Consumer complaint received 2019-04-02
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: CA
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:
My experience with FedLoan servicing has been one continuing nightmare from the beginning. I can confidently say that choosing the government loan repayment program is the worst financial decision I've ever made in my life ( and possibly the absolute worst decision ever! ). I started out being serviced by XXXX. For the first year of my loan they put me on a program that did not qualify for the repayment program despite the fact I specifically requested that. Over the five years that XXXX handled my loan I was repeatedly misled and provided false information which cost me thousands of dollars. 
After approximately five years I requested a calculation of my previous qualifying payments, and was automatically transferred to FedLoan. I  thought my account would finally be handled properly, but unfortunately I was mistaken. 

On XX/XX/2016 I contacted FedLoan about my newly calculated amount of my loan, which was {$340.00} per month. Because of my family and financial situation at the time this was somewhat low. I spoke with the FedLoan representative who told me that I could make up to 12 payments at one time and have them count for 12 separate payments. I had approximately {$4000.00} in my savings at this time, and wanted to take advantage of this option before the money ended up spent on other things. However, this didn't sound right to me so I repeatedly asked, no less than three or four times, to confirm that even if I made these payments all at one time, it would still cover separate qualifying payments. The representative continued to assure me this was the case. I made the lump sum payment, and because every month I received a statement in the mail showing no payment due, I assumed that this was processed as it was explained to me. 

I submitted my paperwork for a re-calculation of my monthly payment, as must be done each year. At this time I inquired about the lump sum payment I made, and to confirm that it was credited as it was explained to me. I was notified at this time that I only got credit for one qualifying payment. I requested to speak with a supervisor at this time and was told there were none available and left a message requesting a call back. ( It should be noted that I've left messages several times for supervisors and never got a call back. ) After requesting for over a year that this be reviewed and considered for an exception it was finally referred to the people that conduct this. It then took another six months for the review to take place. In the end they told me that they only keep the recorded phone calls for two years and because they couldn't confirm what I was told they were refusing to give me credit for the payment I had made. 

After calling several additional times I was told that they would credit me back the portion of my payment that was not applied to qualifying payments. I reluctantly accepted this and waited over two months to receive a check in the mail. I then received a notice that my account was in delinquent status so I called to follow up on this. I was first told that if I wanted a refund on the lump sum payment I made, then they would only refund the full amount, and I would lose the qualifying payment that was applied. Not only am I out almost {$3000.00} for the payment I made, but when they take on the additional payments to the end of my mandatory qualifying payments, it will likely cost me over {$10000.00} in the end. 

This is only one example of the multiple issues I have experienced. I've found that as many times as I've called, I never get a consistent response to any of my questions. The agents have misled me so many times that I simply can't trust anything they say. It has also become apparent that they have purposefully structured things so you can never reach a supervisor or somebody that has authority to make things right. The business model appears to intentionally wear down the borrower to the point where they just give up trying to get their issue resolved. I've spent no less than 100 hours on the phone attempting to get the issues with my account resolved and have almost never been satisfied with the result. The agents are always nice, they always act as though they want to help, and in the end nothing gets done.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief