Darren C.

Hi,
I've realized after displaying their ads for quite some time that I wasn't going to hit their minimum payment threshold of USD 100 given that their ads aren't relevant to my site audience. I was told by Nerissa Manic (Finance Manager) that they'd make a one-time exception and pay after I hit the USD 50 threshold which I had satisfied as of August 2022. Rather than Nerissa honoring what she had said, she (and my original account manager Eva Warren) have ignored my subsequent emails following up on the payment for the outstanding USD 70+.

Darren

Hi, I've just amended my original rating and feedback as the original concerns have been resolved.

If you're being referred by someone else for a new plan, I'd recommend getting the referral code of the referrer and opening the new account online (applying the referral code before the completion of the online account application).

Either way, the salesperson at a Lansdowne mall location in Richmond, BC, has been very helpful and thorough. An initial hiccup came after account opening when it didn't appear the referral credit could be applied for even within a few days of opening the account, but the same salesperson has helped apply this credit which new accounts apparently have a few weeks from the time of account opening to do so.

Be Careful on Wiring USD Into Simplii.

I tried making a USD wire transfer out of my Anext (Singapore bank) business account destined for my personal USD account at Simplii on June 8th, 2023, and finally on July 6th, 2023, almost 1 month later, managed to recall back (into my Anext account) most of the funds (the original amount less the deductions by intermediary banks involved in handling USD transfers on behalf of Anext and Simplii) after realizing on June 9th that Simplii may have issues crediting the funds to my Simplii account due to a mismatch I had on the recipient name at the time of the June 8th wire request I made at Anext to go to the Simplii account. My error on the Anext wire instructions was indicating Simplii as the recipient name instead of my personal account name, as the Anext form didn't have a separate field for receiving institution name.

Instead of trying to recall right away, I waited at least a week to see if Simplii could still credit my account with the wired amount despite the mismatch on the recipient name. When I requested for the wire to be recalled (from Anext's end), and for Simplii to perform an escalated investigation, both Anext and Simplii claimed repeatedly that they didn't know the funds' whereabouts. Anext stated that the funds arrived at Simplii Jun 9th, which was frustrating as I didn't see the incoming amount in my Simplii account. I later realized that the funds must've been held at CIBC which Simplli relies on for its wire transfers, but I find it astounding that Simplii couldn't call CIBC to sort this issue out, claiming that the wire transfer department doesn't have a phone # to call.

Anext uses JP Morgan's SG office as an intermediary bank for USD transfers, and Simplii uses Wells Fargo as their intermediary for USD transfers (in addition to CIBC for wire transfers in general).

There's no way that in this electronic age that neither Anext nor Simplii were able to trace the whereabouts of the funds for almost a month. While Simplii was claiming that the funds haven't been received on their side, it was shocking for them to say that neither they nor I had a phone # to call to speak to the relevant wire transfer team (whether at CIBC or Wells Fargo) on the matter. What the Simplii staff should've explained is that CIBC was likely the bottleneck which I only eventually on July 6th found out was the case. How is it that Simplii couldn't call CIBC to locate the funds?

Meanwhile, although Anext was claiming that they can't call JP Morgan's wire transfer team (to locate the missing funds) as their only way of communication is through the SWIFT messaging, it turns out according to Anext, JP Morgan Singapore was at least relaying the recall instructions to CIBC, which was apparently ignoring the messages from JP Morgan Singapore, and so CIBC definitely deserves a 1 out of 5 star rating for their wire services.

In sum, although the customer service staff at Simplii are friendly, providing them more training and responsibility on resolving wire transfer issues in coordination with CIBC and Wells Fargo would go a long way.

If you ever need to call Simplii's customer service line, expect a 1hr wait. A few weeks back, after waiting for almost 1hr, Simplii's automated service line disconnected the call, and I had to call a 2nd time waiting another near 1hr.

My original rating has been updated as Simplii further escalated my incident and within a week of me recalling the original wired funds back to Anext, credited my Simplii account for all of the intermediary bank charges involved with the recall. Thank you Simplii for providing this courtesy.

I must commend Kenzie of trip.com for rectifying what had been an extended, unpleasant experience as I had described in my original review. Thank you Kenzie and any other colleagues of yours who were involved in patiently communicating the circumstances of my booking experience with relevant individuals at Air Canada, and having them understand the basis for my refund request. Have a great day ahead!