Consumer complaint received 2018-03-29
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (AZ)

After being laid off my job of 19  years, I decided to go to school to learn a new trade at the age of XXXX. I kept getting popup adds from XXXX XXXX XXXX on my job searches so I gave them a call. The recruiter gave me an aptitude " test '' which I passed with flying colors. He said he'd never seen such a high score. He treated me like a rock star. They promised me the moon. They said I, with my exceptional qualifications, would have no trouble finding a job, especially with their " lifetime '' placement benefits. With my skills, they claimed I'd be making piles of money throughout the years and I should focus on my studies, not worry about the loans down the road. This occurred in XX/XX/XXXX. I started classes in XXXX that same year. It was non-stop until I graduated in XX/XX/XXXX with a grade-point average of XXXX. Valedictorian, " Graduate of the Quarter '', perfect attendance award and membership in some " Honor Society '' I'd never heard of. I worked hard to do this. They did actually find me a job with a civil engineering firm that has a history of hiring XXXX graduates in XX/XX/XXXX. When the real estate market crashed in XXXX, I lost that job. I became unemployed and returned to XXXX for another referral. They had nothing for me and began to not answer my calls. I did get one in XX/XX/XXXX for less than 1/2 of what I was making before, but being destitute, I took it. It lasted 2 months. No further help from XXXX was forthcoming. Several jobs later, I'm now employed, by my own efforts and doing fairly well. 
My student loans with XXXX, serviced by XXXX XXXX, now XXXX Navient, totaled {$44000.00}. I come to find out that my class credits do not transfer to a real school, which explains why every time I'd go into XXXX for help, the program chairman would pressure me to join their Bachelor Program-for more . A little research also showed that I could have attended XXXX  XXXX XXXX for a real degree for nearly 1/2 the cost of XXXX, or a community college for even less than that. Now, XXXX is bankrupt and under investigation and I have no recourse except this complaint. I still owe Navient {$11000.00}. 
My complaint is not so much about paying the loan, although the 2 years of unemployment were tough. My complaint is about the false advertising and high pressure tactics to get me to sign up and continue a worthless " education '' program. While unemployed, I was repeatedly pressured to return to the school and enroll in their bogus XXXX XXXX, even though I had no job, no money or way to pay for it. Working with XXXX XXXX and then Navient was a nightmare. Every time I'd call for help I'd get different answers and information on how to proceed. I made {$100.00} payment to keep from making a scheduled {$270.00} payment. These {$100.00} payments didn't go toward my debt, they went to " Forebearance '' fees. There were also collection agencies after me during this time. I had both federal and private loans with interest rates of 7.25 %, 5.25 % and 2.875 %. And I had no way to pay them. 
They lied about transferable credits, they lied about job placement, they lied about just about everything. 
Accessing the XXXX XXXX website to make payments or gain information was an exercise in futility. They seemed to want to make it as hard as possible to navigate and make a payment. " Customer representatives '' were almost worse. The whole thing seemed like a shell game to make me suffer. And I'm sure I'm not the only one. 
Finally, if presented with an option of attending a public community college, public university or private for-profit school, do just a little research and run as fast as you can from the for-profit.