Consumer complaint received 2019-03-28
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: OR
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Federal student loan debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt was paid

Complaint:
-XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted 2 online payments to XXXX for student loans in the general amounts of $ XXXX and $ XXXX. I not only saved the website confirmation page, but also the emailed confirmation. 
-XX/XX/XXXX, I logged on to review my loans and saw the XXXX loan was still owed. I submitted a payment again- only realizing it was the 2nd payment when I went to save the PDF prinout in my XXXX folder. I then cancelled the payment and looked through my history of online payments which had NO evidence of theXX/XX/XXXX payments listed. I reviewed my online banking and noticed the amount hadn't been withdrawn. I then called my bank, confirmed that sufficient funds were present on XX/XX/XXXX, and was told XXXX had made no attempt to withdraw those funds. I then called XXXX, where a rep told me that there was NO record of my XX/XX/XXXX payments, regardless of the confirmation numbers I had. She requested I fax in the PDFs I had saved fromXX/XX/XXXXXXXX. I faxed them in. 
XX/XX/XXXXI called XXXX b/c I never heard back. The 1st rep said my case had been reviewed AND CLOSED on XX/XX/XXXX b/c I'd cancelled my XX/XX/XXXX payment ( I was never informed of any of this ). When I pointed out that her explanation in no way explained WHY my XX/XX/XXXX payments hadn't processed, she agreed. I expressed that my expectation was that they'd recognize the error on their end, honor my XX/XX/XXXX payment date, process the payment, AND remove all interest accumulated since XX/XX/XXXX. She told me that was reasonable and that she would transfer me to a supervisor WHO COULD DO THAT. I was transferred 2x, 3rd rep informed me that XXXX was NOT responsible for *not* processing my online payments and that ITS MY FAULT because I should have followed up and checked to see if the payment processed. I told her I had sufficient funds in my account, I had no reason to and I brought up the fact that they hadn't even followed up with me after allegedly reviewing *and closing* my case. She told me the review showed XXXX wasn't at fault, that I couldn't see the review, AND asked for documentation that my bank even CONTACTED XXXX XXXX to initiate payment ( WHICH WOULD NEVER OCCUR because XXXX is responsible for contacting the bank for that money ( Track 4 of the audio at 6:30 ) ). I asked for any documentation of the review, including a summary of the process taken to deduce XXXX wasn't responsible for processing my online payments and this rep told me they did not " do that. '' I then asked if she was telling me that they conducted " reviews '' without documentation and she said no, but that she couldn't access them. I asked to be transferred to somebody who could access them. She told me that XXXX was part of the Federal Government and that if I wanted that information, it would have to be subpoenaed. I informed her that this was the most ridiculous scam and that they have a clear history of mis-processing payments and poor documentation issues as evidenced by the current legal case in Massachusetts, not to mention all the XXXX complaints filed in the past couple years. To NOT process consumer loan payments and then continue charging interest and blame consumers for not following up is an outright scam. She said it was not a scam, and that she could not help me. The number of hours I have wasted on this is so ridiculous. Furthermore, a quick review of student forums on the internet demonstrates that this HAPPENS OFTEN. Something needs to be done because these XXXX scammers are mishandling payments, blaming consumers, and robbing us in the form of " interest '' on loans people already submitted payments on. It's a scam in the most acute form. 

Link to Audio Upload on XXXX XXXX ( it was too large for Upload here )

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation