Mike's Minute...: Protect Our House

Yes, it's another Countrywide story. If you can believe it I am very tired about writing about the curious happenings at Countrywide. I've talked to many other blogger's who are overloaded as well. We're close to hitting the saturation point .

But this is one story that gave me a chuckle and I have to share. Bear with me.

Saturation

First a little recap. Inside the walls of Countrywide is a powerful PR machine unlike any other mortgage company. Back in August this machine spit out a canned email message that it then had all it's loan officers send out as if they had written it themselves. I wrote about it here in my post titled "... know that I am here, backed by Countrywide".

Days later I was astonished to hear they had a two pronged attack in "I'm applying for the Branch Manager Position". Same story, brought to you this time from the branch manager level.

I then posted a query a month later in which I found it very curious that I had two people in two nearby towns, both behind in their Countrywide mortgages; one foreclosed on in the most expedient and aggressive manner, and the other allowed to live on with little to no harassment for almost a year! That was "Tale of Two Cities" . Are they really trying to keep REOs off their books by selective foreclosures?

The WristBand

So when Countrywide employee moral was at it's lowest, and the company turned to PR Giant Burson-Marsteller and switched it's focus from outside to inside, I was pretty much burned out on all too familiar Countrywide Bashing posts. I'm talking about the "Protect Our House" campaign in which CW employees signed a pledge of allegiance and got to wear these nifty Lance Armstrong styled wristbands. Remember that?

I just let that story slip off into oblivion. I was clearly in CW overload.

eBay, Capitalism, and First

The yesterday, while doing research for an upcoming post (selling your home on eBay) I inadvertently ran across a Countrywide "Protect Our House" wristband listed for sale. I couldn't believe what I was seeing. So I did a search and found that this guy wasn't alone!

Here's the list I found: LINK Currently at 22 Auctions.

The winner? The first one listed (Oct 10th) by Air44bg . It sold for $182.50! Currently they are selling at $20 if they get a bidder at all. It clearly pays to be first. If you look at the ones being sold today you'll see the market has deteriorated. Like builders, they have to give away "Free Upgrades". Here is one with a free Countrywide Mousepad, and another with a Countrywide Puzzle.