U.S. Department of Education
Reviews and Complaints

I totally agree. So now I guess Department of Educations has you sign a wavier that if you accept money from them, that you can not sue them. Basically they can screw you and there is no recourse. Congress needs to put an end to this!

DO NOT GIVE THESE PEOPLE ANY MONEY ... EVER.

In addition, if you choose to contact the Ombudsman group, be sure to get a hold of Joyce DeMoss and mention the following name,

ALBERT LORD. Mr Lord is a 66 year old executive who just in the past 5 years has paid himself 50 Million dollars in compensation while having provided no services or even having completed any work.

If the purpose of an "Ombudsman's" Office is to provide some independent oversight or at least a disinterested party in this process, I would think Ms. DeMoss first order of business would be an investigation into how and why the Federal Government's name and the Department of Education have been paying an individual such extravagant amounts of compensation.

Oh and by the way, Sallie Mae, directly states on their website that they are not in any way shape or form associated with the United States Government but yet all indications are that they are providing a service which is backed by the "FEDERAL" government hence the name Federal Student aid.

Basically the entire scam is one large ponzi scheme where a make believe bank makes up make believe contracts on make believe notes, pays it's executives large amounts of compensation and then makes believe they either do or do not exist and they either have or have not actually paid out these monies into executives bank accounts which has then been used to amass large fortunes and amounts of property.

In short, the entire system is one of the largest bank scams ever perpetrated on the American Public. It puts Madoff to shame.

Zero Accountability, no ability to research the issues at hand, no contractual responsibility, no CONSIDERATION for having entered into any supposed "contract".

Blatant invasion of privacy and harassment. Double Speak like you wouldn't believe.

One sided documents that have absolutely no valid legal effect due to the fact that they are not "Agreements" and are for the most part entered into by parties under Duress.

A complete joke. Don't give these folks or anybody associated with them a nickel and MAKE SURE in the upcoming election you express to the powers that be that you want every single one of these charlatans out of a job.

TIME TO GET OFF THE GRID PEOPLE.
...START DELETING EVERYTHING ABOUT YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION ON THE INTERNET...PEOPLE ARE MAKING MONEY OFF YOUR NAME AND INFORMATION. THIS IS HOW THE BOTTOM FEEDERS FIND OUT ABOUT YOU.

1. STOP ORDERING PIZZA FROM YOUR CELL PHONE...YES THEY SELL THAT NUMBER TO INFORMATION PROVIDERS WITH YOUR CELL NUMBER AN ADDRESS THANKS TO YOUR LOCAL PIZZA COMPANY. JUST STOP BY AND GET IT YOURSELF. WE NEED TO STOP BEING LAZY.
2. GET OFF THE SOCIAL SITES THEY ARE CREEPING ON THERE TO FIND OUT STUFF ABOUT YOUR LIFE. "BIG BROTHER" ORSON WELLS WAS RIGHT...ITS COMING TO THAT.
3. ON THE SOCIAL SITE THEY ARE STEALING YOUR PICTURES TOO. RIGHT CLICK THE PHOTO AND IT WILL TELL YOU WHEN, WHERE YOU TOOK THE PICTURE. THEN GOOLE THAT WITH THE GRID LOCATION...NOW THAT IS SCARY STUFF.
4. FOR EVERY HOUR I SPENT ON THE INTERNET, I TAKE ONE DAY DURING THE WEEK TO GOOGLE MY NAME AND SEND EVERYONE WHO HAS MY NAME ON IT TO OPT OUT AND DELETE. THIS WILL TAKE TIME BUT I DID IT ALL. I STILL DO IT ONCE A WEEK BEFORE IT GETS INTO THE ICCP WEB CRAWLER. WHICH TAKES 30 DAYS TO GET IT OUT OF THE INTERNET. ALSO PEOPLE ARE MAKING MONEY TO DO JUST THAT. SOME ONE ALWAYS COMES UP WITH A PETTER MOUSE TRAP.
5. USE A POST OFFICE ADDRESS THEY ARE CHEAP TO HAVE AND THAT WAY STOP PUTTING YOUR ADDRESS ON THE INTERNET. THIS IS ALL IN THE NAME OF "PERSONAL SECUTIY AND PROTECTION" IF UNCLE SAM CAN USE IT WHY CAN'T WE. ITS CALLED USE OF DOMAIN...XXXX.

Also:

Send a letter to Equifax, Transunion and TRW, Experian...they will not get off there lazy butt to send them a request for documents to prove you made or signed any documents for loan conslidation. DL took this upon there self. NEVER GIVE THEM AN ACCOUNT NUMBER. ADVICE: CLOSE OUT THE BANK ACCOUNT YOU GAVE THEM AND SEND THEM MONEY ORDERS THE OLD FASHION WAY. THEY CANNOT PROVE ANY LOAN DOCUMENTS YOU GAVE THEM NO MATTER HOW LONG AGO THE LOAN WAS TAKEN OUT. THE BOTTM FEEDERS JUST HAVE THE ACCOUNTS THEY BIDDED ON TO GET THE 5 CENTS ON THE DOLLAR FOR THE STUDENT LOAN ACCOUNT. YES IT IS THERE JOB TO KEEP YOU PAYNING FOR THE REST OF YOUR LIFE ON THE STUDENT LOAN, DOUBLE CHARGE AND ALSO MAKE DOUBLE NOTATION IN THE CREDIT FILE FOR THE SAME LOAN, , , , , , , MAKING IT APPEAR YOU HAVE 100, 000 IN OUT STANDING LOANS. GOOD LUCK WITH A FEDERAL GOVERNMENT JOB.

SEND COMPLAINT AND LETS STOP THE ABUSE

Joyce DeMoss serves as the Ombudsman for Federal Student Aid (FSA) at the U.S. Department of Education. Joyce returned to Federal Student Aid after 6 years in the Office of the Ombudsman at the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), including 5 years as the TSA Ombudsman where she served the needs of the agency’s 60, 000 employees. Joyce was one of the original members of the FSA Ombudsman Group from its earliest days when she helped set up the Group, and served as its first Associate Ombudsman. She has a broad background in the federally-guaranteed and Direct Loan programs, working in loan servicing operations, guaranty agency compliance, and servicing contractor oversight. Her experience working in an external-facing Ombudsman office at FSA, and as an internal (employee-focused) Ombudsman at TSA means Joyce is well-versed in providing a neutral, independent, data-driven voice on behalf of the recipients of an agency’s services. She is also an active member of ombudsman professional groups, including the International Ombudsman Association (IOA) and the Coalition of Federal Ombudsman (CoFO).

The Ombudsman Group was established on September 30, 1999, with a highly skilled team of Ombudsman Case Management Specialists charged with the responsibility to assist in resolving complaints from individuals who bring federal student aid disputes to the attention of the Ombudsman. Although the primary office location is Washington, D.C, case specialists also operate out of remote locations in Illinois, Iowa and Kansas. Additionally, a special team of Federal employees in the Chicago Service Center assists with cases brought to the Ombudsman Group. The Ombudsman Group addresses individual complaints in coordination with institutions of higher education, lenders, guaranty agencies, loan servicing agencies and other participants in the federal student aid programs. Although the Ombudsman Group keeps a record of all complaints, inquiries are sometimes referred to groups outside the Ombudsman Group to better assist in getting a proper response for the specific situation. Further, the Ombudsman Group relies on the expertise of designated agency ombudsmen to facilitate individual problem resolution and identify trends that suggest how program or operational changes can prevent recurring problems.

Run far & fast from this company. Warn your friends, families, & random strangers on the street. I tried to include 2 additional loans into my already-existing consolidation with them; I didn't know they weren't eligible. Instead of stopping there, informing me of that & keeping my account as-is, they RE-CONSOLIDATED MY CONSOLIDATION. They included my already consolidated loans into the consolidation. Don't understand? Yeah, me either. I asked them to reverse the process & they threw Terms & Conditions in my face, saying they don't do that. I filed 2 BBB claims - they never responded to either. An ombudsman is working on the case now - they don't get back to her either. My monthly payment has went up by $50 a month & I'm essentially paying the same loans twice. I told them that must be illegal & the guy said "probably, but you signed away all rights to suing us when you entered into a contract." I'm basically stuck, miserable & in even more debt then when I started out. Not to mention, their interest rates are outrageous! Customer service is the pits too. STAY AWAY!

Dear borrowers,
Do not get suckered into the "public service loan forgiveness" mess. I was misled by a rep on the phone that I was under the standard repayment plan that qualifies for this forgiveness. I was not. Then to find that im only eligble for two repayment plans that are qualify for forgiveness. Guess what? both plans have giant monthly payments that go up with my income and end up paying off the loan before ten years! catch 22. there is NO forgiveness for public servants. Its a gimmick scam!

I am currectly in the process of trying to find someone to talk to at Direct Loans, but "no managers are available."
Like others, I received a letter on Monday telling me that my application was approved. When I looked at my original application this morning, the interest rate went from 4.875 to 5.125 and the payment about 6 bucks higher. The interest rate turned me off so I called to tell them I wasn't intereseted. Well, the letter was dated 10/8/10 so the last day I could have called was Monday...the day I received the letter. I plan on putting a call into my lawyer to see if there is anything they could do, but I doubt it. A class action lawsuit is probably what needs to happen in order to get their attention. I am really thinking of taking this on because the government should not be taking advatage of taxpayers this way and I have some time on my hands. With that said, I have been doing some research on starting this suit and the main thing is numbers. You gotta have a lot of people complaining. If you would like to get involved and show your support. Please send me a quick email at belizeanskeewee@gmail.com.

Recently the Department of Education bought two of the three loans I had from Wells Fargo. One was a subsidized loan and the other was an unsubsidized loan. You can imagine they already messed it up by lumping both loans together on my statement and charging interest on both loans.

I have an E-mail into the Dept of Ed to see why this was done and how to fix the account and the interest that has been charged since I am currently in school and should not be paying interest on the subsidized loan.

These are the problems we get when government gets involved in what should be done by the private sector! I will not be authorizing automatic payments as they have already shown me they can mess up simple stuff such as basic record keeping.

I received a letter from Direct Loans stating they were going to start taking approximately $90 out of my account starting in August because I signed up for some type of electronic draft. Only thing is my student loans have been paid in full for over 3 months and I never had a loan with them. The letter had my name and address on it. When I called the 800 number on the back, they asked for my social security number and then said it was not in their system. They asked if there was an account number on the letter. There was a 9 digit account number with only the last 4 digits and the rest x's. I gave them the number and they said that was the social, which I said it was not. They then verified my name and address again and said that was all they needed and told me to send the letter back to them so they could figure out who it was for!?!

Obviously there has been some type of data breach, massive data corruption or these guys are good social engineers. I'm still not sure which...

Last month (the first month back to repayment) my payment was 72.36, I paid it early. This month my payment is now 92.80. I tried to call and their wait was very long, so I tried to get a call back which was offered, but they said it was not available at this time. I would like an answer how my payment goes up 20 dollars in a month.