Consumer complaint received 2018-07-02
Company: Ameritech Financial
State: KY
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 received 2 letters in the mail in XX/XX/XXXX addressed to me saying ATTENTION STUDENT LOAN PAYMENT DEDUCTION AND FORGIVENESS saying I needed to contact them and that program would save me thousands on my student loans These letters were from student loan department therefore I was thinking it was from my student loans ... anyway I called the number and they explained their company was AMERITECH FINANCIAL. I was on the phone with them for about 2 hours and the girl XXXX explained to me that this program would help me save on my monthly student loans and pay them off faster. She told me that they consolidate everything so its one loan. I asked if I would still be using fedloan and paying my monthly student loan bills and she told me yes and that everything is funneled through them. She told me what I was paying them will be towards/ paying my student loans monthly and that was not the case at all. I dont know if this girl was new and didnt know what she was doing or if she was purpsey giving me inaccurate info. She read her scripts but I asked many questions and was confused.. I asked her several times about the monthly payment and if this was paying for my student loans and she told me it was.. she took all of my personal info. ( Because she told me she working with fedloan.gov and was changing my student loan payment AMOUNT to help me in the long run and pay them off faster than what I was currently paying.. she explained this program was to help me pay my loans off. She didnt say I was paying for doc prep services or other services She told me my new student loan monthly bill would show up as RAMPT on my bank statements for my new student loan payment program I paid Ameritech {$170.00} every month fromXX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX XXXX which is a total of XXXX 

One day I was speaking with my fed loan about something and they mentioned that my student loans were not being paid since XXXX and were on Forebarence I was shocked and confused explaining to them that Ameritech told me that the {$170.00} every month was going towards my monthly student bill/ payment and the fedloan lady explained that is not true.. I called Ameritech and canceled everything with them and changed my password and account info with my fed loan counselor.. so Ameritech could not be in any contact with my accounts etc. I was furious and asked for a refund and the man jsut tried to get to me stay with with their company and wasnt doing anything about any sort of refund, he explained that they help manage my student loans etc and I told him that I was told false and different info from XXXX when I initially signed up with them..

Present day : I received a letter in the mail from federal trade commission informing me of the notice of lawsuit from Ameritech and told me to file a complaint and provide all this info and to try to get refund through Ameritech.. I have been on hold for about an hour and spoke briefly with XXXX a supervisor at Ameritech trying to get a refund and he was saying they are very busy today with everyone calling in with reviewing the letters.. He said it is showing up that I paid them {$680.00} total when I paid {$170.00} for 5 months which is XXXX anyway he said he would refund me only {$190.00} ... I explained to him several times that the lady XXXX told me I was paying for my monthly student loan bill and he explained I was paying for document prep services and financial edu benefits and a monthly program fee I explained to him I was not told that info /what I was paying for every month and that I never even got any services from them. He said he will have a call audit done and get back with me this Friday. 
I have never needed nor want any help/ services from them.. I was told diffent information. I was told and thought I was just paying more on my student loan monthly bill not services to help me I would like my full refund back. Please let me know about the next steps with this process thank you very much!

Company response to consumer: Untimely response