Complaint Review: American Education Services

Students Beware! AES is bad business.

We are not given a choice who our student loans are sold to or services them, but AES would not be one of my choices.

In May, my husband and I refied our home to pay debt. One of the debts was a private student loan with high interrest. Paying it in full this way would save us a lot of money.

The Escrow company sent the already printed checks to us to confirm and to mail out. One of those checks for nearly $11,000 was mailed out immediately to Amercian Education Services using one of the THREE PARTIAL addresses listed on the front and back of their bill.

A few weeks later I get a call to make a payment by phone, which I did. I called my husband to ensure that the funds were transfered, and he said, "No. We already paid them in full with the refy." So he went and put a stop payment on that check by phone.

If you ever want to get a collection agencies attention, just put a stop payment on a check. From there everything went down hill fast.

1st - AES was ticked about the stop payment
2nd - We ask where's the $11k we sent you? AES says they never recieved it. This mess becomes an instant nightmare.
3rd - We contact the escrow company and ask if the check had cleared. Yep, it cleared on June 5th 2007. AES says nope, we don't have it, can you get a copy of th canceled check?
4th - We get a copy of the front and back of the processed check - in all the printing and faxed ink mess we make out some routing nmbers and two banks names. Sure enough, AES says nope, not our banks, not our routing numbers. YOU screwed up.
5th - I'm contacted by a lawyer working for the company who gauranteed my student loan. Why haven't I paid, we are going to sue....
I fill the lawyer in on the missing funds. He gives some slight agreements that AES is bad with business. GREAT...NOT!

Now the search is on for the missing money. But I am only one single person up against some very big organizations; with no lawyers on my side; I can't contact the various banks involved, I'm not their clients; I can't go down to the building, I'm across the country. And here we are scared to death that we will be sued for something that we did right?!

The man that I dealt with at AES is a bill collector nightmare. The double talk was horrible and frustrating. I was refused the name and number of a supervisor, they can't give that info out yet they can't connect me to him either.

Now, something you have to understand. When we got the copy of the cleared check saying it had been cashed, there were several routing numbers on the back as well as the names of two seperate banks. They were difficult to see, but we got enough info from it to ask some serious questions. One bank's name was FIFTH THIRD BANK located in Ohio. We ask AES, "Do you do business with a Fifth Third Bank?" AES says that's not our bank. The other bank listed was Bank of America. We ask AES, "Do you do business with
B of A?" They say, that's not our bank.

Bank of America is an interstate baning hub. They process checks from out of state all the time. We found this out by going down to our local B of A.

This nightmare has gone on for more than two months. I sent AES several faxes with important information to the fax numbers that Mr. X gave me directly. They neer received them. I send a very expensive over night Fed Ex to them with the smae very important information.... They didn't get that either! Mind you, this whole time, I'm keeping that Lawyer informed so I don't get my a*s sued, and he's received everything we've sent him (so I know I'm not a complete moron when it comes to sedning information to someone.)

When we sent the Fed Ex package, I called to confirm that AES had received it. When Mr. X said no, we haven't received anything from you, I ask:
"What? So you're telling me that my F...ing Fed Ex package is in the same F...ing Place my $11k cehck is setting hanging out together?!!" This is an F...ing joke!

We get online and check that the Fed Ex package has arrived. Yep, it got there. I call back AES and speak to Mr. X again. I tell him that the Fed Ex package has arrived at AES and that is was accepted at this time and signed for by this person in this departement...Go FIND IT!

By now, my nerved are shot. I am pulling my hair out trying to jump through all these d**n hoops that they keep throwing at me.

I call the escrow company, I need a trace put on the check. Yep, that'll take 90 days, in the mean time, AES is sending red flags to mine and my husband's credit reports!!!

There are so many things wrong with this entire escapade, that it isn't even funny.

Out of curiosity this week, I go online to check my other student loans wondering why they haven't contacted me for late payments. I check out my payment history to see when my last payment was sent and......

There sat my $11,000.

The exact amount that has been missing for two months. Posted the day before the check was dated as processed.

I called my huband at work angry as hell and overjoyed that I found it.

I called Xpress Loan Servicing company and I asked if they have anything to do with AES. Why, yes they do they tell me. AES does collections for them! I ask who their bank is.....It's Fifth Third Bank out of Ohio where they are located. I ask, "Would you cash a check made out to another entity? They tell me no, they legally can't. I ask, "Would AEs have any reason to send you a check?" They tell me, yes. AES would send the check over for an account they are collecting on for Xpress.

AES denies all of this. AES says they have NO association with Xpress, but they do business with a "Student Laon Servicing Xpress". I go on the web site for XLS and I find that, WOW, THEY are a subsidiary of Student Laoan Servicing Xpress of whom AES admittedly does business with!!!!!

Mr. X calls me from AES. What do ya know, they actually checked the computer and they could see the missing funds!!

Now, Mr. X at AES is being so sugary sweet helpful that it's sickening. "Now Mrs. D., when you get that money refunded to you, you call us immediately and we'll make sure you have the correct information to get the funds here to us and then we'll clear everything up with your credit and the payments that have acrued over the past two months!" Now isn't THAT helpful??

I called the lawyer and told him that I found the funds. He says that when I get the funds back that we will make arrangments to send the funds check by phone directly to the Guantor of the funds bypassing AES altogether. As it is, I will have to go back and clear my debt with XLS who had no wrong doings in the matter, and I will have to fight AES to clear my credit and the payoff amount of my loan now. And I get no compensation for the amount of money spent on faxes, long distance phone calls, Fed Ex packages, late payments and interest acrued during the lapse, and personal grief that AES has caused me and my family.

Here is what OUR research tells us what happened:
1) We mailed the check made payable to AES, to one of the three PARTIAL addresses they have on their bills, including the account numbe for my laon.
2)We think the check got to AES and somehow, for some reason they either didn't get it documented as received or they just sent it on to XLS.
3)XLS applies the funds, not to the loan it was ment for, but to all my other loans which are consolidated with XLS.
4)AES dropped the ball completely.
* They had the funds at some point and sent those funds on to the wrong student laon department or agency
* They do NOT have clear addresses, fax numbers, or other contact information
* They WILL NOT put you into contact with a supervisor when directly asked to

AES takes no responsibility in the matter at this time. They will not apologize and state that it was their mistake. And of course, they are glad the funds are found, I'm assuming, so that they can get their cut.

If I had any say so in the matter, I would not want my student laons serviced by AES at all. As a matter of fact, I WILL FIGHT TOOTH AND NAIL TO GET MY STUDENT LAONS OUT OF AES's HANDS!!

Eva
Bakersfield, California
U.S.A.