Consumer complaint received 2024-07-19
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Getting a loan — High pressure sales tactics or recruiting
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (CA)

I attended XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX from XXXX. Many students have already had their loans discharged & paid back. 

A dozen advocacy groups, including the XXXX and the Debt Collective, on Wednesday wrote to U.S. Secretary of Education XXXX XXXX, calling on the Biden Administration to cancel the student loan debt of borrowers who attended the for-profit XXXX XXXX , which from XXXX until just before its XXXX closure was owned by for-profit giant XXXX  XXXX XXXX, now called XXXX. 

XXXX offered programs in photography, filmmaking, and photo-journalism. Like other schools owned by XXXX, XXXX  used deceptive advertising and high-pressure recruiting to enroll students in over-priced programs that left many buried in debt, without the career advancement they sought. 

The letter, also signed by more than 250 former XXXX students, cites the findings of a report released this week that documents abuses at XXXX during the period that XXXX owned the school. The report was skillfully prepared by XXXX XXXX, a Debt Collective organizer and former XXXX student. 

The letter asserts that the Department already knows about a robust record of misconduct by XXXX, and the new report offers details on XXXX violations, based on hundreds of pages of records from congressional testimony, civil lawsuits, law enforcement probes, and media accounts. 

The report documents that XXXX misrepresented the costs of attending, facts about transferability of credits, and graduation and job placement rates, and enrolled students without regard to whether a program would help them succeed. 

According to the report, XXXX, which started as a family-run XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX, enrolled about XXXX students under XXXX ownership. 

In a statement, XXXX said, XXXX XXXX borrowers have suffered long enough under the weight of deceptive practices. Its time for the Department to act decisively and provide the relief these borrowers deserve. 

XXXX XXXX, whose son earned a XXXX XXXX at XXXX from XXXX to XXXX, said the degree turned out to be pretty much worthless. XXXX added, The career counseling and promised leads never happened. The accreditation they claimed would lead to great jobs turned out to be nonexistent. The loans we were told would be easily paid off by our sons guaranteed high income are still lingering and growing like a XXXX due to the predatory and deceiving pressure put on us by XXXX XXXX and XXXX. XXXX said the loan debt had grown from about {$100000.00} to over {$330000.00}. XXXX, who is XXXX, said she and her husband will die with these loans still hanging over our heads. 

The Department under President XXXX  has offered automatic debt cancellation without the need for students to individually show, under the federal Borrower Defense process, that they were harmed to groups of students attending in specified years a number of predatory colleges, including the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 

Other students who have individually applied under Borrower Defense have become eligible for debt relief, including under the settlement of the Sweet v. Cardona lawsuit. But many borrowers, including former XXXX students, remain unaware of the magnitude of the XXXX scam or of their eligibility for loan relief. 

XXXX report notes that XXXX borrowers have made various efforts to cancel their debts, including through individual and class-action lawsuits against XXXX, XXXX, and lender XXXX XXXX , through the Borrowers Defense process, and other means, but none has meaningfully addressed the debt. 

Other groups signing the letter to Cardona include the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. 

As Republic Report has chronicled for over a decade, XXXX has been one of the worst actors in all of for-profit higher education, taking in billions of dollars from taxpayers for student grants and loans while repeatedly engaging in predatory abuses. 

XXXX has faced multiple law enforcement actions for predatory conduct. In XXXX, the company entered into a {$490.00} XXXX settlement with 48 state attorneys general, plus the District of Columbia, over allegations that it engaged in widespread deceptive practices against students. Later that same year, XXXX agreed to pay {$30.00} XXXX to settle charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission that its schools have recruited students through deceptive third-party lead generation operations. In each case, the company did not admit guilt. 

Recent XXXX employees have told media outlets XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX, as well as Republic Report, that company recruiters have continued to feel pressure to make misleading sales pitches and to enroll low-income people into programs that arent strong enough to help them succeed. Some of those former employees also have spoken with federal investigators. 

XXXX XXXX reported in XXXX that the U.S. Department of Education, in XX/XX/XXXX, requested information from XXXX ; the Department also asked XXXX to retain records regarding student recruiting, marketing, financial aid practices, and more. XXXX confirmed the probe, while seeming to minimize its significance, in a XX/XX/XXXX SEC filing. XXXX also acknowledged in XX/XX/XXXX that it received a request for documents and information from the U.S. Justice Department. 

Yet the company, despite its awful record of misconduct, has managed to stay in business. It not only changed its name from XXXX to XXXX, it also jettisoned all its old tarnished brands like XXXX XXXX and started fresh with two schools that have official-sounding names : XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX 

The Department of Education provided XXXX and XXXX with more than {$690.00} XXXX in student grants and loans in the XXXX school year, the most recent year reported. A XXXX XXXX from XXXX is priced at about {$65000.00}. 

But data released last year by the Department show that XXXX two schools, XXXX and XXXX, deliver poor results for students, with low graduation rates and graduate incomes and high levels of student debt. 

Before joining XXXX, company CEO XXXX XXXX ran two of the other biggest for-profit colleges operations : the XXXX  XXXX XXXXXXXX and now-demised XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX. Both of those chains, like XXXX, ran into major law enforcement issues because of deceptive recruiting practices and other abuses that occurred on XXXX watch.