Consumer complaint received 2021-07-21
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: CA
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:
I have a Federal Student Loan that has switched hands multiple times in since XXXX. I have been working for the State of California in an attempt to gain loan forgiveness. ( PSLF ). I have recently hit my 10 year mark and started communicating with the company ( Myfedloan.org ). 
Contact with my college 's financial aid department ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ), has not helped. After several calls and endless hours waiting on hold, speaking to XXXX XXXX and being referred to a supervisor XXXX XXXX that XXXX " can't help '' me. 
I finally found a phone number for PSLF and began calling them XX/XX/XXXX, as XX/XX/XXXX would mark my 10 year anniversary with the State of California. 
XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with XXXX ( # XXXX ). I was told that applying for PSLF takes months and months and that I just had to wait for them to tally my payments. However, I still had to be working for the State in order for my loans to be forgiven- but they dont know how long the tally will take. Maybe 6-9 months sometimes. 
I called again on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with Geargia ( # XXXX ). She was very pleasant and very helpful! She explained that I still needed to send an email to begin the Temporary Expanded PSLF process. ( Although, I had all intents of using PSLF, I was somehow not on the correct loan type. Unfortunately, the current company does not have the ability to look at the old companies records ). 
On XX/XX/XXXX I spoke with XXXX ( # XXXX ) who told me that my tally was ready and that I still needed 20 more payments ( once the COVID forbearance ends XX/XX/XXXX ) to be eligible for TEPSLF. I was told that I could make back payments. At this point, I discussed it with my family and decided that I would use some bonds and gift money to pay off the loans. I made my withdrawals of money that was earning interest, and sent {$3000.00} to myfedloan.org. 
On XX/XX/XXXX I once again called myfedloan.org to see why my back payments had not been credited. I talked to XXXX ( # XXXX ) who had no PSLF experience. She transferred me to XXXX ( # XXXX ) who stated that in order for back payments to be made, I would need to talk to a supervisor to get an over ride. She transferred me to a supervisor named XXXX ( # XXXX ). XXXX proceeded to tell me that all of the information I had collected from the company was false. He could not give me an over ride. He was somewhat apologetic that I had pulled money out of interest bearing funds that could not be returned, and said there were no other options for me. He couldn't look into my loans with past borrowers. And, the fact that I was given false information about back payments did not qualify as an error on the part of the company that would allow for an over ride. 
I have received so much contradictory information. It seems like every time I call there is a different story. So, this is where I am stuck. After 11 years at an absolutely soul crushing public service job, I am still 2 years away from Public Loan Forgiveness. All of the promises made at XXXX that the financial aid office would always be able to help me were broken. My loans have moved multiple times outside of my control. I have followed everything I have been told by the current company, and I am still here with 20 more mandatory payments. All I want to do is to pay the balance of the 20 months so I can move on in my career. The money I have pulled to do so can not be replaced. No one tells you at the beginning, that you should just work for the private sector and pay off your loans. In the end, student loan providers are just a lender and don't work with you anyway. PLSF is just a scam to get people to work for the government because they don't have competitive pay.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation