I was in need of a loan modification. My friend in Chicago used a law firm in Calif. and reduced his mortgage from $3000.00 per month to $1249.00 per month. I phoned them twice and did not have my calls returned. So I did all too little research and I contacted Peoples First Financial. I believe I paid close to $3, 000.00 and was represented by Mr. Bill Bickston. Promising that my lender HSBC was eager to do loan modifications he promised that my mortgage would drop to approximately to what my friend in Chicago's loan was reduced to, $1250.00 This was in October of 2008. He instructed me NOT to pay my mortgage for three months or HSBC would NOT consider a loan modification. I followed his instructions. Over the months I updated the information he said HSBC requested including pay stubs, tax returns, etc...September 15th I received a letter from HSBC stating my home was now going into foreclosure. HSBC states they have NEVER heard of Bill Bickston nor have they heard of Peoples First Financial. They further stated they RARELY use a third party as they prefer to deal directly with their customers. In the meantime I've lost my job and have NO prospects. But I will be God Damnned if I lose my home over the likes of unprofessional attorneys who don't return calls or people like Bill Bickston who have no conscious in ripping people off. Be sure to look over your shoulder Mr. Bickston as what goes around comes around, hundred fold.

People First Financial made off with our &2500.00 after they advised us not to pay our mortgage for three months. We called every month to find out what is going on our case. When after three months we had a personnel visit from a mortgage realtor hired from our mortgage company, I called back to them and I first contact or counselor said that we were in jeopardy of losing there help because we were making it hard to get a loan modification. After President Obama had put his plan into place I was able to call my mortgage company up it took only 15 minutes to get our loan modified. So I called back to People first to get a refund and they said it would take about 6 - 7 weeks to get out refund but now we can't get them on the phone anymore. I guess we are going to have to contact the Attorney General's office of California in order to get our money back.

I am writing in regards to Peoples First Financial because these people have had me tied up in a Modification claim since September of 2008, and as of March 23, 2009 I have not received any information about my claim. Upon calling them on March 23, 2009 they told me that I could not get a refund in the amount of $2, 495.00 because I took it upon myself after talking to the Better Business Bureau and finding out that they had several complaints against them from other clients, and also had a grade F with the BBB. The representative that I spoke with today said that BBB here in Tennessee had nothing to do with them in San Diego, CA. and that the complaints that they had against them had been settled.

This company has been supposely working in my behalf since September, and never contacted me on their own without me calling them and asking for the representative that was suppose to be my contact person to call me back by leaving several messages on recording systems. When I finally got to talk to him today, he stated that I would have to send a email in to the Refund Department of Peoples First, but I probably would not get any type of refund because I broke the contract by calling Countrywide to see about making several payments on my home so that I would not lose it. I was currently seven months behind with no calls from Peoples First to let me know the status of my claim at all. The rep. said today after telling him that I wanted my claim closed and my money back that Tennessee could not do anything to them because they had different laws in CA., and that it would be a waste of my time.

I have had two representatives from Peoples First, and the first one called me and said that he was no longer with Peoples First, and gave me everyones name that had something to do with them, phone numbers along with their extensions, and their business title. I think if there was any way at all these people should have to award each client their money along with being put out of business so they will not scam other people. My contact person also stated that if they were in such a downfall why would their name and company still be telecast on the TV.

i answered an internet questionaire about my wanting a loan modification, i was contacted by a mr. aahmed clark of peoples first financial, he told me they could modify my mortgage for me and that it would cost $2495.00. he told me to drive to the wells fargo bank in my area and deposit a thousand dollars into accnt#8582430495 and gave me a routint# to send the money, rtng#122000247. i did this and he called me several times on the evening o 1/23/009 and asked me to deposit another $500.00 into a pay pal account. i was going to do that, but my wife was thinking and did not let the deposit happen. in the meantime i filled out authorization forms, information forms, wrote a hardship letter, filled out a monthly expence report, sentmy last 3 months bank statements, & our income, and our taxex for the past 2 years. and sent thm to [email protected] well i waited for an answer for the weekend and then got a call from mr. trevor hutchison at peoples first financial services, he toldme that the company fired mr. aahmed clarck and that they knew i sent a thousand dollars to them but i would have to resend the other $500.00 again and the balance on the 18th of february. well i never sent anymoremoney becaue mr. trevor w hutchison toldme over the next 2 weeks time to resend all the documents i had sent to aahmed clark. i did resend all the documents 9 times and i faxed them twice. he called on the 19th of february, he {mr. trevor w hutchison}said he never got them. i waited a weekend and when he Mr. trevor w hutchison calleditold him that my wife and decided that too muchhad gone on that we decided we just wanted our $1000.00 dollars back, and that he could send a certifeid check, or money order to us. he replied, although he said they would credit me, he wasnt sure that the accnt that i deposited the money in at wells fargo was a peoples first financial account. and he would have to get back to me later in the week. i finnally ot a call from trevor w hutchison onfebruary 27 at 4pm cst from 858554009, he then tried to have me stay in my home w/o paying the mortgage for the next 6 months, or he could contact my lender and see if we could get a buyout. i eiteated at that time we just want the initial $1000.00 back and thats all. he then said to me "mr. aahmed clark was a contractor they hired, and i should get my money from him. i replied, ell, if you hired him your responsible then, right? he said he wold have someone else call to see if we wanted to stay for 6 mo.s free in our home or get a buyut. then hung up.
we contacted our lender last week 02/18/009 and told them this was happenning and about trevor w hutchison & peoples first financial services, the lender told us only they can provide a loan modification for s and that we had been scammed and to report this to you at the F B I and that they wish me good luc getting my $1000.00 back and not to worry about our loan we werent that far behind that they wouldnt work with us.
i still havent ecieved any money back from peoples first financial services i dont think i willbut i am calling equaline credit to put a fraud alert on our credit and im callig our bank also with a fraud alert on our bank accounts and monday im calling soc. sec. to make sure someone doesnt try to get our {my} ssdi. check or my pension either.ddd

We hired, People’s First Financial (PFF) in San Diego, to help us modify our loan. The person who worked for the company, Dan Short, stated that they had a 99% approval rate, worked with our mortgage company in the past, and could our loan modified. They also mentioned that we needed to be at least 2 months late on the mortgage because that would prove a hardship in paying the current loan- we were a month behind at the time. We submitted our application and were given the option to pay $3500 in full, or make payments. We choose payments and made 4 or 5 payments until the balance was paid in full. We complied with all the their request to submit bank statements and other loan related documents to complete the modification. During the process we had a difficult time contacting PFF and would get bounced around from person to person and excuses. After about 4 months we receive a “Sale Date” Notice and contacted PFF. PFF stated not to worry that they could get the “Sale Date” postponed as long as we were current on our property tax, fire and homeowners insurance and that we need to fax it the mortgage company. We were then instructed about 3 weeks later to send $8000 to the mortgage company by Western Union to prevent the foreclosure and get the modification approve. Here is a quote we received from PFF:

“You should have your modification within 10 to 30 business days, when you receive it you need to fax it to me at 858-368-5999”

Then we receive another email stating:

“Well unfortunately they have sold your loan what is your fax number I need to get a new authorization form over to you so you can sign it and fax it back so I can give them a call. Remember the sale was cancelled so lets not worry just yet”.

“Corrin Francisco- Loss Mitigation Manager”

Then we receive another email from a person claiming to be a Move Out Specialist from PFF stating that they could get us cash to move out or more time in the house.

Milagros Cruz
Keith B Dixon