Gotta be honest. I'm torn on this one. And I honestly waited over three years to leave this review…read more I'm no longer angry but I'm still DEEPLY hurt and disappointed.
Let me preface this by saying that I'm big on building relationships... in business, etc.
I thought I had a good relationship with Marlin Kelly. He was a branch manager and I attempted to work with him on refinancing my home. Nice guy. Really nice guy... which is why I hate writing this review. Marlon is cool, laid back, and a huge car enthusiast. So we connected right away. When talking to him, he really made me feel like I had a friendly connection with him. I felt like it was going to be a good working experience.
In terms of business, he has a way of making you feel comfortable. He makes you feel as if the refinancing process will not be a big deal and he's there for you.
In fairness, he has helped me before and the process was great. It was a little irritating when I had to deal with some of his co-workers/ family members that kept reaching out for information that I already sent... but nonetheless, things got done. In my previous experience, I was about 85% satisfied. Somewhere between him and the title company, someone forgot to include my condo insurance in escrow. So the paperwork got processed and that part was never considered. Imagine my surprise when I got a letter that my insurance dropped me. But on the bright side, I discovered that it was cheaper if I paid the insurance myself. So that mistake turned out to be a bit of a blessing.
So going into this last time I had to deal with Marlon, I was expecting a similar experience. Things started off great with the friendly small talk. Things got a little bumpy when his family members/ co-workers started asking for info that I already sent. I found myself forwarding and re-forwarding emails that were already sent. And I tried saying (in a nice way) I would stress in my replies: "Per XYZ date, I previously sent this.... Yada yada yada"
Then we got into this period of time where days or even a week would go by before he would return my calls. He would always apologize and say that he was busy or dealing with other customers. But he assured me that everything was ok with my situation. To the point that he advised me not to worry about paying next month's mortgage (at the time) because the re-financing was going to go through. It was a for-sure thing.
Then.... Silence... radio silence...
I ended up paying next month's mortgage because I wasn't sure what was going on. Pretty much I didn't hear back from him. I ended up having to go through another company all together.
Looking back, I'm extremely disappointed in how that situation went down. Had I not paid my mortgage, I can only speculate how that would have impacted my credit and overall standings with the finance company I had (or was trying to go to) at the time.
To this day, we never spoke again. And I'm not interested... because likely he'll play the nice guy role, give me a bunch of BS, and I'll hang up with him... wanting to buy into the idea that it was all a huge misunderstanding.
I sincerely hope it was a misunderstanding. I sincerely hope he's handling his business transactions a lot better today. I'll just say this, if you decide to work with him, be VERY weary if you're trying to reach him and not hearing back in a reasonable amount of time. Also, have a backup plan or a second point of contact- if he goes silent on you. From my point of view, there's no excuse to justify a finance manager stopping all communication when you're that deep in the re-finance process with him. And YES, I was actively trying to reach out to him.
For clarity, this isn't me holding in the three years of anger. This was about MY finances and it's about YOUR finances where I finally decided that I needed to share my experience.
Marlon: Nice guy. I'll likely speak if I saw him in public, but I'd keep the conversation to a minimum. In terms of business, I no longer have confidence in him