Bank of America - grrr!

My mortgage used to be with Countrywide.  At some point in time it was bought out/taken over by Bank of America.  Not a lot changed.  I sent my money to them each month.

In late November 2012 I decided pay off my mortgage and end the year with a clean slate.  I called BofA and asked what amount would it take to pay off my mortgage.  Michael told me an amount and said I'd need to send in a certified check.  I followed his instructions and sent in the money.

Imagine my surprise when I got another statement two weeks later saying - you still owe us approximately $240.  I called in again and spoke with someone named Cigi (spelling?).

She informed me that almost everything Michael had told me was WRONG.  She gave me a new amount to pay.  I pointed out that I had trusted Michael to give me the correct amount.  How did I know HER amount was correct?  Oh, she'd send me some paperwork.

Let me get this straight.  You've given me 5 business days to pay off my mortgage.  You're going to send me paperwork to take to the bank and it will take 7-10 business days to get to me.  What's wrong with this picture.  She glossed over this as though it was not important.

The next day I went to the closest branch.  I told the customer service person my story and told her I wanted to know if Cigi's amount is correct.  She called their internal mortgage phone line and promptly got a run-around similar to what I'd gotten.  She finally got an amount.  I handed over the money and another certified check was sent.

I called the 800 number in late December.  The auto-answer said my mortgage was paid off on December 18th.

I waited for paperwork to arrive to prove I'd paid off my mortgage.  In mid-February I got tired of waiting and called again.  I spoke with a young woman who was a veritable fountain of incorrect information.  Among other things, she said paperwork had been sent to the local county clerk BEFORE my payment had been posted.  Say what?!

I called back later that same day and spoke with someone else who said my paperwork hadn't been mailed to the county clerk's office until February 1st.  Sigh.  I got her to agree to send me a letter saying I'd satisfied the loan.

The next day I called the county clerk's office.  They said they had received paperwork to 'release' the loan.  Yippee!  I've also received the letter of satisfaction.

My question is - if Bank of America is such a large financial organization, why do they seem to be so incompetent when it comes to closing out a mortgage.  Isn't this something so routine they should be able to do it in their sleep?  Why does it always seem to take two phone calls - the first one in which I speak to an incompetent followed by another phone call to someone who has more than two working brain cells?

I was complaining to a coworker about all this.  She spoke to a friend.  It turns out the friend has had a VERY similar experience.  Why?  Why can't Bank of America get their mortgage act together?

Why do I keep expecting a tiny Bank of America car to pull up and about two dozen clowns to pop out?

Papillon