I have experienced the following myself. From 2005 until now, AES has engaged, and continues to engage, in these illegal and unethical practices:
(1) It deliberately misstates the payment options open to student borrowers and slows down the processing of paperwork about them. (2) It deliberately refuses to apply payments on time and correctly after they are received, as confirmed by tracking information from the U.S. Postal Service and assorted reputable private carriers, solely to charge late fees and penalties to student borrowers who are not late. (3) It deliberately tries to hide its fraud through deceptive billing, including issuing knowingly false, materially misleading statements, summaries and invoices which fail to reflect real payments received and fees assessed, and that are sent through the mails and by wire.
(4) AES uses automated dialing equipment to harass borrowers up to 50 times a day, even when borrowers cannot return the calls or answer because AES' offices are closed. AES defends this by pointing to how it bundles or unbundles loans under each borrower account. For example, a borrower with 3 'separate' loans (3 disbursement dates) will probably get 3 times the notices, statements and calls (each from a different representative), plus 3 times the automated calls nobody can return. Make it double or triple if AES has also involved its collectors, Key Bank among them. Now imagine that you were not even allegedly 15 days late with an overdue payment that AES had received weeks before and simply held on to, hoping to charge you late fees, and that you were 30 or 60 days late. Think of the call volume then. Multiply it by 4.
(5) AES forged my signature on a $15,000 promissory note, or caused it to be forged.
(6) I have repaid nearly what I supposedly borrowed 15 years ago, yet my debt is still as large as the original loan.
(7) In my professional judgment as an attorney and as an account holder, AES (American Graduate Services), Key Bank and their other co-conspirators are a criminal enterprise, and state and/or federal authorities should shut it down.
If you wonder why these people can do this and escape consequences, thank your Republican Congress and the Presidents of past years who have consistently and deliberately shielded banks and their strong lobby while student borrowers pay the price.
The ONLY thing that will bring AES down is involvement by the Federal Government, the FBI included. AES is like the mob. No joke.
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