Student Outreach Solutions Unethical Selling Practices Cincinnati, Ohio

To the person who says he/she worked for Direct Loans:

My job would be SO MUCH EASIER if I could cure accounts without calling the borrower first. I work for Sallie Mae, so I ensure you we are not "crooked" as you say. We are restricted in what we can do as far as curing delinquent accounts. We must talk to the borrower before doing anything to the account. Oftentimes the accounts are already current, but we still must talk to the borrower before we can note that it's current. We can check several different servicer websites, just not Direct Loans. Also, we're not allowed to call the lender/servicer before contacting the borrower. Again, my job would be much easier and simpler if I could do that.

One more thing, I have never personally gotten on the line with a rep from Direct Loans (or any other lender/servicer for that matter) when the account is said to be current on the autoline. We always listen to the autoline to hear the status (if it's current). If the account is not current with Direct Loans, it automatically sends us to a rep. We never force the borrower to do anything he/she doesn't want to do. Once they are on the phone with the rep, we let the call go from there.

I have personally talked to borrowers about the IBR (income based repayment), and once a rep is on the line they decide to send out unemployment or economic hardship deferment forms. I don't know how many times I've had that happen. Ultimately, we recommend different options, but we always let them know once we get a rep they may suggest something else. At least I personally always advise them that the rep may suggest something different.

As far as calling borrowers at inconvenient times.. we don't force them to stay on the phone. Every rep is different, but I never personally make them stay on the phone. Whenever they indicate that the timing is inconvenient, I always ask if there's a better time I can reach them. So as far as that goes, I think it depends on the rep. I find that being polite and not too pushy goes a long way with borrowers. We are just doing the job the schools want us to do, which is ultimately help the borrowers get current on their loans.

Also, when you say "it is just the mute button".. I find that hard to believe that anyone would do that. We are required to get the forbearance dates before the call ends so we can properly note the account. If you purposely give false information on the phone, that's a severe compliance issue.

i have worked for direct loans. your company calls all the time after calling the borrower to conference us. first of all you guys lie to the borrower about past due accounts and even when we advice you not to patch thru because borrower  is current you guys still patch thru. we place you on hold while we apply forbereances, deferments or need to research something but it really is the mute button. you advice the borrower to get a forbereance only so you can get them off the phone quick and when we try to inform them about things that can help with the interest on a subsidized loan or part of loan while billing is postpone or lower repayment plan, you guys meddle in the call and start talking over us to prevent the borrower to know the truth. student outreach also convinces the borrower to sent the completed forms back to your office instead of the forms we send and you guys never return them to us. 2 in about fifteen calls from student outreach are accounts that are wrong and it is not the schools fault that you guys get outdated information, you guys can call for statuses first and then call the borrower but you guys call them and patch them thru to us without checking ANYTHING first because you guys are crooked. you all also call people at work and tell them the call will be a moment or couple of minutes and even tell us to hurry because the borrower is at work or driving....duh, you called them. your fault for calling them at an inconvenient time. if they are busy you should respect that, some of these people are driving and try to obey no cellphone laws while driving but you guys harrass them into staying on the line. some borrowers have blown up in your calls and left the call without forbereances because they have been lied to about what the call entails, we even tell you at the beguinning that we have to go over repayment plans first. you all know that there are limits to the lenght of time one can get a forbereance and you guys make sure that that is what they get and then they call back crying because they exhausted all the forbereances. you guys are horrible. i encourage anyone reading this to hang uop on these fools and if you guys try to call direct loans make sure to call 1800 8480979 or 0981 our number appears on caller id when we try to call you. always deal with the servicer directly and not student outreach, they lie and they are rude. funny the only people filing a rebuttal were people that had direct connection to you all. lying ling lying and manipulative as hell. 

I am an employee of Student Outreach Solutions. Your claims are so very false.

First:
You are mistaken, just like many other people. Many people get very defensive when being accused of having delinquent accounts-- and that's totally understandable. However, Student Outreach Solutions has nothing to do with debt repayment programs. In fact, we can't even accept payments. We must conference call your lender (such as Sallie Mae, Direct Loans, etc..) in order to bring your account current.

You may be thinking of the different repayment options your lender offers, but that's strictly you paying the lender. Again, we do not take payments of any kind. We simply try to make you aware of the repayment options available through your lender.

Second:
The school you attended (our client) provides us with the information about your loans, so if it is incorrect, that's not our fault. We act on behalf of the school to keep loans out of default and current.

Third:
We are actually there to help you. We are loan counselors. We are there to provide you information you may not have known regarding lower payment options and deferments (again, all through the lender directly, we do not take payments or make any changes to your account).

Most people are too afraid to face their delinquent student loans because they think they are being forced to pay them no matter what. That's not true. There are so many options available. So. Many. Just because you received a letter with inaccurate information does not mean we are trying to scam anyone. Mistakes happen.

I worked for this company for about 6 months ending in June of 2011.  They do not arbitrarily call folks to get them to 'sign up' for any debt-repayment program.  They are hired by different universities to follow up on students who are reportedly delinquent on their student loans.  

There were a number of times when I called people who were already current on their payments, and the reason for this is because the school gave Student Outreach Solutions outdated information.  The school reporting the students' loan status is not perfect, and while most of the time the information was good there were also times when it was incorrect.   Your beef is with the school, not Student Outreach Solutions.