J.'s story
Fleet Story #1 - The Mortgage
None of my associations with Fleet have been voluntary; all have been the result of acquisitions. When we bought our house in 1985, the mortgage was held by a local instution - Guaranty Bank. This bank merged with a few others and became "The Conifer Group". Eventually they were bought by Bank of New England, which then became BankBoston, which in turn was bought by Fleet.
Not long after Fleet assumed control of our mortgage, I got a letter from them informing me that they had no record of insurance on my house, and would I please kindly take care of the matter. I called my insurance company and asked them to confirm to Fleet that my house was indeed fully insured. They did so, but that did not stop them from sending me another letter similar to the first. After a few rounds of this, Fleet then dropped the bombshell: "Since you have not provided proof of insurance, we have taken out a policy on your behalf. Enclosed is the invoice for the premium on this policy".
Were you ever tormented by a school bully who kept demanding "Where's the money you owe me?" "I don't owe you any money!" "I SAID WHERE'S THE MONEY YOU OWE ME??!!" Seems that bully grew up and got a job at Fleet.
I got them to shut up with one letter. You see, in a separate development Fleet had to settle a class-action lawsuit brought by mortgage holders regarding irregularities in the way Fleet calculated escrow payments. Along with my check for $2.97 came some paperwork from the law firm that brought the suit. I sent Fleet a letter once again reiterating that I already had insurance coverage, ordering them to cancel the insurance policy they took out, and informing them that I would NOT pay any policy premiums. I also told them I was sending a copy of this letter to said law firm.
After that, Fleet sent me no more letters regarding insurance. The law firm did write to me, though, informing me that I was not the first person to which this had been done and inviting me to send them corrorborating evidence...which I gladly did!
Fleet Story #2 - Buying The Land
This story begins with Fleet's earlier incarnation as Shawmut Bank (about which one could also write stories). Just before the Fleet merger, my wife and I were in the market for some country acreage on which to build our dream house. After some false starts with making offers on properties and trying to secure financing, our realtor informed us that Shawmut was having a mid-December auction of various commercial properties. Two of the properties available were undeveloped land in or near the town where we wanted to relocate.
To make a long story short, we bid on and won the choicest property we had an interest in (yay!). Shawmut was even willing to finance the purchase of the land (double yay!). Looking back, the reason Shawmut was so eager to make this sale happen was to get the property off the books by the end of the calendar year (thus the December timing of the auction).
Then the fun began.
There were applications. And paperwork. And more applications. Much more than when we bought our house. Because this was the sale of a commercial property, even though we were buying it as individuals they were treating it as a commercial sale and mortgage. Which involved MORE paperwork. Oh, and there were delays too. Because of the distraction of the Fleet merger, Shawmut kept back-burnering our piddling little mortgage application. They kept delaying things by asking for additional paperwork one item at a time rather than all at once.
My favorite tale during this process was when I got a call noting that I had supplied the requisite three years' worth of income tax returns, but that they'd like to see my return for the year just passed (this was in early February):
"Have you done your taxes yet?"
"No."
"Well, when you do, send me a copy of that return too."
The guy probably hung up the phone with a delighted chuckle, certain that he had bought himself at LEAST a couple of weeks' worth of delay.
Little did he know that I was one of the "early adopters" of income tax preparation software. I did my taxes that night and faxed my return at 9:30 the next morning. I get a call around 9:50 and I can hear the guy still trying to pick his jaw up off the floor:
"You did your taxes in ONE NIGHT?!"
"Yes. It's amazing what a combination of automation and motivation can do to speed things along!"
So he had to find other ways to delay the process.
In the end, it took TWO MONTHS to approve the mortgage and close on the land, and that was with us (and our lawyer) pushing things along as hard as we could. Our poor lawyer had been practicing for 40 years and claims to have never seen a closing as baroque as ours was. In addition to his fee, I bought him a case of fax paper (to replace the paper he used up communicating with the bank) and a bottle of his favorite Scotch as a reward.
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