New York State Higher Education Services Corporation, Albany NY

I would give no stars! Customer service is no existent and they give the complete run around, number after number after number. One number they gave went to to a to a nyshed # that was a recording for another office that was a xxx phone number. Its a shame how these people dont care a state office that cares nothing about its people. To this day im still trying to get my paid off loan situated.smh

I worked in a healthcare facility during the pandemic in 2021. This resulted in an extreme amount of overtime for the year. They based my daughter’s eligibility for that year on that income. They hardly give her anything at all. They continue to base her eligibility on that year which was a complete fluke. I tried to do the right thing and help out during the pandemic and now my daughter continues to pay the price. Now they are telling her she isn’t eligible at all and it is impossible to get in touch with anyone who can help guide us through our situation. The phone number directs you to a website and the website will not allow you to book an appointment. Complete scam. The program is an attempt to advertise free education that does not exist.

Money and time waste. Came from Syracuse and they are not open to speak with no one. Phone call never answer and web site also. I'm wondering if they are scammers.

Still waiting for my summer scholarship to be sent to my school and for this fall. I keep getting the same response that they are processing scholarships. However, I’ve been getting that answer since August.

This rating is not for HESC's computers or application programming but of my experience with HESC employees.
I had a problem with 2 of my children's accounts originating from errors from their computer system and was receiving messages from their schools threatening to de-enroll them as a result. I spoke with Amanda during my scheduled meeting and she was extremely understanding and helpful. She cleared up 1 of the issues immediately and referred the 2nd to her supervisor, Joe. Joe actually called me back within 30 minutes to discuss the problem. He then hand-carried my issue to the proper department and personally got it fixed while also verifying that the 1st issue was also fixed. He called me back within the hour with the update that all was good. Both updates have been since verified by my children's schools.
Thank you Amanda and Joe for making a stressfull situation un-stressful.

They are the worst. Clearly a government agency that doesn’t care about their constituents. I feel so ridiculous paying a government to educate my children when it is clear they don’t care.

Never calls even if you have an appointment, absolutely the worst. The staff in here need to retrained and most need to be fired.

Customer service is actually horrendous it’s almost impossible to reach them unless it’s past the deadline that your bill is due. They hold off on payments and take weeks up to months to even process your TAP application. The probable cause of this is that they’re understaffed and each agent are assigned multiple tasks at once.

Can't even apply for TAP because the date of birth box is glitches. Your website is trash how much taxpayer money goes to this? Can't even work properly

Not helpful in recent years. Unsure what happened because it was fine for me between 2017 and 2020ish.

Took a little while to schedule. Representative was very helpful and solved an ongoing issue.

I can't even get an option to speak to a person. It is a horrible set up. Albany and Higher Education should be ashamed of themselves!

Awful customer service, I emailed them in August discussing a very important matter regarding my financial aid, and now 7 months later, they finally responded with a 2 sentence, half-hearted response directing me to the NYS Dept of Tax & Finance, ignoring the issue at hand. They need in-person meetings as they did before 2020.

I have not had loans with them in over twenty years, changed my name, moved to another state yet somehow these creepers send a letter to my new address, under my old name informing me that the student loan that I have with them (which I no longer have with them because I consolidated over twenty years ago) is being sold to a new company. I would like to call them and tell them to lose my info but I can't because one cannot call them. I've made appointments to speak with them and they do not call. I see countless reviews from people with far more serious issues that cannot be resolved because HESC are a bunch of terrible eejits. Also, lol because on their website they encourage users to contact them on their social media links, all of which no longer exist. Derp!

I wish I could rate this agency lower. We've been back and forth for about 4 months and nothing is getting solved. I am currently waiting for a call by them that should've been received latest 9: 30, it's 10: 02 now. They make my dreams to go back to school so miserable.

This organization scammed me out of a teacher education scholarship. I met all of the eligibility requirements and uploaded my undergraduate transcript multiple times proving that I attended a SUNY school, emailed to make sure they received it, and had been an excelsior recipient in the past, so I am clearly a resident of New York State. I filled out the application the day it opened in July, only to check the status one day in September to find that they denied me the scholarship on the claim that I “did not attend university or live in New York State”. I have attempted to contact them through email at least 5 times to refute this claim and got no response. Now I have to deal with debt because HESC falsely claimed that I am not a resident of New York State even though I’ve lived here my entire life and have received scholarships and financial aid from them before. HESC is a scam and needs to get their records straight, I am so fed up with their incompetence.