April 12, 2005
Manage My Ass, Sallie Mae!
I’m looking into consolidating my student loans. Rates are pretty low right now, and it looks like they’re on the way up. But I’m not sure exactly how the whole process works, so I called what I assumed to be Sallie Mae’s helpful support line. By doing so, I was informed, I could speak to a personal account consultant who could answer all of my questions.
This did not occur.
I did speak to a charming young lady with an undying faith that by asking for my Social Security Number a lot and rummaging through the papers in front of her she would magically produce an answer that would satisfy me. And she did produce quite a lot of answers. (verbatim quote: “Uhm. Yes, I understand what a weighted average means, but that has nothing to do with what I asked about.”) She also revealed partway through the conversation that she didn’t understand what “Subsidized” meant. When I asked to speak to a manager, she informed me that this was an after-hours call, and there were none available. Personally, I’d like to see information like that detailed on their website:
Phone Support Hours: 8am-5pm
Random Idiot Answering the Phone Hours: 5pm-9pm
