On March 10th, I wrote a post about how Sallie Mae failed through an IBR application by increasing our monthly payment $53 without telling us and what it took for us to correct it. I shared my post on Google+, Facebook, and even tweeted +Sallie Mae with the hashtags #IBR and #Fail. In less than 48 hours, we received a call from Jennifer Margary Operator ID# E58941 from Sallie Mae to apologize, right the situation, and explain what happened.
Jennifer was an absolute delight, and an optimal customer service / account representative who was courteous, prompt, and pleasant to talk to. When she called, she explained the call could/would be recorded for customer service and training purposes. It turns out that she was calling because Sallie Mae found my post ( #poweroftheinternet ) and wanted to follow up with the account.
So here's what happened:
Jennifer explained that the payment processing department is overwhelmed with IBR applications which might be why it took more than two months to process. Considering all submission was done electronically, and having had 3 years working in a HR transaction processing service center, I have a hard time believing it would take 2 months. Jennifer then explained that the IBR application should NEVER HAVE BEEN PROCESSED because it resulted in a higher monthly payment and that it was totally Sallie Mae's fault.
Here is the interesting thing and for what all of you who have or will have student loans as well as your spouse need to know: you must wait until both of your loans are in repayment to get the benefit of an IBR plan. Which in our case will be in June.
Now, Jennifer could have ended the conversation there and moved on with her day, but here is what really made her stand out as my best experience with Sallie Mae to date; she took the time to look up our IBR application and calculated that my wife's loan payment would be approximately $70-75 per month when my loans go into repayment. Then, even though my loans are not serviced by Sallie Mae, she calculated that my loan payments would be about $190 per month through IBR based on the information she had! This information was helpful, but considering the two month lag between IBR application and processing, I wanted to know how to expedite the process. Jennifer came through like a champ and delivered. When my loans go into repayment, she told me us to
1) go the the nslds.ed.gov website to give Sallie Mae loan holder access to my account information
2) Submit another IBR application
3) To call the secret Sallie Mae number 1-888-545-4199 and that one of the six operators could help get the applications routed priority to the processing department and that it should be processed within two business days.*
* If the application is processed at least 2 days before your next payment is due, the lower IBR payment will be what is due for that month.
Jennifer also confirmed that our account was being erroneously charged an extra 0.25% and cancelled the additional accrued interest and restored our interest rate to 5.125%
I gave Jennifer other feedback about the lack of transparency on Sallie Mae's website regarding IBR and the lack of calculators; as well as making sure that this error could be a training opportunity. She respectfully noted down my suggestions and we ended the call.
Most customer service experiences we hear about are negative, especially when dealing with creditors. I hope when +Sallie Mae finds this post, Jennifer is recognized for how excellent she was.
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