Consumer complaint received 2023-02-17
Company: Goal Structured Solutions, LLC
State: CA
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
Here is a description of the issue I am having with Launch Servicing ( LS ), starting from the beginning when I attended XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  and first signed my Income Share Agreement ( ISA ). To summarize the issue, LS has been in violation of my XXXX contract for refusal to accept a school-related deferment, XXXX  has since sent my loan to a debt collection agency while LS is still requesting payments, and I want my loan to be removed from debt collection and returned to its proper state of deferment. 

My course at XXXX  began in XXXX of XXXX and I signed an XXXX, the terms of which stated that I would be able to defer payment if I was in an institute of higher learning at least half-time, if I was unemployed and looking for work, or if I was making less than $ XXXX a year at my job. My course at XXXX  was over in XXXX of XXXX, and my XXXX agreement would go into effect 3 months later. 
Although my issue today is with LS, my first issue began with XXXX  when they failed to offer the career assistance and guidance that was promised to me at the beginning of the program. All the members of my course had an issue with our assigned Career Counselor who would, for example, fall asleep during our meetings, and eventually he left XXXX  and was replaced by someone else. I was never contacted by anyone at XXXX after he left and found out about the new career counselor from my classmates. They claimed to be able to match people with jobs through their corporate partnerships upon completion of the program and I found this to be factually untrue. It is because of this failure on their part that I decided to go back to college in the first place. 
In the spring of XXXX I was contacted by the loan servicing company XXXX to begin payments or deferments. I first submitted a deferment on the basis of being unemployed and looking for work by sending information about jobs I had applied for. That summer, I enrolled in the XXXX XXXX of XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ) full-time, and that is when I first began submitting school-based deferments to Vemo every 3 months by sending them pictures of my registration information. This went on until the summer of XXXX when I was informed via email that Launch Servicing would be taking over my XXXX from XXXX. 
I first contacted LS in XXXX of XXXX asking them how to submit a school-based deferment. They responded by saying I couldnt do that, so I went to look at my contract and verify that this was an explicitly stated valid form of deferment, which it is. The most relevant sections of the contract would be the one titled Deferment and Default which says, " Your account will be placed in a deferment if, after you leave the program, ( i ) you have enrolled at least half-time in higher education or training [ ... ] '' and Section 7 part c - Deferment Period Criteria which says, " At least half-time enrollment ( as defined by your institution ) in Higher Education or Training and making satisfactory academic or training progress in the program ''. LS would not allow me to communicate via email and has forced me to send all communication through their online portal. When I quoted the Deferment section of my contract, at first I thought they were finally understanding so I sent them the same type of school document I had been sending to XXXX, but they said that because I am not enrolled in a XXXX XXXX school that it doesnt count. I am wondering if they are getting that from a different section of my contract which stated that payments wouldnt begin until 3 months after I was no longer enrolled at XXXX, because that is very clearly not what the section on Deferment says. I was quite frustrated with these responses so in XXXX of XXXX I decided to call them hoping that would help clarify the issue, but when I asked about school-based deferments the woman on the phone said they dont do that, even when I told her it was in direct violation of my contract which she also said she did not have access to. 
After this call I first contacted your organization to determine what I would have to do to file a complaint and I have been gathering the appropriate information since then. I emailed LS again asking them to send me a copy of my contract, and instead they sent a copy of my Final Disclosure which was a different document entirely. This is what the Final Disclosure says about school deferments, which is much more vague than the contract, When you return to school or when your monthly earned income is less than {$3300.00} ( equivalent to $ XXXX ), your account will be placed in a deferment status, and you will not make payments for every month your income is below this threshold. It took them weeks to send me the signed copy of my contract. I once again pointed out the relevant sections and they are still sticking to their false claim that I have to be enrolled in a XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX of XXXX I received a letter from XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX saying that XXXX  had sent my loan to them. I wasnt terribly surprised by this as XXXX had been requesting payments for months while refusing to apply my deferment. What I am surprised by is that XXXX has continued to request payments to my online account after the debt collection letter was sent. My online account is still open as of today, XX/XX/XXXX, and the last request for payment was XX/XX/XXXX. Their last response to me through the portal was XX/XX/XXXX which is also after the day the debt collection letter was sent, so they have been in communication with me via email and their online portal without telling me this debt was in default. I suppose they are now expecting me to pay it twice. Because of this I also likely will have to file a separate complaint against XXXX  for attempting to collect a debt while also requesting regular payments on it from a loan servicer. 
To be clear, I qualify for deferment both because I am in school and because I have a job where I make less than $ XXXX but I am not submitting documentation of that mainly because this company is in clear violation of my contract and has refused to cooperate with me, so I refuse to cooperate with them as long as that continues. Additionally I would like to note that until I got my job in XXXX of XXXX, my only available method of deferment would have been school-related as I was not applying to jobs frequently enough to use that method either. That is my main concern as to the effect this contract violation could have on others in similar situations to my own. 
Included in this complaint are my original XXXX contract with XXXX, my Final Disclosure with XXXX, the school-related document I sent LS, the letter from XXXX Associates XXXX XXXX e-statement from LS dated XX/XX/XXXX, and all my communications with LS via email and their online account portal from XXXX to XXXX of XXXX. 
Finally, I just want to express the emotional toll this has taken on me in the last few months. I didnt even have time to submit this complaint until now because I was working and taking my final exams. This fall I have been dealing with my own health issues and family health issues on top of it all. I am currently in battle with another loan company which I will be filing a separate complaint against for similarly illegal activities. My credit score is down over XXXX points because of both of these companies. All I want is for this to be over, for my loan to return back to its school-related deferment status, so I can go back to focusing on school and work, and for Launch Servicing to be held accountable for their actions so no one else ever has to deal with this again.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation