Consumer complaint received 2023-03-10
Company: MOHELA
State: CO
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Received bad information about your loan

Complaint:
Hi My wife ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) and myself ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) have had a direct consolidated loan since XXXX and have been in individual repayment since the XXXX. Until last week all of the loans were in my name ( with federalaid, XXXX and Mohela ). Now, I have the balance in my name through federalaid as XXXX and my wifes portion was moved to her own account. We both have XXXX plus months of qualified and verified employment for PSLF. We originally applied for PSLF in XX/XX/XXXX ( with XXXX ) and in XX/XX/XXXX were at the point of forgiveness. Our loans were then transferred to Mohela with the statement that " Mohela will finish processing the forgiveness and refund. By XX/XX/XXXX Mohela had not acknowledged our loans. When speaking with a representative they suggested maybe they were not sent and we resubmitted our full application XX/XX/XXXX to Mohela with both my wife and my employment forms. By late XXXX, nothing was showing and when I called I continued to hear " we do not see loans '' keep waiting. Finally when speaking with a representative and supervisor they discovered the application was placed in the XXXX databased ( a place where they put things that do not fit with the Mohela process/PSLF process and because I had no loans in my name, they did not process the application ). The supervisor and representative on the day uploaded the information and we finally saw a " count page '' appear and could wait for our employment verification to be completed again. It had already been completed at XXXX but Mohela said they needed to do it themselves. In a couple weeks our count went to XXXX and stayed there, despite having several more years of employment to count. We called and spoke with a supervisor and she, within a week updated the count to XXXX qualifying payments ( XX/XX/XXXX ), at least- for both of us. I may have more. We then were told to wait. We did wait and in that process, were told that my wife would get a seperate account in her name to move her portion of loans to for the completion of the process. By the start of XXXX, nothing had changed. i called again and was informed that there was a glitch and they would send it to a loan department. By XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX of the loans disappeared from XXXX to XXXX ( we assume what they believe to be my husbands portion ). we have never received a letter, email or any acknowledgment of his forgiveness. When we called, a woman told us, " XXXX 's are forgiven and we will now separate the loans and XXXX will get an account in her name and the balance will be forgiven and a refund provided. It would likely take XXXX calendar days ( which would be XX/XX/XXXX ). we waited. In XXXX, I called to speak to a supervisor ( her name was XXXX and she was very helpful ). She looked at the account and said oh this should have happened a long time ago ( XXXX she said ) but my social security number was " not in the right place ''. She then looked and said, I do see a forgiveness letter and she uploaded it to our account. The letter was in my name and it said that he/we/me ( not certain ) had ZERO forgiven and the balance remained XXXX. We requested it be reviewed to determine whose se letter that was and why it said XXXX forgiven. She put in for an expedited review case # XXXX ( on XX/XX/XXXX ) and said we would hear within 30 days. she stated that on XX/XX/XXXX a portion of XXXX was forgiven and on XX/XX/XXXX the remaining XXXX was forgiven. I called back on XX/XX/XXXX because we then saw the letter stating zero was forgiven. The man ( supervisor ) we spoke to let me know he further expedited the review and we would hear back in 15 to 30 days. he said we would see it forgiven with federal aid by that time and calculated a refund amount of XXXX for us that he said would be sent about 45 days after forgivness is processed. I called back in the 15 days, on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with XXXX ( his number XXXX ) and he told me again XXXX portion was forgiven on XX/XX/XXXX and that XXXX 's would be forgiven by XX/XX/XXXX. He said they were working on separating loans. I asked if there was anything I could do and was told " no '' _ never once did anyone tell us about the process of reconsideration that we now know Mohela had training on in XXXX for processing the direct consolidated student loans. I was also told they can't confirm a refund but maybe it could be XXXX. I was then asked " : Is that what the other person told you ''. I said " No '' because of the large difference in refund amount noted. It has then a couple times a month since that time. It was not uncommon for me to be on hold for 7.5 hours to speak to someone. Each time I spoke with someone I was told different things with the same theme being- we have an investigation, it takes a long time, we found a glitch and don't know how to fix the glitch, it could take longer than 90 business days, we are looking for a solution. I was told : '' many people in many departments are working on this. For example on XX/XX/XXXX I was told by XXXX that they were reaching out to Dept of Ed and XXXX would be on the XXXX direct to discharge and that previously there was an error in how ours was processed. I was also told that XXXX would reach out ton me to keep me informed of progress ( she never did and I was told she could not speak with me at a later date ) and then at a later date ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I spoke with XXXX who said she would update me weekly. I have heard nothing. She said they are in process of investigating. I asked for what and was told it had to do with separating loans and it was complicated. I again asked if there was anything I could do and she said " no '' - again we were not informed about the reconsideration process. by the end of XXXX I and XXXX both filed with ombudsman and I was told to do a reconsideration. A few days later I called Mohela to check on the process and XXXX told him to file a reconsideration. This was finally done approximately 4 months AFTER they had received training on the process. we filed reconsideration at the end of XXXX and in 1 week the balance of the loans XXXX was transferred to XXXX 's name on the fedaid site and my balance is XXXX. I called Mohela ( still having heard nothing of the " investigation and expedited review '' and spoke with a representative who stated he saw this and he put my name on the Direct to Discharge list. He dated he has no idea the time frame - maybe 90 days. We are writing because we have had glitches at each step and now are again nervous because Mohela has not given me an account ( as I was told they would several times ). Alternately we have not been told that I don't need an account. we just are hearing again " wait ' and we have never heard back from the review. 90 business days from the original discharge has passed and we have heard nothing. we do not trust them, they are clearly trying to draw this out with the hopes that we will give up and continue as usual.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief