Regions Bank

by brendan on 12/28/2010

Ladyfriend and I are buying a house, and as a part of that we needed a loan. Earlier this month I put in applications to four different lenders, the third of which was Regions bank. We ended up meeting with a Loan Originator from Regions, followed by a meeting with a Broker from Gershman. Both were very helpful and pleasant, and went out of their way to make sure we understood their process. We were upfront with both lenders from the beginning about how we were approaching the process, and that we would be comparing them to other lenders. Both told us that was no problem, and in fact was a good idea.

Starting on December 8 and ending today, 36 messages were exchanged between myself and the Regions Loan Originator. I left him a voicemail yesterday informing him that we had decided to go with Gershman, and thanking him for his time and effort on our behalf. He responded with the email below, which is message 36 of the 38:

My response (message 37):

The Regions Loan Originator’s final response (message 38):

I was really taken aback by this message. Calling us disloyal and “pathetic” go a little too far, in my opinion, and make this much more personal than it needs to be.

So I’m putting the messages online, for my friends and all five of my blog readers to see. Why do that? I don’t feel like I was treated properly, and it’s something I would have wanted to know about (and avoid) ahead of time. But you may not agree, and that’s perfectly fine. I thought that the best way to be objective about this was to just put it all out there, and let you decide for yourself.

12/30/2010 UPDATE: Regions customer service has apologized, and the Loan Originator has also reached out to personally apologize for his behavior. Though they have lost my business, I do appreciate them attempting to make things right.

There are 5 comments in this article:

  1. 12/28/2010Courtney V. says:

    Are kidding me with this!?!?! Forget you Regions! I wasn’t planning on buying a house, but now I’m going to just so I can go with someone OTHER than Regions. I like how he said he educated the two of you and then basically called you both dumb.

    Other points I feel should be mentioned:
    1. So he went to a branch by your hotel? You know what I call that? A sales call. It’s done all the time.
    2. Also, isn’t it not Regions anymore, but PNC?
    3. If you’re not to base your decisions on an estimate, what are you supposed to base your decision on? Is this guy saying that you should sign the paperwork and then say “Oh, is that the real price? Nevermind. I was just joking.”
    4. I’m glad he’s done being upset about this. I was worried it was affecting his sleep.
    5. I really wish you and LR would learn how to do business already.

  2. 01/2/2011Audra says:

    Oh my god. This is really shocking. Did you contact Regions at all after this?

  3. 01/3/2011Suzi says:

    Interesting.
    Mr. RnT and I have our home loan through Regions.
    They were nothing but amazing.

    I am happy, though, that you are nearly finished with your dealings.
    Somehow, something that should be relatively straight forward gets really hairy. And fast.

    . . . welcome home. Shall we have a dinner?
    Perhaps Michael Jackson would like to meet Her Maggiesty.

  4. 01/3/2011brendan says:

    I know of others that have loans through Regions as well (some even with this specific originator), and they all have nothing but good things to say. Hence we were so shocked by the whole experience.

  5. 01/4/2011Ochophosphate says:

    Tough times I guess. He just saw his commission pull a Keyser Soze I can understand his frustration but the whole approach from the very first message comes off bad. “After all this time I put in on this file, would you two mind at least…” – whoa boss, pump the brakes. In the same sentence he tries to convince you to come back if they could match. Shiii, even if he could beat the fees I might tell him to go sew pig anuses.

    I too am with Regions and am about to refi here in a few months. I’ll probably look at Regions again but it won’t be my only stop. I hope I don’t get a crabby-appleton like you did.

    I’m glad they apologized. Congrats on the new home buying!

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