Consumer complaint received 2023-10-30 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Trouble with how payments are being handled
Company: MOHELA
State: AL

Complaint narrative:
I am a decision group member of the Cardona Sweet Borrower Defense case, I am also working towards PSLF. I would like to make monthly payments towards PSLF in case my borrower defense case is denied. With this in mind I never asked to be placed in forbearance -- as that time would not count towards forgiveness. During the COVID pause I emailed Mohela multiple times via the portal that I did not want to be in forbearance. I either did not get a reply or I got a generic mass response unrelated to my message. 

Indeed, I was placed on administrative forbearance but was unaware initially. Every year I submit PSLF employer verification forms as I work at a nonprofit hospital. I submitted my annual form via the federal student aid website on XX/XX/XXXX and it was signed XX/XX/XXXX. I noticed forbearance status XX/XX/XXXX and called mohela who took me off forbearance. I set-up autopay. I waited a month to see if my PSLF counts were updated and they were not. I noticed the issue and also noticed I was placed back on forbearance. Mohela said they never got the PSLF form from the FSA website and I would have to resubmit. Therefore I downloaded my form from the PSLF site and uploaded to the Mohela website. They took me off of forbearance again but said I needed to call the Borrower Defense Hotline to ask them to put a note on my account not to place me on forbearance ( they blamed the feds ). I called BD hotline, they blamed mohela and put a note on my account. 

At this point I thought I fixed everything -- but no. I notice after XX/XX/XXXX ( due date for my loan payment ) that mohela never auto-debited me. Instead they left it as a due balance. To make matters worse, the website for mohela said that they wouldn't count XXXX as a qualifying month for PSLF because I was in forbearance even though i called multiple times to be removed! 

Today XX/XX/XXXX I called mohela asking them to rectify the issue. They said I would have to wait a year for the feds to do a one-time account adjustment. When I asked them to document this as a reply to one of my portal messages about not wanting to be on forbearance they refused. They instead told me that it was " unfortunate '' that it happened and that I can " XXXX  XXXX  '' instead. They then informed me that I would have my resubmitted PSLF verification form denied because I downloaded an e-signed form and resubmitted. I asked them to please just contact FSA and obtain my already submitted and signed form from XX/XX/XXXX and they said they didn't have to do that but that I can print out the form, sign it with my employer, and resubmit with a 45 day wait period. I tried calling the FSA hotline today who verified my form was submitted and signed properly. They claimed they would transfer me to their PSLF specialists and instead they transferred me to a message stating " this number can not be completed as dialed, please hang up and try again ''. The wait time to talk to them is several hours and I simply can not afford to keep waiting as I work XXXX hours a week as a resident doctor. I literally just came out of a 48hour call shift and waited hours to talk to mohela in the XXXX  just to get this response. I am genuinely stressed out from their lack of effort and assistance.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation