Consumer complaint received 2024-05-03
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Sonnek & Goldblatt, Ltd. (OH)

This private loan was originally through XXXX XXXX for the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, and was illegally forced on me by the school at the time. They had lied to me and told me I was out of federal funds and told me that in order to keep going to school I had to take a private loan or get kicked out and XXXX XXXX was the only available lender. They acted really shifty and nervous when they told me that and wanted me to sign for it right away so they could get me out of their office as soon as they could. It didn't feel right at the time, but they had cornered me and I was afraid of not taking it and being forcibly kicked out of the school like they had threatened. That school is now closed, they were caught doing illegal things to get students to enroll like lying about services they offered, the graduation percentage plus the percentage and wages of those who did graduate and got jobs in their respective fields, etc. They were also caught mishandling funds and lying to force loans onto students that they did not need. This loan has been a giant pain ever since XXXX XXXX started harassing me about it, they would not work with me, and when I finally did get them to make a deal on repayments for a loan I shouldn't have had in the first place, it didn't last long. I ended up going through financial hardship after leaving a very toxic and dangerous work environment, and they were hard to work with again. Then XXXX hit and the job I was at at the time furloughed me and eventually had to let me go, so I had to sign up for unemployment. At the time all loans like that were stopped, but in the midst of the pandemic XXXX XXXX sold dozens of their loans to debt collectors including mine. By the time I knew they did that as I had not received anything stating such a transaction I was notified via my employer that the new owner of my loan was Sonnek & Goldblatt , Ltd. and they were garnishing my wages on behalf of XXXX XXXX for that loan out of every paycheck. That made financials hard as the job I was currently working at the time and am still employed at does not pay enough to not live paycheck to paycheck, and has been making it very difficult to get by. XXXX XXXX just passed a new student loan forgiveness program for all students who attended any of the XXXX XXXX schools during a specific timeframe, which I fall into, where all federal loans are to be forgiven because of the extent of unlawful conduct the XXXX XXXX schools engaged in during my time enrolled at their XXXX campus. I was officially notified by email from the U.S. Department of Education on XX/XX/2024 that all my federal loans for the XXXX XXXX will be fully discharged. This does not include this private loan, however, that I also should not have to keep paying and should receive back the amount I did pay for it over the years as it was one of the illegal conducts performed by the school. I did talk to Sonnek & Goldblatt about it and requested information and tried to get them to not garnish my wages as I should not be paying this loan, but all they said they would do would be to lower the amount garnished as long as XXXX XXXX agreed to the amount. They did lower it some but not enough, and I should not have to suffer for being a victim of the XXXX XXXX years later when I don't even work in my field I went to school for because of that school not following up on their services they promised they provided. If my Federal loans can be discharged based on that information then I, along with others that were also forced into the same position I was, should not have to pay the private loans we were forcibly lied into taking.