Consumer complaint received 2023-11-01
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: EdFinancial Services (NJ)

As a federal employee, my employer has offered to pay back my federal student loans. My HR person said I needed to get XXXX form filled out by my financer, which should take a couple weeks, and then they would begin payments. On XX/XX/XXXX, I submitted my required form on the portal for EDFinancial. About XXXX weeks later I called for an update and the customer service lady told me I submitted a " blank document ''. I asked why I was not notified and she said I need to sign up for digital correspondence if I wanted to receive email updates. That all seemed weird to me but I signed up for email updates and then submitted the form again on the portal, double and triple checking it was not blank. A few weeks later I call back again for an update. The customer service lady again tells me I submit a blank document. I told her I was positive I did not and this must be an issue on their part. I again was not sent an email notification about it though. She then extends me ED Financial customer service email and their fax number. She tells me to submit those there and I should receive them back in a couple weeks. I submitted both forms that way but the fax kept coming back undeliverable. Finally, on XXXX I get a response from the customer service email saying they received my form and will respond shortly. I email repeatedly over the next couple weeks to check the status and I do not receive a response. I call the customer service number again on XX/XX/XXXX and the lady on the phone checks my case and tells me the form was just processed today and I will absolutely receive the form in my email by XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX I still did not receive a form. I call the customer service number the next day, I have to wait for XXXX hours to get a call back, and the lady tells me the form was sent to my email. I assure her it was not sent to my email, that I check my inbox and spam folder every day since XXXX for this form because now it was XX/XX/XXXX and payments were resuming. She tells me to hold and then ends the call. I then join the queue for the customer service phone number again and I have to wait until the next morning to receive a call. I speak with a man who says the form was sent to my email and I tell him it was not sent to my email and please help me receive this form. He tells me to hold and once again the calls end. This is on XX/XX/XXXX. Clearly, the customer service line is not set up to provide assistance and now past XXXX student loan payments had resume and my financer was negligently ignoring me. At this point, I had sent over a dozen emails since XXXX when they confirmed my form was being processed and received no response. The support chat bot on their website is AI and could not understand my request. I then reached out to my Congressional Representative to reach out to them and the Dept. of Education because ED Financial had no other routes and that case is still pending. Since then, I received an email on XX/XX/XXXX from ED Financial saying they sent me the form on XX/XX/XXXX to my email. They did not send me any form to my email. I check every single day and it was not there. And that was the only response they sent me and of course after I responded and said they did not send it I will not hear a response for another 2 months. At this point, I have missed out on {$2500.00} worth of student loan payments. That type of repayment is life changing and ED financial has given me the run around until payments have no resumed. I can not afford these payments because I accepted a salary knowing my employer would cover these payments but ED Financial has ignored me since June. Additionally, this form is a 1 year contract with my employer that has been pushed back 6 months due their lack of customer service and a reasonable outlet to correspond with them. All I need is the XXXX form and they will not send it to me. {$2500.00} is what they have prevented me from paying and it should not be legal for a financer to ignore people.