Whats the point of a 24 hour hotline if . . .
November 20, 2007 at 1:52 pm 3 comments
I called LendingTree.com this weekend to inquire about a possible mortgage as I am beginning the home buying process. The website claims that you can get 4 customized offers within minutes of filling out the online application. I filled out the form, submitted my request and waited. About an hour later after I had not received any type of information from LendingTreee, I called their 800 number.
After sitting on hold for about 10 minutes, I got thru to a representative who looked up my information. He told me that I had not been assigned a loan officer and he would transfer me to one so we could get the process moving. I waited on hold again for a bit, until the same guy came back on the phone to inform me that there were no loan officers in the office (it was saturday morning) and that I could expect to have my offers within 24 to 48 business hours. I asked what the hours were, and he told me 9 – 5 M-F. That means 24 -48 business hours would really be 3 to 6 days, starting on Monday. The “in minutes” claim on the website had just grown about 5000 times longer.
The main point(s) I’m trying to make here is: Why have a 24 hour, 7 day a week phone number for me to call if you don’t employ anyone who can deal with my business needs 24 hours/ 7 days a week? Great, I got to waste 20 minutes on the phone because it’s not your business hours. If your claim is minutes – you should probably aim for at least hours, not days.
Entry filed under: Complaints, Realizations. Tags: 24 hours, 800 numbers, brokers, hotline, Lending tree, mortgage.
1. jared | November 20, 2007 at 2:37 pm
grumble, grumble, grumble
2. dang | November 21, 2007 at 2:45 pm
I agree, really bad service, but the 5000 time longer grumble is an exaggeration, it is more like a little over 2000 times longer in worst-case scenario (just want to be accurate). But… think about it, when the mortgage broker messes with the numbers like that, do you really want to get a mortgage from a place them.
3. steveconroy | November 21, 2007 at 10:19 pm
well yes, the 5000 was exaggerated if the best case took place, although if the request would have taken any less than 1 minute 20 seconds, it would have been 5000 times slower.
Best Case:
3 business days = 24 (hours) * 60 (minutes) * 3 = 4320 mins.
but I put my request in on saturday at 8 AM, so add another 40 hours worth of time = 40 * 60 = 2400 mins.
6720 minutes (minimum) compared to 1-5 minutes quoted.
Worst Case:
6 business days (48 business hours) * 24 * 60 = 8640 mins.
plus the 40 hour turnaround time from Sat to Mon is the same 2400 mins. Thats 11040 mins. If the online request was any shorter than 2.2 minutes, then the 5000x is correct.