Consumer complaint received 2017-05-11
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: PA
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:
XX/XX/XXXX    XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX  XXXX  XXXX  To Whom It May Concern : My name is  XXXX   XXXX . I am contacting you due to an issue I most recently faced with F ed Loan Servicing.  I am a     XXXX   XXXX   XXXX       XXXX   XXXX   XXXX . I have an extensive amount of  Student Loan d ebt for receivi ng multiple d egrees,  XXXX , and two  XXXX  degrees. This last year I have been making payments on my student loan under what is considered to be  an Incom  e Driven Repayment Plan. M y first payment was made on     XX/XX/XXXX  of {$ 240.00}. I made this exact payment of {$240.00} for a total of  12 paym ents. This payment amount was based off both my spouses and my yearly income. We provided all necessary information to  Fed Loan i ncluding  XXXX  and Paystubs. My wife and I now have    XXXX   XXXX  ,  so my wife has now gone to part-time employment from full-time employment. Being that she is working less, and our yearly income has decreased and is significantly less our payment amount on this loan should have decreased as well but this was not the case.     Before I provide you with a detailed timeline of my experience with several  Fed Loan representatives. I want to make you aware that my wife and I were making   this current payment of {$240.00} while she was bringing in a part-time income. We have made many sacrifices along the way to ensure that we made this minimum payment so that we in fact were fulfilling our end of the obligation and eventually doing so in that we receive the rest of my student loan debit forgi ven in ten y e ars or 120 payments. Pl ease refer to the following time line to understand the specifics of this issue : At the begi nning of  XX/XX/XXXX  I  resubmitted salary and income information to recalculate my monthly payment. Being that now my wife and I were bringing in less income we were told by a representative that based off the most recent information we provided we would have a payment of {$180.00}. We were informed that this would not be processed until the next billing cycle and to make th e     XX/XX/XXXX   pa yment the current amount that we were paying until t  his was processed, which we did.
 XX/XX/XXXX  a  t  XXXX    XXXX   I received an email from  Fed Loan st ating that my recalculated monthly payment was now {$420.00}.       XX/XX/XXXX  I  contacted  11 people th roughout the day to address my concern with this new calculated payment.    1.   XXXX  Employee ID #  XXXX  :  XXXX    XXXX    ( 44 min ute Call ) Stated that not all of my spouses loans were calculated and that only  5 out of 10 we re showing. She stated that this was a mistake on their end, but she would reprocess my monthly calculation ( which by the way would take an additional billing cycle ) so that I would get the monthly payment of {$180.00}. I explained to her that I could not wait another billing cycle being that I was having such a hard time making ends meet, I would need this mistake processed now before the next billing cycle. She stated that she was going to put me on Administrative Forbearance until this was processed, which I immediately denied and requested to speak to a supervisor. After a very long wait I was told that she could not get t he Supervisor   XXXX   Employee  ID #  XXXX . However, she would call me back.     2.  XXXX   I w as not able to get his Employee ID #.  XXXX   XXXX  (  32 minute   call ) I called back and spoke to this gentleman because what the prior representative said to me did not make sense and I felt as if I was not being listened to. After explaining my story to  XXXX  he said that there was nothing he can do so I requested a Supervisor. He said that one would call me back.     3.  XXXX   Employee  ID #  XXXX  :  XXXX    XXXX   (  6 minute ca ll  )  This  Supervisor was  rude, disrespectful, and would not listen to my issue.  XXXX  stated that she talked to  XXXX  the other supervisor. She said that I have been making the wrong payment for the last year. The best she could do was {$400.00}. The new recalculated payment was final. She said there was nothing she could do and to make the payment or face the consequences. I requested to speak to someone that was the next level up. She said no I couldnt do that and stated that I would have to call the  XXXX  number again.     4.  XXXX  Employee ID #  XXXX  :    XXXX   XXXX    (  45 minut e call ) I explained the whole situation to him again. He took a few moments and said that the payment amount should be less because I was in fact showing a decrease in my yearly income. He stated : This doesnt make a lick of sense. He said he would get me to a Supervisor and that if I was not getting the help I needed to request for a re-escalation.     5.  XXXX  Employee ID #  XXXX  : Stated that this issue was due to tax deductions and that they do not look at last year. At this point I knew I was not getting anywhere so I requested a re-escalation 6.  XXXX   Employee  ID #  XXXX  : I was then sent back to  XXXX , who proceeded to laugh at me. She said there was nothing she could do. I pleaded for her to just hear me out and that none of this was making sense. She proceeded to talk over me and eventually hung up on me.     7.   XXXX  Employee  ID #  XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   ( 1 hour 1  2 m inute call ) Was very helpful, listened to my concerns, and was apologetic for what I was experiencing in my prior calls. She gave me a monthly payment of {$230.00}. She did not agree with   XXXX   amount and stated that she was wrong. She said that she would now send me to a supervisor to take care of this issue immediately.     8.  XXXX   Employee  ID #  XXXX  : I was unaware if this was the first supervisor that was suppose to call me back and/or the one  XXXX  spoke to at first. She said she was going to look at my account closely and put me on hold for a very long time. She came back to say that the payment was going to be {$420.00}. I explained to her that my yearly income decreased significantly and that I was given multiple payment amounts at this point, which was significantly lower. She stated that I spoke to   XXXX    Representatives who   have the same calculator as I do They were wrong and that I was making the wrong payment for the last year. However, they would let it slide and I will now make this new payment. At this point I felt so disrespected and violated that I stated I would have to contact a legal  advisor  to help me with this matter to which her reply was go ahead and do it and you will be audited. I then requested to speak to another supervisor.     9.  XXXX  Employee ID #  XXXX  : I was sent back to  XXXX  once again. She started the conversation saying oh this is you again, laughed and said I told you there is nothing else you can do, make the payment.  ( She didnt confirm any of my id information to even know that she was talking to me ) I stated this to her and she said I knew it was you. Began to yell at me saying that she was the highest person in command and that I was not able to ta lk to anyone else. She hung up on me again.     10.  XXXX  Employee ID #  XXXX  :  XXXX   XXXX  (  56 minut e call ) I called back to the main customer service line. I explained my situation as well as my experiences with this matter again. She said she was going to transfer me to an escalation representative.     11.  XXXX   Employee  ID #  XXXX  : Reviewed my past call history and issue for a good moment of time. Came back on the line and stated that the best payment was {$370.00}. That the mistake was on their end, I was making the wrong payment amount the last year. I explained to her that I was quoted multiple times with amounts that were significantly lower than that. She stated that I should do forbearance on my loan. She was the representative that supplied me with the contact information to the management team at   Fed Loan.       From this information, you can see the mental torture I was put through today. My issue was not resolved and was told that it was a mistake and now I am required to pay whatever amount they tell me. I agreed to a payment that was {$240.00} based of the yearly income I provided. That was my agreement, which I committed to. I scraped by the last year fulfilling that obligation and when I was able to recalculate my payment based off a yearly income that was significantly lower I was told that it was a mistake on  Fed Loans e nd and now I am stuck to face the consequences. I have   XXXX   XXXX   XXXX   and a house payment, which I got once I knew my loan amount was {$240.00} based off of that current yearly income amount. I am now told that it was a mistake on their end and I will have to deal with it. I am hoping that this letter brings me the justice that is owed to me, a loan customer who has fulfilled his end of the obligation and agreement. I will begin to seek legal counsel if this payment is not adjusted to fulfill the agreement that was made based off the yearly income provided in the first place. Thank you for your time.        XXXX   XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation