Consumer complaint received 2017-05-26
Company: AES/PHEAA
State: DC
Product: Student loan
Sub-product: Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Trouble with how payments are being handled

Complaint:
Dear Sir or Madam : I have been employed at a XXXX XXXX since XX/XX/XXXX. I graduated from XXXX XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX, and after my loans were in repayment status, I transferred all of my XXXX XXXX to FedLoan Servicing so as to register for participation in the Public Service Loan Forgiveness Program. As recommended by FedLoan Servicing, I submit an annual employment verification form in an attempt to be sure that my qualifying payments are calculated and tracked properly. I am writing to complain because for multiple years in a row now, I have encountered problems with this process. This years issue : In early XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted the annual employment verification form. The qualifying employment period that FedLoan Servicing was tracking ( to add to prior periods tracked ) was the 10-month period from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. My payments are due on the XX/XX/XXXX of every month, and during the period being certified, I made all payments on time. My agency has its own student loan repayment program, and during XX/XX/XXXX, my agency made bi-weekly payments on my behalf, with me paying the remaining balance owed. No payments were late or missed. Therefore, the number of qualifying payments from XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX that should have been added to my running total comes out to 10 payments. However, the letter that FedLoan servicing sent me dated XX/XX/XXXX stated only 7 payments qualified for this period. The letter fails to state why they do not consider all 10 payments as qualifying. As you likely know, the letters that FedLoan Servicing sends in response to annual requests for employment certification do not " show their math '' or provide a breakdown of how they arrive at their number of qualifying payments. This is extremely frustrating and problematic for borrowers, because there is no transparency. ( See a  copy of the letter that was sent to me, attached. ) On XX/XX/XXXX, I called FedLoan Servicing to dispute the number of qualifying payments for the period being certified. I demanded an accounting and breakdown of the number of qualifying payments I have made in writing. Like I have many times in the past, I also asked why, as a matter of routine course, FedLoan Servicing does not send such breakdowns with letters purporting to show how they count the number of qualifying payments in a certified period ( including the reason ( s ) why any non-qualifying payments are not counted ). As usual, I was given rude and/or nonsense answers by phone reps who stated " they do n't make the policy '' that requires a borrower to demand these itemized breakdowns when there is a dispute over the number of qualifying payments. I have since called at least two more times inquiring about the status of my dispute, and to ask when I can expect the itemized breakdown to be sent to me. Today, on XX/XX/XXXX, I was told that it might take " up to 5 or 6 months '' for FedLoan Servicing to look into my dispute and provide the requested documents so that I can confirm whether they have credited me with all the qualifying payments I have made to date. Based on what I read in the press, I know that not everyone that is even attempting to qualify for this program submits annual certification forms, so given the volume of such requests, I do not see any reason why FedLoan Servicing can not quickly provide itemized breakdowns showing how they arrived at the number of qualifying payments I have made. Is n't this their obligation since they have contracted with the Department of Education for just such programmatic administrative and tracking purposes? I see no reason why they should not have to address borrower disputes in a more timely fashion. I should note that for at least the past two years, I have found errors in the number of qualifying payments being tracked by FedLoan Servicing. Not surprisingly, the errors are always in the servicer 's favor and shortchange me by several payments a year. I am so sick of having to go through this arduous process with FedLoan Servicing every year when they miscalculate my number of qualifying payments. Their incompetence and ridiculous wait times are undercutting the very purpose of submitting these certification forms annually, which is meant to make tracking payments easier and more accurate. Please do something to make sure that FedLoan Servicing tracks PSLF participants ' qualifying loan payments with greater accuracy and transparency. For goodness sake, we all learn in elementary school math class to " show our work '' when doing calculations, and FedLoan Servicing should have to provide proof of how they are arriving at the qualifying number of payments. Handling a program this important to so many civil servants should not be permitted to occur in a black box. Further, when FedLoan Servicing personnel inevitably make mistakes in counting qualifying payments, please do something to make them respond to disputes is a more professional and timely manner! This issues is certainly going to affect others besides myself, and if it will take them " 4 to 5 months '' to go through a borrower 's account and re-calculate and prove the correct amount of payments made, borrowers are going to end up having to pay well over the 120 payments they bargained for. This practice, and their clear propensity for making calculation errors, is surely going to cause problems for the first wave of borrowers that apply for forgiveness in XX/XX/XXXX of this year if this is not addressed. Thank you very much for any assistance you can provide.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief