My name is Christina Coy and I signed up with the program back in October 2014.
My contact with FSLA began 10/24 with Paul Halligan. I signed up for the program all via online documents and emails. I was advised by Paul that after filling out my documents the process would begin and that he would be contacting Navient on my behalf and placing my loans in forbearance. At this time my loan had just become due and I was not yet behind on payments.
Paul advised me that from then on, they would communicate directly with Navient on my behalf, that they would place my loans in forbearance, and that I would be communicated with regarding the status of this loan process.
I began receiving calls from Navient advising me that my payment was late and they had received no communication from FSLA. I called Paul and left messages with an operator, on his direct line, and via email. I have emails from 11/12 and 12/15 that indicate my 3rd and 4th time attempting to reach him, after having zero communication from - not a single response since the time I filled out my documents.
I ended up contacting Navient myself (I began getting collection calls - I was overdue 3 months in payments because Paul did not do what I was told he would do) I placed the loan in forbearance and applied for income repayment - which has been fully processed and I am now making payments on my loan.
I received an email from Cindy on 12/15 indicating that she would be handling my loans from here on out, she said she was having a hard time finding my information. We send a few emails back and forth regarding my name in order for her to find my loan. My last communication from her was on 12/15. Since then I have called and left messages, as well as emailed her no less than 3 times with
no response.
I was contacted by Tina after my multiple inquiries who advised me she would be point of contact from this point on. I explained to her the situation at the time and was advised she would contact accounting and see what could be done. She responded later and advised that I could be removed from the program and that the last payment (the 3rd installment) would not be needed.
I responded that while I appreciated being removed from the program, I felt at least a partial refund was due to me. FSLA took my money and did not a single thing for me. Cindy couldn't even find my information when we began our contact. It has been over a month since Tina first contacted me and I inquired about a partial refund. When I hadn't heard anything after 10 days I inquired again and was advised that the accounting person had been out on maternity leave and that she would get back to me with some information. Another 9 days has gone by and today I received a response from her asking me to contact you directly with further inquiries.
As you can imagine I am growing increasingly frustrated with this process. The bottom line at this point is that I truly am owed a full refund. I did not partake in the program as intended based on the fact that FSLA did nothing for me that was promised, I ended up doing it all myself, so I paid for literally nothing. I am only asking for a partial refund - but as my frustration grows and I continue to get the run-around I am feeling more and more ignored and frustrated and wonder if I should take the request for a refund to a higher level as I feel completely justified at this point.
Each representative that I've been in contact with has failed in what they promised they would do. Tina has always responded to me in a timely manner up until I requested a refund, then I began to get the run around as I continued to inquire and now I'm being handed off to you. As you can imagine, I'm drowning in student loan debt, I finally got my payments to a manageable place and I'm current on them. I struggled to come up with over $400 that I couldn't spare in order to get done what I ended up doing myself. This is not money I can easily spare and I feel that I wasted it and nothing was done. This has placed a financial hardship on me.
I apologize for the lengthy explanation but I'm documenting everything fully and wanted to make sure you knew the full situation.
Can you assist?
Hopeful,
Christina Coy
This is the last of nearly 20 emails - all documented and phone calls with no response. This was sent 7 days ago and I've still had no response. I am not stopping until I get my money back!