Consumer complaint received 2021-02-10
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: PA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Keep getting calls about your loan

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX I called Sallie Mae and spoke with employee number XXXX ( I did not catch his name at the time ), a loan modification specialist in the loan modification office about being put on a loan repayment plan that would best accommodate for my recent decrease in income due to the Covid 19 Pandemic. We had reached an arrangement that I would be enrolled in the graduated repayment program. As a part of this program, it was expected of me to make a " good faith payment '' of {$250.00} to start out, and a monthly payment of {$450.00} to be paid on the XXXX of each month. The terms and conditions were read to me over the phone and I approved everything, officially enrolling me in the program. I explicitly asked the specialist while I was still on the phone with him if this would bring my account up to good standing as well as have no negative impact on my credit, to which he assured me that the account would, in fact, be in good standing and that this would in no way affect my credit. Just two days later on XX/XX/XXXX I received my first email stating that my loans were falling into delinquency, followed by more on XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX, not to mention the incessant phone calls to not only me but my mother and my grandmother, who are both cosigners on my loans, as well as threatening letters in the mail. It was on XX/XX/XXXX that the " good faith payment '' was officially taken out of my bank account and paid to the company. On XX/XX/XXXX, however, I received a voicemail from XXXX XXXX at Sallie Mae, stating that he was calling from corporate and that he had a very urgent matter that he needed to discuss with me and that I was to call him back at XXXX. I called the number that evening when I got home from work and was put through to, not XXXX, but a woman ( whose name I unfortunately did not catch at the time ) who explained that her goal was to get my account up to balance. I explained to her that I was on the graduate repayment program and had made the good faith payment, which I had been assured would bring it back up to standing. Upon checking my account, she relayed to me that there had been some complication with my application, though she did not tell me what this was, and that it was resubmitted on XX/XX/XXXX, of which I was not notified nor was my approval given. She apologized profusely, explicitly stating that it was at the fault of Sallie Mae that I was still receiving calls, emails, and letters, and that everything would be taken care of and smoothed out within the next two or three days. This, however, was not the case, as I still continued to receive emails on XXXX and XXXX. It was on XXXX that I actually made my first payment of the {$450.00}, three days earlier than was due, and I received five payment confirmation emails, one for each of my loans. Later that same day, however, I received a threatening email stating that my loans were going to be reported as delinquent to the consumer reporting agencies on XXXX, and a letter stating the same thing came in the mail two days later. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called them to see what happening, as clearly there was some kind of miscommunication happening somewhere that I was not aware of, as I had done everything they had instructed me to do, and yet things had not been taken care of as had been promised on their end. On this call, I spoke with XXXX XXXX, who, once again, informed me that his goal was to help me being my account up to balance, and I let him know everything that had happened in the past month, between the incessant harassment and Sallie Mae not recognizing that I am on this program for reasons unbeknownst to me. He told me that he spoke with a supervisor and was the second person now to let me know that it was an error on the part of Sallie Mae, apologizing and assuring me that everything would be taken care of and updated. I gave him permission to reallocate the funds properly as, for some reason, this had not been done yet, and asked if this would still be going on my credit to which I was told that everything would be retracted. However, it is difficult to trust their word at this point, as the previous two times that I was assured everything had been taken care of and that my account would be brought up to balance, neither were followed through. At this point, I feel harassed even though I have done my due diligence. Thank you for your help with this matter.

Company public response: Company believes complaint is the result of an isolated error
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation