|
|
Post by Butch Cassidy on Jul 25, 2017 9:27:58 GMT
These often include variants of Where is this months repayment?, Why has AC not used the buffer interest that they hold on account?, When will my money be distributed? etc
The stock AC answer is "Thank you for your post. However, please note that it breaches the posting rules laid out in our guide to the Q&A section as it is nothing to do with the workings of the loan."
Personally when I take the time & effort to post a question I genuinely want an answer & I really struggle to understand how where my money is & how long will it be before I see it again CANNOT BE RELEVANT to the workings of ANY specific loan. I do not include the loans that are typically a few days late due to borrower or Bank Holiday & weekend delays but those where it is really fairly obvious that AC are dragging their feet over what should be run of the mill loan maintenance issues. Various excuses are offered; "IT issues" used to be a favourite but now "inter account transfers" seems to be the favoured catch all cover story for varying degrees of inefficiency & incompetence.
There are simple examples where someone obviously forgot such as #393 fully repaid on 6th July yet funds still weren't with investors on 11th July until prompted. More complex cases such as #74 which has a buffer held on account by AC but payment due on 3rd July still hasn't been distributed, even after the buffer was identified & confirmed as equivalent of 2 1/2 months cover, which after another lender pointed out should actually be 4 months it was then acknowledged as such (not an inspiring start!) "When it was established the borrower was not able to make this month’s payment, it became necessary to make an inter-account transfer to source the buffer funds. The payment to lenders will be applied shortly." yet a week later still no funds but asking how long such transfers are expected to take simply isn't relevant, apparently, so any question is routinely deleted.
I realise that customers can often be a PITA but I think they should still expect the courtesy of an accurate & truthful reply when they are genuinely concerned about the prospects of a loan in which THEY ARE RISKING THEIR OWN MONEY. As an AC MLIA lender I realise if I don't like the way they do business that I can leave, a process that has already started but for a variety of other reasons, but as an equity shareholder I have a vested interest to maintain a strong & professional level of customer service across the platform, whether or not I choose to lend personally. These recent examples are a concern to me that these vital service standards need immediate management attention. AC senior management along with their strong business model is why I became a shareholder in the first place & I have every confidence that these issues can be dealt with but unless problems see the light of public scrutiny they can often be left to fester & deleting or not answering accurately perfectly reasonable questions is an area which needs significant improvements.
|
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jul 25, 2017 10:46:32 GMT
We've said it before but I'll say it again - the Q&A section is for asking about the details of the loans and not for what could be deemed customer support questions. Want to know why a loan hasn't been repaid on a given day, ask customer support. They are there to answer those kinds of questions.
The Q&A should be used for making a credit decision to lend or not where the credit report or details on the site, which include loan repayment history, are unclear or somehow lacking. Broadcasting a specific lender's opinion or asking operational / support questions do not fit within that remit and get removed for that reason. If customer services ignore your requests for information then by all means complain here and I will get on their case if I notice the post or am tagged. It's simply about using the right channel of communication as designated by the platform not necessarily the channel lenders think they should be allowed to use for whatever reason.
If customer services are then flooded with examples of the same question it is for them to escalate internally that there is a process deficiency or problem somewhere, and they have a management meeting every two weeks where they can voice those problems to the rest of the business.
I don't know the specifics of the cases you mention but there are various client money issues that could get in the way. For example funds may have cleared into our lawyer's account to repay a loan but they have to clear into the lender client money account before they can be distributed. No idea if that was the case in #393 but the 6th to the 11th is 3 working days which would fit with a non-faster payments bank transfer. Customer services have the ability to discuss the specifics.
|
|
|
|
Post by Deleted on Jul 25, 2017 11:00:08 GMT
Well I struggle to know why AC make statements along the line of, "we are investigating and will get back to you by the end of the month" and then don't. It would save me having to ask the obvious question. I've said before, "tell us what you are going to do and then do it" is one of the core skills in communication.  |
|
|
|
Post by Butch Cassidy on Jul 25, 2017 11:06:06 GMT
chris - We just simply disagree on this; I see things like how, why & when a buffer is used as fundamental to the credit/lending decision on a loan & my ongoing participation (or not) in it. Loan repayment history is also useful but only if it is clear that any delays were the responsibility of the borrower & not just inefficiencies within the AC banking structure. Whilst a customer service answer may provide the solution to an individual lender it still leaves everyone else none the wiser & is of no benefit to anyone but the recipient. In fact a cynic maybe forgiven to assume it is a convenient way to hide away any AC inefficiencies or problems from the wider lender community. Lenders are quite prepared to accept that inter account transfers between lawyers & AC, for example, can take a few days & in those circumstances it can be made clear either on the Q&A or update page that is the reason. Lenders are not usually unreasonable people but can get very frustrated when they are deliberately ignored, such as having relevant enquiries deleted or worse still if they suspect that they are being misled or taken for fools.
|
|
registerme
Member of DD Central
Posts: 6,624 
Likes: 6,437
|
Post by registerme on Jul 25, 2017 11:10:10 GMT
So is the issue here how AC should illuminate payment issues (regardless of cause) on a loan such that all existing, and all potential lenders have access to that information? An individual email to Customer Services obviously doesn't address the requirement for everybody to be able to see this information, so if not QA then do we need a new / altered / additional channel?
|
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jul 25, 2017 11:22:44 GMT
So is the issue here how AC should illuminate payment issues (regardless of cause) on a loan such that all existing, and all potential lenders have access to that information? An individual email to Customer Services obviously doesn't address the requirement for everybody to be able to see this information, so if not QA then do we need a new / altered / additional channel? That I can accept but that is a problem for the platform to address not for lenders to use the Q&A for their own purposes. Our priorities in IT are set by the board so if customer services shout loudly enough those kinds of projects get prioritised and implemented. If lenders abuse the Q&A and those questions get quietly filtered then the rest of the business doesn't find out about the scale of the problem so it doesn't always get addressed.
|
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jul 25, 2017 11:29:28 GMT
chris - We just simply disagree on this; I see things like how, why & when a buffer is used as fundamental to the credit/lending decision on a loan & my ongoing participation (or not) in it. Loan repayment history is also useful but only if it is clear that any delays were the responsibility of the borrower & not just inefficiencies within the AC banking structure. Whilst a customer service answer may provide the solution to an individual lender it still leaves everyone else none the wiser & is of no benefit to anyone but the recipient. In fact a cynic maybe forgiven to assume it is a convenient way to hide away any AC inefficiencies or problems from the wider lender community. Lenders are quite prepared to accept that inter account transfers between lawyers & AC, for example, can take a few days & in those circumstances it can be made clear either on the Q&A or update page that is the reason. Lenders are not usually unreasonable people but can get very frustrated when they are deliberately ignored, such as having relevant enquiries deleted or worse still if they suspect that they are being misled or taken for fools. It's not inefficiencies within the AC banking structure, in the example I gave at least, that's inherent to a correctly implemented client money solution within the existing banking framework we have to work within. If the lawyer has the funds from a property sale, for example, but it takes three working days for those funds to clear to our client money account then that is a problem with the banking system not an AC inefficiency. It's also not relevant to a credit decision to lend as the loan would have been suspended from trading by that point in time. I can agree that there may need to be another communication channel where our communication to all lenders in a loan is handled in a better manner, however the Q&A is categorically not it.
|
|
registerme
Member of DD Central
Posts: 6,624
Likes: 6,437
|
Post by registerme on Jul 25, 2017 11:44:57 GMT
So is the issue here how AC should illuminate payment issues (regardless of cause) on a loan such that all existing, and all potential lenders have access to that information? An individual email to Customer Services obviously doesn't address the requirement for everybody to be able to see this information, so if not QA then do we need a new / altered / additional channel? That I can accept but that is a problem for the platform to address not for lenders to use the Q&A for their own purposes. Our priorities in IT are set by the board so if customer services shout loudly enough those kinds of projects get prioritised and implemented. If lenders abuse the Q&A and those questions get quietly filtered then the rest of the business doesn't find out about the scale of the problem so it doesn't always get addressed. Something for the to do list then  .
|
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jul 25, 2017 11:46:14 GMT
That I can accept but that is a problem for the platform to address not for lenders to use the Q&A for their own purposes. Our priorities in IT are set by the board so if customer services shout loudly enough those kinds of projects get prioritised and implemented. If lenders abuse the Q&A and those questions get quietly filtered then the rest of the business doesn't find out about the scale of the problem so it doesn't always get addressed. Something for the to do list then . Heh, got over 300 things on the to do list at the moment which is why it's important to me that the correct channels are used so that the right feedback is given to those with the power to prioritise.
