Consumer complaint received 2016-03-03
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. ()

I am writing this letter to highlight the reprehensible behavior of some U.S. companies in their dealings with their customers and to enlist your assistance in resolving the issues involved. 
I had the misfortune of entering into a Student Loan arrangement with the XXXX organization to finance my studies at the University XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. A friend acted as co-signer on the loan documents. The XXXX portfolio is now owned by Navient Solutions although their name is new. As you are aware the XXXX company was involved in quite a bit of criticism during the Global Financial Crisis and was found to be operating in contravention of U.S. Law. Subsequent to this application I lost my employment with the automotive industry in XXXX, and found it necessary to transfer to XXXX, XXXX XXXX to complete my degree studies and hopefully gain employment. I am still residing in XXXX, XXXX XXXX and have not been able to obtain full-time employment since obtaining my degrees due to XXXX. I am hoping to be granted XXXX in the near future. 
As a result of the preceding problems, I have only been able to make random contributions to the repayment of the student loans when I have been able.The matter was put into the hands of a debt collecting agency - XXXX XXXX XXXX. This agency and the new holder of the loan documents were constantly updated in regard to my address and contact details. This included my email address. For some reason the U.S. companies involved could not use email or telephone for communication and as a result any correspondence took a great deal of time to reach me. This astounds me that for a country that maintains it is the most technologically advanced in the world it has not embraced the use of Email and the Internet for communications. A majority of the mail was sent to the co-signer in the US. This increased the delay in me being able to act on it. The various companies had failed to record the correct address details as they progressively occurred. After a considerable amount of two way correspondence I was able to negotiate a settlement plan which was completed XX/XX/XXXX. This has exhausted all resources that I have. The check that I sent to cover the settlement was banked and has been cleared. It was necessary to use a lawyer in XXXX to confirm that the settlement had been made. The terms of the agreement were that all actions against myself and my co-signer would cease.I was convinced that the matter had been settled until early this month when I received a copy of correspondence sent to my co-signer dated XX/XX/XXXX. This did not arrive in XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX. A claim was being made by a new debt collection company - XXXX XXXX XXXX against my co-signer for so-called outstanding amounts. This I believe is an invalid claim in view of the settlement carried out XX/XX/XXXX. My co-signer is quite ill and essentially is only employed in a small capacity. The actions by the debt collecting agency are creating a great amount of stress which is exacerbating his medical condition. There seems to be a failure to communicate between the various debt collection agencies and the creditor or perhaps they are seeking to obtain a benefit by harassing and intimidating my co-signer. At no time have they contacted me directly in relation to the latest claim. Historically, there has been a confusing change in loan account numbers across the various agencies as the various claims were documented and this made the processes difficult to follow. I have included copies of all relevant correspondence for your information. I have done all that I can from XXXX to ensure that my co-signer is not harassed by these financial vultures.