Consumer complaint received 2017-11-19
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: TN
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:
I 've received incorrect information a number of times from XXXX XXXX. 
Most recently, I was told my school that I am working at did not qualify for XXXX Grant employment/forgiveness even though it 's a XXXX XXXX school. They claimed my school was not on the list anywhere, despite me having proof of it being a qualified school. The only option I had was to convert them and have them forgiven through PSLF or wait out the XXXX Grant time period and then have them automatically convert. I converted my loans XX/XX/XXXX in order to work towards forgiveness sooner. I am also currently in XXXX school. 

When I converted my grants to loans, I called over a period of a week asking detailed questions about how this would affect my current school enrollment to make sure everything would go smoothly. I specifically asked if it would derail anything with my current degree program or if me being in school would affect anything to do with the conversion or repayment. All I was told was that I would have to wait out a 6-month grace period. My grants were converted to loans, and then at that point, I was told could not waive my deferment after the grace period despite having submitted a waiver, because I am enrolled in school. These XXXX loans had nothing to do with my current program and I had already graduated from that program. However, they said they can not do anything about it, even though the oldest one is 7 years old. They told me I would have to leave the current program for anything to change. 

I have also been forced to put my loans in deferment a number of times over the last few years, because they take so long to process my application each time ( months ) and I cant afford a {$800.00} student loan payment. At that rate, along with the XXXX loan issue, that wouldve set me back even further. I am working and paying my payments on time, but with the XXXX loan issue, none of my work wouldve counted for PSLF until XX/XX/XXXX ( unless I quit the program altogether ). That 's 3 years of service between now and then, not to mention the 2 years I already have that will have been or has been lost towards forgiveness. I feel that they are doing whatever they can to shave any time off they feel they can justify that would count towards PSLF. 

After learning all of this, I filed my first complaint at the end of XX/XX/XXXX. They somewhat addressed my complaint and fixed the XXXX  loans XX/XX/XXXX, but created several new issues along the way. 

1 ) Each time my school updates my status, it confuses their automatic system and ALL of my loans get thrown into in school status, despite having submitted a waiver and having spoken to them at length regarding this. I have to call and spend at least an hour on the phone explaining my issue and trying to get someone to fix it. I was told that they should be catching this each time, but somehow that is not happening and it is falling through the cracks. This is fixed for now, but I anticipate it happening again in XX/XX/XXXX. 

2 ) At one point, ALL loans were put in as " in XXXX '' status despite me being able to show proof of completed grace periods, degrees for those programs, and a consistent payment history. The customer service representative acknowledged that I had a history indicating I had completed a grace period with them on all of these loans except for 2, but said I would have to complete a second grace period because my current XXXX said I was still in XXXX. She let me speak with a supervisor who agreed with me that this was incorrect information. She assured me she would send it for review. 

3 ) Subsequently, ALL loans were put into " repayment '' status incorrectly ( all but 2 should 've been listed as in repayment ). This caused me to receive emails demanding full repayment of a loan that was just disbursed and still in school for. They had the disbursement date listed ( they said it was XX/XX/XXXX ) after the out of school date ( they said it was XX/XX/XXXX ), which is n't even humanly possible. The incorrect school was also listed for this loan. I called again, and they fixed this issue to only create another issue. 

3 ) They have erased ALL of my work history counting towards PSLF. Prior to this I had service listed to count towards PSLF. Now it is 0 and it should be 22 months. I requested a review of this, but nothing has been done yet and I was told it could take 3 months to fix, even though they have acknowledged they still have my documentation of work certification. Each time someone goes in to " fix '' the issue, their system automatically coincidentally updates that same day and it messes everything else up. 

4 ) My XXXX loans are now in repayment, which is great and fixed my original issue/complaint. However, I am still unsure if they will keep it this way, because depending on whom I speak with, some say this is correct and some say it is not. I do n't know who to believe and I do n't want to be told incorrectly and then have to be responsible for this later if it 's their fault. 

5 ) I have applied for IBR for the XXXX loans, but received a rejection on the basis that my documentation is older than 90 days, even though I submitted my current contract for the current school year. I have resubmitted with a pay stub, but have not received a decision at this point. However, it is still early in the process. 

6 ) At one point, my payments on my XXXX loans were listed as being due in XX/XX/XXXX ; however, their letter to me states that repayment is set to begin in XX/XX/XXXX. I dont know what information is correct and now my online account is just saying I dont owe a payment at this time, so I assume I will have to continue logging into my account each day to watch for changes. 

7 ) During this whole process, I was coincidentally locked out of my account due to an issue with my last name. This has never been an issue prior to now and my married name was updated in their system when I got married in XX/XX/XXXX. I had to call and request it to be unlocked. 

For the most part, the supervisors I have spoken with are very nice and polite ; however, its difficult getting a hold of one and the customer service representatives continually give conflicting information. I login anytime I receive a notification of a change so that I can take screenshots of the account so that I have proof of what is happening. Tracking this issue and all the other off shoot issues has become a full-time job and Ive had to spend several hours on the phone each day with them to make sure they are working towards a resolution.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief