Consumer complaint received 2017-10-31
Company: HEARTLAND PAYMENT SYSTEMS INC
State: IN
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:
Some time between XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX, XXXX, I contacted Heartland XXXX about overpayments on my student loan. In approximately XXXX of this year, I had made a large payment to one of my loans that had just come out of deferment due to grad school. I only intended this to be a one-time payment to take care of some outstanding amount on this loan, but XXXX wrongly created a recurring payment where I overpaid a {$340.00} monthly payment by {$300.00} each month for four months. I noticed this problem in late XXXX after receiving overdraft fees from my bank and signing on to all my loan services to determine how my finances became depleted. I called the company to rectify the problem. 

After an initial conversation, XXXX said they would apply credits for the overpaid amount ( I believe {$1200.00} ) so that I would not have to pay for the next three months and would pay a smaller amount for the fourth month. I began to notice that this credit was not being applied about a week or so later. XXXX stated that I should contact my school, but when I repeated that ECSI had agreed to simply credit this amount, they agreed and said the credit would be applied that day or within 48 hours.

This pattern occurred at least five times as I contacted XXXX every week and at times multiple times a week. On XXXX XXXX, I received a phone call from XXXX stating that they could not apply the credits because I had not " double paid, '' even though I had paid nearly double on my loans through their autopay error. Because it was n't a solid double amount, they stated they could not credit my account. After talking with a representative named XXXX for one hour, he created a spreadsheet to handle the overpayments and agreed that the matter would be handled that day. A short time after that, team lead XXXX called and repeated that this was not possible and that all the previous reps I spoke with were mistaken about XXXX  policy. I spoke with her at length about how XXXX 's policy for crediting only double overpayments made no sense, and she agreed that she would work with others to resolve this problem. 

The following week on approximately XXXX XXXX, I chatted online with a representative who again stated I would have to call my school. After explaining my conversation with XXXX, he stated that they had IT working on the issue as we spoke, and he assured me it would be resolved that day by XXXX. Again, I heard no response from XXXX. 

Today, XXXX XXXX, I again chatted online with XXXX. During my conversation with XXXX, he stated that XXXX  could not handle this matter and that they had communicated to me on several occasions, including on XXXX XXXX, that they could not credit my account, and that I would have to contact my school. I contested this characterization, stating that it was contrary to what I had been told numerous times. I mentioned that team lead XXXX said she could handle this and that the previous week they had IT working on the resolution. He again stated that the notes said I had to contact my school. He again repeated that XXXX had made this ultimate determination. 

I asked XXXX for their records of our conversation after they said they were all on the record. They declined to provide this information to me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation