Consumer complaint received 2019-04-04
Company: WELLS FARGO & COMPANY
State: NY
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Federal student loan debt
Issue: Took or threatened to take negative or legal action
Sub-issue: Collected or attempted to collect exempt funds

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a Notice from the US Department of Treasury that a debt collector has filed an action to garnish my monthly Social Security payments ( {$500.00} monthly ) for debts they say that I owe. I attempted to contact the firm doing this, shown on the Notice as XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX., of XXXX XXXX, MN. Calling them, a recorded message directed me to another firm, a collection agency called XXXX XXXX, of XXXX, IN. Calling them ( XX/XX/XXXX ), I went from a XXXX, to an XXXX, to an XXXX, to a XXXX. XXXX began by telling me my debt originated with WELLS FARGO ( a notoriously bad acting firm ) & totaled {$220000.00}. I gasped at the amount & then found out that it was an education loan. I DID take out Parent Plus loans years ago to allow my 2 sons to get through college. But I dont recall any of them being that high. 
I explained to XXXX that my 2 sons DID go through college on a number of my Parent Plus loans originated by their 2 colleges & funded by a number of banks & financial institutions. However, NEITHER of them are working now, & XXXX lives at home with me where I support him. XXXX is a XXXX XXXX   child with related medical bills not covered by insurance. I furthermore told him that my finances are beyond tight ; they are dire. Garnishing my Social Security would be disastrous ( I am XXXX years old, & also looking for work, but as many might understand, it is difficult to find employment or income at that age ), as savings are XXXX, & I only get a small pension from past employment. 
XXXX effectively ignored this, & said the law allows them to collect money for Wells by garnishing Social Security payments. He then tried to get me to consolidate these Wells Fargo loans with other education-indebtedness on the FAFSA system. The latter includes loans from other lenders that I could not identify. I noted that the subject loan, this Wells Fargo loan, was shown there at {$170000.00}, not {$220000.00}, which he tried to explain as beingfees & costs. I had some terrible experiences in trying to repay a number of these other loans in XXXX, those originating parties being US Department of Education & XXXX & others. The US DofE did garnish my Social Security in XXXX, causing disastrous hardships to me, including near bankruptcy & loss of home. They then abruptly stopped ( XXXX, I believe ), & even REFUNDED a months garnishment. 
All of this had no impact on XXXX, as he returned to the threat that they ( XXXX ) can garnish & hes powerless to stop this. He said it will start with the XXXX SS payment. 

Thank you, CFPB, for reading this far. I never thought Id be confronted with these dire & disastrous actions again. But here they are, & initiated by XXXX of the truly villainous repeat offenders of financial-service mischief & wrongdoing, the rich, huge monster called Wells Fargo & their collection agents.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation