Sallie Mae Be careful. $15 charge to pay by phone, delayed processing, lying, etc Internet

SLM finally accepted my economic hardship deferment today and I am out of the hot seat for a while. While I am thankful for this, the whole process took two weeks and $15 in faxes, 20 phone calls, and well over 30 hours to get here.

The experience could have been much easier if only what each representative said were indeed true.

So no longer can i say Sallie Mae is a ripoff due to this. I still stand behind my crticism that you need to be very careful when dealing with them though due to various inefficiencies and realities such as each rep saying different things.

UPDATE

I spoke with a woman from SLM last Wednesday who said I would be okay and avoid default because of the forbearance and deferrment applications. She stated that Sallie Mae could only process the forbearance on two otu of 6 loans for soem obscure technical reason. Then she said my deferment ought to cover the rest.

Then on Tuesday I spoke with another SLM rep who stated they recieved my Proof of Income and my faxes and that she ws able to ACTUALLY SEE the contents right in front of her. These were sent Monday at 10am (over 72 hours previously to acknowledge reciept of a fax). She again verfied that I would be okay and THAT I PROVIDED ALL THE INFORMATION I NEEDED TO PROCESS THE DEFERMENT.

Then thismorning at about 6am I get an email indicating that my deferment has been denied due to no proof of income. This in spite of statements from three reps, including the last one who verbally confirmed reciept of proof of income and that it was acceptable. On toop of this they did not just say they cannot process it but they went ahead and DENIED it despite written language which would seem to indicate that I have up to 30 days to send the proof of income (it had been less than a week).

I immediately contacted SLM again by phone. I was told it was not good enough and to file and fax a 2007 tax return for my self employment income. I went out and did so paying $10 to send eight pages and this was done by 9:30am ET Aug 29, 2008. Again, SLM cannot acknowledge reciept of a fax within 24 hours (very shady) and it might take up to two weeks they state.

I also went ahead and made a payment-- just a very small amount (all i could afford). I was told that there was a $15 fee but that it would go through immediately. Upon being complete the rep tell me that it might not show up on my account until Tuesday now! On top of this he stated verbally that after it is posted my account will be out of collections. All of this will be on tape I hope.

If Sallie mae defaults my account, I plan on contacting an attorney before I pay them another dime. We can supeana the phone conversations and I have my phone records, reciepts for faxes, Record of payment being made from visa card, as well as statement of facts in this report.

Summary of measures tried:

3 deferment requests (voluntary and title 4 economic hardship)
2 forbearance requests

The first deferment and forbearance was sent via fax Monday August 25 2008 at 10 ET after speaking to a rep Sunday August 24, 2008 who advised me to do so and stated which information I needed to send.

I will update this report as the situation changes. I re-iterate the warning. BE VERY CAREFUL WHEN DEALING WITH SLM. You almost need a lawyer.