Dear Sallie Mae,
I have been having supreme difficulty obtaining a resolution to problems I have been experiencing with Sallie Mae's payment system. I have exhausted your Customer Service systems' talents and still have not received anything more than platitudes and continued collections calls. Please help me fix these problems so that I can get on with my life.About five years ago, I ended a nearly 18-month period of unemployment when I took a job with the Department of Homeland Security. Since about October 2008, I have been making steady, monthly payments on my various student loans that are serviced by Sallie Mae. In fact, all of my loans are now serviced by Sallie Mae. My payments go out every month from my Bank of America account, and I always pay a few dollars more than the minimum payment so that I can cover any minor adjustments to my payments that come up periodically without much notice.In July of this year, my wife gave birth to our first child approximately seven weeks before his due date. Our baby was tiny when he was born and had to stay in the hospital for a few weeks so that he could gain weight and get healthy. My wife and I spent 18 hours a day in the hospital with our child, and everything else was put on auto-pilot. It was around this time that Sallie Mae changed its payment policies and split the receipt addresses for federal and private loans. I did not look at the email notices at that time, as I had more pressing concerns.
About two months later, in early September, I finally got caught up with all of my correspondence and realized that there had been changes. My Sallie Mae account was starting to show one of my accounts as overdue. I called Sallie Mae's customer service line several times, and it was on September 12th that I finally spoke to someone who guided me toward a solution. The problem was that all of my payments were being applied only to my private loans, and nothing was being put toward my federal loans. The representative (Jonathan) stated that he would put in a request to re-allocate the payments from July, August, and September, as that payment was in the mail when I spoke to him. He indicated that the process may take several weeks and that I should be patient. And I was.A few weeks later, I started receiving automated calls from Sallie Mae once more. I eventually spoke to another representative who suspended my number in the system, so that I wouldn't receive calls while Sallie Mae worked on my re-allocation request. That lasted only a few days. Additionally, I would receive sometimes twice-daily emails telling me my account was overdue. I called Customer Service again and through that, my phone number was reactivated, so I began receiving daily phone calls again.On or about October 17th, I spoke to a Customer Service Supervisor named Maria. She stated that she would put in a request to expedite my re-allocation request, and also stated that there was no record of my September 13th payment having been received by Sallie Mae. I uploaded a copy of my bank statement showing that the payment had cleared, at her request. She stated that she annotated my records to indicate the purpose of that uploaded document.By Saturday, October 19th, I was receiving early morning phone calls (08:12AM) from your Customer Service bank. I explained my situation again, as it was becoming rote, and the confused representative offered me a forebearance. When I explained that a forebearance was not appropriate and unacceptable, she placed me on hold and connected me with the collections department. The collections representative stated that my account was current and had been updated as of October 17th. She stated that the Sallie Mae systems would probably update in a few days.I have been receiving daily phone calls from Sallie Mae. Every time, I have to explain the situation or direct the representative to simply look at my account history. Today, out of frustration, I finally asked to escalate the issue and speak to the person at the Customer Service center with the greatest power, but of course, that wasn't possible, as your call center is a contracting agency in the Philippines. I eventually spoke to another supervisor who went through the same motions of requesting expeditious correction of my account, as his colleague Maria did previously.Today, I received a call from the Great Lakes Higher Education Lending Corporation (GLHELC), the underwriter for most of my loans. It was their collections department. They were unaware of any of my issues with Sallie Mae and I spent about half an hour explaining it. The representative suggested I attempt to escalate my case to someone through the Customer Service department. I laughed and described the various attempts I had made to do so, and how each attempt was doomed.I am spending approximately 90 minutes a day talking to your representatives and attempting to get a resolution to my problems. As of tomorrow, it will be six weeks since I first spoke to the agent who stated he would request a reallocation of my payments. If I am unable to achieve a resolution soon, I am not sure how I will proceed except by reaching out to SLM Corporation Headquarters directly.Here are my pertinent details:Account #9.....Last payment correctly applied to private AND federal loans 7/18.August 5th payment incorrectly applied to private loans ONLY. I need to re-allocate this payment to both federal and private, in the ratios in my payment history (same ratios as July 18th payment).September 13th payment is lost. It was sent to the Wilkes Barre address. It also needs to be manually allocated to federal and private along the same lines as the 7/18 payments. I have uploaded a copy of my bank statement as proof that payment was sent. I do not have a cancelled check, as the payment was sent through Bank of America's Billpay program.October 15th payments were recorded properly, as I have since updated payment information with my bank.November payments are coming due.Account shows 37 days past due as of today.You can contact me at this email address: andrew.diroll@...This phone number: 330-.... (DO NOT record that in the general customer service profile until this matter is resolved--the current number I have listed in there is phony, to avoid any more calls)This address:11101 .....I prefer that you call between 9 AM and 4 PM, but I am at work most days so I may not be able to answer right away. If you do get my voicemail, please leave a message where you can be reached directly. I will not deal with the customer service center on this matter any further. I will verify my information over the phone.Thank you,Andrew Diroll-Black
Or, in other terms,
LISTEN, MOTHERFUCKER, DON'T MAKE ME COME DOWN THERE.
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