Consumer complaint received 2022-08-14
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: OH
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Need information about your loan balance or loan terms

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I notified the PHEAA/FedLoanServicing of 19 months of eligible employment ( between XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX ) for public service loan forgiveness via their online upload form. On XX/XX/XXXX PHEAA/FedLoanServicing acknowledged receipt of the request to review my eligible employment to determine if these 19 months qualified for public service loan forgiveness. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I notified the PHEAA/FedLoanServicing of an additional 6 months of eligible employment ( between XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX ) for public service loan forgiveness via their online upload form. On XX/XX/XXXX PHEAA/FedLoanServicing acknowledged receipt of the request to review my eligible employment to determine if these 6 months qualified for public service loan forgiveness. 

It took 92 days, on XX/XX/XXXX, before I received a response from PHEAA/FedLoanServicing about either of these requests. The first of these responses indicated that the authorized official at my former place of employment did not include a date on the form. The authorized official did include a date, but the year was " XXXX '' instead of " XXXX ''. No information was included in this correspondence regarding which of the forms I had submitted had a missing date. 

The second of these responses ( also received on XX/XX/XXXX ) explained that I did not yet qualify for public service loan forgiveness, stating I still needed to submit documentation for 36 months of eligible employment. This correspondence enumerated the specific employment periods that had been approved as qualified. Neither the forms submitted on XX/XX/XXXX nor XX/XX/XXXX, a total of 25 months of eligible employment were acknowledged in this correspondence. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received correspondence from PHEAA/FedLoanServicing that the total number of eligible months of employment had increased by 6 months, indicating the balance of months to qualify for Public Service Loan Forgiveness was 25. This correspondence did not enumerate the specific employment period of the newly qualifying 6 months. 

By XX/XX/XXXX, I had my former employer correct the date on the form. However, I accidentally submitted a blank form ( a case of similar file names ) to PHEAA/FedLoanServicing. Though I believed the file was correct at the time, the PHEAA/FedLoanServicing does not have a mechanism to instantly flag errors on submission forms and so I was unfortunately not made aware this form had no information regarding any eligible employment periods to be considered for public service loan forgiveness. On XX/XX/XXXX PHEAA/FedLoanServicing acknowledged receipt of the form and my request to review my eligible employment to determine if I qualified for public service loan forgiveness. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed PHEAA/FedLoan Servicing inquiring about the status of my outstanding forms and asking for an estimated review date. I emailed again on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, PHEAA/FedLoan Servicing sent correspondence stating " In order to present you with an accurate answer to any questions you may have, please reply to this email with a more detailed inquiry or visit our Help Center at MyFedLoan.org ''. I responded that same day indicating I had submitted employment certification forms on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, and a corrected one on XX/XX/XXXX and also indicating that none of those payments had been counted yet. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I sent another email asking for a status update. I sent another email asking for a status update on XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, after 75 days from my attempt to correct the previous form with a wrong date and 5 emails asking for information in the interim, I received correspondence from PHEAA/FedLoanServicing stating that my file was blank. This was the first time this was made known to me. It's now been 207 days since I initially attempted to certify this employment. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I responded to the PHEAA/FedLoan servicing correspondence making me aware of the blank form. I informed PHEAA/FedLoanServicing that I had since uploaded three employment certification forms. Earlier that same day, I resubmitted the initial 19 months of employment ( those still had not been counted as of yet ), the corrected form with 6 months of employment ( where the wrong date had initially been entered, and then a subsequent blank form had been erroneously uploaded by me ), and a new set of additional 6 months of employment between XX/XX/XXXX and the date of the request ( XX/XX/XXXX ) via their online upload form. On XX/XX/XXXX PHEAA/FedLoanServicing acknowledged receipt of the request to review my eligible employment to determine if these 6 months qualified for public service loan forgiveness. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received correspondence from PHEAA/FedLoanServicing acknowledging receipt of an employment certification form, but this did not acknowledge a specific form ( there are now three outstanding ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received correspondence from PHEAA/FedLoanServicing acknowledging the same initial issues ( " missing '' dates and blank forms ) that had been reconciled with previous uploads and stating that those forms would be denied for the issues that had since been corrected. I do not know if this person was responding to one of the initial emails I sent prior to correcting the forms. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received correspondence from PHEAA/FedLoanServicing acknowledging receipt of an employment certification form, but this did not acknowledge a specific form ( there are still three outstanding ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I emailed PHEAA/FedLoan Servicing inquiring about the status of my outstanding forms. I received the following the same day : " We received your Public Service Loan Forgiveness question, and will get back to you as soon as possible.In the meantime you can review your account details through Account Access. '' On XX/XX/XXXX, I received correspondence from PHEAA/FedLoanServicing acknowledging receipt of an email I sent on XX/XX/XXXX stating " Under the Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) waiver we can review previous ineligible periods including payments made on any repayment plan, payments made prior to consolidation, and payments made late or for less than the amount due. At this time, we are unable to provide you with information on which months will be considered. ". This message was confusing to me since I am asking about specific employment certification forms. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I notified PHEAA/FedLoan Servicing via email that if I did not receive a comprehensive response to my forms within 48 hours, I was filing a complaint with the CFPB and seeking advice from counsel. 

As of the day of this complaint, it's been 242 days since I originally attempted to certify my employment. This chain of events does not include several phone calls I have made to them during this same period. Unfortunately, I did not document the details of those calls.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation