Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/25/2022

  Type:Sales and Advertising Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I've tried to pay off the land.. 90 days same as cash. However **** Z the owner agent has refused. He has continued to send links that has the default payment in which his company has placed. Even until today I have tried to pay off the balance if $850.00 however **** wants to make an additional $1000 off me by not allowing me to pay. Hemingway is the only person that can change the default settings. **** has already place the land for resale although I'm not in default. **** is a *****, when I requested my money back he told me I'm not getting nothing, because I agreed to the lost. My lost was flying with my children to NM on seeing the land, I've lost money and time which I can not get back, because **** didn't think or believe I had the money to pay off the bill. So he will.say he sent the link so I could pay off the loan the link is dead and no editing can be done on the purchaser end

  Business Response

  Date: 09/11/2022

  Five and a half years in business and *****+ land sales and this is the first of these we've ever received. However inevitable this may be it is no less insulting. So allow me to retort:
  
  We sell land. There are two ways that people can purchase from us, the first is for "cash" or paying the entire purchase price, and for those who don't have the whole amount, they can elect to "finance" or pay "on terms" which is to say, a down payment plus recurring monthly payment. The people who elect to go this route receive a land contract which enumerates various terms including pre-payment incentives and 90 or 180 days "same as cash." In short, the contracts are written so as there's greater benefit to the buyer to pay the land off sooner rather than later. When someone agrees to one of these plans they initiate a third-party billing system which is programmed to charge their card every thirty days for the prescribed amount in perpetuity until such a time as the balance has been paid. Regrettably, however, the billing system is not sentient. It can not read the land contract or calculate an interest rate. All it knows is to charge X every 30 days. Fortunately, for anyone who wants to pay more than the contractually obligated amount or who wants to pay a property off early, we make it very simple. All they have to do is contact our office (an email is fine), tell us how much extra they want to pay and we will email them a secure payment link for that amount within 24 hours. Religiously. Within 24 hours. Now at any one time we have roughly 100 people making monthly payments, and every month at least five of those people want to pay the property off early or take advantage of the "same as cash" period. We send them the aforementioned secure payment link and they do so and then we deed the property into their name. And everything I've just explained here I have never had to explain to a buyer more than once. That is, until this customer.
  
  She contacted us one evening claiming she wanted to pay the property off and told us to charge her card the remaining amount. We explained that we don't have her card information and couldn't charge her card for her, but we'd be glad to provide her the secure payment link so she could do it herself. She then claimed we weren't being helpful. We explained again that we don't have her card information and thus, only she could charge her own card. She claimed we were being difficult. Once again, we politely explained that we're happy to take her money, but as a fraud prevention measure we don't have her card information and we don't want it. Only the billing system has it. She, however, could very easily use the secure payment link we were sending her for what must have been the tenth time and pay the balance herself. It was at this point that she wrote QUOTE "I don't know what's going going on. But I'll take the loss.. I'm done doing business with you. Have a great life. Please don't contact me again and remove me off your mailing list." Now at this point we assumed, as we believe any reasonable person would, that she didn't want her card to be charged further by our company and so we disabled her recurring billing. This then led her to get even more upset claiming that we were both 1) not allowing her to pay us and 2) were trying to charge her more. These contradictory accusations confused us as well. Whatever the case, we continued to insist that we would honor the ******************************************************************** disabled wouldn't matter because we were providing her the secure payment link to pay the remaining balance she claimed she wanted to make. She protested more, we tried to placate her further and this went on for roughly two dozen emails before we stopped responding with one final reminder that all she needed to do was use the secure payment link and that we would continue to honor the 90 Days Same As Cash and deed the property into her name once the remaining balance was paid. She refused to do so and instead spent her time emailing us from secondary emails pretending to be friends of hers who were upset with us and creating fake ******** accounts to post insulting messages about our business. She even petitioned her bank for a refund which her bank refused to honor because we provided them all of our email communications as overwhelming proof of the fact that it was she and not us who was the uncooperative party. To be clear, her bank sided with us.
  
  In closing: Here at Hemingway Land we place a very high premium on customer service and responsive, thorough and transparent communication. We value all of our buyers trust and business as they allow us to lead successful lives in a field we are passionate about. We do our best to be as accommodating as possible even to the people and requests which sometimes test our patience.
  
  It is our contention, however, that no one can be this obtuse and that the buyer must be feigning ignorance about this very simple process we explained multiple times in the interest of - I don't know what - facilitating a refund(?), I assume because she changed her mind about purchasing the land and simply didn't want to admit it. Whatever her reasons, her actions over the past three months have been disingenuous at best, fraudulent and defamatory at worst.

  Business Response

  Date: 09/11/2022

  ***Document Attached***
  
  See Attachment/File: Email Chain *******************************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/16/2022

  (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.)
  Just wanted to pay off the balance 90 days same as cash . He refused to honor the contract and took the money and he thinks it's OK

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/17/2022

  ***Document Attached***
  He hasn't tried to fix the problem, he isn't licto sell any property, he writes these long letters, but not once has he tried to fix the problem he feels as if he should lie and steal customers money when the customers don't want a 18 month contract. I only wanted a 90 day , he never once send me a link to update my my payment, he was told to take the The balance once I sent him my new credit card how hard is that to explain to anyone
  off the balance the balance he keeps making excuses cause hes a thief. I'm guessing he forgot the July 27th email since he place the chain of emails. It clearly states I sent to him . Twice he a liar
  
  
  See Attachment/File: Screenshot_20220825-184353_Photos

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/17/2022

  ***Document Attached***
  I'm sure with his non license to property in ****** and ********* according to the **** estate licensing board in both States he is not a registered realtor He's a thief he did not try to make it right that's why he did not send this email that I told him once I sent him my new credit card to please pay the balance he wanted me to pay an extra $1000 on a 90 day contract same as cash and he got highly belligerent and start writing long string emails. How is it that I sent him the email on July 27th. He sent me a dad email link we're only person who can change it with him he did not want me to pay it off in 90 days so he stole the money and hes not gonna try to make it right because hes gonna keep making long emails and pretend like hes such a nice guy if you a nice guy then make it right pay back the money and let it be done hes a thief and only a thief and a narcissistic person will continue to do this
  See Attachment/File: Screenshot_20220917-204424_Chrome

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/19/2022

  ***Document Attached***
  **************** canceled the payment and refused to allow me to pay the 950 , **** would have made an extra $1000. As I said **************** has the payment plan set for $100.00 as a default. He is the only person or whomever in his business that can change it. **** did not want me to pay it off early. He is not a legal Realtor. According to **********. ***** told him he can't do business in this state. He's a completely compulsive liar . Yet he hasn't attempted to say anything about fixing the problem, he has the system set up where only he can change the amount to be paid. The screen shots shows what's on the payment plan and it's the link sends out. **************** knows exactly what he is doing. **************** canceled the payment and stole my money because he wasn't going to get am additional $1000. But he saying he don't have my credit card number, but he never change the details defaults settings so the customers can pay off the bill. This is what makes him a liar and a thief
  See Attachment/File: Screenshot_20220919-051121_Chrome

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/19/2022

  ***Document Attached***
  **************** kept saying that he didn't have access to my account but *****/***** wasn't told to change the payment plan. On may 23 I placr a deposit down , I didn't receive the contract until.7 days later..never agreed to the terms.he could have told ****** to change the terms but he didn't he didn't want me to pay it off early.
  See Attachment/File: Screenshot_20220919-183806_Gmail.jpg

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/19/2022

  ***Document Attached***
  Those links never work. **** was the only person who can change the payment plan. He is cutting and pasting 10% of the full conversation **** canceled the recurring payment because he didn't want me to pay it off early.
  See Attachment/File: Screenshot_20220919-194326_Gmail

  Customer Answer

  Date: 09/19/2022

  ***Document Attached***
  There isn't anything on this box to.edit the amount of my payment, I've had 12 people that actually make websites. It cannot be changed on my end . The default is at ****** placed by the owner. The only thing I can do is edit my name and email address. **** canceled the new credit card information. I went into the system today place a credit number and it set on ****** per month . I don't understand why he is pretending he do t understand this
  See Attachment/File: Screenshot_20220919-195220_Chrome

  Business Response

  Date: 09/26/2022

  I want both the "customer" and the ******************** to understand this will be my last response to this. I've provided too much proof at this point that this person did not act in good faith. This is a giant waste of time as it keeps going in circles and every time this person comes up with something new to lie about and some new poorly articulated way to frame it. So my final responses are as follows: 1) She was provided numerous payment links *all of which were functional* which would have allowed her to pay the remaining balance of $850 under the 90 Days Same As Cash contract. No one was trying to charge her more. It was very simple. All she had to do was use the links. She refused. 2) We are not licensed realtors. That's correct. But we disclose this in NUMEROUS places on our website and make no claims to the contrary. We do not represent people in the sale of their property. We OWN all the properties we sell. Ergo, we are completely within our rights and are breaking no laws - not here, not in ********** and certainly not in ***** where we've never bought land anyway. 3) Every thing this person ever requested from contracts to payment links was provided within 24 hours. She never had to wait "a week" for a contract and we can provide proof of that as well. Finally... 4) As far as our Company is concerned the issue is closed. She agreed to a 'no refund' policy at checkout, was provided numerous opportunities to pay the remaining balance, and even her own bank sided with us and refused to honor her requests for refunds. We've said everything we need to say. Our position is clear and we will not waste any more time responding further to whatever new disingenuous and defamatory complaints she comes up with. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/09/2022

   
  Complaint: 18115190
  
  I am rejecting this response because:
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *******************************