Consumer complaint received 2019-12-10
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: TX
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 would like to report PHEAAs unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices that left me damaged financially. I am seeking to be made whole. I, along with my debt advocate XXXX, called PHEAA on XX/XX/XXXX regarding my defaulted loan balance. The customer rep was XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ). XXXX proceeded to explain PHEAAs rehabilitation program and asked me a series of questions to determine the amount I would have to pay monthly. One of the  questions XXXX ( my debt advocate ) asked XXXX was whether my Federal Income Tax refund check which had been previously intercepted by the Fiscal Service of the Treasury Dept. would be intercepted upon establishing the payment program. XXXX  response was that as soon as I enrolled in the rehab program, my tax refund check would no longer be intercepted and reiterated that I needed to complete my enrollment in the program while she had us on the phone. She then said I needed to sign some documents right away to start the process. She proceeded to send me documents via email that needed to be signed using XXXX. XXXX also processed an initial payment to verify my payment bank account. 

While on the phone, XXXX repeatedly asked XXXX to explain the terms ( fine print ) contained in the 10-payment agreement document that I was asked to sign while on the phone. XXXX mentioned multiple times that since there wasnt enough time for her to independently review the document, her presence on the phone call was to ensure that none of the terms would harm me or the debt management process I had embarked on. XXXX then said that she too was wary of my having my debt advocate on the call since she was also acting in my best interest and would explain everything on the document I was asked to sign. XXXX went on to explain the terms of the payment agreement and confirm yet again that my tax refund check would not be intercepted once I enrolled in the program that day. I signed the documents as soon as I received the email with XXXX on the line, with XXXX then verifying that I signed it correctly. 

I later filed my tax returns with my tax accountant in XXXX and to my shock, on XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ), I received a letter from the Treasury Dept. saying my refund check had been intercepted and sent to PHEAA. I emailed XXXX immediately to find out why this was the case because she had confirmed it would not happen. She did not respond until I called PHEAA after a week on XX/XX/XXXX and surprisingly got XXXX as my PHEAA for the second time. 

On the call on XX/XX/XXXX, I reminded XXXX of our call with my debt advocate ( XXXX ) on XX/XX/XXXX and asked why my check was intercepted and she said she had given me the wrong information that the rules were changed in XX/XX/XXXX that 5 successful draft payments were required to be made before interceptions could be removed from the rehab program account. I complained that she never gave me that information and I reminded her that my debt advocate ( XXXX ) specifically asked her more than once of PHEAAs rules on interception of refund checks. I made it clear that she misinformed me and that as a result of this misinformation, my refund got intercepted. I immediately requested that PHEAA release the check back to me to rectify this error and she said she had to speak to her supervisor and I was put on hold for several minutes. She came back and said the call transcript from XX/XX/XXXX was pulled and reviewed and it was confirmed she indeed gave me wrong information, but that her supervisor said the check would not be released. XXXX apologized for the wrong information and let me know it was now out of her hands. XXXX appeared to be aware of PHEAAs unfair, deceptive, and abusive acts and practices. 

I called back on XX/XX/XXXX to complain again and see if I could get remedy for the damages I sustained based on PHEAAs misrepresentation to me. I got rep. XXXX XXXX. I detailed my call on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX and she looked at the notes on my account and said she could not do anything. I ask to speak with a supervisor. XXXX then put me on hold and came back and said the supervisor said the check will not be released. I was not allowed to speak with a supervisor. I ask to speak with the supervisor 's higher up and she put me on hold again and then came back and said that she was sorry that XXXX gave me the wrong info. The supervisors she spoke with were XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. From the way XXXX ( on the second conversation ) and XXXX spoke to me, it appeared that these representatives are aware of predatory practices by PHEAA. At no pint was I allowed to speak with a supervisor despite my repeated attempts to speak with one. Each time the representatives went back and forth to speak with the supervisor and always ended up saying they did not have the power to do anything yet was never allowed to speak with the person that did. They acted scared and aware of unethical practices enforced by supervisors at PHEAA. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I filed a complaint with the CFPB ( XXXX ) and PHEAA documented that a representative reached out to me on XX/XX/XXXX to discuss the requirement to have the offset cease. However, PHEAAs representation to CFPB was deceptive and in no way provided any resolution. In fact, they mentioned reviewing my tax returns which does not address their deceptive misrepresentation and the need to remedy the financial damages I sustained by their actions. 

An acceptable resolution is for PHEAA to return the check due to me that was wrongly intercepted. I was hurried asked to sign documents over the phone and despite repeatedly asking XXXX about the details of the program she was offering, she misinformed me about the details of the program. I did exactly as she instructed me to and as a result, my refund check was intercepted. During my call on XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX admitted to have given me the wrong information and spoke with her supervisor. She confirmed the call on XX/XX/XXXX was reviewed with the supervisor and confirmed she gave me the wrong information while urging me to sign the payment agreement documents over the phone. 

I would like this matter escalated because PHEAA has proven to be unethical, deceptive, and abusive in their dealings with me. The only acceptable remediation is for PHEAA to return the tax refund check in the full amount back to me.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation