Hello, everyone!
If there were ONE, PRIORITY ITEM you could communicate to Step Up that you'd like to see changed/improved with their PEP processes as soon as possible, what would that one item be?
THIS is the place to drop those suggestions!
We will be sharing this post with the head of PEP at Step Up, for him to reference as an actionable list of issues to communicate to his team.
A few guidelines:
--This post is for big-picture issues. If you have a specific issue with your account, this is not the place for that. However, if your specific issue is tied to a bigger issue, you can post that issue. For example, "My kids still don't have MSS access." Please do not include personal account details here in the forum.
--The briefer, the better. We are hoping for this to be a helpful list for him to reference. If the comments are too lengthy, that won't be as effective. Try to hone down to the core issue and post only that.
--If you use a personal situation as an example of a larger issue (for example, a personal encounter with customer support where they gave incorrect info, etc.), you can share screenshots... but please be sure they do not include any personal information.
We're looking for big-picture issues--i.e., things that impact multiple parents, and which could be targeted for improvement as part of their processes, their system, etc.
As an example, here are some items I've already communicated to him via email (and which he forwarded to the appropriate departments last week):
Some parents who applied, did all the steps, and submitted PEP survey as long ago as August or even earlier, have still not been awarded PEP--even some who were in the income priority tier.
Some parents have some kids awarded PEP, while their other kids were not--even when on the same application and/or having submitted the PEP surveys around the same time.
Major concerns about the spending caps for categories, AND how purchases are being categorized via MSS and by reimbursement processors. (I provided more detail and examples, but this was the main point.)
Parents have been waiting close to 60 days on reimbursements with no movement, and/or have reimbursements approved but have been waiting WEEKS and still no funds on the cards. Those who have tried to contact customer support have been told it's a US Bank issue. When they try to contact US Bank, they're told it's a Step Up issue. It's incredibly frustrating for them.
Reimbursement amounts credited to the card are not matching the approved amounts. Parents also say it's very hard to tell which reimbursements were credited to the card and which weren't, since amounts do not match.
Concerns about the customer support call centers & chat service, in general. Some of the representatives are giving wildly inaccurate information to parents.
If you have anything to add to this list, or would like to echo/reiterate any of the above concerns, drop those in the comments below!
Note: In order to keep this list effective for its intended purpose, we will be moderating the comments and removing any which include personal account info and/or are not directly relevant to the purpose of this post.
Streamlining reimbursements. I participated in the homeschool program in Alaska for 7 months and it was very simple-though it has been around for decades. The striking contrast here is once receipts were submitted, we would have a reimbursement check mailed within 2 weeks, even for large purchases like computers. The bank card reimbursement process seems to add an extra layer of unnecessary burdens and delays. The gap between purchasing what we need, and getting reimbursed for it (money in hand) should not take 4-6 months (or more) especially for the materials that are obviously educational/curriculum related.