Consumer complaint received 2016-07-27
Product: Student loan — Non-federal student loan
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are handled
Company: AES/PHEAA (WA)

I have been dealing with American Education Services since XXXX XXXX to attempt to receive a full account reconciliation because they have admitted that at some point in my repayments ( begun in XXXX ) mistakes were made in distributing my monthly payments amongst the XXXX different loans ( with multiple distributions ) that they serviced. XXXX set of loans is supposed to be held by XXXX XXXX and the other set of loans through the XXXX program. For years I paid double the minimum on my GATES loans in order to pay down the principle as soon as possible. I also tried as often as possible to pay more than a minimum payment on the XXXX Bank repayment plan to take advantage of addition percentage points off the next months accrued interest. As of XXXX XXXX I began to get very confusing billing statements and delinquency notices that made no sense according to my bank records. I 've spent hours on the phone with account reps, escalating to account managers, following up eight time since XXXX, XXXX trying to get this resolved. I have all my notes detailing conversations, next steps promised etc. Since XX/XX/XXXX I was promised that I would get a full accounting with the amounts reallocated so that I would know exactly where my accounts stand but that has not happened and several staff have admitted that it " fell through the cracks '' or it has been " researched several times but without a decision '' as to how to handle the corrections. In XX/XX/XXXX, in part on the advice of the account rep, I refused to pay anything more until I could be provided with accurate reconciled data about these loans. With no response, I called back in XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX, XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX only to be told that the loans in question had been put into default, my credit is ruined. In multiple conversations I have been assured that they were working to fix the problems and the loans would come out of default but as of XXXX/XXXX/XXXX there is no resolution. I have even contacted XXXX XXXX directly to arrange to pay off the loans, assuming they could perhaps make AES get the payoff amount corrected -- but XXXX XXXX no longer provides school loans and have no record of them in there system apparently. So my issues are : who really holds these loans anymore? how can I get these loans settled if no one can give me accurate account status? and more importantly where did the money I have diligently paid for years go???? 
Let me be clear, I am not claiming that : 1. I never missed or was late for a payment, especially early on when I started repayment during the Recession. 
2. I did not stop making payments as of XXXX, XXXX. It was my only leverage, I thought, to get this institution to correct their own errors! And the account reps indicated if I kept making payment before the error was resolved it would likely make the situation worse. 
But I paid using separate checks, with separate memo notes as to which loans they applied to on the check, in separate envelopes. And the same for my online banking. I even tried to apply for Direct electronic payment using their system, and they had to admit to me after two months that they did n't know why but my application never went through -- it was put on hold -- with no explanation. 
How much is my responsibility in the face of this experience? Is this reaching a level of breach of fiduciary duty? In two weeks my credit union researched and provided me proof of all my school loan payments ; what possible defense could AES have that they can not do the same? Be aware that I have been informed that there is no recourse for speaking directly with an AES troubleshooter or complaint manager. They only accept written correspondence to yet another division in the company. I will be filing a credit dispute form, that again must be on their form and mailed in ( no online option ). Please assist me if you can.