Sallie Mae Outsourcing Sucks!

Unfortunately, they are handling my school loans that just became due. And their billing system jacked up my payments. I made two payments in May that got misapplied to the wrong months. So I get a letter saying there is a past due amount. [!]

I am anal about my money and bills and I always pay early and I overpay. There is no way that there is a past due.

So I call customer service, get a rep by the name of Ebony [who I am sure I spoke with before], and she says she has to transfer me to a specialized service rep. Yep, you guessed it; that sent my call to India.

Some dude with a heavy Indian accent by the name of Michael. Call starts off ok, then when I tell him I am disputing the late fee and past due amount, the tension starts.

The jist of it is, he tries to tell me that one of the May payments got applied to April, and there was no June payment. I keep meticulous records and had my checking account online up so I could recite dates sent, check numbers and processed. He argues with me, contradicting hiself that no April payment was received, yet one May payment was applied to April, since none was received for that cycle. Total BS. I have the cancelled check to prove it.

All throughout the conversation, his accent made it difficult to understand what he was saying. He often repeated the same thing over. Finally I had enough and asked, 'are you outsourced in India?'. Long pause. He confirms he is. My patience gone, I tell him, 'I need to speak to supervisor, or someone who speaks English'.

Yikes! I can't believe that came out of my mouth. But then again, I had had it. I am sick of companies outsourcing stuff overseas. The manager who came on was slightly better with the English language. The issue STILL unresolved, I told him to mail me my entire transaction history. So we'll see what happens.

This little encounter has encouraged me to get my loans off of Sallie Mae.

Even their website is difficult to use. I can't remember my login and password and it refuses to resend it to me because it says it already exists when I try an enter my info. If you call in, you're put on eternal hold, and transferred to India. I think people should start boycotting companies that outsource their customer service.

I am going to Wells Fargo to see what I can do. I, knock on wood, haven't had any issues with Wells the 13 years that I have been with them.

Sallie Mae, you suck major arse and I hope a lot of people see this!

Ok, rant over.