Complaint Review: ACS

I am writing to complain about ACS (my student loan provider).

I am currently in school half-time cumulatively: one school is the University of Kansas (5 credit hours), and the other school is Johnson County Community College (1 credit hour). I recently received a bill from ACS stating my first payment is due on 06/14/2014. Therefore, I called them to report I am in school half-time , because they need to place my account in deferment status.

I spoke to a supervisor named Tory on 03/31/2014 at about 2:00pm after requesting to speak to a supervisor. She states that I need to have each school complete paperwork stating I am in school half-time. I advised her that I encountered a problem with this paperwork when attempting to complete my deferments with Great Lakes. The problem is the paperwork makes each school acknowledge that I am part-time, and I am under part-time status with both colleges. Rather, I am cumulatively taking 6 credit hours which makes me part-time overall at both colleges. Tory states that unless the colleges sign this paperwork, they will not place my account in deferment status. I advised her that the entrance and exit counseling merely status part-time status, it does not state that it cannot be cumulative, and they are essentially violating the terms and conditions of their contract. Moreover, I advised Tory I had to report Great Lakes to the Attorney General’s office of Kansas, the BBB, and to Ombudsman’s office, and the company finally cleared it up without requiring the schools to complete the paperwork due to the mass confusion they created with paperwork wording. Rather, Great Lakes picked up the phone and called each school to verify my part-time status. Moreover, they stated that I should have been advised by the original representative at Great Lakes that each college could complete a letter stating my total hours, basically making it an addendum to the paperwork that would reflect under part-time status at both colleges, and it would have allowed Great Lakes to place my account into deferment. Now, I am having to go through the same thing with ACS, and despite explaining the process to them, which they should already know, they still refuse to place my account into deferment status unless I provide the signed paperwork (not admitting the addendum) with the schools each checking I am enrolled with them half-time. And just like Great Lakes originally thought, ACS believes I have to be enrolled in at least one college half-time rather than accepting cumulative coursework. Therefore, I need to report ACS to the same organizations that I reported Great Lakes to about a month ago.

I have reported ACS to the following organizations: BBB of Upstate New York; the Attorney General of Kansas; the Attorney General of New York; the Ombudsman over student loans; and I have even gone as far to write the White House due to the website's contact section having an option to select "help with a government agency," and the student loans are stafford. Anyone who has complaints with ACS should follow the same steps. When you attempt to locate them when filing a BBB report, their physical address is on Bleeker. Their other address is PO Box 7051, Utica, NY 13504-7051.