Consumer complaint received 2018-03-22
Product: Debt collection — Federal student loan debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was paid
Company: ECMC GROUP, INC. (OH)

1 ) ECMC ( Educational Credit Management Corp ) began garnishments of my funds in XX/XX/XXXX for my defaulted student loan. 
2 ) I filed Bankruptcy in late XX/XX/XXXX which took effect XX/XX/XXXX. My student loan was not part of the bankruptcy however it was put in deferment. My attorney & the trustee urged me to make contact with student loans and formulate a repayment plan during the bankruptcy. The garnishments had stopped at that point. 
3 ) My employer mistakenly sent two bankruptcy payments to the US Dept of Education. This caused the bankruptcy to threaten dismissal of my cause due to non payment. My attorney at the time XXXX XXXX explained the mishap to the courts and my bankruptcy was reinstated. However, that's where things got crazy. 
4 ) My employer continued to send payments to the US Department of Education along with my Bankruptcy payments. After accessing everything, I was OK with the garnishments despite no court order. So the garnishments continued at a lower rate while the bankruptcy continued.Since the garnishments for student loans were being taking out, I felt there was no need to reach out to the US Department of Education to make payment arrangements. 
5 ) I completed my bankruptcy in XX/XX/XXXX however the garnishments for my student loan continued at a higher rate between 15 % -25 %. 
6 ) In the spring of XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX or XX/XX/XXXX ), I received a phone call from ECMC in regards to my student loan. I replied " You're already garnishing my wages. Why are you calling? " the agent responded " We aren't garnishing your wages. The purpose of this call is make payment arrangement to avoid garnishments ". The agent suggested I reach out to the US Department of Education to clarify. 
7 ) I contacted the US Dept of Ed, the next day to get clarification. The agent stated I had a balance of {$4300.00} and the last payment received was on XX/XX/XXXX. I explained my wages had been garnished and the agent suggested I verify what address the payments were sent. 
8 ) My employer verified the correct address and we started an investigated to confirm the payments were recieved. 
9 ) XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from the US Dept of Education stating I have refund on my student loan account. The letter stated the refund may due to 1 or 2 loans being over paid. At this time, I assumed the payments were found and posted to my account.I contacted the US Department of Education and confirmed receipt of the letter. I requested they fax a letter to my employer halting the wage garnishments and to contact ECMC to stop the collections calls. The agent agreed to do both ( XX/XX/XXXX ). When I returned to work I advised my employer to halt the investigation from our end. I received a refund check of XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. At this point I thinking everything is good and I am finally debt free. 
10 ) I no longer received collection calls and wage garnishments had stopped as of XX/XX/XXXX. 
11 ) Over Christmas break ( XX/XX/XXXX I believe ) I received a call from a company named XXXX  ( a debt collector ). They stated I have a student loan debt of an estimated {$4400.00} that was referred to them from ECMC. I explained the situation to the agent and placed the loan status in dispute for 15 days. 
12 ) I returned to work on XX/XX/XXXX, I advised my employer to reopen the investigation. I requested we verify payment sent to US department of Education fro XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX. My employer advised this would take some time as they had to get the bank involved and our third party vendor who handles our finances from XX/XX/XXXX to the present. 
13 ) Meanwhile, I stayed in contact with XXXX every two weeks to keep the dispute status open while waiting for verification. 
14 ) I reached out to US Dept of education as I was confused. The agent stated my account was not paid off but transferred to ECMC due to non payment. The agent explained the difference between a pay off letter vs zero  balance letter. When they transferred my account to ECMC, my account was closed out which prompted the zero balance letter. The refund I received for {$96.00} was actually a payment that they sent back. At the same time the agent stated they still had not received a payment since XX/XX/XXXX. However, the refund I received was the exact amount that was taken out of my XX/XX/XXXX check.????? 
15 ) I finally received payment confirmation from my employer. It was a total of 25 pages of payments dating back from XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX totally over {$5200.00} through wage garnishments sent to the US Dept of Education in XXXX GA. 
16 ) I faxed the documents over to XXXX. Initially, I was told the information was received too late and my dispute status had expired. Again, remember I had been in contact with XXXX XXXX every two weeks to keep the dispute status valid. The agent advised she would forward my documents and dispute claim to ECMC. She also advised that garnishment proceedings was already in process. 
17 ) A week later I received a letter from ECMC advising me of my rights to object of the wage garnishments along with a form to dispute my claim. The dispute would go back to XXXX for review. I filled out the form. 
18 ) I received a second letter form ECMC stating dispute was not valid and claiming that they had received my payments along with a amortization schedule showing the payments being applied. This was first time any one acknowledged receiving my payments however the balance remain the same. In addition, the balance showed collections charges, penalty interest charges being assessed to an account that you now acknowledge was paid on time since XX/XX/XXXX ( while in Bankruptcy and deferment ). 
19 ) I now have two disputes that need the involvement of a legal expert. First, I believe I proved beyond a shadow of debt that this loan is not only paid but a refund is due + damages. Second, is the last correspondence I received from ECMC is stating that they received my payments ( which prior to verifying the payments they stated they did not received any payments ). However, playing devil 's advocate I have a simple questions. If you now acknowledge the payments sent, why are you still pursuing garnishments? Why haven't my balance been reduced to reflect payments? Why are you charging penalty interest / collection fees on an account that has been paying constantly? Remember, there was no court order garnishment after bankruptcy so all payments were voluntary. Shouldn't they have sent this account back to US Dept of Education? 
20 ) As of XX/XX/XXXX I have not heard back from anyone. I contacted the US Department of Education  and requested my account be notated in detail. The agent again stated the last payment to post to my account was on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$240.00}. They have not received a payment since. In addition, she stated my balance at that time was {$3200.00} ( I have verified bank statements showing over {$5200.00}  payments being made to US Dept from XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX ). The agent advised they can not handle my dispute because it is assigned to ECMC. She suggested I contact them. 
21 ) I contacted ECMC to request a hearing and was informed I needed to contact XXXX  to put in formal dispute. The agent also stated they never received any proof of payments from me sent to XXXX. She acknowledged a dispute was submitted but no supporting documents to aide my dispute was received. She suggested I contact XXXX to start the dispute process over. 
22 ) I contacted XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to request a hearing. The representative stated that my hearing request will need to go through ECMC. At this point I was totally frustrated. I questioned whether my 25 pages of proof of payments were ever sent to ECMC. The agent could not give me a definitive answer. At this point I requested a supervisor and sent to a voicemail. I left a message requesting a hearing and have not heard back. 
23 ) All I am requesting is a hearing with all three agencies present at one time. I need to clarify the payment received on my account and what my student balance was at the time of my bankruptcy of XX/XX/XXXX. Once that is determined, I can forward proof of payment to the appropriate party and request a refund for over payment.