Consumer complaint received 2020-12-02
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: GA
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:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I uploaded an Employment Certification Form ( ECF ) to my FedLoan Servicing Online Account to cover employment in XXXX. The ECF was rejected on XX/XX/XXXX because I did not have my employer sign it ; even though I checked the box on the bottom of the first page that the organization was closed. I called into XXXX Customer Service and was told to upload a letter explaining my public interest work with the employer along with a W2 from said employer. I uploaded this information on XX/XX/XXXX. Prior to this time, I had 93 qualifying payments towards PSLF. On XX/XX/XXXX, I checked my online account and observed that my qualifying payments had increased to 105, which I believed to be a result of the ECF, Letter, and W2 I submitted as requested. This was very encouraging because I only had 15 more qualifying payments to make in order to request loan forgiveness through PSLF. I decided to engage in a chat with FedLoan Servicing to confirm this information. On or about XX/XX/XXXX, I chatted with a gentleman and confirmed that I had 105 qualifying payments at this point in time. I have requested a transcript of this chat from FedLoan Servicing but have not received it yet. On XX/XX/XXXX, I logged into my account to check the status again and observed that my qualifying payments had reduced back down to 93. Of course, this was confusing and disheartening, so I began a chat with FedLoan Servicing and all the gentleman could tell me was that the assessment was not complete. I asked for a supervisor and was told I had to call into the customer service line or request a call via the email portal on my online account. I sent a request for a supervisor to call me via the email portal and never heard back. Later that afternoon, I called into the customer service line. I spoke with a woman who could not explain to me why my qualifying payment count went from 105 to 93, so she forwarded my call onto a " public relations specialist. '' Once I got on the phone with this woman, she proceeded to tell me various things such as : she had never seen this before, it was a computer glitch, I had not uploaded the ECF ( which I had ), I did not need to send a letter ( which I was instructed to do so by someone else at FedLoan Servicing, I should have sent in pay stubs with my W2 ( I was never informed to do that ) ; I should not have uploaded everything together because their system just combines all of the forms and it was complicated to review ( how would I know this ), and basically she came back around to it was a computer glitch and their system only showed 93 qualifying payments, not 105. I am requesting CFPB assistance, because simply FedLoan Servicing can not be trusted. Each time I call or chat or email or upload information, I am told something different by each person. I uploaded information to qualify one of my previous employers and did exactly what they told me to do, and I thought it was done. I had qualified 12 additional payments and increased my count to 105. ( I have included print outs that I have showing the 105 qualifying payments. ) Now, mysteriously those 12 payments have been " taken back '' and I am down to 93 qualifying payments again. This is very significant since I was so close to the 120 qualifying payments for PSLF. I am requesting my 12 qualifying payments be returned to my count. I am further frustrated by the fact that on XX/XX/XXXX I had a chat with FedLoan Servicing and the representative confirmed that I had 105 qualifying payments, then 2 weeks later my count is reduced and no one can give me a reason why.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation