A Great Example of Why Sallie Mae Sucks
Let me preface my anger by saying that I’m not your typical person out there with a complaint against Sallie Mae — this isn’t some sob story about financial hardship or my inability to find a job that utilizes some lame degree (you know, like liberal arts, English or art history). No…this is a story about a person who got caught up in Sallie Mae's customer service hell after they applied a student loan payment to the wrong account.
Quick back story: I stupidly cosigned a Tuition Answer loan for a friend back in 2006. Ugh, biggest mistake of my life. Why? Because both the friend (Margarita Depue) and the other cosigner (her mom, Maria Gutierrez) have pretty much dropped off the face of the planet, effectively sticking me with the bill. As aggravating as it is, I have accepted this fact and have been paying the loan. I wish my woes would have ended there, but unfortunately they did not. Sallie Mae, the behemoth private lending company, services the loan — and does a pretty poor job of doing so, I might add.
Between July 2008 and February 2010, Sallie Mae had an irritating habit of sometimes applying the payment I sent in for the loan I cosigned to a loan that I did not cosign even though the check was clearly marked with the correct account number. The issue can probably be attributed to the fact that the primary borrower, Maria Gutierrez, has multiple loans through Sallie Mae. I am the cosigner for only one of these loans, though. Because they would credit the wrong account, the account I cosigned would become delinquent. After about 2 weeks of being “delinquent”, their robocaller would begin its assault on my cell phone. For anyone who's been subjected to the constant automated phone calls from this beast, you have my pity. Anyway, since I do work for a living, this generally meant that the phone beast would start calling while I was at work. After stepping into a conference room to hide my shame, I would usually spend about half an hour on the phone with some schmuck representative trying to get the mess cleared up; the conversation would end with the correct account being credited for the payment and the representative telling me how sorry he/she was and that I needed to clearly write my account number on the check (which I have always done, by the way). Oh, but the robocalls, however, may continue until the system receives the updated status of my account. Sorry, nothing they could do about that.
In March of 2010, I decided to start using my bank's online bill pay system to automatically mail a paper check to Sallie Mae each month instead of writing one out myself. Why not just sign up for automatic payments through Sallie Mae, you say? Well, I’m really wary about letting any company dip directly into my checking account. Anyway, setting it up so that a check is automatically cut and mailed had two benefits in my mind - (1) the chance of missing a payment would be eliminated and (2) the checks would be printed with the same information each time, thereby eliminating the chance of someone saying I missed putting the account number on there or that they couldn't read my handwriting. Problem solved, right?
Wrong. Even with the account number PRINTED DIRECTLY ON THE CHECK, Sallie Mae still managed to hork up my payment once or twice. Then came the latest screw up, which has turned into a complete nightmare...a check was sent in, cashed by what Sallie Mae keeps telling me is the Department of Education and applied to some unknown account within said department. Even though I've provided proof that I sent the payment to the correct department (e.g. faxed a copy of the check...TWICE), Sallie Mae has taken the stance of blaming ME for the mistake and demanding that I send ANOTHER payment in to cover the one that they applied to someone else's loan. Talk about a load of horse manure!
I started recording my phone conversations with Sallie Mae starting on December 30th. My intent was not shame them on the internet, but to protect myself in case this dispute started to take a wrong turn and I needed to listen to previous conversations again. However, since they've turned this into a hugely complicated ordeal and have tried placing the blame on me numerous times, I decided that maybe I should go ahead and publish my experience. I find it hard to believe that I'm the only person to have gone through this.
Note: Recorded phone conversations will be uploaded to YouTube and posted here as soon as I’m done redacting the personal information...check back soon!
12/20/2011 — Phone call to 1-888-272-5543 and fax to 1-800-848-1949
Call summary: I called Sallie Mae a few days before to inquire about the delinquency notice email I received on December 14th. The customer service representative told me they never received a payment; I disputed that claim because I was sitting in front of my computer, logged into my banking site and could clearly saw that a check had been sent and cashed. The representative said I would need to contact my bank, get proof of payment and then fax that in to Sallie Mae. I called my bank and explained the situation. They emailed me a copy of the check (back and front) and said it should suffice as proof of payment. Here is the first proof of payment fax I sent to Sallie Mae (redacted, of course).
12/27/2011 — Phone call to 1-888-272-5543 and fax to 1-570-200-6259
Call summary: I decided to call Saliie Mae and check on the status of my dispute. The customer service representative informed me that they hadn’t received a fax from me. He asked what fax number I sent it to, so I read the number off the copy of the fax I sent on December 20th (which is the number that was given to me when I initially called and disputed the late payment). He gave me a different fax number; I modified my cover sheet and sent a second proof of payment fax to the new number I was given (redacted again, of course).
12/30/2011 08:07AM — Phone Call to 1-888-272-5543
Call summary and commentary: I talked to a Sallie Mae customer representative and was told that yes, they finally received my proof of payment fax. However, the representative informs me that, per the documentation I sent in, it was determined that I sent the payment to the Department of Education address in error. She then proceeds to give me the number for the Department of Education (1-800-722-1300) and tells me that I need to call them and request a refund.
12/30/2011 08:15AM — Phone Call to 1-800-722-1300
Call summary and commentary: Per the previous conversation, I call the number given to me and start speaking to who I’m assuming is a customer service representative for the Department of Education. The confusing thing is that when I dialed the number, I still had to step through the Sallie Mae phone tree — I assumed that when they were talking about the Department of Education, that it would be outside of Sallie Mae. I later found out that Sallie Mae services Department of Education loans. The representative first says that she doesn’t see me as a cosigner for any loans there (which is true — I cosigned a private Sallie Mae loan, not a Department of Education loan). She starts asking if maybe I have a student loan under my name with them, which I don’t. I even try helping her along by letting her know that Maria apparently has several loans through Sallie Mae, but I’m just the cosigner on one of them. She eventually says that she’s going to try to connect me to an account specialist, but after being put on hold for a few minutes, I get disconnected.
12/30/2011 08:22AM — Phone Call to 1-800-722-1300
Call summary and commentary: After being disconnected, I called the number back again. The customer service representative (for Department of Education, maybe?) talks to me for a few minutes while I once again try to explain what's going on. At some point she tells me that she's not quite sure why I was told to contact the Department of Education. She puts me on hold and tells me that she's going to try and connect me to the correct department. After a few minutes I'm connected to another customer service representative. Once again, I explain what's going on. The representative is finally able to pull up the fax that I sent, although I'm not sure if it was the one I sent on the 20th or the one I sent on the 27th. He tells me that the check was cashed by the Department of Education. He suggests that maybe I sent the payment to the Department of Education mailing address instead of the Sallie Mae Private Credit address. After explaining to him that I use my bank's online bill pay system, which has been sending the payments to the same address for the last 2 years, he still suggests that maybe it was sent to the wrong address. I point out that the check has the correct mailing address on it (and explain to him how envelopes with clear windows on them work), but he sticks to his theory that the check must've been sent to the wrong address. In any case, he puts me on hold so that he can see if someone from the Department of Education can track down the funds. Approximately 22 minutes later, he comes back on the line to tell me that they can't locate the funds. He suggests going through a refund process with them or maybe getting Maria on the line to have her talk to them (haha!) since the account at the Department of Education is under her name. He gives me a phone number for what he thinks is Department of Education billing (1-800-967-2400) and gives me some instructions on how to maybe get a refund, although he's not really sure if it will work. Before he lets me go, he jumps back on the "your bank sent the check to the wrong address" story even though he again admits that the correct address is on the check.
Quick back story: I stupidly cosigned a Tuition Answer loan for a friend back in 2006. Ugh, biggest mistake of my life. Why? Because both the friend (Margarita Depue) and the other cosigner (her mom, Maria Gutierrez) have pretty much dropped off the face of the planet, effectively sticking me with the bill. As aggravating as it is, I have accepted this fact and have been paying the loan. I wish my woes would have ended there, but unfortunately they did not. Sallie Mae, the behemoth private lending company, services the loan — and does a pretty poor job of doing so, I might add.
Between July 2008 and February 2010, Sallie Mae had an irritating habit of sometimes applying the payment I sent in for the loan I cosigned to a loan that I did not cosign even though the check was clearly marked with the correct account number. The issue can probably be attributed to the fact that the primary borrower, Maria Gutierrez, has multiple loans through Sallie Mae. I am the cosigner for only one of these loans, though. Because they would credit the wrong account, the account I cosigned would become delinquent. After about 2 weeks of being “delinquent”, their robocaller would begin its assault on my cell phone. For anyone who's been subjected to the constant automated phone calls from this beast, you have my pity. Anyway, since I do work for a living, this generally meant that the phone beast would start calling while I was at work. After stepping into a conference room to hide my shame, I would usually spend about half an hour on the phone with some schmuck representative trying to get the mess cleared up; the conversation would end with the correct account being credited for the payment and the representative telling me how sorry he/she was and that I needed to clearly write my account number on the check (which I have always done, by the way). Oh, but the robocalls, however, may continue until the system receives the updated status of my account. Sorry, nothing they could do about that.
In March of 2010, I decided to start using my bank's online bill pay system to automatically mail a paper check to Sallie Mae each month instead of writing one out myself. Why not just sign up for automatic payments through Sallie Mae, you say? Well, I’m really wary about letting any company dip directly into my checking account. Anyway, setting it up so that a check is automatically cut and mailed had two benefits in my mind - (1) the chance of missing a payment would be eliminated and (2) the checks would be printed with the same information each time, thereby eliminating the chance of someone saying I missed putting the account number on there or that they couldn't read my handwriting. Problem solved, right?
Wrong. Even with the account number PRINTED DIRECTLY ON THE CHECK, Sallie Mae still managed to hork up my payment once or twice. Then came the latest screw up, which has turned into a complete nightmare...a check was sent in, cashed by what Sallie Mae keeps telling me is the Department of Education and applied to some unknown account within said department. Even though I've provided proof that I sent the payment to the correct department (e.g. faxed a copy of the check...TWICE), Sallie Mae has taken the stance of blaming ME for the mistake and demanding that I send ANOTHER payment in to cover the one that they applied to someone else's loan. Talk about a load of horse manure!
I started recording my phone conversations with Sallie Mae starting on December 30th. My intent was not shame them on the internet, but to protect myself in case this dispute started to take a wrong turn and I needed to listen to previous conversations again. However, since they've turned this into a hugely complicated ordeal and have tried placing the blame on me numerous times, I decided that maybe I should go ahead and publish my experience. I find it hard to believe that I'm the only person to have gone through this.
Note: Recorded phone conversations will be uploaded to YouTube and posted here as soon as I’m done redacting the personal information...check back soon!
12/20/2011 — Phone call to 1-888-272-5543 and fax to 1-800-848-1949
Call summary: I called Sallie Mae a few days before to inquire about the delinquency notice email I received on December 14th. The customer service representative told me they never received a payment; I disputed that claim because I was sitting in front of my computer, logged into my banking site and could clearly saw that a check had been sent and cashed. The representative said I would need to contact my bank, get proof of payment and then fax that in to Sallie Mae. I called my bank and explained the situation. They emailed me a copy of the check (back and front) and said it should suffice as proof of payment. Here is the first proof of payment fax I sent to Sallie Mae (redacted, of course).
12/27/2011 — Phone call to 1-888-272-5543 and fax to 1-570-200-6259
Call summary: I decided to call Saliie Mae and check on the status of my dispute. The customer service representative informed me that they hadn’t received a fax from me. He asked what fax number I sent it to, so I read the number off the copy of the fax I sent on December 20th (which is the number that was given to me when I initially called and disputed the late payment). He gave me a different fax number; I modified my cover sheet and sent a second proof of payment fax to the new number I was given (redacted again, of course).
12/30/2011 08:07AM — Phone Call to 1-888-272-5543
Call summary and commentary: I talked to a Sallie Mae customer representative and was told that yes, they finally received my proof of payment fax. However, the representative informs me that, per the documentation I sent in, it was determined that I sent the payment to the Department of Education address in error. She then proceeds to give me the number for the Department of Education (1-800-722-1300) and tells me that I need to call them and request a refund.
12/30/2011 08:15AM — Phone Call to 1-800-722-1300
Call summary and commentary: Per the previous conversation, I call the number given to me and start speaking to who I’m assuming is a customer service representative for the Department of Education. The confusing thing is that when I dialed the number, I still had to step through the Sallie Mae phone tree — I assumed that when they were talking about the Department of Education, that it would be outside of Sallie Mae. I later found out that Sallie Mae services Department of Education loans. The representative first says that she doesn’t see me as a cosigner for any loans there (which is true — I cosigned a private Sallie Mae loan, not a Department of Education loan). She starts asking if maybe I have a student loan under my name with them, which I don’t. I even try helping her along by letting her know that Maria apparently has several loans through Sallie Mae, but I’m just the cosigner on one of them. She eventually says that she’s going to try to connect me to an account specialist, but after being put on hold for a few minutes, I get disconnected.
12/30/2011 08:22AM — Phone Call to 1-800-722-1300
Call summary and commentary: After being disconnected, I called the number back again. The customer service representative (for Department of Education, maybe?) talks to me for a few minutes while I once again try to explain what's going on. At some point she tells me that she's not quite sure why I was told to contact the Department of Education. She puts me on hold and tells me that she's going to try and connect me to the correct department. After a few minutes I'm connected to another customer service representative. Once again, I explain what's going on. The representative is finally able to pull up the fax that I sent, although I'm not sure if it was the one I sent on the 20th or the one I sent on the 27th. He tells me that the check was cashed by the Department of Education. He suggests that maybe I sent the payment to the Department of Education mailing address instead of the Sallie Mae Private Credit address. After explaining to him that I use my bank's online bill pay system, which has been sending the payments to the same address for the last 2 years, he still suggests that maybe it was sent to the wrong address. I point out that the check has the correct mailing address on it (and explain to him how envelopes with clear windows on them work), but he sticks to his theory that the check must've been sent to the wrong address. In any case, he puts me on hold so that he can see if someone from the Department of Education can track down the funds. Approximately 22 minutes later, he comes back on the line to tell me that they can't locate the funds. He suggests going through a refund process with them or maybe getting Maria on the line to have her talk to them (haha!) since the account at the Department of Education is under her name. He gives me a phone number for what he thinks is Department of Education billing (1-800-967-2400) and gives me some instructions on how to maybe get a refund, although he's not really sure if it will work. Before he lets me go, he jumps back on the "your bank sent the check to the wrong address" story even though he again admits that the correct address is on the check.
