Consumer complaint received 2024-03-27 00:00:00
Product: Student loan — Federal student loan servicing
Issue: Dealing with your lender or servicer — Problem with customer service
Company: MOHELA
State: WI

Complaint narrative:
I applied for the SAVE plan on XX/XX/XXXX. I am on an income driven repayment plan but am trying to lower the monthly payment. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke to MOHELA representative XXXX at approximately XXXXXXXX XXXX who stated there was an error on their end and my application would be reprocessed within 15 business days. He did not advise me to make any changes to my current application. He then transferred me to a female billing representative to get additional information. The female representative indicated my application had been assigned yesterday, XX/XX/XXXX and it should be fully processed within 15 business days. She did not advise that I had to make any changes to my current application. She advised my new payment had already been calculated and it was {$100.00}. She stated if I did not receive confirmation it had been processed to call back. She disclosed all the loan information to me at that time. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, at approximately XXXXXXXX XXXX I spoke with MOHELA representative with a Session ID XXXX Employee ID : XXXX. I had not gotten any communications from MOHELA since the call in XXXX, so I wanted to follow up. This representative told me my application had just been assigned today, coincidentally, to a XXXX XXXX and the status of my application was still showing as pending on her end. After consulting with a supervisor several times, this representative told me my application will be processed within 2-3 business days. She read the script that stated she would approve an administrative forbearance while this was being updated until XX/XX/XXXX. She did not indicate I needed to make any changes to my current application. She informed me of the loan information at that time. 
At approximately XXXX, I logged into my MOHELA account and my application status was 'canceled. ' At XXXX, I spoke with MOHELA representative XXXX and inquired why my application was showing as canceled and informed her of the plans that were established earlier in the day. XXXX consulted with a supervisor over the course of an hour, and told me I needed to re-submit a new application, without any reasonable explanation given the plans that were made earlier. XXXX stated she read my conversation with the representative earlier, and sees that the plan was established to place me in forbearance, but she can no longer do that since my application was canceled. In a matter of hours, I went from having an active application that was being assigned to a XXXX XXXX and was assured to be processed within 2-3 business days with a forbearance to assist during the interim to avoid delinquent status to being completely canceled. I was not given any notice of this from MOHELA and only discovered it by randomly logging into my MOHELA account. Based on my conversation today, I was told I would be in forbearance until XX/XX/XXXX with a processing application to be completed within 3 days. Had I not had the intuition to check this, my account would have been sitting delinquent, and my application was canceled without me being made aware of this. My new payment was already calculated and had been processing for months. I am able to pay the new payment. I am failing to see why I should have to re-start this process all over again. I am very concerned with the lack of accountability from MOHELA. There will be records indicating what was told to me and I do have an audio recording that verifies the representative observed the forbearance arrangement that was made. It is unreasonable for them to cancel my application the same day I made these arrangements. Especially without notifying me. This could have had very negative consequences on my financial situation and my public service loan forgiveness plans. I am ready and able to pay the already calculated payment of {$100.00} but they've made it impossible to do so. I don't feel I should be punished because they've failed to process my application in a reasonable time frame.

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