Progress Advocates Group LLC

The client signed up for a four year service, which entitles our company to assist the client into a loan forgiveness program solely based off of the client's annual gross income and household sizeThe loan forgiveness program this client was approved for after we determined the annual gross income
and household size was $for a Pay As You Earn program, our representatives explained this not once but three times when the client called into our customer service hot line, client stated in the recorded call that she understood the monthly fee of $was a service fee for keeping our services for yearsWe also completed the client's second year of repayment plan, the client sent us new proof of income and it increased, we got the client approved for a loan forgiveness program for $which began on 12/23/which that payment is the client's full responsibility to make towards their actual loan debt, our company never states to clients that we make their loan payment for them, it states in our legal contracts that each client signs and our compliance recorded calls that if the client is approved for a loan payment they will have to call or pay online with the assigned servicer and make those payments themselvesThis client received two completed years of service from us, it is time to renew for the third year, however this client is not responding to our emails or our phone calls to assist to see if we can get the client approved for a new loan forgiveness program that is lower than the previous payment plan of $

Client's consolidation was completed by us on 11/5/in an Income Based Repayment program with a $payment on $130,of debt. Without us her payment would have been $to $per month. Her yearly recertification notice was sent 12/3/16, notifications were sent
8/16/16, 8/24/16, 8/31/and 1/19/ She contacted us in January after she got a bill from her loan servicer and she did not make her payment for our service fees. We can not force the client to handle this matter Student Advocates

We completed our services and *** received an Income Base Repayment plan with a monthly installment of $0.00/mo, which started on 8/2/ She has to recertify her income every year to stay in this program She owes us for our services and has not contacted us since June

I contacted Student Advocates in February with complaints about not being enrolled in the correct programI continued contacting that company as well as Equitable Acceptance which is the financier affiliated with Student AdvocatesBoth companies would tell me I needed to contact the otherThen, Student Advocates did cancel my contract, but said I needed to have Equitable repay me any money because that is who I'm now payingEquitable told me that Student Advocates had to CALL them and give a verbal request to cancel my contract and have my money returnedThen, I received a call from Equitable stating there was nothing that could be done, and that I needed to continue to pay. I must say, and it can be verified by my attorney, the phone behavior and attitude that I have exhibited from the representatives from this company is extremely rudeThere is NO Reputable company that would tolerate their representatives speaking to clients in the way I was spoken to. As I originally stated in my complaint, I wasn't aware of the details of the program because I contacted Student Advocates first in order to be enrolled in the teacher/public service programs (which ever I qualified for because I was a teacher and now a guidance counselor)It wasn't until I contacted UD Deptof Education and Fedloans Servicing that I was told other agencies may enroll me in a reduced payment plan program, however, I could only be enrolled in the forgiveness plan programs through the US Deptof Education/Fedloans servicingIt is strictly handled by the Us Deptof EducationStudent Advocates is NOT linked to the US Deptof EducationTherefore, they failed to share this information, failed to enroll me in the appropriate program because they could not enroll me, falsely advertised, and charged me for an incomplete serviceThere has to be something that can be done in order to make Student Advocates return the money I paid to them!

Can they provide the date that they contacted the credit bereau? The account was paid off in May, it's October now and nothing has been reflected on my credit and also when I try to contact *** *** they either don't answer or give you the run around

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID 12434627, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
I have been paying the finance fees, consistently. There was an error with my bank regarding a payment in March and another last month (September) was not taken out of my account, however those were the only that did not process. I tracked my bank statements starting from the date of enrollment with the company and other than a payment made to Equitable Acceptance. I do not understand why some of the payments process automatically and others do not. Regards,*** ***

To suumarize:On 10-17-we wrote "We assured her all we had to do was send in the information and her past year time would be covered as long as she has made the payments on timeShe asked us to cancel sending the PSLF employment certification form and told us we should not follow up."We can not send the form without permission from our client. She would not let us complete our work concerning the PSLF program and complained that we did not do our work. See her own words stating this. That was her basis for a complete refund for all servicesShe forgot that we completed her enrollment in the income based program as agreed. We cancelled her file

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I
reviewed appear below
In rebuttal to this I am sending you the attached letter from Progressive and the Letter that I sent to the Equitable Acceptance Corpon the day that I called them and put my complaint in with you (Revdex.com) I did not get the result that I am satisfied withI have recieved a phone call from Augustine at Progress Advocates since you have contacted them and they left a message stating that you contacted themEven though the account is closed they still say I owe them money for something they did not do To whom it may concern:I have finally learned through the U.SDeptof education that your client (Student Advocates aka Titan aka etc.) has been scamming me for the last 11/yrs via you by taking $per month out of my checking account for a service that they really didn't doI have put a stop payment on this and am no longer going to be paying them aka you for services never rendered???? I am also turning them into the Revdex.comThank you and have a Blessed day.*** ***Acct#RD-***Regards,
*** ***

