Consumer complaint received 2016-10-21
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Having problems with customer service
Company: AES/PHEAA ()

XXXX has serviced some of my federal student loans since around XXXX. I have experienced little else but obstruction and unproffessionalism since the beginning. Below are three primary aspects of the problem, which all interact variously but together represent a dysfucntional financial institution of the like I have not seen since working as a consumer debt attorney and member of XXXX. Had they fallen under the FDCPA, they would have long since fallen under the weight of litigation and liabilities. 

Online Account Management - Online logins are inconsistently available, and new accounts must be set up, which is not always possible. 

- The online portal can not locate personal information attached to accounts, such as SSN, names, or emails, in order to locate passwords or to setup new accounts. 

- The online portal appears to frequently change, causing access issues. 

Loan Servicing - Initially, in XXXX or XXXX, the agents refused to provide information on income based/contingent repayment plans that were made available to students. This is assumedly so that students could not take advantage of lower payments, and my account has accrued interest and penalties for their refusal. When I escalated it to a PHEAA attorney, the response was that they are not limited by typical consumer protection laws, but the harassment stopped for several years. 

- Refusal to update communication preferences. I have been living overseas for several years and repeatedly inform PHEAA that there is no domestic phone number to reach me and that all communications must be via email. Nevertheless, the first communications I do get are that once every few years, I will get a default notice by email that says they have been taking all reasonable steps to reach me by phone. This certainly translates to penatlies and fees on my account. 

- Refusal to correct errors. During XXXX, I finally managed to convert my account repayment but PHEAA refused to make that retroacive to the time when I first demanded the conversion. This means penalties, interest and fees. 

Communication - When communication is intermittently achieved, the contact points will change in each response, which means that a new explanation is required and unhelpful responses are repeated. 

- When reponding to a request, vague and unhelpful boilerplate is offered as a standalone and not further assistance is given. 

- Regular communication on account deadlines or requirements are provided, only urgent default notices issue every few years. in the interim, PHEAA completely disappears. Certainly this means that penalties and fees accrue each time. 

I am completely sick of this. I did not enter into an agreement with this servicer and did not choose their model. Their complete mishandling of the case is either reflective of systemic negligence in their business practices, or deliberate abuse in order increase portfolios. I saw both in my time in the debt collection industry, so I do n't feel I am overreacting. All I am after is assistance with correcting the course of over 6 years of mismanagement whose cost is likely to be in the XXXX of dollars.