Consumer complaint received 10/27/2016 about Student loan (Federal student loan servicing) with NELNET, INC. (MI).
Issue: Dealing with my lender or servicer
Sub-issue: Having problems with customer service

Complaint: I am writing this complaint due to the unethical business practices conducted by my Student Loan company that negatively affected my credit XX/XX/2016. If you check my credit you will find that I have had excellent credit for years ( ~XXXX-XXXX ). A fact that I take great pride in. 

XX/XX/XXXX I received a credit alert. When I went out to check what caused the problem I was startled to find that my consolidated student loan was in 'delinquency. ' Because it was a consolidated loan it affected my credit as if XXXX loans were delinquent, and subsequently my credit score plummeted to ~ XXXX. I immediately took action and called my student loan company, XXXX XXXX, only to find out that my loan with them was switched to NelNet. I questioned ; how this was possible as I never signed any paperwork, and asked what happened to the online payments I was making to XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX advised that all of the payments I made through their system were 'bounced back ' several days after I made them because my loan had been transferred ( but on my end when I was making the payments it looked like they were accepting them ). All along I thought I was making the correct payments and was caught completely off guard. My parents also got involved. They thought that they had been co-signers on this loan. 

After speaking with XXXX XXXX I immediately called Nelnet ( the same day ) to find out more information and see what needed to be done to get this situation resolved. I can not express how disappointed I was in their customer service. They immediately began using scare tactics claiming I owed thousands of dollars and that there was nothing that could be done. I was given more misinformation over and over, and was told it was illegal to have my parents make payments on my student loans. I was bounced around between multiple people over the ensuing days and everyone I spoke to gave me different amounts owed, was highly rude and treated me poorly, when all I was trying to do was make sense of what transpired and rectify the situation. I called every day for a week trying to provide them with as much information as I could and even offered to pay off my account in full ( ~12k ). All of this was caused because ~ {$300.00} was in delinquency. I made the payment right then on the spot and explained what had happened to them and was told that they could only report a change to the credit bureaus if I was a. ) an active student or b. ) in the military, of which I am neither. I explained to them that I have never had an account reach delinquency before, I pay all my bills on time ( hence my high credit score ), and that there was obviously a miscommunication between XXXX XXXX, NelNet and the transfer of my loan ( I will add that I never spoke to anyone from NelNet before this issue or received any paperwork, so how was I to know I was supposed to pay them instead of XXXX XXXX? ). I never received a paper bill and was told that " it is a courtesy for them to send a bill, not an obligation, and that I should 've known. '' I simply can not believe that a XXXX XXXX company can practice business in such an unethical manner, affect someone 's credit so heavily and then not make corrections when there is clearly an error with the XXXX loan companies. I was advised that all phone calls were recorded and I implore you to look into this further. I also contacted the XXXX credit bureaus and explained the situation and asked for help. They did not research and just sent me a copy of my credit report. While all of this was going on I was trying to close on a house, which I ended up losing because my credit was so severely hurt. Please help me. It is so frustrating to do the right thing only to have Big Business squash your credit for something that is n't your fault and no one will help. I 'm just one person with no power. I hope that you can assist me in my fight

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation