Consumer complaint received 2016-08-12
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Having problems with customer service
Company: Navient Solutions, LLC. (UT)

My loans were recently transfered to Navient, sometime in early XXXX, from XXXX. From XXXX, to present, my health has been poor and my wealth/income even poorer. As such, I have qualified for IBR-repayment plans of {$0.00} per month for several years now, and with my previous servicer XXXX, submitting IBR paperwork usually required a single phone call and a single email. After I learned the procedure, it took only one yearly email with IBR application and tax return attached. I never had to worry that it would n't be processed correctly or approved or whatever. 

But with Navient this summer, it has been a root canal to try to push my IBR through inch-by-inch. I 've called customer service many times, always diligently asking if there anything more I NEED to do, is there anything more I CAN do, is there something I am doing wrong? The reason I would ask all those questions is Navient never seemed able to know how to process an IBR or sometimes even what an IBR is. This echoes the complaints of the states attorneys general, so I know that I am not alone. I 'm sorry that I did not take detailed notes of all the phones calls and how much time I spent on the phone ( nor how much this cost me as I pay for phone service on a minute-by-minute basis ) but I had no idea how painful this would be when I started. I estimate I have spent 5+ hours on the phone, and another 3-4 hours on the Internet trying to ensure that my IBR would be processed, and it still feels a bit unfinished. 

In addition to profound ignorance of IBR plans, they also have special tricks. Finally my IBR was seemingly completed this week, but even after it was done, Navient 's last trick was to conjure a late fee (! ) that was due to be paid on XXXX XXXX, XXXX. This late fee was allegedly assessed by my previous servicer back in XXXX and XXXX. When I explained that I had months and months and months of emails from XXXX between XXXX and the present that stated that my balance was XXXX, Navient was not capable of receiving those emails, nor were they interested in receiving them, telling me that would have no bearing on their opinion. After I escalated my call with the customer service agents to XXXX XXXX ( this took 45 minutes talking and on hold before an agent told me I could hang up and they would call me back, which they did ). FInally by agent on level XXXX I was promised that a XXXX days process would review my complaint and the agent would REQUEST that the fees be forgiven " as a courtesy. '' Patronization in that aside, this is just another thing for me to put in my date book and double check later to ensure resolution has been reached correctly and if I lose track of time I 'm sure I will get another late fee on XXXX XXXX when that payment is due -- an additional late fee for not paying a fraudulent late fee! 

Thanks for your time. I 'm trying to keep my head above water until Navient is finally shut down by the federal government. This is a fraudulent organization. A strictly zero profit organization ought to service federally-backed student loans.