Consumer complaint received 2017-10-02
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: IL
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
I enrolled in a payment plan with Navient where the lowered my high interest rates ( some from 16 % ) to 4.5 % after several attempts back in XX/XX/XXXX. They enrolled me in this program for a year under this low fixed interest, which is great. Part of the stipulations were to enroll in automatic payments. I was set to pay {$440.00} on the XX/XX/XXXX of every month. 

Later I discovered that they did not allocate my payment correctly. I have six loans and they only applied my payment to five loans so I became delinquent over a few months. I called them back and they realized the mistake on their end and " fixed '' it. They changed my payment to {$440.00}, which is fine, but I changed the date to the XX/XX/XXXX. 

Last month in XX/XX/XXXX they took out the {$440.00}  on the XX/XX/XXXX but also deducted {$440.00} on the XX/XX/XXXX as well. I called them on XX/XX/XXXX. They said they would process a refund. I asked them to make sure they do n't continue to deduct payments on the XX/XX/XXXX. They assured me they fixed it but we will see this month. 

I asked when I should receive payment for the refund and they said within 5-10 business days. I explained to them that this was a huge inconvenience for me on account of their error. I obviously have other financial commitments for this large amount of money to be wrongfully taken out of my account. They said they would escalate it to make it a top priority but could not give me a confirmation email or reference number. 

I ask for this because in the past errors are constantly made and representatives are misleading and give wrong information. And when I try to reference back I do n't have any leverage or documented proof on my end as a consumer. This is not a good practice as a lender. It seems like they do this purposefully for the consumer to get frustrated and not bother. I dread calling them. 

I called again XX/XX/XXXX. The representative then said I should have received the reimbursement by then. She did some research and said it was being held for some reason but she corrected it and it should be 3-5 business days. She gave me her information to follow up with her by Friday XX/XX/XXXX if I had not received it then. 

I called back today Monday XX/XX/XXXX because I still have not received it. The same person said she did n't know why it had n't gone through yet but will make a comment to the team that processes these matters. I asked to speak to a supervisor because this is getting frustrating and I do n't know when I will be receiving my refund. 

The supervisor gets on the line and asks me what he can help me with. I asked him if he was privy to my situation and he said " Yes, what can I help you with? '' I told him I wanted to know when I would be getting my money. He said that it was being processed and it should be soon, but with an attitude. I told him that on several different calls the same answer has been given to me but has not been resolved. He said that there was a process with these matters where I was supposed to provide a bank statement but since the grace period had passed it did n't matter and the hold was off so now they can process this. 

I asked him why the first two representatives misinformed and provided me wrong information? He said he understood and they would try to better educate their representatives and if there was anything else I needed. This man was very rude and I just said no and got off the line. 

I try to work with them. I make payments and I 'm never delinquent, yet this company has been nothing but deceitful and misleading to me. They misallocated payments and caused me to be delinquent. Granted they fixed it after more frustrating phone calls, but my credit score went down 80 points as a result. I just checked today and it went back up so they did fix that. 

My concern is that this is a very large financial commitment that I have. And my experience trying to work with them has been very frustrating. I get inconsistent information from representatives and I 've suffered burdens on account of their errors. 

But if you miss a payment you better believe they are on it. It does n't work the other way around when they wrongfully take money from your account and give you the runaround when you try to get it back. How is that legal?

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation