Consumer complaint received 2022-10-18
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: PA
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 submitted my first application for the XXXX program. I spoke with FedLoan Servicing in regards to submitting a request for a refund of voluntary payments made during the administrative forbearance ( COVID Cares Act ) in which I had continued making voluntary payments since XX/XX/XXXX. I was told I should wait to hear some correspondence about my eligibility for XXXX which I did on XX/XX/XXXX, I received notification that I had XXXX eligible PSLF payments, but they were waiting for an employer certification to come through to approve my loan FORGIVENESS. A few days prior, I spoke to FedLoan Servicing and was transferred to the specific department to make a request for my voluntary payments to be refunded. We submitted XXXX separate requests, one for payments Made in XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX, both for {$160.00} ... .and I received direct deposit refunds of those XXXX payments on XX/XX/XXXX. 
The second request was for payments made to XXXX ( my loan holder prior to transferring to FedLoan Servicing with my XXXX application, these payments totalled {$5300.00}. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I received correspondence from FedLoan Servicing reporting I had XXXX eligible payments ; had made XXXX PSLF qualifying payments and my estimated eligibility date for XXXX was XX/XX/XXXX. 
Then on XX/XX/XXXX, I received a Public Service Loan Forgiveness correspondence which read " We have determined that you have successfully made the required 120 monthly payments in order to have all or a portion of your loans listed below forgiven. '' My online account states I was receiving loan forgiveness as of XX/XX/XXXX when my " XXXX payment '' was made. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I made a phone call to FedLoan Servicing to find out about my refund status and the employee told me that I needed to be patient and it could take anywhere from XXXX days for my request to be processed and that I would receive the payment in check form. But if it was approaching XXXX, I should call back and ask for another status update. 
XX/XX/XXXX, I once again called and spoke with an agent at FedLoan Servicing regarding the status and this time the gentleman told me that I should have received my refund by now and he wanted to resubmit my request, which he did with the advisement/assistance of his manager. I was told if I did not receive any correspondence within 2 weeks, I should call back. 
Today, XX/XX/XXXX, I called FedLoan Servicing once again and I was informed by their agent and 2 subsequent managers that my loans were part of the Direct to Discharge and that I was not eligible for a refund of my payments made during the COVID forbearance. The first agent told me that if I wanted that money, it would cancel my loan discharge and I would have to pay that money back. The second agent told me that they just received information about this status being ineligible for refund and that my loan was " discharged '' not forgiven and so because of that I was not eligible. And the third manager, when asked why my loan was " discharged '' when I had applied for forgiveness and received notification my loans were FORGIVEN, he advised me because I wasn't getting forgiveness through XXXX but a different program which was Direct to Discharge, and that I would have to apply for a re-consideration on the XXXX website. He told me he could file a complaint with FedLoan Servicing, to which I said absolutely. He then advised me I could submit a complaint to the CFPB, which I am doing so now. 
Since XXXX, XXXX, I have spoken with FedLoan Servicing at least 14 times, and have been on hold/speaking to representatives for over 6 hours regarding this matter. Every call I asked for status updates on the refund and I was told it was in process and I should just be patient. That is over 7 months that I have been waiting for my refund, multiple conversations with different employees and all of a sudden I am not eligible for a refund? Something is not right here. 
I am including both correspondence from FedLoan Servicing dated XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. I am also including screenshots from XXXX showing my loan information with XXXX cumulative match months of XXXX  months.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation