Consumer complaint received 2025-04-11 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: MOHELA
State: NH

Complaint narrative:
This is a repeated issue that has occurred since Mohela acquired my student loan debt - the inaccessibility of customer service representatives. I call, get in touch with someone, but then have to be transferred to a " senior customer service representative '' for whom the wait time is sometimes up to 7 HOURS! I work almost two jobs and have childcare responsibilities - I don't have the time to wait on hold for several hours.

I am four years away from Public Service Loan Forgiveness and every payment toward my debt counts ; I do not want this to be deferred or prolonged in any way. I learned that two payments I had made in XXXX and XXXX of XXXX were deemed " ineligible '' for repayment because I was in forbearance at the time. This has pushed back my PSLF date back by two months. I have NEVER requested to go into forbearance and have NEVER agreed to be in forbearance. I am concerned that this may happen again, further postponing my loan forgiveness date. It seems we are at the mercy of Mohela 's whims and errors, with very little recourse to address concerns expediently. 

I called yesterday to address this. I waited 25 minutes to speak to a customer service representative who, ultimately, said they needed to transfer me to a " senior customer service representative '' and the wait time would be 2.5 hours. There is no option for a call back. I have to pray to XXXX the call doesn't drop while I listen to hold music for over 2 hours, while also working. I finally get in touch with a representative after about 2 hours and 45 minutes- having to step away from a work meeting to take the call. The representative could not hear me, even though I had great service. She could hear me cutting in and out and, by that point, I was audibly crying from frustration and despair. She told me she would put me on hold. After waiting on hold for about 15 minutes, I was transferred to an automated survey system and the call was ended. More tears. 

This occurs annually when I have paperwork that needs to be completed by a Mohela representative for Educational Debt Repayment ( EDRP ) through my work. Since Mohela has transitioned to StudentAid.Gov, all payments prior to this transition are not visible to me in the new portal. I needed proof of my payments for the previous year, as well as the form completed and signed by a representative. Because of the red tape/bureaucratic nonsense that is in place at Mohela, the representative I am speaking to on the phone can not simply fill in the blanks on the form, sign, and send directly back to me. It has to go through a process that takes several weeks or longer to be completed and returned to me. Every request to this organization is a hassle, an inconvenience, a battle, and will, undoubtedly, be completed erroneously the first time. I didn't receive the form I needed until after the deadline for EDRP which almost cost me over {$20000.00}. 

I have many friends whose debt has been transferred to Mohela, and their experiences are no different from mine. Long wait times, calls dropping, inaccurate or conflicting information, and representatives stating that they can not call you back if the call gets dropped, so you have to start the process all over again. This is egregious, inhumane, and unacceptable. Can something please be done about this?!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation