Equator, BOA Short Sale Redemption?

Hi Kim! Thank goodness BOA is finally getting their acts together. I believe that there is still room for improvement but this is a small victory.

Kim - I agree, the Equator (REOtrans) system at Bank of America is much better.  And I've also found there's a difference in the support and updates we receive from the different service centers.  (the one in TN is the best!)

Equator is a rip off.

I joined Equator.com in Jan. I paid the expensive fee for Platinum ranking, and I have been paying around $40 per month for BPO opportunities in the zip codes where I work. For 2 months I received email notices that new BPOs are available. All of a sudden I stopped receiving email notices and I hadn't changed a thing in my settings.

Now granted, anyone working with Equator knows that BPOs are posted the 2nd of each month, around 10:02am eastern time. So of course since it's first come first serve, everyone and their mother is logged in and refreshing the screen to snag the 3 bpos that may become available out of 40 zip codes I pay to get bpo business. Now sometimes a BPO will be posted mid month, and not everyone is logged in for the rat race like they are the 2nd of the month, so if I got the email from equator as I should, stating a new bpo has become available, maybe I'd have a shot at getting that mid month post, but I'm not receiving the email notices.

I called customer service for the 3rd time to complain about this. The rep, after basically calling me a liar and telling me he has no other calls noted for me, proceeds to blame my email provider, as did the other 2 reps on my prior complaints to their customer service. When I said I get emails from everyplace else, and used to get them from equator, how is it verizon.net as the problem. I even tried changing my email address I use a few months ago and still nothing received from equator month over month.

The customer service rep suggested I add an alternate email address. I asked him "Ok so if I try that, and it still doesn't work, since that's your only suggestion, come Aug. 2nd for the next BPO post, or if you happen to add another one this month, and if I still don't get the email notice of availalbe BPOs, will you credit back the money I'm paying you monthly to get those notices of BPOs in my selected zip codes?". He said "NO." I warned him that I would be sharing this info in the Bank of America short sale seminar, with Activerain for fellow agents, and any place else I can. He still offered no remedy.

So do yourself a favor, save yourself the time and money. Don't pay the expensive fee for Platinum or any membership fees. If you get a short sale to post on Equator, you can do that for free, so don't pay with the expectatin that you'll get REO or BPO opportunities because you will not make a return on your investment. I've only gotten 4 bpos, that never resulted in me getting a REO listing, and at a sad pay of $50 per bpo, and with me paying over $400 for the membership and $40 monthly for my selected bpo zip codes, I have no roi (return on my investment.)

Hourly, I'm worth far more than $50 for the time it takes to even complete a BPO. With such poor customer service, and lack of intent on Equator's side to right the wrong of their inferior technology system, other than blaming your email provider, I hope this post will save some fellow Agents money, and wasted time.