|
|
registerme
Member of DD Central
Posts: 6,624
Likes: 6,437
|
Post by registerme on Jul 25, 2017 11:49:18 GMT
Sure, I understand that. But if it's not already been captured then it seems to be a reasonable request / requirement. It will then be subject to whatever your normal prioritisation processes (board level? seems a little unwieldy to me  ) are..... |
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jul 25, 2017 11:55:49 GMT
Sure, I understand that. But if it's not already been captured then it seems to be a reasonable request / requirement. It will then be subject to whatever your normal prioritisation processes (board level? seems a little unwieldy to me ) are..... We're a much smaller IT team than say FC with a lot of major developments in the works (across internal CRM and other projects not just the website), so the exec (not the board technically but the same people ATM) get involved to a degree to set the relative priorities as many of the big ticket items are sponsored by one member or another. If individual departments aren't saying that this is a priority for them then there are other projects that get prioritised above it.
|
|
|
|
Post by Butch Cassidy on Jul 25, 2017 11:58:30 GMT
Something for the to do list then . Heh, got over 300 things on the to do list at the moment which is why it's important to me that the correct channels are used so that the right feedback is given to those with the power to prioritise. Which is exactly why an existing, transparent, under utilised, dedicated, specific, easily accessible & understood channel which requires no further management or IT investment, such as the loan Q&A would appear to be the perfect (at least short term) solution - what exactly are AC's objections to using this method of communication with their lenders?
|
|
|
|
Post by chris on Jul 25, 2017 12:17:28 GMT
Heh, got over 300 things on the to do list at the moment which is why it's important to me that the correct channels are used so that the right feedback is given to those with the power to prioritise. Which is exactly why an existing, transparent, under utilised, dedicated, specific, easily accessible & understood channel which requires no further management or IT investment, such as the loan Q&A would appear to be the perfect (at least short term) solution - what exactly are AC's objections to using this method of communication with their lenders? Pollution of its purpose. If you as a lender are interested in seeing genuine questions about the credit report that are best answered with precise and concise sentences then wading through 50 questions about why the GBBA isn't investing, or why one interest payment or another was two days late, etc. ends up stopping the Q&A being used for that intended purpose. Couple that to the frequent dressing up of opinion as a question, like "I think that x is a ridiculous abuse of power by AC, why don't you do y?", and the Q&A becomes cluttered, unusable, and increasingly time intensive to maintain. That isn't in either the lender's or platform's interests.
|
|
|
|
Post by Butch Cassidy on Jul 25, 2017 13:01:06 GMT
Which is exactly why an existing, transparent, under utilised, dedicated, specific, easily accessible & understood channel which requires no further management or IT investment, such as the loan Q&A would appear to be the perfect (at least short term) solution - what exactly are AC's objections to using this method of communication with their lenders? Pollution of its purpose. If you as a lender are interested in seeing genuine questions about the credit report that are best answered with precise and concise sentences then wading through 50 questions about why the GBBA isn't investing, or why one interest payment or another was two days late, etc. ends up stopping the Q&A being used for that intended purpose. Couple that to the frequent dressing up of opinion as a question, like "I think that x is a ridiculous abuse of power by AC, why don't you do y?", and the Q&A becomes cluttered, unusable, and increasingly time intensive to maintain. That isn't in either the lender's or platform's interests. The obvious solution would be for AC to resolve the underlying issues that concern lenders not to restrict the information flow relating to them. If lenders knew for example that each & every repayment were issued say 1 day after AC received them or buffer payments were triggered & distributed x days after a failed repayment such questions would quickly disappear. A simple eligibility box relating to which account any loan was applicable for would solve that issue.
What lenders want to see is transparent, honest & timely solutions to loan specific issues & open visible answers to questions that affect the loan & subsequent lending decisions, denying lenders or restricting that information to individual e-mails is simply not the answer, personally I see the Q&A as the correct channel for that essential communication but I accept others may disagree.
|
|
|
|
Post by lynnanthony on Jul 25, 2017 13:04:52 GMT
I intend to continue using Q&A to ask why payments have not been made, as I have little confidence that Assetz are on top of late payments, and I feel that Assetz need the nudge.
Have a look at the recent Q&A for loan 487. (That's my partner's account so account name of questioner is different.) Interest retained. First payment due on 7th. I patiently wait 7 days and more before asking the question. Payment eventually received on 18th after an apparent "Omg we've missed it". And it is acknowledged in the Q&A that Assetz would not have noticed until the 19th, getting on for two weeks after it was due.
Using Q&A for this function, as well as getting a result, has the additional benefits of alerting other lenders that someone is on the case (so no need for dozens of lenders to email the same question to support, and support have to reply to dozens of emails), and it alerts new lenders to issues to look out for.
|
|
.
) are.....