I was delinquent on my student loan from AES. I received an email stating that if I did not catch up, they would report me to collections. I called them and asked the minimum amount to pay to stay out of collections, and they said $180. Sure, no problem, I paid it. A week later I got another call and email saying that I was behind and about to go to collections. I called them back to make sure it was not just a delay in the system, and they stated that the total amount needed was $600, not $180. I did not have the money for that, so the guy recommended I file for verbal forbearance. I agreed and did the entire phone authorization, answering questions and agreeing to begin repaying on a certain date. He said I would be good to go but that I still might get a call for a few days, and possibly another letter in the mail, until the system caught up.
Roughly two weeks later I got a letter from a collection agency saying I owed them money for AES. I immediately called AES, and they told me there was nothing in the system about a forbearance request. I told her the original date I called and made the $180 payment, then how I had called again and did the forbearance. She insisted I did not, so I told her, "You record conversations, look it up." She said she saw that I had called in the system and transferred me to a supposed manager. The manager said that the guy took down the forbearance information but never actually completed it. She apologized and said that if I quickly (it was a Friday) went to the site and filled out the form in the account area, she would personally deal with it and make sure it was removed from collections.
I filled it out, and a week later a call came in from collections stating I owed money and they were going to garnish my wages. The lady at the agency told me the lady at AES never did anything and that I should NEVER do verbal forbearance, because these companies pull this kind of thing all the time. Yes, calls are recorded, but it is their word, as a lender, versus mine. Needless to say, there needs to be a class action lawsuit against AES, as they are willingly negligent and hurt people's credit to get their money back.
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