Consumer complaint received 2018-05-23
Company: Docuservpro dba Simple Repayment
State: PA
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 am writing to submit a formal complaint about a company called Simple Repayment, which advertises itself as a " document-preparation '' service assisting with Federal Consolidated Loans through the US Dept. of Education. I  am not making a complaint about my Federal Loan itself or the  Dept. of Education. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, a company reached out to me about consolidating my federal student loans from my time in colleges from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. The company made it appear to me that they were acting on behalf of the US Dept. of Education, so I felt it was a legitimate service to assist me with consolidating my loans and applying for a lower, income-driven repayment plan. As part of the consolidation service, they also offered to file my re-certification forms for the consolidation federal loan every year for the next 3 years - something which I have the ability to do as a consumer directly for free, I have since learned. To engage in the contract with this service, the cost of the paperwork assistance was about {$1300.00}, and would be sold to a financial service called XXXX XXXX, which would require monthly payments toward the principal and interest for the next few years. 

The company that initially signed me up had a different name at the time : XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, or XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Currently the company is called Simple Repayment ( www.simplerepayment.com ). In the two years since i signed up, I made my regular payments on the " debt '' to XXXX XXXX and expected Simple to re-certify my income-driven repayment plans automatically. Instead, in XX/XX/XXXX and again this year, I had to prompt them to do so. This year, they sent me Docusign forms to sign for re-certification, which I signed, and have proof of doing so in my email. This was in XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX, I received notice from XXXX XXXX that they it was time to re-certify my IDR plan. I called XXXX to check on the status of my paperwork, and they said they never received it. I called Simple and they said they were waiting for paperwork from me, which is not true because I had signed it and sent my income information. Moreover, they directed me to log into their " portal, '' which apparently was in beta stage and was terribly designed and not functional at all. There was nothing in the " portal '' to allow me to check my status or submit any paperwork. I never received any notification from Simple that they were waiting for more information from me. 

I called Simple and told them to end their relationship with me, as I would be submitting the IDR plan re-certification paperwork for free by myself. I also called XXXX XXXX and told them I did not wish to pay the remaining balance on this service, as Simple had been in breach of contract for not doing the basic function of re-certifying my IDR plan. XXXX balked at this and explained they were merely a loan and finance company, and didn't provide any service. I can understand that I still have an obligation to XXXX, but I tried to call and push Simple to alleviate some if not all of the debt since they had dropped the ball and failed to fulfill their end of our agreement. Simple said they would not do this, and that while I am free to walk away from their services, I am still obligated to XXXX XXXX. At this point I told them I would file a complaint with the CFPB. 

Here is the full information about Simple Repayment : Simple Repayment Email : XXXX   Office : ( XXXX ) XXXX Fax : Address : XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX , CA XXXX Simple Repayment is a predatory service who targets graduates with massive amounts of student loan debt, who are often in desperate situations to repay that debt. There is a student loan crisis in this country, and anytime there is a crisis, there will be companies who figure out how to profit off of desperate, uninformed people. I hope the CFPB can find a way to prohibit companies like this from operating. 

Thank you for your time and consideration.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation