Consumer complaint received 2023-10-23
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: CT
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
My student loans were sold to Nelnet, who is currently servicing the loans referenced. I am being prevented from buying a home because loan service provider is not positioned to collect payment or complete business as usual processing for the loans. I lose my current housing on XXXX   and this delay will result in my being unhoused. I have XXXX children. 

I filed an income-based repayment request following my divorce in early XXXX, as the full payment isn't doable on my salary as a single wage earner with XXXX small children. 
Nelnet 's website states that the standard review time for loan paperwork is three business days, with status reports at 5 and 10 days post submission. My IBR was received on XX/XX/XXXX. All of these dates have passed with absolutely no communication, so I began calling my service provider to ascertain when I could expect to hear from them. I attempted their chat, sent multiple e-mails and read all of the help topics to try and resolve my question without additional assistance, as their website directs. None of these resources could provide me with details on my individual loan and how I could request escalation on the process. 
So, I began to make phone calls. In one day, ( XX/XX/XXXX ) I spent nearly three hours on hold simply trying to speak to someone and needed to hang up after three calls of greater than thirty minutes each because I simply couldn't stay on the line any longer. On XX/XX/XXXX, I resumed my efforts and after 2 hours and 45 minutes on hold, finally got to speak to a service agent. The agent was lovely and in no way the subject of this complaint. 
I was told that the review process is delayed and is taking an average of 31 days. I can't wait that long, so I asked to escalate to a supervisor. I was informed that would require an additional 90 minutes " or longer '' on hold. I had already spent nearly three hours on hold, and couldn't spend any more time, so I asked if I could give my information and receive a call-back. I was informed that this isn't done. I asked what my options were and the only one available was to wait for a manager for greater than an hour. There are apparently no other avenues for recourse or review, aside from just waiting on the phone for multiple hours. 
It is clear that Nelnet is not capable of servicing the loans they bought and it is unfair that I can't contact anyone without multiple hours on hold, escalate or understand when I might be able to resume my housing search. Simply allowing agents to call customers so you didn't need to be on hold all day, providing actual service levels for different actions ( Three days to get your application reviewed should be 31 days for application review, for example ), or requesting escalation would all be reasonable solutions that would require very little work by the servicer and improve the customer experience. 
These loans are a serious financial burden and I would like to pay them at a reasonable rate and need the company servicing them to do their work in a timely fashion so that I can get housing. The impact to me and my family has the potential to be catastrophic ; this can't wait.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation