Consumer complaint received 2017-05-03
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: TX
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:
Navient accepted and is trying to keep funds that were sent to them from the Department of Education by mistake. The funds were supposed to be sent back to me and my wife. Navient is refusing to return the unauthorized payment made by the DOE. On XX/XX/XXXX the Department of Education took a tax offset from our joint XX/XX/XXXX tax refund for the amount of {$3400.00} to fully pay off my 2 student loans. However, my consolidation process through Navient was complete on XX/XX/XXXX and they paid the DOE {$3500.00}. This created a double payment to the DOE on my loans and they then had two times what I owed them originally. I called the DOE to ask for a refund of the offset and was told, " you were entitled to a refund, but some confusion occurred and we sent a check on XX/XX/XXXX to Navient by mistake. You have to deal with them now if you want it, but do n't call us anymore because you now owe us nothing and it 's out of our hands. '' How nice that they care so much to help you with something they XXXX up on right. So to " deal with Navient '' I called them explained the situation and was told, " you do n't have any proof that the Department of Education sent us anything, what are you worried about you now only owe us {$38.00} just pay it. '' The representative then told me that they could process a payment for the {$38.00} right now if I give my credit card number! I asked to speak to a manager, but was refused and then was told again, " you only owe {$38.00} just pay it. '' My online account with Navient does not list a payment made of {$3400.00} in transactions, payments received, or anywhere on my account. But, my loan balance is missing that amount where it has been subtracted out of thin air from my loan amounts. They did receive the funds from our tax return offset that was supposed to be returned to us by the DOE and have refused to list it as a payment to hide where the money came from. Because remember like Navient told me, " you ca n't prove anything. '' A clear attempt to hide their illegal windfall. That is deceptive and falsification of my records as an illegal act all on its own. My wife and I never gave our permission to send them the {$3400.00} payment to begin with only to be told to give them more money! This constitutes theft, especially when half of the funds from a joint tax return are legally my wife 's property. This is an unauthorized payment theft and they might as well have robbed us in an alley at gunpoint. The contract that I signed with Navient was for payments to be made over time that are authorized by me. I want them to honor our contract, return what they stole from us, and allow me to make my agreed upon payments. I have already filed complaints with the Department of Education and the Texas Attorney Generals office against Navient and their theft. Navient called me a few days ago to inform me that, " you need to contact the Department of Education and have them send you a check. '' I said, " they already sent it to you, they told me to get it back from you, and that they are not going to pay twice because why should they have to? '' The representative kept insisting that I need to contact the DOE to have them fix it by writing me another check. The conversation was pointless. They called me back several times that afternoon, but I did not answer out of frustration. I will seek litigation against Navient if need be because this is just wrong. Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation