Consumer complaint received 2024-09-25
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: Maximus Federal Services, Inc. (MN)

I was notified by my school that I needed to submit a reaffirmation agreement in order to remain eligible for federal financial aid. According to the NSLDS ( National Student Loan Database System ) one of my consolidated loans had been flagged for over borrowing over the aggregate limit for undergaduate loans. According to section 3 of the Federal Direct Reaffirmation Agreement Form " If NSLDS shows that a borrower consolidated the loan ( s ) that caused the inadvertent overborrowing into a Direct or FFEL Consolidation Loan, no further action on the part of the borrower is needed. By signing the consolidation loan promissory note, the borrower agreed to repay any excess loan amount ''. So why is the loan flagged if it was a consolidated loan? I asked aidvantage on multiple occasions over the phone and they claimed they don't know, they don't have access to the NSLDS. I asked them how I'm supposed to complete the form for the reaffirmation agreement and they said they would send me instructions to my inbox in my online account with them. I never received them. I called and asked them to confirm what loans were flagged in the system and they said they did not have access to the NSLDS and could not tell me. I asked this question again on a followup phone call and they said that only their central processing department has access to the NSLDS. When I asked if I could speak with their central processing department I was told that they didn't have phones and could not speak with me but rather they would send my request for information to their central processing department and they would reply to me through postal mail. I called and asked how long it would take for them to process the reaffirmation agreement and they said it could 10 business days but that I could request it to be expedited. I called and requested it to be expedited and was told on the phone it would be expedited and to expect a resolution in 24-48 hours. I called the next day to ask for a status update and was told it could take 10 business days. I explained that it had been expedited, to which I was told that it had not been expedited and they had denied the expedite request. I called the next day to request it be expedited. I was told it would be. I called the next day and was told it would take up to 10 business days and that it had not been expedited. Not to mention I never received written confirmation from them that they had ever received my reaffirmation agreement forms.Once 10 business days had elapsed I called and asked if they had been processed and was told it would take an additional 24-48 hours from the time they were completed before I received a written confirmation. I was told that they had been processed on the 9th business day, Monday the XXXX of XXXX at XXXX. When I called a business day after being told to wait an additional 24-48 hours I was told that they were still being processed. In fact, when I tried to call them today, Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX, for an update I called at XXXXXXXX XXXX  XXXX, their website clearly states their office hours are from XXXX XXXX to XXXX XXXX XXXX  time on Wednesdays and when I called and input my social security number for identity verification their automated answering machine claimed their offices were closed and to call back during their office hours. I called again immediately after and when prompted to put in my social security number for identity verification I put in a random sequence of 9 numbers and was patched in to a customer service representative. I asked them what their office hours were which they confirmed were XXXX XXXX on Wednesdays and when I asked why their answering machine said their offices were closed they claimed not to know why. I'm guessing they put a block on my account to prevent me from reaching them. They have so far lied to me directly over the phone on multiple occasions and intentionally prevented me from resolving the discrepancy in my loan history through lying, obstructing access to information, and intentionally misleading me and I have every call I've made to them recorded and backed up to cloud storage. I also have my state student loan advocate through my state 's department of commerce working to get in touch with them but they have not responded to him yet either. Did aidvantage cause the flag on my loan history in the NSLDS? Is that why they are taking every conceivable action to prevent me from resolving this? I want the flag removed immediately.