Southgate Salary Packaging Services
Verified6 reviews
Disappointed in the aggressive tactics to track down and harass me for posting a negative Google review.
Fantastic Customer Service – Always been fantastic to deal with. No call queues like my previous provider!
Great experience – A really fantastic service. I was recommended a car that fit my day to day driving level. The overall process was fast and very easy. My consultant was super friendly and amazing with updating me on the progress of my car.
Worst financial decision of my life – We started off with another leasing company who were excellent. We just had to go to the car dealership and mechanic they sorted everything out. Unfortunately due to a change of job we had to change to Southgate. It is a nightmare. Our lease has now doubled in price and we use none of the features due to their extremely complicated refund system.… Read more
To get a refund for using a mechanic or tyres we have to fill in all sorts of complicated forms and then they reject them for stupid reasons. It is so complicated we just pay everything ourselves as they never cough up the refund, yet they still charge us on our lease for these services. Over the past 3 years I have never got 1 refund for mechanic or tyres which we pay for in our lease. We used cash to pay for tyres and Southgate wouldn’t accept it as I couldn’t provide a bank statement showing the transaction although I had a legitimate receipt and letter from reputable dealership. We are being fleeced and there is nothing we can do about it till the lease ends. The FBT benefits are extremely minimal for us and we have definitely ended up going backwards financially. We would have been so much better off just buying the car and getting a car loan. This has been a really tough lesson and I hope others do their calculations before signing up and realise that they put the lease up by a substantial amount each year.
WORST STAFF with POOR PROCESS KNOWLEDGE... LOSS IS ALL YOU GET – Note: AFTER RESPONDING TO MY REVIEW: [Name Removed] called twice to harass that he is taking defamation. Wrote irrelevant things in 2 follow-up emails justifying their no response and rude handling, and also sent a text, all - to remove this review. This is what people, You can sense and know from reading and see what they are like to deal with.… Read more
POOR SERVICE, NO SUPPORT AND BAD EXPERIENCE.
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DO NOT RECOMMEND...
They don't explain things clearly in the first place:
EXAMPLE OF THIER BEHAVIOUR AND UNETHICAL ATTITUDE: [Name Removed] closed the account and didn't send the statement of account and account closure details to date. Moreover they supposed to call me and i have called back twice earlier in following up with the fee and they said [Name Removed] will callback but not.
1. LACK OF CLARITY FROM THE STAFF AND POOR SERVICE: I tried setting up rent benefits through salary packaging, everything went through and at last moment they explained it cannot be done because I pointed out that there was data field which asks for the duration of rental contract. This shows lack of clarity from the staff and wasted my time, i have seen no support or explanation, hence forced to sign-up with the other benefits SINCE THE APPLICATION WAS THROUGH ALREADY but it wasn't useful. Hence, I chose to close the account after 6 months of poor service and not so beneficial. While I understand the terms and conditions, but given the poor experience and whole thing happened based on their misinformation I believe they should waive off the reminder of admin fee for which I won't be using the service – I REQUESTED this during the account closure (AND left it for them to check and consider until 31 Aug 2023), [Name Removed] said that he will talk to management and get back within 24-48 hours but didn’t call and it is more than 2 weeks, but cancelled the account same day within in an hour of call made to cancel the service, and HAVE NOT SENT AN EMAIL OR STATEMENT OF ACCCOUNT DETAILING WHAT THEY HAVE DONE TOWARDS CLOSING AND BALANCING AND THINGS LIKE THAT.
2. UNPROFESSIONAL STAFF AND NO ADEQUATE PROCESS KNOWLEDGE Example - when i wrote a review of staff experience and their half info, "[Name Removed]" called, yelled, and harassed to remove the review, pathetic is one word to explain their knowledge and behaviour. He instead of fixing the issue and acknowledging their fault of not responding for so long, he stared by saying “I CALLED TO GIVE ONE LAST OPPORTUNITY” and started justifying their process and inadequate support.
31/AUG/2023: I called to follow up, lady on the phone puts me to [Name Removed] and HE asked me to contact office and ask for [Name Removed]. I did that, but I was told He is on another call, hence put me on hold without informing again they transferred me to [Name Removed], again [Name Removed] asked me to contact office and speak with [Name Removed].
On the 4th call to the office, I been told [Name Removed] is away from desk, but I hear him talk from the background. And the lady puts me on hold to get someone and puts me through to [Name Removed] again who says on call so many things that are incorrect and justifies they are correct, and I told him and recorded the call, will handle this differently from here.
POOR PROCESS KNOWLEDGE and POOR ETHICS FROM STAFFS LIKE [Name Removed], [Name Removed] AND OTHERS. WHO DOESN'T EXPLAIN THE PROCESS AND SHOW NO ETHICS IN THEIR PROMISES AND ASSURANCES (THIS REVIEW IS Purely based on my experience of not receiving account closure statement, which is the first and basic thing, and not coming back either with yes or no for the waive off request but after so many follow-ups gave the above-mentioned experience)
LOSS IS ALL YOU WILL END UP WITH... STAY AWAY!
IF FURTHER PROOF NEEDED just check owner's response for other negative reviews PEOPLE wrote about their experiences, which shows what it is to deal with them as a customer.... AVOID IT ALL COST.
Slow to process applications – They're a bit slow to process applications for new loans at first and will not keep you updated of the progress but when your application has been processed and found a car for you then the rest of the processes will go quicker.
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