Consumer complaint received 2022-04-01
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: NY
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 recently read an article in XXXX XXXX about a student-loan company receiving a XXXX penalty for misleading borrowers. As I read, I felt as though this article could have been written about me and my lender, AES. 

I am an educated teacher with a XXXX XXXX XXXX. I have been trying for almost XXXX ( XXXX ) years to have my loans forgiven. I work at a XXXX XXXX school and have paid my school loans religiously for over 20 years! I have applied for loan forgiveness repeatedly only to get reasons that seem to be very convoluted and/or purposefully misleading. Correspondences from AES were not very user-friendly, relevant, or helpful. Frankly, I feel as though they were just sending form letters that employees are trained to send to discourage borrowers from moving forward. Which is exactly what happened to me. 

I have called and spoken with AES on numerous occasions yet no viable direction was ever given to assist me in the loan forgiveness process. According to the article mentioned above, the bureau states, 'borrowers with XXXX XXXX, in particular, were mislead about XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ' This is exactly how I feel given my summary of loans that all indicate XXXX loans. 

Please see attachments for : - Summary of all loans since XXXX - Letter from lender combining my loans - XXXX denial letters dated XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX Order of Events : XXXX - Attended XXXX at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX NY XXXX Received BS in Management with a Concentration in Marketing and a Minor in Economics XXXX - Attended Graduate at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, NY - XXXX XXXX XXXX ( MST ) in Teaching, Grades XXXX XX/XX/XXXX - XXXX XXXX XXXX combined my XXXX XXXX into single account, for a combined total of {$39000.00}. 

XX/XX/XXXX - Applied for forgiveness as I worked at a XXXX XXXX school for more than XXXX consecutive years. Received Denial Letter # XXXX from AES ( see attachment dated XX/XX/XXXX ) XX/XX/XXXX - Spoke with an AES XXXX, confirmed reason for Denial Letter # XXXX, resent application using the fax number given to me by the loan company rep. Confirmation on my end states the fax went through. Received Denial Letter # XXXX from AES ( see attachment dated XX/XX/XXXX ) XX/XX/XXXX - Received Denial Letter # XXXX from AES ( see attachment dated XX/XX/XXXX ). I still have no idea what this excuse even means! 

XX/XX/XXXX - After being discouraged and given the run-around ( but before being sent Denial Letter # XXXX ), I sent the summary of events letter directly to AES ( please see attachment ) ... then I gave up! 

I thank you in advance for your attention to my complaint. I agree with the above mentioned article in that they, 'do not believe that these deceptions from loan companies are unique ' to the company mentioned, XXXX XXXX 

The most frustrating part is that I very recently spoke with someone from an outside company who walked me through the forgiveness process step by step. Now, with only about {$1500.00} left in loans, I have been forgiven. The whole process seems criminal to me, especially since reading this article. I whole-heartedly believe I too have been severely deceived for almost a decade.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation