Consumer complaint received 2018-10-22
Company: TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC
State: OH
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
XXXX  XXXX XXXX ( XXXX  ) handles a number of small, private loans through my alma mater that I needed during my time there to get through a couple of semesters. Things have been very difficult for me since I graduated, however, and I am now XXXX, making repayment of these loans nearly impossible. I have applied for, and been granted, economic hardship deferment on these loans since 2013. Unfortunately, the process of being granted the deferment has been terrible. The customer service for XXXX appears to have been outsourced, and their agents only know how to read from scripts for their responses to questions and concerns. I was initially told that the only way they would accept the deferment application was via paper mail. It's a very long application and requires multiple stamps. They then proceeded to tell me that they " lost '' my application, several times, despite the fact that I knew it arrived because I had the Post Office add tracking to the envelope. Then they told me to keep waiting, because maybe it just had not turned up in their mailroom. Another representative then told me that all the others had been wrong, and that I had been waiting and accruing late fees and bad marks on my credit score for no reason, because I could have emailed everything. The entire time, I was receiving harassing letters, emails, and phone calls about these loans because I was unable to make payments, but I was assured by multiple people that I should ignore all of this harassment because it would be removed and wiped away from my account when my application for deferment was processed. 

Even while my loans have successfully been on deferment, after the painstaking process to even apply, I've received multiple letters telling me that I have payments that are past due, letters marked " FINAL NOTICE, '' and even letters threatening to send me to collections agencies if I do not pay the full loan amount, even though my online account shows me that I am still on deferment, and my document inbox on my account shows no record of these harassing letters being sent to me. My attempts to contact them to rectify this issue have been completely useless. All I receive are generic responses taking me around in circles, telling me to talk to other people about the issue. No one seems to be able to help me with it, and if I request to speak to a manager or a supervisor, I'm told I am being connected, and then they hang up on me. Trying to email them or use their support ticket system is worthless, as all they ever do is tell me to call the customer support line. This has been going on for five years and I am reaching the end of my rope. I don't know what to do about this company, and I've tried so hard to do everything the right way and fill out all the paperwork they want me to in order to go through their proper channels. They just refuse to work with me or speak to me as a human being or a customer.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation