web analytics

JerseySmarts.com

Mid-Morning Update: My $4,300 Student Loan Check Was Found!

Posted on by

As the headline of this entry suggests, someone found my $4,300 student loan check, but I still haven’t heard anything from the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA). As you might have read in my very early morning update today, I was so frustrated at the horrible customer service that I received from NJHESAA over the last two weeks that I wrote a message to their Director of Communications. And while I haven’t heard anything from that organization in response to my voicemail or my e-mails, I’m glad that when I checked my account online this morning that the $4,300 payment had been applied.

And it was applied as of October 25, 2010, too. Since my bank account showed that the check was cashed yesterday, I have to reason that someone did hear my complaints over at NJHESAA and took some action. Assuming that my reasoning is correct, this would be a good action on behalf of NJHESAA – quite possibly the first good interaction that I’ve had with the company since I started repaying my NJCLASS loan during the summer of 2006.

In any event, tomorrow I’ll bring you another student loan repayment update and I apologize in advance for all of the student loan-themed entries this week. However, as you can tell from the tone of these entries I was getting more and more furious with NJHESAA for their lack of convenience and acceptable customer service. At the end of the day, the good news is that I’m down to about $14 thousand that I owe to NJHESAA and I’m going to pay that off sooner rather than later. 🙂

Update: Where’s My $4,300 Student Loan Check – Day 16

Posted on by

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.

Update: Where’s My $4,300 Student Loan Check – Day 15

Posted on by

Fifteen days ago I sent a $4,300 check to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA) and the check has not yet been cashed. Where is my check and why hasn’t it been cashed?! An easy answer would be that the check is lost in the mail, but the odds are highly against that being true. Thus far, the “customer service” options from NJHESAA have been useless if not all but unresponsive. I called NJHESAA during the middle of last week – all the guy could tell me was that they hadn’t received the check yet (yeah right).

Yesterday, I sent the following e-mail and have not received a response yet:

Hello,

My name is Joe and I’m looking for some information. On Tuesday, October 19th I sent in a $4,300 check to be applied towards my outstanding student loan. My student loan number is XXXXXX. To date, that payment has not been applied to my account. Typically, it takes NJHESAA a week to process a payment when I send it in, however this check has now been out of my hands for two weeks and I am accruing additional interest on this account while I wait for this check to be processed.

I have a few questions. First, do you know where my $4,300 is in your processing system? I would hope that this payment would be applied to the loan account as of the day that it was received at your office, which is likely the week before last. Second, since I do not want any future payments to be delayed by such an unreasonable amount of time, where should I send my check for the fastest processing? I am currently sending payments to NJCLASS, PO Box 11961, Newark, NJ 07101-4961. It appears, though, that this address isn’t processing my checks efficiently enough.

Your website suggests that I can send payments with special instructions to NJCLASS Loan Payments, PO Box 544, Trenton, NJ 08625-0544. Would it be okay if I sent my payments to this address in the future? I expect to make two or three more large payments that will payoff the balance of my loan. Is there a location that I can go to drop off the final check? I’m sure you can understand how I just don’t trust sending a loan payoff check to an address that has proven inefficient at processing payments.

I look forward to your responses.

Best,
Joe

It’s Day 15… There’s no response yet from NJHESAA… The wait continues… I don’t know why they just don’t come out and say what everyone can pretty much figure out already…

Another Thousand Down, But Where Did My $4,300 Go?

Posted on by

No time for celebration today, folks. Yes, it’s great that I’ve dropped my student loan debt by another thousand bucks so it now rests at about $73 thousand. That’s a great accomplishment and I don’t want to overlook how great it is to keep this strict repayment plan in place. I’m proud of myself, etc, etc.

Down to $73 thousand

However, I’m irate at the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority (NJHESAA). I sent the thousand dollar check to NJHESAA on Monday, October 18th; the check was applied to my account on Wednesday, October 27th. That is completely unacceptable. Even if I account for two days in transit from my mailbox to NJHESAA’s mailbox, it is absolutely unfathomable that it takes them a week to process a payment. The NJHESAA ought to be completely ashamed of itself.

But it gets worse.

One day after I sent that check, I sent a second check to NJHESAA. That’s right, folks. On Tuesday, October 19th, I sent a $4,300 check to NJHESAA that has not yet been applied to my account. Let me repeat that in different terms. I sent a gigantic check to NJHESAA TWO WEEKS AGO that they have not processed yet.

Unacceptable. Absolutely unacceptable.

At this point, I really should file some type of Better Business Bureau complaint against NJHESAA. What excuse could these people have for sitting on my check? Could the check be lost in the mail? Sure. Is it more likely that the check is lost somewhere in the creepy, disgusting NJHESAA system? Absolutely. And what bothers me even more is that I’m getting ready to cash out another few thousand dollars from my investment portfolio so I can apply the funds to this account. But what is going to happen? Am I going to send a $10,000 check only to have it sit on some desk in someone’s office for a month? Unacceptable.

NJHESAA is the worst financial institution that I’ve ever interacted with in my life – and I used to bank at TD Bank! Given my previous, gross experiences with NJHESAA, I can only imagine that they are holding my check in order to generate more interest on this loan. In short, NJHESAA is a disgrace.

In May 2006, I graduated from Rutgers University with a Masters Degree and $120,720 in student loan debt. I currently owe $73 thousand, which breaks down to $18.9 thousand owed to the New Jersey Higher Education Student Assistance Authority and $54.5 thousand owed to the United States Department of Education. Follow my student loan repayment story on JerseySmarts.com.

Many Projects Due – Grading, Financial Planning, Professional Development, & More

Posted on by

One of the things that I hate doing here at JerseySmarts.com is posting random entries. However, as you may have noticed October was a choppy month for consistent updates on the blog. There are some good reasons for this – most of which you’ll read about right here on the blog in the coming days and weeks. For example, I had one hell of an experience getting my Honda Civic fixed at the local dealership’s repair shop. The experience was so completely out of control, that I began writing about it last week and I’ve crafted an entry that is, I think, pretty damn entertaining. You should look for that entry coming at some point this week.

In addition, I’ve been reading through some of the books that are taking up space on my bookshelf and, obviously, you should look for a few book reviews coming in the next few days/weeks. And hey, at least one of these reviews is for a book sent to me from a professional wrestler’s publishing company so I could offer some commentary on the piece. Pretty cool, huh? Here are some other things that I’m working on that may not receive their own entry on JerseySmarts.com:

  • Sigma Pi Educational Foundation: I make no secret out of the fact that I donate my time, talent, and whatever treasure I can scrounge up to the Sigma Pi Educational Foundation. With respect to that “talent” portion of my contributions, since August I’ve been heading up the Foundation’s strategic plan study group. This duty has allowed me to work closely with some of my fellow Trustees as well as some volunteers – all of whom are looking for a better, stronger way forward for the Foundation and Fraternity alike. Earlier this week we held the last focus group conference call which capped a two and a half week period of these types of calls – many of which I was on for over an hour. I’ve compiled a preliminary, raw data report and sent it out for the study group’s review. Later this week we’re going to have another conference call and then I’m going to spend some time compiling a final report to the entire Board of Trustees. However, the work isn’t over yet. In a few weeks I’ll be heading to Nashville, Tennessee to present our research findings and then to lead the larger strategic planning process with the entire Board of Trustees. This process will be capped off during the December/January time frame and then, finally, I can take a breather on this stuff! By the way, click here if you want to make a small, 100% tax-deductible donation to support the Foundation’s scholarships.
  • Preparing for a Family Night: Over the last few weeks, I worked with my brothers and future sister-in-law to plan for a family night and dinner for my Mother’s recent birthday. We had the family night and dinner last night and it was a lot of fun, I think. In fact, one of the best things to come out of last night was a family discussion about reducing our excess spending on Christmas this year because, frankly, we’re all working towards specific financial goals that require a dedicated planning effort on our parts. It was a great conversation and a great conclusion, I think. Plus, spending the night with the family for dinner to celebrate my Mother’s birthday was a great time!
  • Financial Planning Roadblock, Courtesy of NJHESAA: I’m not sure yet, but I might spin this little blip off into its own entry to mimic an entry that I wrote both one month ago and many months ago. The long and short of it is that I sent a $1,000 payment to NJHESAA on Monday, October 18th. The check was finally posted to my account on Thursday, October 28th. But that’s not what has me completely frustrated and aggravated with this anti-customer service organization. What bothers me is that I sent a $4,300 check to NJHESAA on Tuesday, October 19th and here we are on Saturday, October 30th and the check hasn’t been posted to my account yet. What the Hell is NJHESAA waiting for to post my damn check?! This isn’t hard, NJHESAA – I know you have the check now post the damn thing to my account for goodness’ sake. I can’t wait to be done with this miserable, horrible organization. NJHESAA could learn a thing or two from the United States Department of Education about customer service and making the student loan repayment process easier for the borrower. Because, at this point, NJHESAA’s payment processing system is borderline ineffective which tells me that there has to be some incompetent people working there. What else could bring on a nearly two week delay?!
  • Financial Projections and Forecasting Stunted: As you might imagine, because of NJHESAA’s inability to process a check with any semblance of efficiency, my financial projections and forecasting has been stunted for the last few weeks. For a guy who checks each of his accounts both in the morning and at night (and sometimes in the middle of the day), waiting for these bozos to post this check is torture. I’ve been adjusting my projection models by $4,300 every time that I go in there and make a move. It’s annoying. I have a lot of financial goals that I expect myself to achieve in the coming weeks, months, and years and with my ability to precisely project when my dollars will be posted to various accounts, it makes planning for the immediate future very difficult.
  • Bizarre Indian Summer: I’m not going to spin this out into its own entry because it’s short, but if you live in New Jersey then you know that we had this weird Indian summer hit us in the last week or so. Before the mini-heat wave hit, I went out and purchased a radiator for my bedroom and it’s awesome! It actually warms up the entire second floor of the townhouse – can’t complain about that at all!
  • Beginning to Complete Coursework: Some of you may remember that I’m actually enrolled in an independent study course at the local college where I teach. Successfully completing this independent study will give me a Public Relations Specialist certificate. Not too bad, huh? I’ve read through the material for the course and, once the final strategic plan report is completed for the Foundation (see above), I’m going to aggressively complete the required coursework for the independent study. I’ve decided that this is going to be the last course that I take for a while since it will complete the certificate program. Also, I don’t want to go back for more education until my life calms down just a little bit (which I think is coming within the next two years, thankfully).
  • Grading, Grading, and More Grading: It’s midterm season at the college where I’m an Adjunct Professor so you know what that means – grading time! But it’s not only grading time for the class that I teach in the face-to-face setting. It’s also grading time for the classes that I teach for the online college. I’m thinking of asking the online college to reduce the number of classes that they assign to me – they’re giving me two or three each month and it is so incredibly time consuming that it’s painful sometimes…
  • Some Consistency at the Local Gym: Hey – I’ve been going to the local college gym at least once each weekend for the last three weeks. Not bad, right? And now you know why I’ve been able to read so much in the last few weeks – I’ve been on the treadmill. I’ll be heading to the gym tomorrow morning before the trick-or-treaters start knocking on my door. While my results at the gym haven’t been overly impressive (I’m not necessarily losing a bunch of weight – a pound here and there maybe), I am pretty pleased that I’ve been able to make it there one day each weekend during a very busy, crazy time for me.
  • Unending Projects at the Office: Hovering above all of the stuff written above is the fact that I have a pretty busy, increasingly stressful day job. Part of that stress comes from the person that manages my department and her mood swings, part of that stress comes from a changing workplace that expects the existing employees to transition to a new organizational structure without officially telling us what that structure will look like (or interviewing us for new positions), and part of that stress comes from the daily grind stuff that needs to be completed day in and day out that is made harder by the fact that my particular department is well-understaffed and thus we all have to do four/five different jobs each. And when you add in the fact that I’ve been doing a lot of the communication work for the organization – you can see how the stress builds up. Very annoying and, frankly, until this day-to-day stress goes away (which better happen soon), I think some of the other goals I have for my health and finances are going to be hard to achieve.
  • Changing the Face of Usable Web Solutions, LLC: Thankfully, after months of trying, I’ve successfully spun off one of my last remaining problem clients. Sure, the client screwed me on the way out the door, but I’m so excited that this client is gone that I don’t even care any more about the screw job. Whatever. Removing this client effectively removes more stress from my life and, ultimately, makes Usable Web Solutions, LLC a stronger, better organization. And with that, I’m beginning to change the nature of this small business. In the future, I’m going to focus on websites that are owned by the company and bring in advertising revenue because, honestly, that’s where the money is in this online business stuff. Going out there to find independent clients is not the way to find success in the website world.
  • Barnes & Noble’s New NookColor: Here’s a quick item for both the “Watch What You Say to Customers” and “Buyer Beware” files. For some awful reason I’ve been researching e-readers lately. I don’t know why – I love reading an actual book and I really don’t like the setup or arrangement of the e-readers that are on the market. But still, I began researching them and decided that I wanted to buy a Barnes & Noble Nook. However, something told me to wait. I wasn’t sure what it was that told me to wait, but I think it had something to do with the good voice in my head constantly shouting that I had dozens and dozens of physical books in my home that I haven’t even read yet! So, this buyer was wary of the products on the market and didn’t buy. Then, lo and behold, the NookColor is introduced and now I want to buy that thing as soon as possible (probably early next year once the inevitable glitches have been worked out). But the “Watch What You Say to Customers” file comes into play here because, just days before the NookColor was released I asked the guy at the local Barnes & Noble whether or not a new model was coming out and he swore up and down to me that, “We’re not Apple – we don’t have a new version of the product each year.” Oh yeah? Really? Hmmm…

There are a few different items that I’ve been working on that I didn’t think would find full entries on JerseySmarts.com. However, this stuff may be of some importance to a few of you so I hope that you enjoyed reading!