Consumer complaint received 2018-08-11
Company: TRANSWORLD SYSTEMS INC
State: NY
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Don't agree with the fees charged

Complaint:
In early XX/XX/2018, I tried to log into my XXXX account to make a payment for the previous month and current months. To my surprise, I was unable to make payments online, so I phone XXXX  to find out what the issue was -- there was no payment option listed on the website. This call occurred on XX/XX/2018. Upon calling XXXX, I was informed that because the XXXX website was down due to the construction of a pending new site, I would be unable to make a payment of any sort until the site was back up -- I was told that I could not make neither a phone payment nor an online payment until about XXXX. At that point, I asked the representative to note this conversation in the file because I did not want to be penalized for late fee/interest when I was unable to make a payment due to the XXXX  site malfunction. The representative assured me that I would not be penalized and that he would make note of our conversation in the file. 

To my surprise, when I created an account on the new site in early XX/XX/XXXX, I saw that the balance was about {$85.00} more than what I should be paying. I then called XXXX, only to spend XXXX and a half hours on the phone with a representative, and then her supervisor, discussing the reason for the extra {$85.00} plus fee. The supervisor informed me that he thinks this {$85.00} amount was added because I had not made previous payments. I explained to him that I tried to cure this in early XXXX but I could not because of the website malfunction. I also informed him that I called in to speak with a representative, who assured me that I would not be charged any late fees/interests for the time that the site was down. 

Next, I asked the supervisor to read me the note that the XXXX representative wrote, which was that I " attempted to make payments '' during the month of XXXX. Despite this note, the supervisor still tried to recalculate the numbers to match up to the additional {$85.00} that I was being charged. I explained to him that even if the late fee/interest should be {$85.00} based on time alone, I am not responsible for paying it because I tried to cure the late payment a month earlier. 

To make matters worse, there was a big cultural difference between the representatives and myself, which made this whole process very frustrating. To further explain this, the first representative continued to read me a script that was very insensitive and did not address my nuanced question. This continued until I told her that her answer was a terrible one and that she would be offended and/or upset if she were in my shoes and someone were to give her that same answershe did not disagree with this. I then requested a supervisor, who was more apologetic than the first representative, but who still was trying to justify the {$85.00} additional payment. At one point, the supervisor said to me, that while there is a note that indicates that I tried to make a payment in XXXX, the system does not indicate proof that I attempted to make a payment. I then explained to him that the system was down in XXXX, which resulted in my calling in to speak to a representative because I could not make a payment. I told him that there would be no transaction attempt documented on the website because there was not even a " make a payment '' button to begin such an attempt. 

This sort of customer service is degrading. XXXX is now trying to charge daily interest rate/fees ( re late payments ), without having done so in the past, and they are expecting customers to do so without having been given notice of their new practice. They are also expecting customers to make such payments despite their system being disabled in XX/XX/2018. This is unacceptable and abusive. XXXX knows that borrowers do not want their credit negatively affected, so borrowers will pay the extra fees just to avoid a bad credit rating. Something needs to be done to rectify this malicious practice. 

Surprisingly, the new site still malfunctions. For example, I tried to make a payment on the same day that I called in to report that my balance was incorrect ( XX/XX/2018 ). I was under the impression that I entered my bank information correctly and that the payment went through ; however, three days later ( on a Friday ), I received an email indicating that the payment was reversed because of the bank info. I then logged into my account to put in my bank information again, only to repeatedly get a prompting that indicated that the bank info that I was currently entering was already on file. This is an XXXX  error. My entered bank info is correct. I used the same bank info that I had previously used on the old site. Their practices need to be fixed asap.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation