We obtained a loan from Ocean Springs branch Dec 2007, & branch manager Mike Jones said our land taxes must be paid at closing, however Regions did not trust us to pay our taxes and instead Regions kept our money (more than $2,000.00) and represented that Regions would promptly pay the taxes due on our property to make certain it was done.
Nine months later we get a phone call (very late on a Friday afternoon) informing us that our property had sold for taxes because we failed to pay our taxes as due, and thus we had violated the conditions of our loan and so Regions was now calling our loan fully due & payable immediately. We were confused, frightened, and terribly upset wondering how this could have happened since we were certain Regions had already paid our taxes nine months earlier. How could we have lost our property??? How could we possibly come up with the money to pay off the loan in its entirety? What will we do now!!!! The courthouse was closed at that time, so we were frantic since we could not check on our tax status until the following Monday!!! Needless to say we were worried sick all weekend.
Days later when the courthouse opened I traveled to the tax collector's office to find out the truth and was astonished to find out the taxes had never been paid. I paid the taxes + interest + penalties + publication costs + all other fees associated with property forfeiture, well over $2,000.00 worth and luckily was somehow able to redeem our property (i.e., buy it back from the person it had sold to). I explained that Regions had held our money and had paid the taxes directly, to which the tax clerk said, "well you need to go talk to Regions and find out where your tax money went because we never received it here".
We did exactly that. We learned that Ocean Springs branch manager Mike Jones was no longer employed with Regions, however Christy Ryan admitted she was aware there was a check in a file folder made out to the tax office that had been sitting there for 8 to 9 months. She said, "I was wondering what that check was for"! She then asked what we wanted her to do with it, "do you want me to put it back in your account?"
Being angry, dumbfounded, and speechless, we weren't sure what to do at that moment while still in a state of shock, so she said she was going to put it into our checking account right then. That was a lie. They never did anything with it. They simply continued to lie to us while they let the check sit in the very same file folder (if there EVER really was a check as they claimed, since we never saw any such check).
That was 6 months ago, back in August, 2008, and we have never seen a penny of it yet, nor received any phone calls, nor letters, nor any other correspondence or explanation or accounting from Regions. Many, many times when making bank transactions I would inquire, time & time again, and leave messages asking that somebody from Regions call us and let us know what they did with our money because it still had not shown up in any of our accounts.
In mid-December, I was in the bank and asked once again to see Christy Ryan or the branch manager (both were absent from work that day) and I told the cashier I still demanded to know what Regions had done with our money that they'd kept for a year now. Amazingly, the cashier actually laughed out loud at me and said, "I told them my opinion that they ought to just keep it until taxes come due next year and send it in then!" I was absolutely outraged not only that she laughed about it but also outraged at the absurdity of her ridiculous suggestion (although I outwardly tried to show no emotion, I was furious!). Not only was it very funny to Regions all the pain and agony they had caused us for the past year (which actually is nothing less than embezzlement), it also let me know that the employees obviously openly discussed our very specific account among themselves on a regular basis. What if it was HER $2,400.00 that she had been deprived of for a year and had paid interest and penalties on??? What if she had spent a hellish nightmare of a weekend tormenting and suffering from the tragedy of losing HER property to a tax sale and suddenly without warning told she not only had to pay off her loan in full, but also that she no longer owned her property because it had been sold out from under her due to the negligence of her own bank??? I left there with instructions for Christy Ryan or the new branch manager to call me with an explanation. Still, we heard nothing.
That was 2 months ago. Just two days ago, February 10, 2009, I was in the bank once again to inquire as to the whereabouts of Mike Jones, former branch manager, and Christy Ryan said, "I sent the check to the tax office because I couldn't deposit it in your account since it was made out to them". That was the first time since August 2008 that they've offered any new information. I've not been to the tax office yet to look it up and see if that was just another lie, but it probably is just a lie.
We've been paying interest on the approximately $2,400.00 they've wrongfully kept as their own for 14 months now. We've also paid interest to the tax collector's office on that same money + penalties + publication costs + a multitude of processing fees & land forfeiture fees + embarrassment + sleepless nights + ulcers + migraines + humiliation of being laughed at in public by the very jerks who stole our money and still have it and have never, ever offered any hint of an explanation or apology. If we had done to Regions what they did to us (and are STILL DOING TO US), we would probably be sitting in jail on criminal charges for embezzlement and fraud.
No wonder Mike Jones is no longer employed there, but sadly the wrongful acts by Regions didn't cease when he left!
That is just one of our problems. Also, we also paid off a smaller loan secured by a savings account. We paid the loan off early, only 3 months into the loan. However Regions would not release their hold on our savings account as they said they would at the time of the loan closing. Week after week, month after month we literally begged them at the Ocean Springs Regions to release their hold since the loan was paid in full long ago. Although they repeatedly promised to correct their error, they never did. It was only when a friend working at another Regions branch 150 miles away spent tremendous efforts to fix the wrongful hold, that we finally regained access to our own savings account, many months after paying the loan off.
I've already written a book on wrongs Regions did to us, but sadly these are only 2 of the problems we've had. We are suing Regions for the wrongs they committed and are still committing (we have never yet seen our $2,400.00 they've been using and wrongfully profiting from for more than a year now). We need a lawyer who will go for blood. Regions should be made to suffer as they made us suffer and are continuing to make us suffer each and every day!
ps, Who knows where former manager Mike Jones is now?
RegionsSucks@yahoo.com
