I'm always researching financial companies that offer loans and are not banks. Banks, such as RBC, haven't taken into consideration how long I've been a customer of theirs and my past history paying of loans to offer another one when you'd like to be proactive and consolidate debt.
I saw that this Easy Financial Services location at William Kitchen in Scarborough had a 4.9 rating. I decided to check it out.
TLDR: The Google rating is misleading. I didn't have the best experience.
I decided to try getting a debt consolidation loan. I applied online on a Sunday. It said that I was pre-approved and to contact the branch or download the app.
This place has secured and unsecured loans. If you have poor credit, you can build on improving it and you will never be denied getting a loan. If you have great credit, securing a loan against your mortgage and getting a decent rate is also available.
Downloading the app from the Google app store was straightforward. I created an account with the e-mail address that I used to apply for the loan. It didn't show my application in the app until three days later. The app also said that my closest Easy Financial location was at Kingston Road and Morningside. Wrong!
You only get the branch location and a phone number when you apply for a loan online. I had to do some digging online to get this branch's e-mail address. I wrote a message to ask someone to contact me.
I got a woman helping me out. I could tell as we worked through various points in the process that she was new to everything.
She did see my message and phone me. Every time she phoned me, she never left a voice message. Millennial? Perhaps worse. She sent me an e-mail the first time after she tried to call. I only noticed a missed call when I was having lunch. She never bothered to send me an e-mail or call again. I actually had to call her back an hour after her attempt and pointed out that I saw a missed call with no follow up.
Horrible. If I didn't have a phone with call display, I wouldn't have known.
I had to write a letter to state a fact about my situation. This woman didn't give me the exact details that I needed to craft in my letter. I had to ask her what points to add. It also had to be handwritten, which felt so backwards. I crafted the letter after confirming with her the points that I had made. I took a phot of it.
The branch manager, Akshat, called me. He let me know that I needed to remove my signature and closing salutation. That's when I gave him a piece of my mind.
Why not create a form with the details that you need? Have the customer's name, signature, and other fields blank so that someone like me can fill it out. I should not have to draft a letter for your approval as if I am in school doing an assignment. Don't waste both our time. Have a form letter handy.
This woman, when I called her, went through my signing the loan agreement. She is not a great communicator. Neither is this company on the whole.
I got my loan. Without confirming with me where the funds should be deposited, the place assumed that my e-mail address was the address to use for the e-transfer. The address that I used was associated with a chequing account that is active, but is not my main account. I had the extra effort to transfer the funds to the right account.
Here's my beef. Why can't you ask me where I'd like the funds transferred to? It's not a difficult question to ask. What's the e-transfer e-mail to use? What if I didn't have Interact e-transfer set up for this e-mail address? You'd send the funds and watch your transaction bounce? Why make assumptions that end up being poor and wrong?
This place also obtained my main chequing account details and placed them in the loan agreement. How did you get that? Likely from the forwarded e-mail address that I used during this process.
You're great at getting my financial details and forcing assumptions. Yet, you can't ask me as a common courtesy about these details. I asked whether this woman wanted a voided cheque. She said, "Oh, no. Your application is going to the underwriters. We'll ask for one after their decision."
Guess what? It never happened until I complained that I never wanted the funds deposited where they did. There was no communication as to what I wanted.
I called the branch and spoke to Akshat directly. He took notes about my feedback. She also admitted that this woman was new.
I despise poor communication, especially when folks don't want to communicate and make decision on my behalf without any consultation.
Don't trust the Google review rating for this place. It's far worse. Lots of training and improvements are needed, especially for this woman who is too afraid to call folks back and leave a message, can't craft a letter for a customer to sign with details that she needs, and can't ask a customer for an Interac e-mail to transfer the funds to. You do not gain trust if you are too afraid to verbally communicate with others.
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