Consumer complaint received 2017-09-28
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC.
State: MN
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:
Dear Sirs or Madams, Written around XX/XX/XXXX I am currently nearly unemployed, I work 1-2 weekends per month so I thought would have the time & I should explain my concerns carefully and thoroughly. I have spent 40 +hours looking at, printing, filing bank statements emails and letters and I still can not make sense of any of this. I have tried handwritten timelines, flowchart software, handwritten notes, post-its ... I thought maybe I will see a pattern ; figure it all out and learn that it was actually that has made the errors. I give up, I cant do it. I would have to neglect all my other responsibilities for many more weeks and would probably still be no closer to figuring out this system. I dont think the loan management company wants to people to pay their loans back. It seems to me they make more money tripping up consumers, adding on fees and penalties and collecting the interest first. Because the US Government guarantees the loans, the servicers have no risk. An enterprising business plan would not include helping consumers get out of debt, however that is what an ethical business plan look like. My thoughts are not conspiracy theory paranoia ; its based on current events! 
Written XX/XX/XXXX. My goal has been to wrap this up, send it and move on with more productive undertakings. I am just so upset about being taken advantage of and worry that if dont point out every detail I will have less of a chance of being heard. I can be a perfectionist and dont like my writing to have typos or unclear language ; however I have spent another 40 hours on this and need to move on. 
I dont think that any one employee is to blame and I dont want to add to the stress of the front line workers like myself. Based on my experience with a mega corporation I believe that it is the intent of the corporate model to maintain a complex system in which mistakes unavoidable and in which they benefit from financially. The customer service representatives are given protocol to follow and are not to question inconsistencies, instructions that may not make sense or what sound like double talk. They are to accept that directives passed down from the executives are both legal and ethical and if they dont like it they can leave. 
The customers or borrowers in this case are trapped. There is no disputing that the debt is owed and any complaint looks like an attempt to run away from responsibility. Also customers dont complain because they are intimidated by the complexity of the system which if not intentional, simplification is certainly not actively sought out. The customer does not have time or energy to learn and keep up with the procedures and therefore is not confident in knowledge that the mistake lies with the company. 
We are conditioned to accept that standing up for oneself is a time consuming and ultimately futile act in which drains already limited time and energy. We are stopped in our tracks by fine print in agreement that we had no choice but to sign. Sign this or dont go to school to better your life is not a choice. There is no shopping around for the best contract for those of us with few financial resources. 
I hear the phrase burden of proof often and it is a critical part of my complaint. Navient has possession of recorded customer service calls. If I requested Navient to review a specific phone call in order to determine who was in the right, I would have no way of knowing if the information they presented was fact or fiction. The fact that they do not do business by email or paper statements allows them to retain all of the power. Any argument would be my word against their protocol, management, past experience, taped phone calls and lawyer fine print. 
Consumers are divided and encouraged to vilify an individual who attempts to get justice through the court system. We look down at and judge the dollar amount of the law suit knowing none of the details of the harm done or the costs associated with the harm. Yet big business, politicians, special interest groups etcsue or threaten to sue on a regular basis to further their agenda aka financial interests. 

If referenced documents are needed to support my claims feel free to contact me. 
COMPLAINTS ABOUT NAVIENTXXXX XXXX These companies need to be held accountable for the accuracy of communication within their departments and with customers. Letters or emails that ask for payment or threaten collection while I am making payments as agreed are harassment. 

1. Receive emails that have no clear indication as to the department or the loan group on letterhead or email sender address. 
2. Letter head vague, not sure but I think that letters Navient without any other logos must be referring to the federal or FFLEP group of loans. However XX/XX/XXXX I received an email with letterhead simply NAVIENT which informed me of private loan info 3. XX/XX/XXXX letter with NAVIENT and Dept of Ed loan Servicing signed sincerely Navient & XX/XX/XXXX letter with NAVIENT and Dept of Ed loan Servicing signed sincerely Navient- Department of Education loan servicing 4. Emails, billing statements and general letters had no consistent format or style. One has to hunt around within the document to find pertinent information. 
5. Confusing, lack of continuity to indicate account # s : act # s which are not consistent, loan # s, Loan group # s, sometimes referred to by my SS # and loan origination date.
6. There is a lack of coherent system to inform recipient of loan included in transaction 7. Bank statements payee name provided is not consistent and makes me unsure if money is going to correct department 8. Changed or added repayment plans with titles & acronyms not matching up to programs applied for, IBR, IDR, ICR XX/XX/XXXX Dept of Ed letter refers to and FFELP I decided that the references to 9. The number of websites that I have been told to access is overwhelming. Given no information about the relationship the websites have to loan, just adds more confusion a. Logging on to a website the loans and amounts slap you in the face- depressing, regret going to school b. studentloans.gov-I found that I had signed up 3 times with different passwords c. directloans? FSA I have a password and pin d. navient.com e. XXXX f. XXXX XXXX website XXXX to XXXX XXXX XXXX my password is XXXX 
h. Oops you have gone to wrong website 10. Offered .5 % discount to give Navient control over my banking. I discovered via a shockingly low bank balance that a random withdrawal of over {$700.00} was made without my permission. My bank statement indicated XXXX XXXX Debit which initiated taking this money in addition to the regular payments. 
I called to complain and was told that it could not be refunded. It is a miracle that my account was not overdrawn because that is how tight my money is XX/XX/XXXX, I discovered that 11 months of payments were not applied to my account and sitting who knows where. Was Navient investing this and earning money on it, charging me interest for nonpayment? 
11. Emails that say You have a new education loan document available are confusing. Could they be talking about Department of Ed loan, or simply a loan to pay for my education It doesnt specify. 
12. Who is student assistance? Nothing explains how they are related and how they got my info. Did not know how direct loans and US dept of Ed were connected got mail form both 13. Forbearance was first and only suggestion most of the time. When a person has financial hardship and cant make the payment they are at the mercy of the corporation and have to accept what terms are offered. 
14. Used forbearance month for 1 group and paid for other group ( Federal vs US Dept of Ed ) because I was told that they were separate. Did I use up  forbearance months when I technically did not get a break for both? Was interest calculated on both? XX/XX/XXXX & XX/XX/XXXX for example 15. When things did not make sense I would call, it would be explained and I would feel okay with that. Days or weeks later I would follow up on something or receive another communication that was unclear or appeared to contradict previous communications. Over time I gave up trying to make sense of things and I started to ignore things because it was too stressful and was, to me, an unsolvable riddle.
16. I was given conflicting information when calling customer service. I was told that forbearance could not be back dated yet it often was backdated. Also, I was told that all loans could be addressed by calling XXXX and told that I needed to call Dept of Ed to address those loans. However I used the XXXX number almost exclusively and received applicable letter and email communications from both Navient & Navient Dept of Ed. I was given XXXX phone number to call the Department of Education however I dont know if the number connects me to the actual Department of Education or the Navient Dept of Ed loan servicing? If Navient services Dept of Ed loans why would I have been sent to the actual Dept of Ed? If I was referring to a different department within Navient why couldnt they manage all loans?
17. The amount of mail and emails overwhelming with a sinking feeling every time I received something. 
Communication via USPS which is safer for me with provable documentation is not encouragedDont know if letter received 18. Vague letter stating that my payments have changed because of one or more of the following : and then lists eight possibilities. Doesnt the consumer deserve more information? Why does the consumer have to do the work to figure out why they changed something? I should not be expected to figure it out, they get paid to keep track of that info.
19. Deferment & forbearance plans overlap and still got late notices. I was told that I could address all loans at the one SallieMae number and told that I could not. I was told that one application for deferment and forbearance applies to both loan Federal and Dept of Ed and I was told that I needed to apply separately. 
During forbearance months I paid on some loan groups but now wonder if my account was charged accumulating interest on the entire loan. 
Many times I was not clearly or accurately informed of forbearance dates. 
20. My applications or renewal for IBR were not processed in a timely manner and I was forced to use forbearance months. IBRs not all 12 months as stated on letter XX/XX/XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation