Eugene Alkana review: scam 35

I am considering hiring this firm? Does anyone have good or bad news after using them?

Look up his bar, Attorneys is govern by the state. The idiot that posted this probably is talking from his/her @ss. I'm sure earned credit comes with years of experiences.

why would "unknown" get so angry at someone for posting a derogatory comment about Eugene Alkana? "unknown" was so offended he called the complaintant and "idiot" and said they were talking out of their "@ss". "unknown", if you have never used Eugene Alkana why would you even respond to this posting? "unknown" you must work at Eugene Alkana!

Eugene S. Alkana/ California bar# 60411. suprisingly he has had zero complaints since 1974. after searching the internet, the california secretary of state, the california state bar, and the california BBB for complaints, the complaint from "not buying it" is the only complaint i found. my advise - read every page of your contract completely and if you have questions call the law firm and notify them you are recording the phone conversation. have them answer your questions fully before you sign anything or give out your bank acct #.

Good advice researcher, thanks

Anyone out there with actual experience working with this firm?

FYI- this is a great article on how to know if a firm is going to do a good job representing you.

http://www.zillow.com/blog/mortgage/2009/01/30/loan-modification-5-questions-to-ask-your-loan-modification-lawyer/

All,

I work for Eugene Alkana and I can assure you of two things. First of all - unknown does not work for us. We would never allow someone to post a derogatory comment about anyone, even anonymously. Second we stand by our reputation with a money-back guarantee. If you are on the fence, then give us a call and we can discuss your concerns. We sign up over 500 new clients a month, and while Fed-Mod was closed down, we never received even a phone-call from anyone about our clients. We will be in business for a long time to come. Call me and I can give you the answers you need. You can reach me either at [protected] or on my cell at [protected]. If you are in the LA area come in and put a face to the voice on the phone.

Steve

I work for Eugene Stevens Alkana as a Senior Legal Consultant with the Loss Mitigation Department. First and foremost, our firm does not solicit business. Considering we do alright for ourselves we don't need to advertise or draw attention to gain business.
75% of our clients are practically on refferals. Mr Alkana is an active member governed by the state of California and have an outstanding proven track record of cases he's handeled.

Mr. Alkana does not solicit letters claiming to be able to re-negotiate terms. We are not in the business to "scam" homeowners. If that was the case, we would've been out of business 20 years ago.

Please go to www.Helpmypayments.com and we have some some of our work (success cases) and a few helpful sights that explains who we are. The owner and attorney of our firm, Eugene Alkana, has been helping consumers and home owners for more than 30 years. He has assembled a skilled staff that has handled over 5000 loan modifications to date. We are ready to use our expertise and help you with your mortgage problem. Please do not hesitate to call. My direct line is [protected] - Michael Joseph Valerio

I work with Mr. Alkana helping people with their modifications so they can stay in their homes. We run a very tight ship here, and are one of the few entities left standing after the FCC and Attorney General have cleaned up the industry to rid the community of predators. I go home feeling joy knowing I have helped people. Where can you find work like that?

If there were so many problems with this firm, we would be recieving call after call from clients with complaints. We may recieve a call on occasion, but considering how much volume we put through here, any such call is a fraction of a percent, and should not be considered a majority or the business at hand.

If you would like to verify this, or would like help with your situation whether you are in a high rate mortgage, an adjustable rate which has adjusted already or is due to adjust within the next year, or if you have a legitimate hardship which is making your payments very difficult. All we ask is that you not rely on unemployment to make your payment, and you are in a position to make a reasonable mortgage payment once the modification has been completed. Call me - I am here to help.

Jamie Blake-Hill. [protected] Direct.

I find it funny that these leeches out there that would suck money out of people that are already in trouble financially. They say they are to help them "negotiate" a Modification...I can hardly say that with out laughing they have no more bearing on a modification decision than they do on the outcome of I don't know a baseball game. The only way they have of controlling the outcome of a modification request would be to "tweek" the debts or the income so that they get the desired results. When every bank has a Loss Mitigation Department that provides this service for free all you have to do is call and ask for loss mitigation assistance. They are vampires praying on the weak and desperate people of our county making them promises. Trying to take advantage of an already vulnerable person just to make some money. They are charging people exorbitant amounts of money essentially to fax documentation over to the mortgage company. They have no bearing on the decision that is made and no say in it either. Its a Scam and a Joke.

Thanks for the input Bob123478. I am currently using Eugene Alkana to "negotiate" a loan mod for me. I went this route vs doing it myself because of their experience in knowing the lenders tendencies and what the financials needed to look like to have a chance. I also have a second loan which they are negotiating a settlement on.

So far I am not entirely happy with my decision because of what you described above. The communication from the law office has been nonexistent. When I asked them to send me what has been sent to the lenders I found a gross error. The settlement letter was sent to my primary lender instead of my secondary lender. So not only are they serving as overpaid faxers/document preparers, they dont even do that well. I am starting to regret going this route. I could have pocketed the money, (3K) been in contact directly with the lenders so I know where I stand, avoided the mistake and propably end up with the same result.

I realize that I am one case out of thousands, and am holding judgement until this is over. But so far I'm with Bob!

on the fence, I am anxious to hear of the outcome of your experience with this firm. I am considering uising them myself but your posting concerns me.
Please keep us updated.

After careful review of this company. I found zero complaints on this law firm with the state of california and the better business bureau. After finding this excellent track record, i decided to retain the firm to negotiate a modification on our first mortgage and a settlement on our equity line. I was told by a Eugene Alkana sales rep. that the proccess takes 30 to 60 days and during that time the lenders put a freeze on your mortgages while your file is in review. he explained that once the lenders are made aware that you are represented by an attorney they will stop calling you and will not accept a payment until the modification has been resolved. This is total B.S! it has been around 50 days since we paid the $2, 900.00 retainer and the lenders are still calling and they are definitely still accepting the mortgage payments from us. as a matter of fact the lenders did not even acknowledge that they have been contacted by the law firm and they are assuring us that if we miss a payment for any reason they will be reporting it to the credit bureaus. I called my rep at alkana law firm and started raising hell and demanding a refund in full! the law firm calmed me down by emailing me the certified mail reciepts where the lenders signed to recieve our modification packages. turns out the lenders were lying and they did know we were represented by this law firm. our equity line is with a major bank. we also have a credit card with this bank. when they recieved our modification package they cancelled our credit card with them because they said we were in financial distress if we need our loan modified. we have never been late on a credit card payment. this was done simply because we tried to modify our loan with this bank. the closed credit account also made my fico drop 9 points. the law firm has changed their story now and they are saying a modification can take up to 6 months because the lenders are so swamped with modification packages. we tried to do the modification ourselves with no luck or return calls from the lenders. the lenders say you dont need an attorney to do this but then they will not help you. If Eugene Alkana does not perform as advertised they offer a 100% refund. If they will not honor this. a class action law suit should get there attention. even lawyers can get sued! i will be sure to leave updates to our situation on this site.

Hey also wondering, your decision to use any law firm should depend on a few criteria:

Who your lender is? If you have a more conservative, large lender (Chase/Chase affilitates, B of A).
If you are confortable presenting your financial situation yourself.
If your monthly expenses exceed your income and your mortgage is a considerable % (~18% of gross) of income

If you answer yes to all three of these than save your money and do it yourself. If you answer no to any of these than you should propbably go with some representation. All these firms specialize in knowing the lenders "sweet spot" of the financials, but the reality is each case is unique and the lenders are not basing their decision on fear of litigation. Its all how the financials play out.

researchers, you are better off not making your monthly payments if you want a good result. I know an anlyst for one of the large lenders and he told me that they aren't suppose to tell people that but its the truth. It is really your only leverage, especially since its evident that your hardship isnt bad enough to where you cant make your payment.

