Consumer complaint received 2022-10-24
Company: Nelnet, Inc.
State: MA
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:
On XX/XX/XXXX a notification appeared on my home page of the Nelnet site. It stated that Nelnet had completed the review of my Teacher Loan Forgiveness application I submitted on XX/XX/XXXX. The notice stated to look for further communication from Nelnet. I am signed up to have my statements and correspondence sent to me electronically. When over XXXX days had passed and I had not received any electronic communications I called Nelnet on XX/XX/XXXX. 

The first advisor I spoke to told me that my application submitted on XX/XX/XXXX had been rejected. I the dates on my application were too old and I needed to submit a new application with updated signatures. The application signatures were dated from XX/XX/XXXX thru XX/XX/XXXX. I told this advisor that the reason for the delay was Nelnet failed to process my application for over XXXX months ( XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ). I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor told me my application was rejected because, since I taught at two schools to make up the five consecutive years of teaching, I needed to submit two complete Teacher Loan Forgiveness applications. One application for each school I taught at to make up my five continuous years of service. I pointed out to the supervisor that in section 7 of the Teacher Loan Forgiveness Application the instructions state to If you need to list multiple schools/ESAs or need more than one CAO 's certification, the information required in Section 5 may be provided on a separate piece of paper and submitted with your completed form. I duplicated page two of the application and had a CAO, school principal, complete the section. I then submitted all three pages to Nelnet. The original CAO certification and the CAO certification I copied and had filled out certify I have five consecutive years of teaching, thus meeting the Teacher Loan Forgiveness requirement.

I then asked to speak with a manager. Teacher Loan Forgiveness applications were submitted to Nelnet on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. In speaking with the manager I was told a different story that the application was rejected since the application expired on XX/XX/XXXX. I have submitted this application to Nelnet a total of three times. Why was this issue not raised to me on the initial submission. Nelnet appears to reject the application based upon the first issue they discover and not evaluate the entire application.

My issues with Nelnet are the following : 1 ) I received a apology from Nelnet in the six month delay in processing my application. To receive an apology for not processing an application is not acceptable to me. I suggested in my original complaint that my application should receive special handling. 2 ) I continue to receive bad information from Nelnet advisors and supervisors. I can not depend on any information I receive from Nelnet over the phone. 3 ) Why did I not receive electronic communication from Nelnet after a notice of that the review of my application had been completed. 4 ) In reviewing a Teacher Loan Forgiveness application Nelnet should review review the entire two pages of the application. They should raise all issues with the submitter, so the likely-hood of the next submission will be able to be submitted to the Department of Education XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation