Consumer complaint received 2018-05-14
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: OH
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:
OnXX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX sent me a form with the results of my Public Student Loan Forgiveness Program annual submission. The 12 monthly payments were applied to my total amount of payments. Their letter, dated on this day, detailed : Qualifying Payments ( total ) : 86 Qualifying Payments ( remaining ) : 34 Estimated Eligibility Date : XX/XX/XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX sent me another notification. This time, they had differentiated each type of loan and the colleges I had worked at ( for public loan forgiveness ). And in this letter, it said the following with regard to my payments : Qualifying Payments ( total ) : 43 Qualifying Payments ( remaining ) : 77 Estimated Eligibility Date : XX/XX/XXXX I called immediately upon receiving this. The XXXX  customer service agent for Public Student Loan Forgiveness ( PSLF ) told me that XXXX XXXX  had changed their computer software and that some people had lost some payments in the process ( she had said she had spoken with a few that same day ). She apologized for this -- confirmed the data I had was correct from XX/XX/XXXX, and then said she would submit a request to correct this information. She said it would " take up to 3 months '' to review this.

In XX/XX/XXXX, I received the incorrect data on the number of payments I made. Same thing happened inXX/XX/XXXX.

In mid-XX/XX/XXXX, after receiving the incorrect data again, I called back. This time, the person on the phone told me that they were still " reviewing it '' and that it would be more than 3 months. The agent said it could take anywhere from 6 months or longer -- " no telling how long, '' she added. This greatly disturbed me.

On XX/XX/XXXX, I received a request for the annual update. In it, they threaten that if I do not submit this information within 10 days of XX/XX/XXXX they are threatening to revoke my student loan reduced rate ( from {$250.00} to {$1800.00} a month ).

I called on XX/XX/XXXX. I spoke to a woman in the escalation department. She said that the review process for my monthly payment amounts is 3 - 4 months of time, but in " work days, '' so that would mean more than 3 - 4 months in total. She added that many people have been waiting longer, than XXXX XXXX is " the only company '' to provide the PSLF, and that it takes a lot of time to go through and count all the months. It takes hours upon hours.

When I said that this explanation of time was different than the last two times, she did not respond. When I said that it was different about counting months versus correcting an internal mistake your own company generated, she did not comment.

When I asked her why I should file an annual report on my monthly payments when her company can not track them, she did not comment.

When I asked her who I should direct my complaints to -- as I had written to XXXX XXXX and received the standard reply " it is being reviewed '' she said " The Department of Education. '' I explained the Department of Education is quite vast -- which division supervises XXXX, she said this was " internal information, '' and not available to customers.

I do not understand what is happening. If a company uses new software that disrupts their own data collection, they need to tend to it in a timely fashion. If they are unable to keep track of my qualifying monthly payments, how will I know if they will acknowledge/recognize when I have reached my final payment? Why should I pay on time if my payments are not being accounted?

I have waited 5 months with no changes to their mistake. They are now threatening to revoke my reduced payment amounts if I do not submit my annual reports, but these reports will be added to the incorrect number of payments ( and I worry that if I do submit this report, I may in the process, validate the false numbers they have been maintaining since XX/XX/XXXX ).

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief