Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:06/13/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My dad passed away 03/28/24 and my mom passed away 04/14/24 IMRF still has not processed death and moms lump sum payment. Says they got new computer system March 1st and can't process any death claims. This has been way to long and family are I are waiting for what money is due us. Was told over 400 families waiting to be paid. It's hard enough to deal with them both passing away then having to fight to get what money is due.
  Thanks.

  Business Response

  Date: 07/05/2024

  Member passed away and surviving spouse also passed away. Daughter, ****** ** ******, was paid on June 26, 2024 the surviving spouse pension benefit and as sole surviving beneficiary, the burial benefit was paid on June 27, 2024.

  I apologize for the delay in responding to this complaint. 

  ********* ** ***

  Manager - Member Customer Services

  Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

  Customer Answer

  Date: 07/09/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/31/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  IMRF has been quite hard to reach, and get anything done. The customer service system, and the website is very anti-user friendly, and I’ve had to go through email and phone to try and get help, and that’s taken ages.
  
  The phone line is somehow always so busy, that I have to request a call back, which usually happens the next day on their own time where I may be at work and can’t answer, and I get no choice in that matter.
  
  I finally got access to my account on the website after weeks of having these problems, just to see nothing but “access denied” on any part of the website I go to.
  
  I can’t access my payments, pensions plan, nothing. Just “access denied, you are not authorized” or something like that. I had already thought my issue was resolved just by getting on the website alone, so at the point I had already hung up the phone.
  
  Now I’m gonna have to sit through a long automated phone line for several minutes, just to find the “request callback” option, so that I can try my best to answer while I’m working next week, because they don’t offer options and call at rediculous random times.
  
  I’ll also have to say, the questions to “prove” it was me were just rediculous as well, I don’t know my exact dollar amount of my salary last year, I worked 2 jobs.
  
  The process to get help and speak to a person shouldn’t be so **** hard.

  Business Response

  Date: 06/12/2024

  Contact with this member has been through email and telephone calls. His secure Member Access account was established on June 5, 2024. Unfortunately he cannot currently view his file information. After our conversion to the new system on March 4, 2024, there were coding issues that are currently being resolved. This particular situation is a larger problem and will be corrected on July 14, 2024 when our vendor implements their fix. Mr. ******** is aware of this issue and will be contacted once it is up and running in production. We are currently testing at this time. 
  The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund implemented a
  new pension administration system and websites (Member and Employer) on March
  4, 2024. We understand that our members, employers, and third-party associates
  are used to higher level services from IMRF, and we understand everyone’s
  frustration.
  IMRF cares deeply about the people we serve. Providing
  our members with timely customer service is extremely important to us. Our
  dedicated staff are working hard to respond to our member’s inquiries and to
  process claims as quickly as possible. We are catching up, but it will take a
  while longer. We have reallocated staff resources toward our contact centers to
  improve response times; we are moving up the learning curve and processing claims
  more efficiently; and many staff members are working nights and weekends
  responding to member and employer inquiries.
  It will take some additional time for us to become
  current with communications – phones, emails, processing, and scheduled
  meetings with our customers. Please let me know if you have any further
  questions.
  
  Sincerely,

  ********* ** ***

  Member Customer Services Manager

  Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

  Customer Answer

  Date: 06/15/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. I hope access is restored within the month.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/09/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  IMRF is holding my money and they are unreachable. Their phone line doesn’t work and their website doesn’t work. I emailed a board member and never received a reply. I want to know the status of my withdrawal & I want my money immediately. It has been 6 weeks of waiting.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/29/2024

  The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund implemented a
  new pension administration system and websites (Member and Employer) on March
  4, 2024. We understand that our members, employers, and third-party associates
  are used to higher level services from IMRF, and we understand everyone’s
  frustration.
  IMRF cares deeply about the people we serve. Providing
  our members with timely customer service is extremely important to us. Our
  dedicated staff are working hard to respond to our member’s inquiries and to
  process claims as quickly as possible. We are catching up, but it will take a
  while longer. We have reallocated staff resources toward our contact centers to
  improve response times; we are moving up the learning curve and processing claims
  more efficiently; and many staff members are working nights and weekends
  responding to member and employer inquiries.
  It will take some additional time for us to become
  current with communications – phones, emails, processing, and scheduled
  meetings with our customers. Please let me know if you have any further
  questions. 

  Sincerely,

  ********* ** ***

  Manager - Member Customer Services

  Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/21/2024

  Type:Service or Repair Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I am writing to you with grave concerns with IMRF (Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund). Apparently they have gone through some sort of system change resulting in their inability to provide timely account balance information and other service related issues such as access to my money. They state it will take over 2 months to provide my money to me and I believe legally they are required to do so in a timely manner. I am asking for you to look into their inadequacies and assist the 1000s of people like myself who are unable to get clear answers from IMRF due to their incompetence.

  Business Response

  Date: 05/13/2024

  Please see attached correspondence outlining the issue raised by the member.

  If you have any questions, please fee free to contact me at *************.

