Consumer complaint received 2021-10-06
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: NJ
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
I am currently enrolled in an Income Driven Repayment Plan with FedLoan Servicing. I am on this plan to reach the point of Public Service Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) as I work in XXXX XXXX. I am on the path to reach my 120 payments towards forgiveness when suddenly NUMEROUS payments disappeared from my account. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted my annual re-certification to confirm I'm still employed in XXXX XXXX. In XXXX, I received my letter outlining my total number of " Qualifying Payments ''. I am very diligent with checking from the previous letter to compare as full & on-time payments in the past have not been calculated in ( 2 prior disputes with this company ). In XXXX when I received my letter, my total was 68 qualified payments. 

In XXXX, I sent in my re-certification again. This certification is typically done by me in XXXX, but we were prompted to re-certify as the pandemic brought on layoffs, so I re-certified earlier than usual at the request of Fedloan Servicing. This generated a letter in XXXX that I received with my updated number of Qualifying Payments. However, this letter was missing 33 qualifying payments from the letter I received just 5 months earlier AND didn't add in the 5 qualifying payments that were supposed to be calculated in through the emergency relief up to that point. 

When I called FedLoan Servicing on XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke with XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ). He transferred me to XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ). They looked into it and saw this discrepancy. He confirmed that all of my payment have been in full and on time and didn't understand how or why they would just disappear like that. He guessed it to be a " computer glitch '' and put in a dispute for 38 total months for review. This was the 33 missing payments that I had evidence that I paid for, and the 5 that weren't calculated in from the emergency relief bringing my total to 38 for review. 

2 months later on I called again. On XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with an employee of FedLoan Servicing. They told me that there has been " no movement '' and no resolution with the disputes so far and to try back at a later date. 

3 months later on XX/XX/XXXX I called FedLoan Servicing again and spoke with XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ). She transferred me to the PSLF Dept where I spoke with XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ). She said the dispute is still open and there has been no movement or resolution and to try back again later. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I called FedLoan Servicing again because we received an email stating that FedLoan Servicing will no longer be handling our student loans and that the transition to a new company will begin. I did not want to be transferred to a new company without resolution to this dispute for fear that it may get lost in transition, prolonging the issue. I spoke with XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ) who then transferred me to XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ). I explained my concerns. XXXX assured me that it would take about a year for it all to transfer over and that we should hear back from the Dispute Department by then. I asked what happened if it didn't, and she said that the " review would get transferred over ''. I asked to speak with the Dispute Department and they told me that they " don't accept phone calls '' and that I just have to wait and to try back again at the end of XXXX. 

On XXXX I called FedLoan Servicing and spoke with XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ) who transferred me to XXXX ( Employee ID # XXXX ) who said that there is still " no movement '' with my dispute. I asked to speak with someone else. They sent me to the " Service Recovery '' department where I spoke with XXXX ( Employee IE # XXXX ). He sent an email to the Dispute Department to add me to the " escalated list '' since it's 7 months and I haven't heard a word about the approximately {$10000.00} worth of Qualifying Payments that disappeared from my account. He said he could NOT give me a time frame that they would find resolution in this. His best guess was that when the system went to enter in the Emergency Relief Forbearance, that somehow it " wiped out '' payments back to XXXX. Again, I asked him who the Dispute Department reports to and I wanted to speak to the " higher ups '' as I have been more than patient. Again, I was told that they exist, but they don't accept phone calls. The phone call ended with that I just had to wait to hear back and that there is nothing else I can do. 

This needs resolution. And it needs to be resolved prior to the transfer to a new company.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief