When banks aren’t responding to your requests, it’s time to bring in the heavy artillery.
We’ve all been there before, whether you’re one of us in the office, or a customer simply trying to make something happen with a bank/lender. Repeated calls to the customer service hotline are yielding little progress towards whatever your goal may be. Perhaps it’s a loan modification, or an inquiry which is beyond the capacity of the lowly customer service representative you’re dealing with to answer. In my case, when dealing with large mortgage companies, it has taken me WEEKS in some cases to reach a human being who is able to assist me. This is especially urgent when dealing with an imminent foreclosure date that you need postponed; the stress generated from the repeated attempts to reach a person capable of assisting you is immense.
Fear not, my friends. The answer lies in what the industry refers to as “Executive Customer Service”. This is a special call center which is reserved for those who are keen (or privileged) enough to find it. Sometimes, the call center is actually inside the office of the CEO. Time after time I’ve resorted to contacting executive customer service with numerous banks, all with great success.
My most recent encounter with an executive customer service representative was when I was attempting to postpone a foreclosure date for one of my clients. The house was their primary residence, massively underwater, but we had a viable offer to buy it “short”, written up and ready to go. No one that I spoke to in the regular customer service pool had the authority to make such a move. At the very best, they said they could send an e-mail on my behalf to their supervisor.. apparently I was not able to contact the supervisor directly! It was at this point I decided to bring in the heavy artillery and call executive customer service.
Within minutes, I was speaking with a person who was actually in the office of the CEO. She was helpful, apologetic, and very personable. She recorded all of my contact information, the issue I was having with the foreclosure date, and promised a call back within 24 hours. Lo and behold, less than 24 hours later another representative from executive customer service contacted me and informed me that the foreclosure date had been postponed, and the offer I had submitted was currently being reviewed by management. A tremendous success, no doubt. The executive customer service line is a very powerful tool in our arsenal, and has assisted us in achieving victory more times than I can count.