Hi Everyone,

I was contemplating using Mr. Eugene Alkana, or this company but I came accross this article while trying to get some information about them:

The Office of the Attorney General has obtained cease-and-desist orders or assurances of voluntary compliance from seven loan-modification companies: Eugene Alkana Law Firm (dba)/Legal Home Solutions (June 19, 2009); Infinity Group Funding (Dec. 1, 2008); NC Home Solutions (May 29, 2009); Traut Law Group (June 11, 2009); Nationwide Modification Center, Inc. (July 2, 2009); Rescue Home USA (July 7, 2009); and, Summit Resolutions (July 6, 2009).

source:

http://www.ago.state.co.us/press_detail.cfmpressID=999.html

Please do research, I think it's always a good idea to sit down and meet the lawyer who is representing you face to face. Hope is the last thing we can go by at times and saldly there are those who take advantage of these situation. Good luck to everyone.

Check out this article about Eugene Alkana's firm that was operating in Colorado

http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/stories/2009/07/13/daily54.html

they've been banned in colorado. that's enough for me. the worst is knowing there are human beings who take money from people already in desperate situations and then the people land on the street with even less, after they lose their home. i think they might be able to help the best cases, but it's wrong to string along the people who they know really have no hope of saving their homes and continue to take money from them. they promise a full refund. i'd like to hear from anyone who collected on that.

Eugene Alkana has recommended that I use their sister company (debtassistamaerica.com) to reduce my unsecured (credit card) debt. They work off of a 15% fee that gets collected each month as part of your settlement payments.

They are promising a 40% reduction of my principal balance. In all I would save 8, 000 after thier fees. Seems too good to be true!

What a Pasadena California equine attorney knows about Virgina real estate law, well the mind reels. Call me a helicopter parent, if you must, but when a daugther who has been bravely serving our nation's Navy calls and tells me she's been scammed, I bristle. My daughter found Mr. Alkana's loan modification services over the internet and contacted them, two months ago. She believed the offices were working diligently on her behalf, was advised not to contact her mortgage company, and yesterday she was notified that the law offices were unable to assist her and she is now facing the real possiblity of foreclosure. I may not have a law degree but I think I understand the spirit behind the term, fiduciary responsibility, and the Law Offices of Eugene S. Alkana are in serious breach. I am very interested in seeing just how long it takes for the office to honor it's Money Back Guarantee, since my nephew who is a mortgage broker was given the run around today.

I wanted to amend my earlier comment to include this update. Apparently Krystal's paperwork (which I am waiting for her to scan and email me) contains a hold harmless clause that is attached to the supposed Money Back Guarantee and she is being asked to waive her right to recourse in order to obtain her money. As if this wasn't bad enough, I learned that Krystal engaged the Law Offices of Eugene Alkana on April 17, 2009 and just learned this week they were unable to assist her. Krystal spoke with her mortgage holder yesterday and was told this office never made any attempt to contact them, and when the offices finally returned my daughter's call, they mistakenly admitted paperwork had been sent over to her mortgage company, two weeks ago. A part of fiduciary responsibility is to act on behalf of your client in a timely manner - they did not nor do I believe the claim that any work was done on her behalf. Now she is being strong armed by the offices in order to recoup the mortgage payments they should have been paying or holding in escrow while her new mortgage was being reworked.

It used to be that attorney's were barred from doing anything more than your local Yellow Page advertising. Apparently there was a fear shysters would take advantage of the regular public, who are prone to put their trust in those in the legal profession as they do their doctors, and the public would be taken advantage of. It is exactly this sort of situation that was feared would happen, and did.

While I applaud the willingness of some of the employees of the Law Offices of Eugene S. Alkana to go on the record here in defense of the law office's practice, it is entirely disingenuous to assert that since the public record doesn't contain complaints none exist. Particularly in light of the law offices practice of withholding funds from a client unless they waive their right to raise those very complaints.

If there is a confidentiality clause in that "hold harmless" agreement you may have just waived your daughter's Right to a refund? They can say you slandered them before you knew all the details, or if in fact knew if they really were really going to give you a refund. here's to hoping you didn't blow it.

I have been trying to modify my loan through Eugene Alkana's law group for several months unsuccessfully - I lost all faith in them, for several months I have received not even one offer from my bank and absolutely nothing at to the modification, I spoke with Eugene and felt that there was absolutely no emotions nor concerns about the modification at this point, nothing like when they collected the money up front! I was promised that all actions will stop when I initially signed up - turns out that this was a flat-out lie, my home is going into a sale and I have no choice but to get this modification done myself! DO NOT GO THERE, THEY GIVE MORE LIP SERVICE THAN ACTUAL ACTION! I REGRET THE MINUTE I WENT THERE - THEY SUCK!
BEWARE !

