sorry about that".

Pros: Has a good website that allows you to access your account and confirm payments made.
Cons: Useless telephone service, the staff have no clue and have no decision making powers.

I sent my tax bill to Countrywide in accordance with their written instructions. Countrywide did not pay them. I telephoned them and I was told that I had to telephone Countrywide first, before mailing the bills, despite having a letter from them advising me to mail them. They said that is their instructions to customers and these instructions would have been given to me at the closing. Of course I closed with another lender who sold the loan on to Countrywide. I now have to pay penalty charges on the taxes because Countrywide failed to pay them on time from the escrow account. They will not accept responsibility for the penalty charges, they amount to $136, hardly a huge amount, but nevertheless somewhat annoying unless I can provide documentary evidence that I mailed the bills to them. I did not send the tax bills by registered mail so nothing I can do. I will complain to the Comptroller of the Currency Administrator of National Banks, however I am sure that this will prove fruitless. It may waste some of Countrywide's time and money as they have done for me.

Pros: Recognizable music while on hold.
Cons: Misrepresentations, lack of courtesy, refusal to keep their word.

We tried - unsuccessfully - to sell a piece of property that was sold to us at an inflated price and finally ended up dealing with the workout department at Countrywide. We can never get through directly to the person in charge of our account and instead are subjected to lengthy questions after an even longer wait on hold; we signed a contract for sale at her direction at the price she mandated and now she says it's not approved to close only four days before the closing date; we don't get return calls; the list goes on and on. Don't waste your time trying to deal with them. While they claim to want to minimize their investors' losses, their actions belie their words.

Pros: Payments, escrow, and loan transfer all worked smoothly.
Cons: None that I can recall.

I had my mortgage serviced though Countrywide for 3 years and never had any problems. The website is very user-friendly and allows you to make extra payments, check loan balance, escrow status, etc. I was very happy, and only refinanced for a better rate with my credit union.

Pros: Can not think of a single, solitary one.
Cons: Lying customer service reps who have no brains what so ever.

I have 2 mortgages with Countrywide and they cannot handle even simple requests or processing of paperwork. The customer service agents have no idea what is going on, but they pretend to and will give you false information just to get you off of the phone. I have had several problems with them, the latest of which is trying to get a corrected pay-off statement because I am selling on of the properties. I have been lied to on three different ocassions, from incorrect processing time to an incorrect fax number and it is holding up the closing of the transaction and costing me money. I strongly recommend that everyone consider going else where, when you have this large of a machine it will only get worse.

Pros: none
Cons: 2nd worst company I've ever dealt with. Lincoln Towing of Chicago is still #1.

I'm a real estate investor in Seattle, and have had lots of mortgages and refinances. I use the same salesperson again and again. Recently she changed companies, and now one of the products that she offered was CountryWide. Unfortunately, I decided to take a CountryWide refinance loan. The Loan was two months late for no good reason. On top of that, it took me 9 business days to get a wire transfer from them. I was on the phone to their "customer service" people for a total of 5 hours. Many, many people insured me that the wire transfer was completed. They were all lying. Finally I turned this project over to my agent, who talked to them for another 2.5 hours. This agent works for a company who is third in the nation for selling Countrywide Loans. She had to get her boss, the 5th largest seller of countrywide loans in the country, on the phone to facilitate a simple wire transfer. After this happened, I had the money within the hour.

Pros: No other problems
Cons: Website doesn't seem to remember anything you tell it.

I opened a new bank account and updated the info on Countrywide's website for autopay. I checked the day after it was due and they had tried my old account. I went to the website on Friday, updated bank again and scheduled a new payment ($6 fee). Checked Sunday and Bank still correct and it showed payment pending. Checked Monday afternoon and the pending payment had vanished as if it had never existed. I have setup another payment for tomorrow. We'll see.
The site also lost my e'mail alert settings.

Pros: Can't think of any
Cons: Dishonest, deceptive, misleading, and very, very pushy people!

We applied for a loan with Countrywide and paid the $375 application fee with the assurance of one of their "loan experts" that we would be able to refinance our current home loan into a fixed rate without a problem. We gave them ALL the information they needed and were completely honest with them regarding our income, assets, home value, credit, etc. Once we paid the fee they informed us we only qualified for a 15-year fixed rate and that our payment would be nearly twice as high as originally quoted. Needless to say, we didn't go with Countrywide. I would be very wary of trusting them and think long and hard before you hand over your hard-earned money! If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is!

