Sallie Mae Harasses And Uses Illegal Practices To Collect Debt , refuses to send forms, refuses to show payments made, calls family and friends to get their money in an attempt to shame me into paying Wilkes-Barre Pennsylvania

Well, I signed up for online school and I went, and I do not refute that I owe the debt. I do, however, have no doggone money. I started working doing truckdriving and I paid some payments in the full amount while I was working, then I got fired. Now I have no home, I live in a room in my Dad's house and I have no phone anymore (couldn't pay the bill).

I finally got hired after two months at a preschool driving the schoolbus. So I explained to these people over and over and over again that my only income was some $200 that welfare gave me to live on and feed my kid. Then I got my job and I still qualify for welfare because it doesn't make a hill of beans. But it's a job. So I'm scraping my way up.

Ok, so here's the deal... from about August until about Nov-Dec of -08 Sallie Mae called me repeatedly, three and four times a day on my now shut-off phone, harassing me about this bill that I had already notified them about that I could not pay. They would not accept payments smaller than some $400 bucks. I told them get in line, they ain't the only bill I got to pay.

Anyways, they called my Dad, they called friends listed as reference on the account, trying to get them to help me pay, or to tell them where I was (I have never ceased to notify these people where I am, but I refused to give a phone, because I simply do NOT HAVE A PHONE. I'll be damned if I'm going to give a friend's or family's phone number to a debt collector so they can harass them TOO!)

I tried to get these people to send me the forbearance or deferment forms for financial hardship, so that I could stop this debt collection process. They kept sending them in email. I explained that these files were in Adobe Acrobat, and I had to go to the library to get them, which would require me to download the file from my email and print it and send it in.

Well the library does not allow downloads. I tried asking them to bend the rules, repeatedly. They said that their tech people set it up and they have no way of circumventing the block to download things, so that was a moot point. I explained this over and over, and over and over, to these Sallie Mae debt collectors that kept calling me, night and day, three and four times a day. They REFUSED to send me the forms by postal mail.

One person on the phone claimed that their "computer systems were not set up to print the forms out and send them out by mail..." LIES!!! They did that very thing just the year before, so that's just a load of CRAP and I told that lady so, but again, a refusal to abide by my consumer rights and allow me due process to defer this loan until I am financially able to pay.

I finally went to the Attorney General's website and filed a complaint. At this point the Attorney General's office investigated the situation informally, and sent Sallie Mae a letter asking them to employ legal methods to collect the debt and there was some type of informal mediation.

Well after that, Sallie Mae limited their debt collection to three calls per week, as is stated under Fair Credit practices laws. Then it wasn't long after that, all the calls stopped. Oh wait, that's about the time my phone got shut off, and it was almost a relief, although now I owe yet another d**n bill! Auuuurgh!!!!!

So I got mail from Sallie Mae Servicing, apparently another part of their debt collection process. It was a debt collection letter, which was fine, I openly told these people to send me all they mail they want, just leave my phone, my friends and family... alone. They had an 800 number, so I called it from a blocked phone number (no need to give them more people to harass... I try to protect my family, at least, from my stupidity moments in signing this stupid contract in blood...ugh). They again wanted a phone number, but I didn't have a phone of my own, so I gave none. The lady said that yes, they could print off and send these forms out, no problem and she didn't know why they hadn't done that before. (What-EVER! Lies...)

I got the forms in the mail a few days later. I filled them out, signed and dated... then we got two or three feet of snow and nobody went anywhere. Then after that it flooded all over the place. I called and explained what was going on. Nothing. No word, just a response "Well thanks for letting us know what's going on."

I got it out the first of January. I scanned a copy of the money order for $50 which was the forbearance fee, and I scanned a copy of the form and also scanned a copy of the letter that was sent to me with the form, and documented what had happened with the freak weather. That was in December, first of January of -09.

It is MARCH. I have received NO WORD of the status of my deferment/forbearance (whatever the heck it is, I don't know the right word for it). I go onto the website and it shows NO PAYMENT, NO FORBEARANCE, and it still shows me as delinquent, about to go into DEFAULT.

I sent another email to the company, because did I mention before that every time I call these idiotic people, it routes me to INDIA and I can't understand what the heck these people are saying, and when I ask to be put on with someone from the U.S. it seems to take them two or three transfers and a half hour or forty five minutes!!!! If they don't drop my call altogether.

I work a job. It pays peanuts, and I get a half-hour lunch. That, and I refuse to call from my work phone to a debt collector, for my own protection, judging from these people's past behavior, they would stoop so low as to haunt my workplace as well and endanger my job! Yes, the law says it can't endanger my job and that they can't do that, but guess what... the doggone law is written by lawyers, ex-lawyers and pointy heads that have a LOT more money than me and are NOT interested in what is best for the little guy. How do I know????

The Attorney General's Office has told me that there is nothing they can do except kindly ask Sallie Mae to not harass me. There is no accountability whatsoever. I was advised to get an attorney (With what will I pay this Beamer driving expensive warrior, I might ask? My good looks?). I was kind of asked not to bug them again. Well I did anyways, again, today. They may have blocked my email, I personally don't care. The best I can do is pay what I can, make a whole lot of noise and keep trying to tread water with the rocks tied around my ankle.

My job? Well, I'm still on welfare, because I make that little money. I work my tail off at a preschool that is funded by the federal government. And me and most of the people that work there have to get foodstamps. How screwed up is that???? We are there to help low income families and WE are low income!!!! AAAAUUUURGH!!! And I have a kid that is now getting into MORE trouble and I have to watch her even closer. Daycare is not an option, she's 12, and I get to either pretty much let her run loose (Hey, want some meth and some boys and some sex and booze while yer at it? Ah, no worries, it doesn't matter if you get pregnant, Mom will fix it!).

Anyways, so that is what is happening with Sallie Mae. I think they are trying to stall and wait me out to get me in default so they can really work me over in court debt collection and take my wages. I documented a lot of their phone calls, and I documented the stuff I sent to them as best I could. I was livin in a semi truck for a while, and before that it was in a trailer and now my stuff, what little there is, has been mostly thrown out, or is in storage.

I'm still sorting it all out and trying to find all my paperwork. But at least it's all here at my Dad's now. Things have just been really screwed up here. I was told by an attorney (free consultation) that student loans don't get included in a bankruptcy, so I'm out of luck there. I am in debt to these bloodsuckers to the tune of 29 thousand bucks and counting. All for two years of college and is there a degree to show for it? Nope. But that's my own stupid fault. But ya know, when I signed that paper, it felt like I was going to puke, I had this horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach like I had just sold my soul to the devil.

So, in addition to paying for 7 years now for a divorce that just got uglier and uglier (gotta pay for them Beamers.. lawyers can't live without their Beamers...), now there is a big conglamorate, government backed company on my behind. Oh joy... Vaseline, anyone?

I should have listened to that feeling and torn that paper up while I had the chance.

Patti
Rochester, Washington
U.S.A.