Long time fan. First time quitter. I really didn’t want to write this post, but after months of low- and now no response from SoFi, I must.
Since the end of April, I have been contacting SoFi via phone, chat, and email about an issue with their Bill Pay, where they paid my property taxes late. I tried to resolve it every way possible and SoFi was never helpful at any turn. They have now simply stopped responding. Here’s just one email I sent recently summarizing this situation to a bunch of VPs I found on LinkedIn.
Hi,
I am reaching out to y’all in desperation, because I cannot get traction with your customer service department.
I am a longtime customer; have been since a checking account was your only product. I tried each new offering as you rolled it out, and have been an outspoken advocate for SoFi.
But SoFi’s BillPay service failed and cost me $1,298.82 in one late fee.
I have been calling and chatting about this account issue for over a month. Emails have gone unreturned.
According to the state’s electronic records, the payment arrived at 4:38am on 2/1/22, accruing an immediate late fee of 7% of the amount of taxes per state of Texas law, totaling $1,298.52.
First, I spent over a month protesting with the state of Texas. But ultimately, to remove the late fee for property taxes, the state of Texas needed proof that the electronic payment was delivered on time. After three weeks of back-and-forth, SoFi could not provide this.
I used your Bill Pay service to pay my property taxes to Travis County in two payments for a total of $17,565.44 on 1/27/22. The date was scheduled in advance because the website stated it would arrive on 1/30/22, a day early. SoFi’s records show the amount debited on 1/27/22.
Now, I have paid the fee because my mortgage company threatened my mortgage because my property taxes were not showing in good standing. You can see this payment on 5/27/22 by the state of Texas’s electronic payment system because I no longer trust yours.
I have repeatedly asked for a full reimbursement of the late fee caused by SoFi’s failure to deliver payment on time due to no fault of my own.
I have not once received the promised response from a SoFi representative in response to my repeated call and chat conversation. Ever. When I ask to speak to an account manager, I am repeatedly told one is not available. I spoke to one who told me she’d call me back and has not for an entire week.
I am asking, again, that you please make your mistake right and reimburse my late fee.
I work in customer service. I am absolutely appalled at how horrifically this case has been handled, and cannot imagine a world where a bank will actually COST its customer $1,298.52.
Please help. I don’t want to leave the bank, but I will.
The singular email response is this message:
Here’s what I know working in the industry of digital transformation of customer service:
- SoFi (“Social Finance” bank) has omnichannel capabilities – which means they can see all of my interactions with the bank, every time I contacted them, no matter what channel (call, chat, or email). Agents even referenced my previous contacts and complaints.
- Yet instead of routing me immediately to a manager or lead, which if tagged properly is technically very easy no matter what or how many systems are in use, they continued to connect me to tier 1 customer service reps, who while VERY NICE and well trained for what they do are literally not trained to handle these kinds of requests.
- Even without tagging my account with some sort of DANGER! warning (point 2), before I put “ESCALATION” in the subject line of the email, any contact by me should have been routed to at least a tier 2 rep based on the volume of contacts I had within the past month.
- None of this is hard. In fact, a bank without bricks-and-mortar outposts has to be BUILT on this entry-level amount of customer service segmentation. It simply couldn’t handle the volume of contacts if it wasn’t.
- They are understaffed. Account managers not calling back is a symptom of a larger problem. I get it from the business side, but with $1300 on the line as the consumer idgaf.
- So, if an online-only bank has to survive on customer service, why did/does SoFi continue to fail?
- That, my friends, is the $1,298.52 question.
So what am I going to do? I have no idea. Going public like this feels like the nuclear option, but nothing else is working.
Oh, and also … well hello there Capital One! I’m so glad I never closed my accounts with you and that you have cafes available for me.