Consumer complaint received 2017-10-31
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Don't agree with the fees charged
Company: AES/PHEAA (IL)

Since a few days prior to XX/XX/XXXX, I 've been trying to pay my student loans in FULL. I have no money but my grandfather said he 'd pay them for me, for now, to avoid further interest. I called XXXX XXXX to request a physical Pay-in-Full billing statement to his home address. He would not pay online, would only pay by check, they accepted the terms, and the representative and myself set a projected future date to process the check, to account for when the letter arrives ... the letter never came. I was never told. XX/XX/XXXX I left for XXXX for a month and a half, coming back to learn he never received the letter. They said they sent it, interest had built up, and they apologized but did not feel responsible for the U.S. Postal service for failing to deliver the letter. I was very upset, but requested the letter again. A week later I called back because a letter never came. For weeks and weeks I called back ( I could NOT pay online, because grandpa refused ), only to learn months later that they had been sending me bills to my paperless billing account ( and never mentioned when I asked " Where are they? " ). Their argument is that is was my fault for not responding to the e-letter and acting accordingly, so I was now responsible for another {$1000.00} in unnecessary debt. I complained that every time I called, I was told with misleading language that they were " mailing me '' or " sending out '' a new statement. Neither sounds electronic. And neither would be physically sent to my computer illiterate grandfather at his initially agreed upon home address ... Eventually, XX/XX/XXXX, I gave up he paid the $ XXXX. The grand total being {$14000.00}. To arrive at this number, I had called several times with my mother ( a witness ), and a calculator on my end, hers, and the representative ( whom gave us different totals multiple times ) on the final call. ( It could easily be heard on XXXX XXXX call records. They told me today they have them saved for training purposes, and they do because I 've worked for these places. ) But I digress, on several calls, with and without my mother present, I explicitly requested to be sent a bill overcharging my grandfather, for which the representatives all said they would be happy to do. This would cover any outstanding interest that might grow while the payment was being processed or letter in transit. The remainder would merely be returned. In the call today, the representative said they are trained to overcharge up to 10 days and the person who helped me over charged for 1 day, and though it 's unfortunate, it 's not her problem. So, presently, my new outstanding bill is this : {$11.00} for new interest on XX/XX/XXXX -- -  3 days after my FULL verified payment was submitted and cleared and verified by the rep. {$32.00} for interest on XX/XX/XXXX, which for some reason was not included on the FULL bill quoted to the conference call with my mother. And a new charge, that WAS not and IS not listed on my online account, or on any paper bill at all. A secret charge that would grow if I never found out about it. Apparently, I was given a special offer in XX/XX/XXXX, though I graduated before then. It was for a Student Rebate Program that was supposedly ended this year. The recipient is offered to opt-in for a measly {$28.00} grant for agreeing to pay their monthly bills on time. I did n't the first month, so I did n't earn the award ... the fun part is, I never got the gift. Yet, they want me to pay them for it. ( It makes no sense ) The conversation I had with 4 people today was so transparent it was painful. They all admitted that there were errors on my account, that they were responsible for most of them, that their hands were tied, and they all asked " Do you wish to make a payment today? '' Can you please help me? If not, make their abusive practices known?