I recieved the following note from a borrower fed up with HESAA’s poor track record with “customer service” and overall chicanery with (let’s say this together) *our* money.
His name is Robert Rusczek and his blog post about HESAA is an open letter to his state legislator.
https://medium.com/@RRuszczyk/an-open-letter-to-nj-legislators-about-nj-class-loans-e19e1e9434d0
Here is the horror story as he related it to me:
I pay the HESAA bill every 4 weeks as to line up with my paychecks. After being in repayment for a significant amount of time, I have accumulated roughly 3 weeks of a buffer between the time I am paying and the due date. On July 3, 2013, I had called HESAA to see when I could make the payment for the Aug 1 due date, because it was still listing me as due for July 1, when I had made that payment back in June. The representative I spoke to that day, Anthony, advised me I could not make any payment and have it count to the next due day before the bill was sent out. That occurs on the 12th of every month. I had a payment set up for July 9, 2013 already and when I was advised of this I thought I had changed the web payment to the 15th. That discussion was heated because I felt it was an unfair predicament as I was trying to pay my loan, but accepted it and went about it.
After July 10th, I noticed a debit for the loan amount against my bank account. I thought nothing of it until July 18, 2013, when I looked and saw I was still due for Aug 1. They had not credit the payment made July 9 correctly. I thought I had changed it as I mentioned earlier, but apparently the process did not complete. So I called HESAA. The first representative I spoke to advised me they would not change the date the payment was applied on and would not refund me the money so I could remake the payment either. I was not happy with this solution and asked for a supervisor. She transferred me to a supervisor and I received a voice mailbox. I was not content with just a voice mail, so I called back and spoke with a different rep.
This rep, Johnnie (a female), again, tried to transfer me to a supervisor after I advised her I had no problem waiting as long as needed for a supervisor. She placed me on hold and came back with an offer of not billing me for Aug 1. I told her this was unacceptable that because of the nature of the loan structure, my next payment for Sept 1 would be paid entirely towards interest, nothing being paid on principle. I advised her I would like a supervisor myself. She transferred me but I received a voice mail again.
I called back a 3rd time and received Johnnie again. I advised her of the issue and asked me if I left a message. I advised her no and that I wanted a supervisor today, she disconnected me.
The fourth time that day I called I spoke to Anthony again. I advised him I was not happy, that this situation was unacceptable, that having worked for a loan company previously and now as a state employee that this treatment was also unacceptable. When I asked him for a supervisor he placed me on hold then returned, offering me that he would monitor the account and make the correction to delinquency after the penalty ha been assessed. I realized that was the best I was going to get and agreed, but wanted something in writing, either by email, fax or letter stating this. He laughed and told me how I could not force him to do anything and how I should be happy they were giving me this courtesy. I explained to him that it was not acceptable, asked for a supervisor again and advised him that I wanted to hold, he proceeded to lecture me on how, “You (Robert Ruszczyk) are a college graduate and need to grow up a bit. This is not how adults act.” I had not raised my voice or used language. I again asked for a supervisor.
He relented at that time and transferred me to a supervisors voice mail again. I wrote down that supervisors number and called him back directly. This supervisors name was Robert Larid. I explained to him the whole situation as well and he again told me that there was nothing they could do but monitor the account, but again would not send me something in writing. I explained that I therefore would be escalating it to the legislature and the Governor. He did not respond to this. I then addressed the issue about Johnnie and Anthony with him. He told me he would pull the calls, but did not seem concerned with it. He did not offer any follow up either.
After disconnecting with him, I then composed the original message to my legislators as well as phoning the Governor’s office. The Governor’s office connected me with the Director of HESAA‘s office, who then put me in contact with Mr. Archer, who I was told was the Director of Customer Service. After having to leave a voice mail with Mr. Archer, he responded within 24 hrs. He agreed to pull the calls as well as sending me an email to confirm that there would be no delinquent reporting and that I would be due for Sept 1.