Consumer complaint received 2023-03-27
Company: MOHELA
State: FL
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Problem with customer service

Complaint:
I have 126 eligible payments toward PSLF and have submitted qualifying ECFs for all of them since XX/XX/XXXX and due to MOHELA errors, am still awaiting my loan forgiveness that I should have been eligible for six months ago. Details as follows : I submitted my initial application for PSLF program to MOHELA on XX/XX/XXXX with four ECFs covering my qualifying employment from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. After a 90 day wait, only the top form for my most recent employer was approved from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. I called on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with MOHELA rep, XXXX, and was told that the other three forms could be seen and everything looked correct and qualifying on them but that they had been unfortunately " missed '' and she was going to resubmit with notes that these forms were previously missed and unfortunately that meant another 90 day wait. In XXXX, my loans finally moved from XXXX to MOHELA for servicing and I went ahead and submitted another ECF for my current employer to get the months from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX included since that should qualify me for forgiveness. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the forms that were resubmitted on XX/XX/XXXX and my form from XX/XX/XXXX were marked cancelled as " duplicates '' which is obviously inaccurate. I called and spoke with XXXX who said she would submit for re-processing, again " marking '' them as being missed, etc. I asked if this would mean another 90 day wait period, and she said hopefully not, so I asked for a supervisor to make sure. I was on hold for 45 minutes and then spoke with XXXX who told me that XXXX put in for a 3-5 day reprocessing which is the most expedited review they can do and assured me that the ECFs were marked as needing to be looked at for expedited re-processing due to their errors. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, these most recent resubmissions showed in my account online as cancelled and as processed. I did an online chat with MOHELA rep, XXXX, who tells me that my updated form for my current employer has been approved and employment is now certified from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. When I ask about the former three employer forms, she tells me she can see they still have not been processed. She says she's going to resubmit them again, and AGAIN tells me she is " marking '' them as being reprocessed several times and asking for expedited reprocessing but it could take up to 14 days. She can not put me through to a supervisor via chat and says I'd need to call for that. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, the most recent submission from XX/XX/XXXX says processed in my online account. I get on chat with MOHELA rep, XXXX, who tells me that she can see the three forms have STILL NOT BEEN PROCESSED and that there's no indication as to why and that the " notice '' that is pending is just an updated payment count. She suggests I call for a supervisor since she can see how many times I have tried to address this issue. I call and speak with MOHELA rep, XXXX, who attempts to tell me that the forms have been processed and approval will take 7-10 days to show up in the system. When I ask if she can see that they actually reviewed the forms and that they are in for approval, she tells me, " well, they weren't denied, '' which I tell her is not the same thing. She again tries to tell me that there would be no way to know if they've been processed for 7-10 days and I ask for a supervisor. 

After an hour on hold, I speak with XXXX, who tells me that, in fact, my three ECFs that they have had on file since XX/XX/XXXX have still not been reviewed/processed. He offers to resubmit them again and " mark them '' as an ongoing issue. When I push back on this because it will be the FIFTH time these forms have been submitted, four of which are due to their errors, he tells me that he is resubmitting to the customer advocacy team and that this is different than the regular processing team that was reviewing them previously and it should be resolved in 3-5 business days. When I mention asking for another supervisor, he tells me that due to call volume he would not be able to put me through to another supervisor. 

Every customer service representative has been as nice/polite as can be, but ultimately they have provided inaccurate and unhelpful information and the team at MOHELA has failed to review the same forms FIVE times now, holding up my loan forgiveness which I have earned via public service. This is shameful.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief