First I will give you a little background on my situation. I am a veteran of foreign wars (served under OIF III in 2005.) I returned and decided to do a semester of school in the spring of 2007. Of course I got my loans through the American Education Services. (I believe this is what most people do since you usually do this after applying for grants and such.) At the end of the semester I decided not to go back cause of the cost of going to this school (penn state) which might be another business that deserves a spot on the rip off report because of their ridiculous prices even though they are a state school.
Anyway the loans came due in November. I called to but the loans on forbearance so the military would pay them back. The first time I talked one of their reps she said "yep, will take care of it." but apparently forgot about it since I got a bill next month saying I was late on making payments. So I called again. This time, I thought I had someone a little more sensible on the phone. Till I get correnspondence again from AES saying that I am now on a fianancial hardship forbearance. The third time I called I didn't mess around. I just asked to talk to to a manager. She was able to effectively put me on a Department of Defense Forbearance. (I don't even think the first two employees knew what it was.) But now because of the first girls errors I am not disqualifed for the loan rate discount since I was late making payments. So just last week I sent in my forms for my PHEAA Armed Forces Student Loan Forgiveness Program which was supposed to pay 2500.00 of my total debt to PHEAA. It was something I was eligible for for doing a tour overseas. I was a qualifying veteran. Well, just today I got this nice little letter from my dear friends at AES that reads:
Dear Ms. %,
Thank you for applying for the Armed Student Loan Forgiveness Program. However we regret to inform you, as of May 2nd PHEAA is no longer offering this program.
Of course I called again, this time in tears. Donald, in the loan forgiveness department said this information had been posted of AES website as April 26. I said to him "Why would I check the Website if I was sure this was going to be paid?" He didn't have much to say to that.
I really hate to pull the "this is the thanks I get for serving my country" card but holy h*. No I didn't check the that Website in the small in window of time they alloted. And yes, I did plan my future of bill paying around the fact that this debt was going to be paid. And yes I did stand out in the middle of the Iraqi dessert for a year and I do deserve to treated a little better than this.
To any lawyers out there who think this would be a legitimate case, please contact me. I have a feeling this was in the small print somewhere, but I took out the loan under the pretense that this amount would be settled.
And to the people that work at AES: 1) If I did my job they way you did where I work, I would have been fired. 2) Stop losing the paperwork I send you. If its not your "department" get off your fat ass and walk it there. Don't just throw it the trash. 3) In military personell lingo, you all are a bunch of blue falcons. Ask a military person you know to interpret that for you.
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