I've been dealing with a problem within my school's financial office since February of this year and I'm just so utterly in disbelief that it isn't resolved yet. I took some extra money to cover living expenses separate from financial aid that has a pay-off date of 3 years post graduation. Essentially, they processed it wrong and keep billing for the full amount. I've been told it was fixed twice and to just be patient and (for some reason) the due date wouldn't update until after graduation. Well it never updated after graduation and I'm still being billed. The person at the office (who is apparently the manager and there isn't anyone higher up) keeps telling me to "be patient" (considering it's been 4 months I think the patience period is over). A lawyer suggested I contact an ombudsman (never heard of that before) but the school has one who so far is being nice and helpful.
I don't know if other schools are this incompetent. My undergrad certainly wasn't this way.
Well, if it makes you feel better,
yes 😅
I have had an incredible amount of problems with my school because of straight incompetence. Every two to three months, the school has an absolute meltdown (and makes it
my problem) because they can't figure something out with my federal work study job, whether it's what department I'm supposed to be under, who my supervisor is, where my funds are coming from, or something else entirely - they're getting creative.
One time I logged into my account to record my hours and it said "EMPLOYEE TERMINATED." It was because someone in the chain, yet again, didn't think I was an employee for some reason and didn't renew my employment when 2022 ended. Then it took a mile long email chain with over a dozen people cced to resolve the issue because no one could figure out what the problem was, let alone how to fix it. And then they tried to tell me I had to redo my employment paperwork all from scratch. (I refused, and they eventually figured it out)
In the process of fixing that, they accidentally hired me twice under two different supervisors, and then later contacted me asking me why I hadn't been submitting my hours. I was. But they were only looking under the incorrect supervisor. Cue another meltdown as they tried to figure out which supervisor I was actually supposed to be under. Then cue
another meltdown shortly after that because each supervisor was part of a different program and they didn't know which program I was actually supposed to be under. I've been employed by the school for a year and a half and I've had these exact problems repeated regularly ever since I was hired, so you'd think they would have figured it out by now.
Oh, and the financial aid office lost a scholarship check of mine for two thousand dollars, and didn't find it until eight months later.