Consumer complaint received 2024-03-09
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: MOHELA (MI)

The following is an email I sent to MOHELA CEO XXXX XXXX after MOHELA has repeatedly failed to correctly process my Public Service Loan Forgiveness certification forms. 

My name is XXXX XXXX. I have student loans and I am enrolled in the PSLF program. My MOHELA account number is XXXX. Copies of this email are being sent to Senators XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX of Michigan, as well as the Michigan Attorney General XXXX XXXX. I have also sent similar correspondence to Rep. XXXX XXXX, as well as the author of the XXXX article about PSLF and MOHELA dated XX/XX/XXXX. 

To begin : until my loan servicer changed from XXXX XXXX to MOHELA, I never had an issue having my PSLF progress count updated. 
Now, for the second year in a row, I have had a horrendous time dealing with MOHELA and I can verify that MOHELA is deeply incompetent and is running circles around at least one borrower, me, in the PSLF program. I know there are many others, as affirmed by the XXXX article published XX/XX/XXXX. 

For starters, MOHELA has now for two years running failed to properly process my PSLF certification forms. In XXXX, after hours of phone calls over the course of several weeks, my PSLF payment count was finally updated after MOHELA initially failed to do so upon processing my PSLF form. However, most recently I submitted a certification form in XXXX of XXXX, which should have taken my progress count to XXXX payments by my calculation, but due to MOHELA 's incompetence, MOHELA marked that form as a duplicate and failed to update my payment count. 
The form was not a duplicate, and the only explanation I received was that I happened to submit my XXXX form on approximately the same calendar date as my XXXX form. Sheer incompetence. 

My PSLF progress counter has now sat at XXXX payments of XXXX now for over a year ( meaning if my latest PSLF form was correctly processed I would be eligible for forgiveness ), and I continue to be employed by the nonprofit at which I have worked for the last XXXX years. Prior to that I worked at another qualifying non profit for approximately XXXX years. All of this can be verified in my previous PSLF certifications and is accessible on my borrower profile on MOHELA 's website. 
Regarding the form I submitted in XX/XX/XXXX, a customer service representative verbally confirmed to me that it was MOHELA 's error that the form was marked duplicate, and then, after they spoke with their supervisor, I was told they would not correct the error and would not adjust my payment count. That is completely unacceptable, and there ought to be notes in my record with MOHELA verifying these interactions. 

And so, I submitted a second form at the end of XXXX, XXXX. 
Several days later, I see that the form is marked as " Processed '' and yet I see no update to my progress counter which, as I mentioned, should take me to at least XXXX qualifying payments, and make me eligible for forgiveness. I have only worked XXXX jobs in the 11 years since I entered the program, both of which have been at qualifying non-profits, and I have diligently re-certified each year. I ought to be about as straightforward of a case for PSLF as there is. As I said, I never had an issue until MOHELA became the loan servicer. 

As I write this, I am sitting on hold with MOHELA after calling the phone number MOHELA specifically lists for PSLF assistance. A representative answers the phone after XXXX minutes, and after I explain that I'd like to know when my payment count will be updated based on my latest form being marked " Processed '', the representative tells me they'll have to transfer me to a PSLF specialist. And now I am back on hold. Keep in mind that I called the number MOHELA specifically lists on the Contact page for PSLF assistance. This would indicate to me that MOHELA is absolutely scheming to avoid handling PSLF calls, just like the XXXX article asserts. 

I can't imagine I am the only borrower sitting at XXXX payment periods but finding that MOHELA is giving them the run-around and failing to correctly process their PSLF certification. 

MOHELA must do its job and expeditiously update my payment count, and, finding as they surely will that I have reached or surpassed XXXX qualifying payments, and in coordination with the Dept. of Education, grant me forgiveness in completion of the PSLF program. 

Regards, XXXX XXXX