Sallie Mae Bank review: Customer Service 13

At Sallie Mae they may make major changes on your account and won’t take the time to notify the borrower. They also completely ignore information you send to them, as with a letter telling them you will be moving abroad for one year to take part in a volunteer program and requesting a deferment. It happened to me. When this happened I had already graduated from a 4 year university and was about to begin payments as it had almost been 6 months. As I was planning to go abroad for one year to take part in a volunteer program, I sent them a letter telling that and also asking for a one year deferment. On the phone call I made they sure enough confirmed the deferment for one year so I thought I would be fine as I would be back in one year. Little did I know that they had made major changes on my account that had nothing to do with the letter I sent them. What happened was I had taken a summer school class at a community college that summer I was planning to leave the country. So at Salliemae they had completely changed everything, specifically changing my status back to being a student that will be graduating all over again and this time from a community college, hence the deferment they granted, completely unrelated to my real plans and not the deferment I was asking for in the letter sent, the letter they chose to completely ignore. So I go abroad for one year just to come back to a tarnished credit record. Be careful if you have to use Salliemae as a lender. They will make major changes on your account without notification or verification, and they will completely ignore letters you send to them, even letters with vital information telling them you are moving to another country and need a deferment. In trying to get this corrected I also ran into some real ###. Some workers at Salliemae need to be fired and it is probably because of them that this lending company is so hated. They are careless, unethical and won’t really want to help you. Best not to deal with this unprofessional, disorganized and flaw-filled company, so if at all possible I would advise any potential borrower to borrow from a different lending company.

Sallie Mae has the worst customer service via phone I have probably ever encountered. I like to think that as an on-time paying customer of Sallie Mae's for several years now, I would be treated with even a tiny bit of respect. Well, forget that. I'm sure they outsource their customer service to save a couple pennies. Leaving the customer high and dry at the end of this so- called conversation. Not only are the representatives rude and have little to no information about your account, you can hardly understand each other amidst this entire thing! It makes me wonder why I even pay on time every month. If i knew they could care a less about me as a customer and all they wanted was my money, I would have taken my business someplace else. Trust me, there are many other places willing to lend their money for educational purposes.
I'm feeling very betrayed by this company after all these years of paying my monthly bill on time and having never missed a payment. If you want to be treated with respect, take your business someplace else.

Worst customer service I have ever encountered in my 48 yrs of life. I work for the Goverment and if our customer service was this bad we would be fired I am sure. I finally got one (american guy) after 3 hours of recalling, holding, being disconnected, and inability to understand or be understood. This guy researched for me and found out the payment I had made Oct 1 on this account I co signed on was not properly credited and therefore I had a 60 day late on my credit. The kicker here is that I called them on Oct 22 and they said it was all okay. I have never delt with such an awful organization/company.

Sallie Mae is a HUGE rip off. I have noticed that my principal balance has not changed in 2yrs yet I have been making double the amount asked of me to pay (and yes I make the pymnts on time). When speaking to a less than competent rep she told me that I must request that my pymnts go toward my balance or else it goes toward the interest which they charge daily in excess of 4.75%. After speaking to a Manager, he assured me my loan will be paid off in 134mos if I keep paying double. My balance is only $6k, and if I take his advice...in th 134mos I would have paid them over $16k. I have taken the neccessary steps to pay them the amount due in FULL so that I may move on from this horrendous experience. By the way, it took me 2dys to speak to a manager after being hung up on 3 times by reps who spoke broken english.

The corporate offices address and phone number are:

12061 Bluemont Way
Reston, VA 20190
[protected]

The person you want to speak to is Barry Feierstein, who is the Executive Vice President. Also, I would read the Fair Debt Collection Act so that you can identify specific violations (such as calling before 8 a.m. or after 9 p.m.).

In the future, if you ever need corporate office information for a company, the best way to find it is to look at their SEC filing under their "Investors" link. Every publicly-owned company must display their SEC filing in order to be compliant with federal law.

Hope this helps!
~MacKenzie

I've dealt with two americans but both were VERY rude! First off they keep calling my house phone which is not listed as a usable phone in my account and I have told them numbers of times to call my cell number. I then received an attitude of "And what is the reason?" So I said it was my preference because I have many people that live here and I don't want everyone knowing my business. I was then given an attitude again that they called my cell and I didn't answer. He continued to give me an attitude and then said he was getting his supervisor. I'm still trying to figure that out, why so they can get me in trouble? Aren't I the customer? Granted I am having a bit of a tough time paying my loans but don't I deserve some respect on the phone?

I then get another call from them, a woman this time. She does the same "What's the reason for not calling this number?" So I said it was my preference. She then gets snotty with me and says "Well our preference is that you pay your loans." So I went on and said "Well I have many people that live here and I don't want them all in my business." And then I asked her not to give me an attitude and she keeps going on being quite snotty. I flipped out and the last thing I heard before I hung up was her laughing.

I work in customer service and if I EVER acted like this I would be fired on the spot. It's sick to see Sallie Mae lets this go on.

Don't ever do business with Sallie Mae, they are rude and when you call you are shipped out of the United States probaly to India. My son is joining the Navy and wants his student loans paid off, so Sallie Mae (India) tells us to fax the paper work and they will process in two days after calling every day for a week, we are told that they need the originals and not a faxed form. After overnighting the originals to them they still did not process them, finally after calling everyday for two weeks and screaming at them they transfer us to someone in the USA, and we were told that next time something like that happens to ask "for someone in the United States" and then they will have to transfer you. Well come to find out that his loan is a Parent Plus loan and the loan has to state that is for our son, well they don't tell you that when you apply for the loan... "go figure". So my son is giving up 5 years of his life to the military (he already swore in) and the loan will not be paid off. So please if you take out a Parent Plus loan with Sallie Mae please have it say on loan doc that the loan is for your child (list their name) so that you don't get stuck with 37, 000 loan... (very upset)

Sallie Mae is the biggest rip off i have ever delt with. the customer service reps can hardley speak english and when i set up a payment they take it out right away even though i have set up a date for it to come out and then they continue to say the payment is coming out on the date i had set up. and when i try to speak with a manager they hang up on me and then i am spending valuable work time trying to get this matter taken care of and so i would agree with everything that has been mentioned and i would STRONGLY advise not to get any thing that has to do with SM. When i am one day late they called me about 10 times a day starting at 8 on the dot and ending at 10 at night. My next step is to not pay and let it sit in collections and never pay it off and let get on my credit I dont care anymore at this point, the only reason i dont want to do this is because of my co-signer. I am looking for a number to call for the CEO or the Vice President or someone with out having to stay on hold for 45 minutes and then get hung up on.

I have to say that I have tried to communicate via phone and email with Sallie Mae and either gotten no answer or an answer that made no sense. Our parent's loan went up $20 per month for no reason that I can discern. And I cannot get a response from Sallie Mae that makes any sense.

Have you seen your statement? I teach business at the MBA level and I cannot understand what the heck they are doing.

And my last point...we took out parent's loans and my son guaranteed he would pay them as I am trying to retire. So now he graduated and has a good job...and guess what...he won't pay them so we are stuck with a $32, 000 bill. Thanks son.

I'm supprised to hear that, I have been repaying my loan and just currently applied for another one. I have to say I log in and handle everythinan find less frustration with the online services they offer.g via the website not customer service. I have never needed to call them actualy. So maybe that is the trick customer service via the phone may be poor, but online was and is very supportive for me.

You can consolidate loans lower payments and interest and make arrangments right on line.

I'm sorry for your experiences I hope maybe you c

I was on hold for over 30 to be told that they couldn't help me because I was not on my son's account.After preying, I was told I would need a release form to get information about account. Ask if he could send it or e-mail it to my son, so he could sign it. Said he would, it's been a week, we haven't received anything and I can't find this form anywhere. The loans are more than we can pay. Started out about $45, 000, now with penalties and interest he owes over $100, 000. He has a good job, but stays broke, trying to repay the loan. Sad to say, but I wish I would have talked him out of collage. The anzeity is getting to all of us.I thought that we were middle class, but we fill like poor folks with this debt.

I wish I had read this website before allowing my children to use this farce of an organization. I have never been spoken to so rudely in my life as I was by one of their representatives and only because I was trying to get information as to if what they were telling me was true because every time we called we got different information.

I recomend that anyone involved with Salie Mae take a look at these websites:

http://www.studentloanjustice.org/

http://www.studentloanborrowerassistance.org/

One of them explains what happened to allow an altogther evil organization to gain so much power. The other one gives you an explaination of the things you can do if you are a victim of this blatently criminal organization. I wish I could say there's encouragment here, but there isn't. The best thing to do is NOT to use Sallie Mae. They are exempt from consumer protection laws and it is illegal for any other lending institute to compete with them. So once you have a loan with Sallie Mae, you can NEVER refinance with someone else. Just use credit cards to pay for school, then file bankruptcy. It is cheaper, faster and safer than using Sallie Mae. Or, be a resident of California where there is no tuition in their state schools.