  Thank you,

  ****** ***

  Manager - Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

  **** * **** *** *** ***
  
  *** ****** **  *****

  Dear BBB Dispute Resolution Department,
  
  Contact with the member has been made through three secure email messages initiated by Mr. ******,  Messages were sent:
   March 24, 2024 – responded on April 2, 2024 
  April 21, 2024 – responded on May 4, 2024
  April 22, 2024 – responded on May 4, 2024
  The issue needs to be resolved by his employer reporting wages and additional contributions. Until that is resolved, we are unable to pay out his refund for the additional contributions.
  The Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund implemented a new pension administration system and websites (Member and Employer) on March 4, 2024. We understand that our members, employers, and third-party associates are used to higher level services from IMRF, and we understand everyone’s frustration.
  IMRF cares deeply about the people we serve. Providing our members with timely customer service is extremely important to us. Our dedicated staff are working hard to respond to our member’s inquiries and to process claims as quickly as possible. We are catching up, but it will take a while longer. We have reallocated staff resources toward our contact centers to improve response times; we are moving up the learning curve and processing claims more efficiently; and many staff members are working nights and weekends responding to member and employer inquiries.
  It will take some additional time for us to become current with communications – phones, emails, processing, and scheduled meetings with our customers. Please let me know if you have any further questions

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/09/2024

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  My father passed on 1/22/24, I called as the beneficiary on 1/23/24 to claim the death benefit. My father had no life insurance or savings to cover the unexpected costs of a funeral. As the only child, I shelled out thousands out of pocket from my own savings account that I had saved in order to pay my taxes this year. It took IMRF 2 months to get me the relevant forms to submit. The forms have been submitted for nearly a month and still pending (they say 10 business days, so this is well past the service level agreements). Every time I call the support line I'm on hold for over 2hrs and the call ultimately drops from their end. Causing me to repeat the hold time yet again, and wait ANOTHER 2hrs to get through to anybody. Every time I speak to somebody they tell me to wait another 2wks and call back. Only for the same thing to happen time and time again. Continuously get no resolution, and NO information whatsoever. It's been nearly 3 months, I need a resolution, and I needed it yesterday. I'm sick of the run around, and this company is just so unprofessional and not even remotely efficient.

  Business Response

  Date: 04/26/2024

  I apologize for the delay in responding to this complaint. I needed to review the information and assess where in the claim process this claim was. The benefits were paid on April 18, 2024. All communication with beneficiary was through telephone calls and written correspondence. 

  ********* ** ***

  Manager - Member Customer Services

  Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

  *************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:04/05/2024

  Type:Delivery Issues
  Status:

  ResolvedMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have been trying to get the paperwork so that my brother and I can receive my mom’s death benefit and I can’t seem to get the forms needed.
  
  I have visited the *** ***** location 3 times now and today will be my fourth visit to plea for action.
  
  I hand delivered her death certificate on February 23 (since we are unable to by phone or fax) and provided correspondence with my address and phone number. I was told to wait 10 days since the system was down for 3 weeks for a system upgrade.
  
  On March 7, I visited and spoke with ******* who reassured me that they were catching up from the 3 weeks of the system being down and upgraded. I was told to wait 10 business days. I waited.
  
  On March 22, I again met with ******* who saw that the death certificate had been received THREE times along with my correspondence. He got the benefit supervisor, *****, on the phone who said that he will expedite my processing and the forms will go out on Monday’s mail, March 25. I was told that I should have the form by the end of that week.
  
  Here we are on April 5 and still no forms. So today after waiting in queue for over 30 minutes, I finally reached *********** who said the forms have not yet been sent. She said she can transfer my call to *****’s (benefit supervisor)voice mail. I said ok. I get transferred only to get a message that his voicemail is full. So my call kept ringing..I waited for two minutes for someone to pick it up. I ended up giving up.
  
  How can I get these forms ASAP?

  Business Response

  Date: 04/26/2024

  I apologize for the delayed response to this complaint. I needed to review the member's complaint and see where in the benefit process we were. I have verified that we have been in contact with both beneficiaries through telephone calls and written correspondence. Finalization of the claim is in progress.

  ********* ** ***

  Manager - Member Customer Services

  Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund

  *************

  Customer Answer

  Date: 05/02/2024

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********. 
  

  After 4 or 5 visits to the *** ***** location and phone calls, my brother and I have FINALLY received the death benefit paperwork, over 2 months after she passed. I was originally told to wait 10 days for them to mailed once death notification had been made to them.
  

  My mom has been gone for 3 months now. I certainly wasn’t expecting this process to take 5-6 months. I was originally told the forms will be received within 10 business days and 8 weeks for processing. I’m still trying to pay for her cremation and the death benefit would be helpful to pay it off.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/28/2023

  Type:Customer Service Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I have been trying for months to get help to login to my account. I do not know my User ID, thus I needed a new registration number which I requested multiple times and never got one in the mail. I have called and sent a "secure message" many times with no success in getting a hold of anyone. I have also email "hire-ups" using the emails provided on the website.
  
  This is retirement organization and they need to be help accountable because this messes with peoples livelihood.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/11/2023

  In order to ensure the safety and security of our member's sensitive personal information, certain procedures are in place to verify the identity of the requestor before issuing online credentials.  Member satisfied the requirements by submitting required information on 11/30/2023, and credentials were mailed 12/5/2023 to the address on file.