Recently my wife and I made a decision to close down our self-managed super fund. We have been paying out money to have this fund, yet we don’t really drive it. So, what’s the point, right?
We really want to just relax and forget about it.
After making the decision, doing our research and speaking to the appropriate people, we chose Australian Super.
And, it has been the most frustrating process. We did all the things we’re told to do we did a test of a small amount of money that went in straight into the Australian Super accounts then we did the big one.
After seven days of transferring the money, my heart skipped a beat it still hadn’t arrived in our account. To note, we are moving two accounts, my wife and myself and therefore a substantial amount of money. I’m now in my 60s this is my whole working life in Australia over many years. I’m sure you can appreciate I was feeling extremely nervous.
We’ve made multiple calls to Australian Super to find out what’s going on and where the money is.
I’ve spent six hours of my time following through on this process. The minimum wait time has been 21 minutes and the longest has been 52 minutes for them to just answer the phone.
And every single person I have spoken to has a different answer. I recently heard this analogy, its perfect to describe my experience.
When you deal with big companies, you quickly learn there are two kinds of people: Ducks and Eagles.
The DUCKS waddle around making a lot of noise without actually doing anything. The EAGLES on the other hand, soar high, spot the problem and swoop in to fix it.
Sadly for me, I got a DUCK the first time, and the second and again and again. They told me to go back to our bank and speak with the ATO.
Basically, they are saying, we don’t know. They are not taking any responsibility or offering to investigate. They are just bumping the issue back to us to resolve.
We’ve double checked everything. It’s all accurate; the account numbers, BSB’s and the transaction date from our end. Even spoken with the ATO.
Again, I rang Australian Super this time making it clear I wanted to involve the resolutions team. I was told they would call me back and guess what, no call back.Yesterday I rang back and that’s when I struck gold – I got an EAGLE. As of yesterday, they confirmed that they could see the money was there. That’s great news, but I feel sorry for anybody who goes through what I did in the meantime, though still not in our accounts!!
What should have been a positive experience has been disappointing.
Dealing with people on the frontline who don’t seem to understand the system. Although all of them have been nice in the fact that they haven’t been rude or anything, but they can’t help you.
They don’t have the knowledge. They don’t look to escalate. I’ve had to push for escalation.
But even then, they haven’t called me back. There has been no urgency displayed on Australian Super’s behalf to stand in our shoes, understand our experience and address our growing concern day after day that we have entrusted a substantial amount of money and there has been no responsibility taken to resolve the issue and complete the transaction.
The frustration has really been just trying to get people who can actually help you the EAGLES. People who are not trying to blame someone else like the bank or the ATO. And most importantly who know the process and how to manage any variation.
Where are we now? We now want to look for another provider.
I wouldn’t recommend them even though I know they statistically do a good job. It comes back to making it easy for people to do business with you. Surely, this should be a simple process. Imagine how many people must transfer money into a super fund or transfer from one fund to another?
One thing is clear: irrespective of the institution you deal with, so much of the outcome depends on whether you get a DUCK or an EAGLE. Every company has both.
How accessible are your EAGLES?
To note: the term I use when working with clients is ACES instead of EAGLES although I like this analogy.
You need Aces and you need them in the right places
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Warm Regards
Craig Cherry