I guess I should have known better.
After daily calls with various reps working out of their homes, and not reaching my account manager, I finally got frustrated enough to ask for escalations. Turns out that my file had been idle for over two weeks, after they sent some kind of a message saying that they couldn't substantiate my income without any explanation as to what that means. I was under the impression that all the documentation I sent substantiated it, but that one line from an underwriter put everything in the freezer!
I tried to reach the VP whose number I had from 2016, but I guess that was too much of a long shot, his number isn't receiving incoming calls and no response to emails.
Moral of the story: when dealing with Bank of America get to escalations ASAP. And hoping and praying is a major strategy!
So after escalations didn't help, I tried my old trusted route of BBB (I successfully used them before the CFPB was around).
After taking several weeks I got kind of a boilerplate response saying they reviewed the application and notified me that it was declined because they couldn't verify my income and employment. This is despite the fact that I sent in the required documentation which is paystubs and P&Ls. The issue was that they asked for a P&L for a C Corp that I own and get a tiny paycheck from. They shouldn't be entitled to that, as it has no relevance or bearing on my income, but they kept on insisting.
I responded to their response explaining that they should have never requested those documents, as it is not on their list of documents, and furthermore stated that I no longer own the corporation. That didn't help. They simply ignored my response.
So I filed with the CFPB, quoting their response and my rebuttal of their response. I shouldn't have kept my hopes high. I received an answer today from the same idiot (or maybe he's a genius, earning his pay by giving BS responses that keep BofA off the hook) saying my complaint is a duplicate and it was already addressed, blah blah blah.
My question is, do I give it another shot with a fresh application, as it doesn't seem like they will admit their error and reopen the original application, or do I move to plan B and just request a deferral (and possibly Homeowners Assitance Fund help which I believe should be opening up in NY next week). Based on my experience with BofA from the Obama Making Home Affordable days, I could be running around in circles submitting and resubmitting without end.
@cgr Any input?