After reading all the comments here, I'm not sure what to do or think. I am considering using this law firm to modify my loan. I also checked my servicing company and they recommended representation if needed, but also warned against companies who ask for money up front for counseling before anything can be started. It seems like a contradiction from both sides. Now...I'm really confused about what to do. Right now, my loan is under review for a modification with the servicing company, but I have had so many different answers every time I call them to find out the status of my loan. What to do? Does anyone have any good advice?

from what i can tell, there are 2 or 3 complaints on here and the rest are guessing what might happen...you always have to wonder if its competitors or real people... even that linda meza stop complaining, but she didnt bother to say if they saved her house or gave her a refund... if they did 500 cases a month for a year as one employee guy mentions that 6, 000- cases...and 3 complaints, or about 1 in 2000 clients...mmmm? i'm [censored]tin bricks, they did my loan - turned out ok? (all i lost was overtime and was 1 pymnt behind, wasnt upside down or anythin), referred my bestg friend who was totally screwed, he got it all Wachovia got him current, forgave pastdue pymnts, slashed int% rates and reduced principal down $100k... now i referred my ex who is also with Wachovia, it looks good so far but she wasnt as jacked up as my buddy - she lost job and got behind, but actually found higher payg job in the end, , , so i am real curious how hers will play out --- they said since she is behind and upside down her chances for Grandslam are still good- get current, forgive missed pymnts, int% rate cut and even possibly Princ Reduction, , , I know one thing they do work their ### off, bcse the bank didnt want to give me a nickel off and they went back repeatedly til i get pretty ok mod... i hope?(pray) my ex's kicks ### bcse i dont want to hear it forever, , , , but so far me and my buddy did ok and she has same negotiator workg her case... damn i'm rambling-- but I think it wl be good 4 her too- but the anticipation is killg me now,

- i wish Linda Meza chick would let us know her deal- did she atleast get refund? someone should call up there and pretend to be her and tell them I never got my check! LOL...c what they say and post it here, , , lol

We have been in loan modification with Alkana law group for 7 months with no results. Now we are in pre forecloseure. We are definately not happy with this law firm. We have gotten the run around since about the 2nd month of signing with them. About a month ago we were transferred to someone else because the person working on our case wasn't doing his job. Then today we find out he is still with the company and in a higher position now. Things are just not adding up and we are the ones that are going to pay by losing our home. We thought we were doing the right thing but apparently not.

I think I shall find out how is behind the scenes at this firm.

I originally spoke to an Allen Peele in June, 2009 who represented the Alkana firm. He assured me he could get my payment down to $600 - $800 per month and adjust the loan amount to reflect the current value of our house. They could lower our balance on our 2nd mortgage thousands of dollars. He said he spoke to Eugene Alkana personally and assured me this was a "Slam Dunk". Since then Allen Peele is "Conveniently" not working for the firm anymore. It is now November, 2009 and they came up with 2 modification agreements. the First one was $60 less and the 2nd modification was $100 less than my original loan payment from my lender. In which I told Allen we could not afford anything over $1000 since both my husband and I have lost hours at our jobs. They clearly did not offer what was told would happen so I requested my money back! David Guru, who called me this morning is now saying they got a modiciation for us and worked on this for 4-5 months. I told him that this is not what Allen told us. David said, well things change. When I asked him if we were getting our refund several time in our conversation he evaded the question ever time. He says they can only get our payment down to 31% of our income which would be $1, 047 per month and our lender wouldn't lower it any further either. I asked him what if our lender does offer a lower payment? He says he will investigate further. Yeah Right! Well, I spoke to our lender and they have offered a lower payment than what Alkana offered. Alkana Law Firm is going to do everything they can not to pay us back. At this point I am calling our News Channel who investigates SCAMS which this is turning out to be. I'll see if they can do anything to investigate them for us. I will deffinately be filing a complaint to the CA State Bar and CA Attorney General against the Alkana Law Firm.

people instead of call news channels..just call the California bar Association..Did u know when you file with them..They do the leg work for you? it takes about 60 days but they will send Alkana a letter basically stating uphold your money back guarantee or be hit with penalties or negative reports on the law firm..well you know what? Within 5 days after i called the law threatening to do this..I HAD A CHECK FOR 2995$ in my mailbox.. Teach them to try and screw me over.. Call the California Bar..im sure Mr Alkana wouldnt want HIS firm to be negatively nailed and lose anymore business..THEN HIT THEM WITH THE BETTER BUSINESS BUREAU..

I too joined this firm asking for help. Got the three month trail modifacation but heard nothing else. Thing about it the morg. company did more contact with me than the law firm. I faxed documentation directly to the morg. co because they said they have not recieved from the law firm. or could not read them. I too and regretting signing up. Did I mention that there accountant sends me e-mails demanding the $500 balance. The agreement was, they got the balance when it is final.

I asked for a status today. They have until Wed. to reply. I not feeling good about this.

I could use the 2500 to make an additional payment. I too am thinking about my refund on this .

My wife looked for the best law office to help us out in our mortgage crisis. We went with alkana law office, and that was the worst thing i could of ever done. I'm not joking people! Do not go to these people for help. My story is pretty similar to these that are posted. Been a year and nothing done, but finally a sale date on our home. Is it hard to ask for help these days without people being so greedy? What happened to the time when someone's word meant something. This law form should be shut down immediately. Every time i called it was please fax me some more check stubs bank statements or something, and everything was looking fine. They would inform me that they was still in negotiation and it would be another 30 to 60 days. That went on for a year until i got papers in the mail without being served or knowing anything about my property being in court. In one month my house, the place i called home is going to be sold, and the response i got from alkana law office is ; Everything is going to be fine.
So people be warned and go a different route before messing with this company. They are a scam.

DO NOT USE THESE PEOPLE. They just took me for $2, 900.00. They are avoiding all my calls.

We too signed with Alkana Law Group to help us with a loan modification. The agreement with them was signed on 4/8/2009. Anytime we wanted information on how the modification was going, we had to call them. And everytime we called we spoke with a different individual who was "handling the modification." We finally cancelled our agreement with them this week. Are we going to be able to stay in our home? Who knows. We are retired living on a fixed income and have been working with a HUD approved agency since Sept 2009 . Hopefully they will be able to helps us. We paid $2900 for absolutely nothing. Someone should begin a class action lawsuit against them. I know we would participate.
Jackay

I just rcvd a refund cjheck from these scums. $2, 700.00. My lawyer sent them a letter demanding my money back. Check ur contracts. #8 states that they have 180 days to renegotiate ur contract and if not u r entitled to a refund. Push the issue, don't give up. I live in Delaware but I would be more then happy to give u my lawyers #...

I have worked with them and my experience was the worst, I have requested a full refund two weeks ago and have not received any response, they were very unresponsive, disrespectful and down right unprofessional! Please do not listen to the employees, I listened to them all for over a year while they came up with every excuse in the book and why they could not accomplish my loan mod. They were very rude and one of their employees by the name of Paul Thompson an underwriter for the company told me to buy a lap dog for attention when I was asking about the status of the loan! This company is disgusting for making false promises such as giving you a full refund if the loan is not accomplished in 180 days, they had ours for over a year! If you think their have never been any complaints you are not doing enough research! BBB has rated them with a D!

They are the worst! Run the other way if you are thinking about retaining them. I know from experience, you will have several processors, you will have to fax everything again and and again each time you are assigned a new processor. The worst part is, they never contact the lender! I found this out by calling the lender myself when I received a notice that my house had a sale date. This was after working with this law firm for almost 2 years. They will never return your calls, and get very annoyed when you call them. I hope they are closed down soon. And there are many complaints on the BBB, at least in Florida.

After they don't do anything for you, they refuse your refund request, unless you sign a "release" that you won't sue them. I called the CA Bar and was told I had to fax everything I ever faxed to the Alkana firm. That would cost me hundreds of dollars. Since I had to hire another "real" lawyer for $6, 000, to stop the sale of my house, I simply don't have the money or energy to fax everything again to the Bar Association.