Consumer complaint received 2018-01-01
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: NC
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:
I have XXXX XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I have come to rely on my XXXX XXXX more and more as my health has started to decline. Because of this I have come to rely on the customer service representatives I speak to. I was told about Public Service Loan Forgiveness in the Fall of XXXX. I graduated in XX/XX/XXXX. I worked with XXXX XXXX as my sole source of information to repay my loan. I was lead to believe that I was enrolled in The Loan Forgiveness program beginning in XX/XX/XXXX and I have made payments each month on time. I call each year to make sure I am keeping up with everything I need to do so that my loan with be forgiven. This is very important to me since I am a single mother with a XXXX. 
Several years later, a coworker suggested that I ask about the teacher loan forgiveness program and I did. When I called I asked specifically if this would affect the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program and I was told it would not. I applied for this and it was paid toward my loan. I was told it would reduce the amount of my entire loan and the Public Loan Forgiveness Program would pay less. This {$5000.00} did not benefit me as my entire loan would have been completely forgiven anyway. At this time, I had no information outside of what I was being told. During another call I asked if I needed to complete an application for the Public Service Loan and was told it wasnt necessary until XX/XX/XXXX. I was not told nor sent any information about Public Service Loan Forgiveness to review prior to accepting the Teacher Loan Forgiveness. I found one by chance decided on my own to complete the Employment Certification only after I had completed the XXXX Loan Forgiveness application. This was the first time I had access to any information about Public Service Loan Forgiveness. During this entire process no one mentioned how one impacted the other. 
At some point in time my loan was handed over to XXXX. I have continued to call multiple times each year to make sure I was on track for my loan to be forgiven. I asked specifically in XX/XX/XXXX about my number of payments and was told there was no problem it would be repaid in XX/XX/XXXX. My due diligence was performed when I asked about the teacher loan forgiveness and with each call I have made since XX/XX/XXXX. No one explained that the Teacher Loan Forgiveness would impact the Public Service Loan Forgiveness until I asked about my number of payments in XX/XX/XXXX. After having spoken to XXXX and being told that it was not their fault, I called XXXX XXXX and basically, XXXX claims it was XXXX 's fault that this was not explained to me and vice versa. I requested a customer service supervisor from XXXX to call me on my cell phone and I was never contacted. 
If I had access to information regarding how one impacts the other prior to accepting, I would never have agreed to the XXXX Loan Forgiveness. I asked but was not made aware that the years of service and the number of payments would be affected. In short, five years and 60 payments have been taken from me without my knowledge or consent. I asked this about this directly and was told it would not affect the Public Loan Forgiveness at all. Because I can not rely solely on my vision I counted on what I was told to be the truth. I should have 10 years of public school service as of XX/XX/XXXX with 120 faithfully made payments counted toward forgiveness. If I had been told of these implications, I never would have agreed to the XX/XX/XXXX Loan Forgiveness. This did not benefit me at all.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation