Consumer complaint received 2024-07-15 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Private student loan
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Received bad information about your loan
Company: SLM CORPORATION
State: AR

Complaint narrative:
I am filing a complaint against Sallie Mae for a loan I took about 2 years ago. I realize that's quite a while ago, but I assure you this isn't the first time I've tried to take care of it, or even the second. I got the loan in XXXX of XXXX and by XXXX had made my first attempts to get out of it. But I never got anywhere in my attempts, and it was only within the past month that I heard about CFPB and I'm hoping you can help me. 

I applied for the loan and was approved on XX/XX/XXXX. However, I felt I was deceived. My mom and I spoke to the main instructor of the program and, even though she didn't mean to, she let us walk away with the belief that I could get the course done within several months. She'd told us that she finished her training in XXXX months and when we told her I was determined to beat her time, she thought that was a great goal or something and didn't even try to correct us about the time it would take. She also negated to tell us about how much memorization it was. That's basically all it is - memorizing a keyboard and all these conflicting rules. I didn't know anything about court reporting, so it was her job to explain it to me. With the belief ( and with her speaking very highly of it and not correcting our assumptions, despite us making them known ) I took out the loan and was approved. I felt even more excited because I wouldn't have to start paying off the loan for XXXX years and I was expecting to be done with that course quickly and already be making money. 

However, once I got everything for the course, it soon became clear that it wasn't what I was expecting. What we believed I could finish in XXXX months was actually meant to be a XXXX. As someone whose health has left her unemployed for several years ( I hadn't worked since late XXXX by that time and I'm still unemployed to this day ) this was a major let down. I wasn't looking for something that was going to take a couple of years - I needed something right away so I could go ahead and start earning money from home. The owner said nothing whatsoever about it being that long, and we talked for a good amount of time. Also, due to my XXXX, a rare autoimmune/neuromuscular XXXX called XXXX XXXX ( similar to XXXX XXXX with more severe flares ), I don't have the ability to memorize very much and certainly not what that course was asking for. If she had told us what it entailed in the first place, I never would have taken out the loan. 

They promised unlimited support, but the support really just parroted back the book, which wasn't very helpful. If I didn't understand the book, how would I understand them just repeating it back to me. I spoke to the company about it, but they just got defensive and told me that they never let us walk away with any assumptions, even though they did and didn't bother to correct us. Getting nowhere with them, I contacted Sallie Mae. After I told them everything that was going on with the company and my health problems, they told me I should fill out their XXXX form and that I would most likely not have an issue getting that loan canceled. I tried at least twice, providing all the documentation I could, but they declined me. 

When I took out the loan, we didn't yet have a clear diagnosis, but we still knew I had cognitive issues and an MRI had revealed a mass in my skull base. 

While the loan is through Sallie Mae, it's for an online company or website called XXXX XXXX and XXXX at XXXX '. Despite what they said, the DID allow me to walk away and take out a loan based on incomplete information and misrepresentation. I don't know if she meant to or not, but she still should have corrected us. When she told us that she completed her course in 4 months or so and I planned to beat her time, instead of being impressed with that goal, she SHOULD have told us that that was only PART of it and that the whole thing was 2 years, but she never said a word. 

In an email she sent me a few days after I tried to get a refund she even said " I have not known anyone who has been able to complete their training in XXXX months as you suggest, except myself who many years ago learned a theory that was not realtime, so I could learn it faster, and I had no children. I could practice around the clock, literally XXXX hours a day most days. I almost burned out. I wouldnt even recommend it to anyone who could practice that many hours. It was grueling. '' She reiterates that she learned it in that timeframe but when we told her I hoped to be able to beat that, she negated to mention the rest of the information. She also said 'as I suggest ' - I didn't SUGGEST anything, she told us that and she says it again here. I really just feel I was taken in because she should have offered this information from the very beginning. Again, I would not have taken out a loan had she. I've tried my best to get Sallie Mae to help me, but they won't. I don't believe I should be responsible for this loan because of what the instructor did and said. 

I attached information regarding my health. Unfortunately, I spoke with Sallie Mae on the phone and can't provide that information but hopefully just having the form will be enough to prove that we did speak ( I wouldn't have been able to find it and fill it out otherwise ). 

There are XXXX options for Sallie Mae on the next page : XXXX ) Sallie Mae and XXXX ) SALLIE MAE BANK. Based off what my statements say ( and the fact that it's a student loan ), I believe it's Sallie Mae. However, if this is not correct, please let me known.

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