Consumer complaint received 2022-10-31
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: FL
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:
I submitted a refund request from my original loan servicer, FedLoan Servicing, on XX/XX/XXXX. After calling for two months with no helpful timelines or updates or any information about my account at all, I get told on XX/XX/XXXX that my refund request was approved through FedLoan Servicing and that it is waiting on the Department of Education for the actual refund to go through, which I was told should take 4-6 weeks from the original approval date, which was XX/XX/XXXX, which would mean I'd have my refund within the next two weeks if that was to be believed. Low and behold, two days later, I call again on XX/XX/XXXX and am told my loans got transferred to XXXX along with my refund request. My original CFPB complaint to the company had a response that blew me off saying that they no longer service loans and that I was transferred to XXXX. I assumed this meant I had a balance again and waited patiently to get information from XXXX about logging into my account to see a balance and refund. I called XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX after getting zero information in the mail or via email from either servicer. I'm told that my account isn't even visible by either company until MID XXXX. First off, if I hadn't called FedLoan servicing, I would have had zero idea my account had even been transferred. Right off the bat terrible customer service. Second, they WAITED TWO MONTHS TO TRANSFER MY LOANS after I had submitted the request. I waited two entire months for zero progress because of their incompetency. On top of that, when I called XXXX I was told that I would likely have to resubmit a request and it would be another 8-10 WEEKS for JUST THE APPROVAL of the refund, and then another 4-6 WEEKS for the ACTUAL REFUND from whenever they decide to get the loans transferred in XXXX. So now I'm looking at 12-16 WEEKS from XXXX to actually get a refund. THAT MEANS THAT IT'LL TAKE ME 8 MONTHS TO GET A REFUND ON MY PAYMENTS. I PAID MORE THAN THE REFUND AMOUNT IN THAT AMOUNT OF TIME. THIS IS ABSOLUTLEY RIDICULOUS CUSTOMER SERVICE. Not only is the wait ridiculous, it is now costing me money. Since I can't apply for the debt relief until I have a balance, I'll get the refund way past the startup of payments again. Meaning because of these two company 's incompetence and just utter inefficiency, I WILL HAVE TO PAY INTEREST THAT I SHOULD'VE NEVER HAD TO PAY JUST TO GET MY DEBT RELIEF AMOUNT. When I brought all of this up to the XXXX representative, including the fact that I was told my refund request was also transferred, I was told " in that case maybe the refund is still processing. '' Which means there is also a chance I will get a balance reinstated to my account that is currently with neither loan servicer fully, that I can't view or access, without my knowledge, as the deadline to start payment looms closer. That fact alone has me very close to contacting my lawyer about this and take legal action against both companies, because at that point it's endangering my financial standing if there's a chance I have an open loan that I can't view or access. I've never seen such ridiculous and utter lack of customer service, transparency, and urgency. I want to be able to access my account and have my refund BY THE END OF XXXX, which even at that point is BEYOND RIDICULOUS, and if these two companies can't figure out how to get that done, than I will be contacting my lawyer to make sure I'm not responsible for paying interest once my balance is reinstated, because I WILL NOT be providing these companies ANY MONEY because they can't figure out how to function. This is UNNACCEPTABLE.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation