BlackcloudSenior Contributor
Rent situation (issues with portal 😑)
I’ve manually paid my rent through the student portal (I live in a student accomodation) after the amount initially failed to automatically process to them via direct debt (even though I had the funds on the account ready for the rent to be deducted on that day).
After I did that, an hour later I got an email from the staff saying that my account is in arrears despite that I already paid the rent manually through the portal. I’ve explained the situation to them in response via email including screenshots of proof, but the reason why I didn’t wanna go up to talk to them at reception at first was because as someone who struggles to articulate my words effectively when it comes to talking to someone verbally, I usually find that the thought of talking to someone in person is more anxiety-provoking, and its a lot easier for me to explain things via online communication instead of verbal. But at the same time, I find that if I don’t talk to them in person right away then my worries would increase (which it did lol) as I did spend a lot of time checking the email back and forth reloading it numerous times within a few hours until I got a response back only 4-5 hours after I replied.
Then I logged into my portal account and saw that I still have an outstanding balance…despite already making the payment??
I was able to include the screenshot of the transaction on my bank account to them, but not the screenshot of the “your payment has been made successfully” outcome on the portal as I didn’t take it before I closed the tab. But now I wish I should’ve done that since I’ve never thought it would come into this situation.
now I guess despite that, I probably should’ve gone to the reception to tell them about it in person then instead of emailing them about it. One of the staff that responded to me on that day mentioned that there were no signs of technical issues on their end (tho I told them I was thinking it was a technical issue) and that if the payment hasn’t been processed after 48 hours then they’ll escalate further to the tech team to investigate.
48 hours passed and just half an hour ago, I got a follow up email from another staff member at reception regarding my account being in arrears. I immediately went to the reception and had to let her know about the situation including the email that another staff member sent me 2 days ago about escalating it to the tech team, and she made a note of it and was nice.
she did mention on the email that if I’m currently experiencing financial difficulties that I can speak to the operations supervisor within 48 hours. But now that I told her about what happened, I don’t need to speak to the supervisor.
however, if they’re (tech team) still unable to fix the issue and has found that I still “haven’t” made the payment (according to them) well then I will file a transaction dispute against that amount I’ve already PAID to my bank, as I have not been refunded back the rent payment that I’ve already manually paid through the portal when it still shows that I have an outstanding balance (when it isn’t even supposed to show that)…. On top of that, I’m currently low in savings and as of right now, I only have the money that I need to pay for my upcoming bond for another accomodation I will moving to next month. I will pay for that bond in about a month time.
