Consumer complaint received 2019-12-04
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: CA
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:
My loans are subject to income based repayment. I sent in the required, requested documentation through both the studentloans.gov site and uploading the documents to the Fedloan site itself. I received notice that it was denied. I called in and asked why. They told me I filed for re-certification too early. I just had to wait until the last payment of the previous term had posted. Then they would process the application. Time went by. I checked the site and called the company to ask if everything was ok. I was assured it was. All the necessary pieces were there and ok. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I called again to check since it was taking long and I wanted to be sure I had everything. The rep then assured me I did. 
In XX/XX/XXXX, I received a paper letter in the mail informing me that I was missing information. It arrived late in XX/XX/XXXX. I receive paper mail because electronic forms are unreliable as I live in a California county that has been on fire every year for the last 4 years and now is subject to XXXX XXXX XXXX forced power outages. Both were true In XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/2019 ; there was a large fire just near my home and three power outages that lasted collectively well over a week. Consequently, in mid XXXX, I received the denial. I immediately called Fedloan on XX/XX/XXXX. The rep on the phone was helpful, she said I made it on time and filed the application right then on the phone. 
I then received, on XX/XX/XXXX, notice that my IBR was recalculated to {$93.00}. 
I received no further contact from Fedloan until I noticed that the XX/XX/XXXX bill had gone up by {$200.00}. I called to ask why since I had filed everything on time, had followed up regularly with the company, and responded to every notice and request in a reasonable time frame. The rep I spoke to on XX/XX/XXXX told me that it was because I didn't have the appropriate information on my pay stub. Information I had provided in at least one phone call before the XX/XX/XXXX call. He said that, even though I responded in a reasonable time, they had " sent the XX/XX/XXXX bill out already '' and so not only was I charged {$200.00} more that month but {$1700.00} of interest had been capitalized. That even though I could not have done anything different, made any changes to my actions, did everything as I should, Fedloan would not correct the processing error. I asked at that time what I had asked on earlier calls, XX/XX/XXXX, and XX/XX/XXXX : Why is there a problem with my pay stub now when there wasn't a problem with that exact same structured pay stub earlier in the year when I applied then? The rep wouldn't say. I also asked why the person I spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX didn't tell me that there was a denial. Surely they would have at least that much information since the denial had been mailed that day. He made a noncommittal response about the application not having been " processed '' at the time of the call. 
He just said that they followed all their procedures and notified me by email and on the website. I told him I had called several times and I can not babysit the website because I don't have reliable power. I do not thing that notice times are legally based on one day turnarounds through email notice. I did not receive the email. I received paper notice, I responded in a reasonable time from receipt. There was nothing else I could do differently. His response was that because it was posted on the website, Fedloan had essentially satisfied their notice requirements and I " could have responded by XX/XX/XXXX '' which " might have been in time. '' Because fedloan processed the last XX/XX/XXXX bill, I can assume, some time early XX/XX/XXXX, their processing it on XX/XX/XXXX was an error that I should not be held accountable for. Their timeline set me up to fail. Few could have responded in the less than a day timeline I was given by Fedloan. Waiting that long, especially since I filed my paperwork on XX/XX/XXXX, was their error. I should not have to pay the extra {$200.00} in XX/XX/XXXX and I should not be responsible for capitalized interest.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief