What's On Your Mind? PNC Mortgage, Flickr, Mazda

Why is that, when a struggling homeowner who is current on their mortgage contacts their lender for help, they are told no help is available unless they are a couple of payments behind? In other words, they should stop paying their mortgage. When this happens, it almost always ends in disaster.

"I tried the re-fi option back in July of 2011," Shirley, of Aurora, Ill., told ConsumerAffairs.com. "At that time I was just starting to fall behind in my payments and I was instructed by PNC Mortgage that I needed to let my account go into arrears three months.

Shirley said she did that after being told she would then be eligible to file for the Home-owners afford plan. Then she started the application process, and like thousands of other homeowners, was told to fax documents multiple times and got very little feedback or contact from her lender.

"In November I was served foreclosure papers," Shirley said. "I called PNC to ask why, because I never received a call explaining I was rejected or anything. Iwas assured it was a process and not to worry. A few days later I received a coupon asking for a payment while they finished up the loan documents. I made the payment, and on Dec 13, 2011, I received a check back for the same amount of my payment with a letter stating I had been turned down due to my income."

Long story short, Shirley, who was not yet behind when she contacted her lender, ended up losing her home. If this system is designed to help homeowners, it's hard to see how it works.

In the dark

A consumer from the United Kingdom says her daughter apparently violated Flickr's terms and conditions, but she hasn't a clue as to what she did to have her Pro Flickr Account and Yahoo Account deleted without notice.

I sent well over 50 emails requesting the reason," said M of Bournemouth, UK. "The only replies I kept receiving were standard replies referring me to a breach of their Terms & Conditions. I knew there was no breach so requested exact details of the misdemeanors but never received any information. I went as far as their HQ in London, the legal department, who fobbed me off. I then received an email from the Customer Care team telling me they would answer no more of my emails."

All of a sudden Internet companies are watching their bandwidth. If you have accounts with these companies, it may be a good time to review the terms and conditions, to make sure you are compliant.

Charged up

Steven, of Eau Claire, Wisc., thinks there's an issue with the electrical system in his new Mazda 3.

"The battery that came with Mazda 3 failed after 18 months," Steven said. "The replacement battery is failing after six months. It's my belief there is something in the Mazda 3's with keyless start/entry that causes the batteries to fail prematurely."

That's a new one on us. If anyone has some insight into Steven's theory/problem, let us know.