Pros: none that I know of.
Cons: Crappy Crappy customer service

Once they've got your money, forget it. the customer service is horrible. I was trying to get information about recasting our loan. There is ONE department who can give information on that. The first time I called, the lady refused to give information about anything with out the loan number. The second time I called, I was transfered to four different people before I finally ran out of time and had to go. The third time, they gave me a phone number for the recast department. Called that and waited for 30 minutes and no one ever answered. The fourth time they hung up on me. The fifth time, I demanded to speak with a supervisor. He told me he was really sorry but there were "long hold times". Well DUH! I have yet to get any information from them on this so I think we'll end up completely refinancing with a different company.

Pros: None.
Cons: Rude customer care, poor money handling, tricky sales tactics

Countrywide doesn't care about it's customers. It's that simple. I had a lot of money in an account at a good earning rate. WITHOUT ASKING they moved it all a few months later to a low-yield account. They didn't care that I was annoyed, showed not attempt to keep or care about me as a customer. That was their biggest mistake. This company must learn that they are only around because of their clients.

I also have a Bank of America account. They charged me a monthly fee for an account I had...I was annoyed so the dropped the fee and cleaned up the mess. No questions. THAT is how you handle a client. That is why I am still a BOA customer. A stark difference.

Pros: none
Cons: lies, cheats, baits and switches, and if that weren't enough, they're rude too

If I could give 0 stars, I would. I have used various lenders in the past, but have never had an experience like the one I had getting a mortgage from Countrywide. They were rude, difficult, careless, mistake-prone, uninformed, and unethical. My friend and I were both buying identical houses together. We were both quoted and guaranteed a specific loan rate and then Countrywide dragged its feet sending out final loan docs. When we received them -- one day before the closing! -- to our utter horror, the loan rate had been jacked up on both of our loans. I immediately emailed documentation of what my rate should be and demanded a correction. I was rudely and completely blown off. They did not own up to their mistake, argued with me for two hours on the phone, and finally acknowledged that they changed the rates on us, but refused to make a correction. They told us both to close the loans anyway. Unethical, rude, bait-and-switch jerks! Being that we were both one day away from our respective close dates, we went ahead and signed. Acckkkk! I've never worked with such an anti-customer lender. Terrible.

Pros: none
Cons: Junk mail!

Why do they insist on mailing me junk every couple of weeks. I have returned the mail and asked to be removed from their list. Why do they think I would do business with them if they cannot respect my wishes.

Pros: Great web site
Cons: Customer "Service" harassment run amok

Countrywide's customer follow-up on my second home mortgage became exaggerated, harassing, and finally made me decide to refinance the loan just to get out of Countrywide's processing service.

About 1 year ago, my second-home mortgage was sold to Countrywide. In spite of 5-years of a spotless payment record (and a FICO score over 700), Countrywide soon began to call 3-5 times a day at home and work with debt collection warnings, even though the loan payment was electronically scheduled through Countrywide! Some calls clearly came from an offshore call center where the callers had heavy accents. In one case, the caller called on the 2nd of the month, rudely demanding to know where the payment was.

As calls began to come after 9PM at night and on work cell phones, I filed a cease-and-desist request through the Fair Debt Collection Act. This helped for about two months and Contrywide replied they would correct the practices. Unfortunately, they soon renewed their calls.

The nagging and harassment every month was not worth it!

Pros: We may be able to recoup money in a lawsuit!
Cons: The company is unwilling to accept responsibility for their dealings with unlicensed, unethical brokers.

After being in the residential building business for several years, we decided to shop around for rates, etc.
Very long story short, we were contacted by a mortgage broker who, as it turned out, was not licensed in our state, embezeled over $12,000 in fees and then locked us into a prepayment penalty mortgage with Countrywide. Despite having all of the evidence to prove our case, Countrywide has been unwilling to accept any responsibility nor are they willing to try and reach a mutual acceptable agreement.

We are now working with our state's Attorney General's office as well as a personal attorney to file lawsuit against the mortgage broker, the company he worked for and with Countrywide to try and recoup some of our damages.

As owners of our business, we have worked hard to build a successful business. We are also educated and reasonably intelligent people. Despite our many years of experience in obtaining mortgage loans, we were totally scammed. If it could happen to us, it can happen to anyone.