Remodification What?

This story starts in August. Anyone remember way back to August? Me neither. Anyway, sometime around then or maybe it was July, the wonderful folks to whom I pay my car payments sold my loan to some even more wonderful folks. This prompted me to try to renegotiate my loan with these new folks since over the years I've had no success at this.

You see, my payments are way too much for an unemployed person. In fact, I told them this. They said, "So what? We don't care." Huh. Same basic answer as the former wonderful folks I dealt with. Well, they didn't say that exactly. I'm paraphrasing. So I kept calling them. They kept not caring. Finally, I spoke to someone who mentioned the magical word remodification. I'd never heard of it before but it intrigued me. So yeah, I did the simple thing and asked the person I had on the phone what it meant. I got an interesting reply.

Remodification means to extend the length of my loan so that I could cut my monthly payments more or less in half.

I wondered why this had never been mentioned to me before, but didn't dare ask and risk breaking the spell that I imagined had been cast on this fantastically helpful person.

Anyway, I jumped on this! The only requirement was that I must prove my hardship. Hey, I'm living the hardship dream these days. So I waited patiently for the remodification documentation to arrive in my email box. And I waited... and waited... well, you get the idea. More than a week went by and my monthly payment drew ever closer. Not good.

Back on the phone again, I discussed the situation with the next ever so helpful representative. And after speaking to approximately three more people, one of them promised to have it emailed to me within the hour. Happily, I waited... and waited. Yeah, you get the idea.

In the meantime, other things came up and I didn't call these wonderfully helpful people back for several days. I suppose that was the requisite amount of time. because the next person I got on the phone promised the document in email to me within the hour and... drum roll please... it arrived! Oh the excitement!

So I printed and signed the document, provided my hardship proof, and dashed to the nearby Fax Store (this was before I had the pleasure of working for them for a few days) and sent it to he fax number they'd provided. I was now in for sixish dollars. Sending a fax is not free. And then I waited the week they'd told me to wait. After a week or so had passed, I called to inquire about the the status of my remodification. Well, despite the fact that I'd received a fax confirmation sheet, this very helpful person informed me that it had not been received. This delightful person told me to refax it. Just fax the original document.

So round I went again. See above paragraph. When I called this time, the amazing person on the phone told me, after putting me on hold for about six and a half hours, that my remodification request had been declined due to me missing the deadline to get the signed document back to them. What?!?!? Well, yeah. Apparently, I only had a two-week window, and during all the back and forth, my second fax attempt arrived too late.

Dismayed, I cried out that I'd been told to fax the original document. Couldn't they just use the fax they'd received to move the process forward? No can do, came the reply. That fax had been tossed out. The awesome person on the phone suggested that I refax the document again. Oh no, I replied. You see I was starting to catch on. I requested that they email a new remodification document to me with a new deadline date. Agreed. And I waited... and waited... yeah, really. See a couple of paragraphs up. And oh right... the fax dollars were piling up too.

Long story short... well, not really. I did say this all started back in August and it is now November. Anyway, quite a few phone calls and several faxes later I thought I might have arrived at success. Allow me to explain why:

I refaxed - they told me again they didn't receive it.
Can I speak to the remodification department? No, they don't take calls. Huh?!?!
I refax - they don't receive it.
I receive a third remodification document via email (don't get me started on how long that took!) which I sign and fax - they don't receive it.
Sounds fishy, doesn't it? All along, I've been faxing to the number provided on the document. I start to assume that this company is like an insurance company. They know they're in the wrong and must pay out, so they stall and stall and stall... I start to wonder why they ever told me about a remodification process in the first place.
Back on the phone, the latest agent asks me what number I'm faxing to. This is the first agent to ask this particular question. I tell her, she says that's not the right number. She immediately jumps ahead of all the others as the most spectacular person I've spoken to yet.
She gives me the "right" number. I ask her to double-check. I'm sure you can understand my skepticism at this point. She doesn't want to. Yeah. I ask her to put me through to another agent. She doesn't want to. Really. I'm not making this up.
I hang up and call back and go through the process again. Please give me the correct fax number to the remodification department. Finally, after insisting to this highly informed person that I had been faxing to the wrong number (although she insisted otherwise), she manages to confirm the remodification fax number that I'd received from the agent I'd just hung up on.

Following all this? I give you credit!

Well, here we are in November. I've spend countless dollars in faxes and probably sweat off a couple of pounds in frustration.

Yesterday, I made the dread phone call once again.

"Hi, I'm calling to check the status of my remodification." She puts me on hold and I wait, expecting nothing but the worst. Then the unthinkable happens. She comes back on the line and tells me that my request for a remodification has been processed! I ask her to repeat what she's just said as I'm unable to believe her. She repeats that I've been approved. Still uncertain, I ask her how much my monthly payments are now. She responds with the correct amount. I thank her and hang up.

I sit in stunned silence for several beats.

Then I start shouting and dancing. "I'm approved. I'm APPROVED!!!"

And so yeah, that is my saga. Seriously, you can't make this stuff up.