Bell Title Company

We recently bought a house and the seller insisted on using this company as the title agency because he was ‘buddies’ with the owner or manager. This is the second home we’ve purchased in the past decade, and while I can’t recall much about my first experience, I have nothing but bad things to say about my interactions with Bell Title.
To start, my real estate agent tried contacting them for the closing documents a week before closing. No response via phone or email (this will pop up again later). Our mortgage person also tried to contact them with no luck. Finally, they get information the night before closing. Great, we go over the numbers and I have to go get a cashier’s check the next day. After some drama finding a bank branch to get the money, I arrive at our closing at 4:30pm only to be told that they don’t accept cashier’s checks in quantities of that size, and I need to run (and i mean RUN) to the bank to get this money wired! Now, I had just withdrawn the $ that day, so the bank had to verify it was me, and that nothing shady was going on here with the withdrawal and deposit with subsequent wiring. So that took forever. Essentially, I missed the rest of the closing, and got back to see my husband & real estate agent reviewing the documents. And we notice that none of our copies are signed! So we have NO signed copies of our closing papers. Well, we made sure our mortgage person had signed copies and that everything was legit. So I’m thinking ok, we’re done. However, we rented the home back to the sellers for a while, so the title company held the rental $ in escrow, waiting for us to send in a ‘key release form.“
I sent that form in on a Friday, faxed to their branch office and got a fax confirmation. No check arrived. So I emailed the manager, Kelly a week later. Still no check, and (surprise!) no email response. So then I start calling. I leave a voicemail for EVERY PERSON IN THE OFFICE! Do you think anyone had the courtesy to call me back to address the issue? If you guessed NO then you are correct. Finally, 2 weeks after submitting the key form, I look up the corporate office phone number and speak with the supervisor. I tell him how unhappy I was with the service, and that my real estate agent was aghast at how poorly the employees responded to any request and she said she would encourage all other clients NOT to use them. So this supervisor is very receptive, and he takes down my info and tells me I should hear from the branch manager, Kelly (who never responded to my email) that day. Sure enough I get a phone call within a half hour. She tells me that I need to send in a key release form. I tell her, «I sent it 2 weeks ago» so she says, «Oh, we didn’t get it. I wonder where you sent it?» So I proceed to read her the fax number; HER fax number. She makes some mumbled excuses. Then I reference the email I sent a week ago, which she completely ignores. Then I mention the phone calls and multiple voicemails I left, which are also pretty much ignored. So then I have to resend the «Key Release form» to her (on my day off, packing my kids up and driving into work just to get the form in and get my $, but pardon my complaining). So having resent the form, I carry on with my day, and then check my email. I noticed that she sent me an email after our phone conversation, which she cc’d to her supervisor, telling me that I need to send in a form titled Key Release Form! WHAT!!! Didn’t i just tell her i had sent it 2 weeks ago? But I get it, she’s got to make it look like she’s not dropping the ball now that I involved her superior. My ire aside, we finally got our check so now I can write this scathing review.
So if I could give them zero stars, I would. I think they are completely unhelpful at this branch. But if you enjoy drama and having your blood pressure rise at your own futility, then go ahead and work with them. Also, Unilocal won’t allow zero stars.