Consumer complaint received 2016-09-30
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer — Received bad information about my loan
Company: Continental Services Group, Inc. d/b/a ConServe

Complaint:
My student loans went into default last year, and were taken over by Conserve. After researching options for resolving default, I called Conserve yesterday and spoke to " XXXX '' who was not my particular assigned agent ( " XXXX '' was not there ). He insisted on collecting a great deal of contact information from me before talking to me about options available, asking what I was capable of doing. I told him I was interested in getting information on Consolidation or Rehabilitative payments, but he said he wanted to " run through a list of options, beginning with paying off the entire loan ( ~ {$140000.00} ) with the included ~ {$67000.00} in penalties ( ~ {$200000.00} ). Next, he wanted me to pay a " settlement amount '' in the amount of the original loan. XXXX options are beyond my means. After I let him know again that I was interested in either rehabilitative options or in consolidation, and primarily options concerning consolidation, he moved on to rehabilitative payments and he began to ask questions about my financial situation and household, saying he could n't talk to me about anything else until he had that information. He began to collect more information about my job, my salary, household, etc. etc. and insisted that I send paycheck stubs to him immediately. When I let him know these were not immediately available, and again that I was primarily interested in talking about consolidation, he finally looked at the XXXX separate loans I have through the XXXX, then explained that once you consolidate, you ca n't consolidate again. As a result, I " could n't consolidate '' because of the XXXX ( of the XXXX ) I 'd already consolidated. XXXX immediately went back to asking questions about my financials so he could figure out a payment plan for me. Again, he was asking for paycheck stubs and personal information about my family and household. I interrupted him to tell him that I believed I did qualify for consolidation, at least on the loans that had not already been consolidated. He said he was n't aware of any information on that, and asked me where I 'd thought I 'd read that. I pointed him towards the XXXX website on getting out of default and read it to him, and he then quickly explained that had assumed that since I could n't qualify for XXXX of the loans that had already been consolidated, that I " was n't interested in doing that. '' I asked him how to go about applying for consolidation ( through them or through the XXXX ) or finding more information on that, and he said he was not aware of the program and that I should go ahead and arrange a payment plan with Conserve. I told him that I 'd call them back when I contacted XXXX, or able to talk with someone who understood student loans, and XXXX then let me know that maybe I could talk with XXXX and figure this all out with Conserve tomorrow. 
In subsequent research, I have found that ALL my loans qualify for consolidation, without the {$65000.00} in penalties Conserve was attempting to impose. 
XXXX, acting as an agent of Conserve, was clearly trying to obfuscate options available to me to resolve my defaulted student loans. XXXX was intentionally and deceptively withholding information. He was clearly working from a Conserve script to present only the options that were advantageous to Conserve ( most profitable ) and to ensure that I, as a borrower, did not feel confident in either in my understanding of the loan or default process in order to assure that they make maximum profit. XXXX did so by pretending to be ignorant of policies and practices ( consolidation, and policies surrounding consolidation ) that would be clear to anyone working in this field. 
Thank you for your time, and I appreciate your help and attention to this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation