Yesterday, I wrote about how the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA) hasn’t cashed a very large check that was now sent off in the mail some 16 days ago. I also shared the text of an e-mail that I sent to NJHESAA the day before (that would be 14 days after the check was sent). As you might imagine, as of this writing my e-mail hasn’t been responded to at all.
And since I pretty much guessed that I wasn’t going to receive a response from the wonderful customer service folks at NJHESAA, I decided to place a call to these folks first thing yesterday morning. Side note – isn’t it amazing that whenever I call NJHESAA the recorded message is the same? It goes something like, “We’re experiencing high call volumes right now and will answer your call in 12 – 15 minutes.” Every single time I call them, I get the same message. I can call them at 8:30am and that’s the message that I hear. I can call them at 4:30pm and the same message blurts out again. Talk about bad customer service – NJHESAA uses its audio recording as a means of repelling callers and having people hang up the phone instead of waiting on hold! Good grief!
Anyway, after you wait on hold for a few minutes listening to all of these annoying blurbs promoting all of these NJHESAA services, another annoying blurb tells you that you can leave a message in the general mailbox and have it answered within 48 hours. That was the option that I choose yesterday morning as I wondered why the customer service geniuses at NJHESAA didn’t place that option earlier in the recorded message.
Well, folks, here we are more than 24 hours later and guess who hasn’t received a phone call back yet? That’s right!
Let’s see how bad NJHESAA can screw up this time. Frankly, I’m waiting to hear what type of bullshit they come out with when I think we all know what’s going on here. Does anyone at NJHESAA want to fess up and make this right?
Better question – do any other NJHESAA borrowers out there feel like getting involved in a class action lawsuit against these guys? They’re clearly not acting in good faith in this scenario.
Update: After I wrote the text above, I decided to call NJHESAA again. I was stuck in their automated system on hold for 29 minutes and 10 seconds before I hung up. This is absolutely unacceptable. I know for a fact that NJHESAA frequently visits this blog – why is no one doing anything about this disaster? Do you guys like getting lambasted time and time again? Unbelievable…
Let this be a lesson to all of you folks looking to get an NJCLASS loan from NJHESAA – run and run quick!
Further Update: I got myself so annoyed yesterday by the lack of response from NJHESAA, that I wrote the following e-mail to their Director of Communication. Please note that I forwarded my original e-mail and added this text to the new e-mail.
Good afternoon, XXXXXX.
I have not yet received a response from NJHESAA on the e-mail below or to a message I left on the voicemail system earlier today. Unlike most of the folks who probably contact you, I’m not trying to find a way out of paying my student loan. In fact, I’m trying to completely repay my student loan in the next few weeks! Yet, when my checks are in limbo for such a long period of time and I get zero response from NJHESAA, it obviously makes me wonder what is going on over there.
Getting a straight answer out of NJHESAA should be a much easier process than this has become. I want to know where my $4,300 check is and why it hasn’t been cashed. I don’t buy the notion that it’s lost in the mail. And I want to make an arrangement to hand deliver future checks to 4 Quakerbridge Plaza because – after this horrible, costly experience – I have no faith in the payment process any more.
I would have never imagined that trying to fully repay a student loan would be so difficult. In this economy, I might imagine that NJHESAA would welcome a larger borrower arranging to have his entire loan repaid well before the maturity date. I have to admit that I’m amazed at what is going on here. Can you provide any details?
Thank you,
Joe
http://www.JerseySmarts.com/
Hopefully, this makes something happen.
I know this was written a really long time ago, but I am seriously battling this company right now and I want to accuse them of coercing me to default. Have you ever taken any action against them? I am interested in getting involved in a class action law suit, but I have no idea where to start. I just filed a report on the BBB website where they got an “F” rating. What a despicable company. Any information that you have would be greatly appreciated.
Hi Julie – I never took legal action against NJHESAA, but I would consider joining a class action suit. In fact, there are some comments on my blog here that have a whole bunch of people telling horror stories about NJHESAA so I think a class action suit would go far. For me, I wasn’t coerced into default, but they absolutely made mistakes (and admitted to the mistakes) that impacted my credit rating. Thankfully, the credit agencies understood the problem and took those negative, false, non-payments off of my credit report. But it took me hours and hours and hours on the phone to get someone at NJHESAA to admit that they made a mistake – and when I asked for remuneration for MY time in fixing THEIR mistake (which I ask to all of my commercial providers when they mess up) they didn’t know how to respond.