South End Capital a division of Stearns Bank, N.A.Reviews of southendcapital.com

Reply from South End Capital a division of Stearns Bank, N.A.Apr 17, 2020

Thank you for your feedback. This is a difficult time for everyone and we are working days, nights, and weekends to do the best we can to help as many as possible. We decided the best course of action was to let clients know who we wouldn't be able to help, that they should seek financing elsewhere. We understand your frustration, we share in it. We need more access to capital so we can help more small businesses, but we are subject to what our lenders and the government can provide. We wish you the best of luck and we apologize we couldn't get you a decision sooner.

Reply from South End Capital a division of Stearns Bank, N.A.Jul 8, 2020

Thank you for your feedback. The first round of PPP funding that was approved by the government created a difficult and stressful environment for business owners and loan providers. As a PPP loan intermediary (not a direct lender) we were subject to what our lenders could do and the amount of funding available from the government. We are sorry we could not assist you, and that your experience with us was not a positive one as customer service has always been our top priority. Fortunately, additional funding has been approved, and the PPP has been extended until 8/82020. We are hopeful you were able to locate a PPP loan, and if not there is still $130B of funding left and we'd be happy to recommend lenders and providers who can assist you. We wish you and your family health and safety during this difficult time.

Reply from South End Capital a division of Stearns Bank, N.A.Apr 17, 2020

Thank you for your feedback and we understand your frustration. For over a month our team has been working days, nights, and weekends to process as many Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan applications as possible. The demand for this financing has been overwhelming and despite our best efforts we have not been able to address every loan request in a timely manner. This was the notice you received today, that we were not able to proceed with your request because we didn't feel we could provide you timely service, not because your request was "too small". We are not a direct SBA or PPP lender as is disclosed on our website and application, we are a loan provider and intermediary which means the applications we can consider are entirely subject to the guidelines and bandwidth of our lenders. We have been doing our best to secure PPP funding for every applicant, and if it was humanly possible, and up to us, we would. We are a small business, comprised of hard-working people, that are trying to do our part to help other small businesses. We are not a nameless, faceless, corporation, we are people that want to help. We are sorry your service experience was not what it should have been, but unlike other loan providers who are keeping applicants in their loan queue that they can't help, and hoping they will just go away, we did what we thought was right. Which was to notify you that we could not help you so you could locate financing elsewhere. We wish you and you business well and we apologize we could not do more for you. Update: Thank you for providing us with the loan # for your husband's loan application. We received the application from your broker at 6:26 pm EST on 4/8. Our team reviewed the file on 4/9 and sent a notification email to your broker that it was received and would be progressed. On 4/10 your file was forwarded to our processing queue. Processing was started on your file on 4/13. The documentation submitted to us was incomplete, and per our posted submission guidelines, only 100% complete files are being prioritized. At 9:48 am EST on 4/15 you were issued a notification that we would not be able to proceed. We are sorry we couldn't assist you. We understand that the time and effort you may have spent working with other parties prior to us receiving you file on 4/8, may be contributing to your frustration. We wish you the best. Stay safe!

Reply from South End Capital a division of Stearns Bank, N.A.Jul 8, 2020

We appreciate your frustration and unfortunately government funding ran out before we could assist all applicants that elected to submit an application with us in the first round of the PPP. As an SBA / PPP loan intermediary (as published on our website), not a bank or direct lender, we were subject to the funding the government could provide and the application volume our lenders could handle. Fortunately there is still $130B of PPP funding available and the program is open until 8/8/20, so if you have not received a PPP loan yet there is still plenty of time. Although we stopped facilitating PPP loans after the first round of government funding, we'd be glad to recommend lenders that are still providing PPP funding. We wish you and your family health and safety during this difficult time.

Reply from South End Capital a division of Stearns Bank, N.A.May 10, 2019

Hi Angelea, We are sorry to hear that you did not have a positive experience with us. In reviewing our system it does appear our staff communicated promptly and politely, and we did issue you a term sheet with terms agreeable to you since you signed it and returned it back to us before opting to go with a different lender. Would you mind emailing [email protected] with more specifics about your grievance so we can improve the process for other customers and hopefully earn your business back? Thank you and we wish you the best of luck!

Reply from South End Capital a division of Stearns Bank, N.A.Apr 22, 2019

Thank you for taking the time to write a review Ali, and we are sorry you were not pleased with our process. Our system doesn't show that your application was turned down, just that the terms offered on our term sheet did not meet your expectations and you chose not to proceed, which we understand. There is a lot of communication between you and our team posted in our system, so we'd love to hear from you how we could have communicated better. Feel free to provide us more detailed feedback at [email protected] and we'd be happy to revisit your transaction as well to see if we could do better. We wish you much success!