Consumer complaint received 2024-02-28
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: Nelnet, Inc. (RI)

On XX/XX/2024, the amount of {$8200.00} was accidentally submitted through our joint XXXX  XXXX XXXX account to the government loan merchant Nelnet. The amount should have been {$82.00} paid monthly towards a Federal student loan with a remaining balance of under {$900.00} The {$8200.00} was debited from our checking account on XX/XX/XXXX sending our account into overdraft. 
We noticed the error immediately and called XXXX  XXXX XXXX customer service to request a stop payment on the {$8200.00}. They assured us that the amount would be stopped, and our account credited the next day. 
On XX/XX/2024, the {$8200.00} was refunded. Three days later, on XX/XX/XXXX, the said amount was re-debited from our account again forcing our account into overdraft. We called the bank who again assured us that the amount would be reimbursed and that Nelnet, the merchant could only attempt the withdrawal twice. We were advised to call Nelnet to make them aware of the situation. Nelnet acknowledged the request and placed a note on file not to process the payment. 
The {$8200.00} was then refunded on XXXX XXXX. However, on XX/XX/XXXX, the {$8200.00} was withdrawn from our account for the third time. After speaking with the Bank, they again assured us that the maximum number of attempts Nelnet was allowed to resubmit the amount for payment was three times, not to worry about it Nelnet would not be paid. We called Nelnet again to request that they not submit the payment. They agreed and confirmed that there was a note on file indicating that we had requested that they not submit the payment and assured us that it would not be resubmitted. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, the {$8200.00} still hadnt been credited back to our bank account. Once again, we reached out to the bank who advised us that it could take up to XXXX hrs from XX/XX/XXXX for the amount to re-appear in our account. 
On the morning of XX/XX/XXXX, we again called XXXX  XXXX XXXX, and this time were told that the transaction had in fact been processed allowing the payment to go through to Nelnet, even after multiple requests to both the bank and Nelnet to stop payment, and repeatedly being assured that the money would not be taken out. We then followed up with a visit to one of the Banks branches, who informed us that the transaction had definitely not been completed and that Nelnet had not been paid. We were told to wait until XX/XX/XXXX for the funds to be re-deposited. This did not happen. 
Our salaries were deposited into our account automatically on XX/XX/XXXX which went towards offsetting the {$8200.00}, and still leaving our account in debit. We followed up with a call once again to XXXX  XXXX XXXX who said that there was nothing they could do. It was beyond their control and that we should guess what? Call Nelnet! In fact the rep informed us that WE now owned them money even though we had no money to put into the account because they had allowed it to go into debit because Nelnet had the received payment regardless of the number of times we called both institutions to request a stop payment. 
So, again reached out to Nelnet for a status and were told that they could not find the original transaction of {$8200.00} in their system and were only seeing a transaction for {$82.00}. We did a three-way call with the Bank and Nelnet. The Bank provided Nelnet with reference information and confirmation that the payment definitely had gone through. Nelnet said that they would put through a refund but that it was now in the hands of the Treasury Department who could take up to 20 days just to review the case, and secondly it could take up to 7 weeks for them to issue a check. A week later, we called Nelnet for an update, and they advised us that it was out of their hands and could not provide a status. They then went on to tell us that we should call Studentloans.gov providing us with their tel. number. The first person who answered was very rude, and simply said she could find the loan information. Eventually, we were transferred to another person who said that Studentloans.gov didnt handle billing and that we should be contacting Nelnet . We told them that we had done this several times and the person made the comment Nelnet keeps telling people to contact us for billing issues which is not correct. We only process the loan applications. 
Since then we have been receiving daily calls from XXXX  XXXX XXXX asking us to deposit money into our account, money we do not have. 
Payment of our bills and on hold. Neither institution has been empathetic to our situation, nor have they been accountable to their errors.