We need to breakdown this complaint. Client stated, "I am being threatened with having debt from Student Advocates/Progress Advocates/Equitable Acceptance sent to collectionsI signed up with them in May of to assist with consolidating my student loans, to help lower my loan payment
amount, and to look for loan forgiveness programsThey sold my debt to FedLoans"First of all, we can sell debt to Fedloans. Equitable Acceptance does not sell debt to Fedloans. Fedloans is the debt she incurred for her student loans,over $45,and that debt was incurred long before she signed up for our services. We verified that Fedloan approved our paperwork for the client's consolidation on 06/24/2015. The client was approved on the PAYE program with a monthly payment of 0.00. Her first payment was due on 08/13/2015. Client has spoken to us numerous times while we tried to patiently collect our fees for services rendered. She never paid the finance company for our fees and when we then asked her to pay us something toward our fees, she wrote this complaint

This file was already cancelled

We as the company have the phone recordings of every time we call the servicers, in this case the servicer is *** *** Servicing, the client did not in fact speak to *** *** for the last two years regarding her account, we were the ones speaking with them and getting the loan forgiveness program approved, we have all documentation on record on each client's account to make sure we have proof of the work we rendered for all clients, we will not got back and forth with this client, when we can prove of the hard work our company achieved for this client, while the client does not have proof of speaking to *** *** we asked them if the client called in to speak to them, multiple reps and supervisors stated the client did not contact them regarding the new re certification process, also the client has been in contact with our renewal department for weeks sending in new proof of income and documents to us to allow us to submit for a new loan program on behalf of the client, this client is in breach of her legal contract, and outside matters will be taken

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve
my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear belowThat's how I know they have not taken it off my credit report, can they provide the date they contacted the credit bureaus
Regards,
*** ***

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
Although I did sign a contract, I was never informed that I would be charged nearly 50% interest for not paying in one payment, the contract says 3%3% of $is only $39.42! Also, Progress Advocates stated it would be months of paymentsI've been paying for over two years and I still have a balance of $I have paid a total of $to this companyI signed the contract saying I would pay $and that is all I'm offeringI am not paying a remaining balance of $800, but instead the difference of what I agreed to, which would be $This is all I am payingThey charge me over $in interest every month without my knowledge, because they wouldn't allow me on the website to view my statementsIt would be nearly impossible to pay off that debt with the amount of interest they chargeAlso, I am considering taking legal action for changing my personal information without my knowledge and forwarding all my information regarding student loans to them, and not giving me any copiesI had no knowledge of what was being done with my student loansThey also failed to provide services for this past year, which voids the contractThis is my final offer and if they do not agree I will take legal action.
Regards,
*** ***

We have repeatedly tried to talk to this client and have not received an appointment to do that

The client has not responded to emails

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
Regards,
*** ***
This company continues to deny responsibility for not enrolling me in the correct program in which I thought I was being enrolledStudent Advocates locked me into a contract that I believed was for a teacher forgiveness programThey never enrolled me in that program and therefore owe me a refund for advertisement, fraud, and theft! I paid my contract off in full with the company Student Advocates uses for financing, which is Equitable AcceptanceI think that what they have done to me and many others is stealing and against the lawI demand a full refund! They took my money and didn't provide the service I was promisedIf that's not fraudulent I don't know what is!

Our company does not transfer loans to our company, we are not a company that services anyone's student loans, in the legal contract it states we are a third party doc preparation company who assists individuals into loan forgiveness programs with their actual loan servicer assigned to them by the *** ** ***, we submit all information to that assigned loan servicer, also in our legal contracts it states our fee of $1,is for the direct consolidation and first year repayment plan which was rendered by our companySince the client chose to do the low monthly installments of $with the financing company she agreed legally by signing their contracts which indicates the interest rate for the financial payment plan, the finance company is a separate party who has their own terms and conditions, nothing this client is stating is factual, the client received both legal contracts and had all the information given to her to read and review before signing up for our services, our pricing is only for the first year, the monthly installment of $is paying off the first year's work over a course of years, simple breakdown is our price is $1,client decided she could not afford our services up front so she choose the finance payment plan which will be months of $plus interest if the client pays on time each month the client will be granted years of service, meaning after the initial first year's work was finalized the client will continue to pay off that first year price of $1,in payments and receive years of re certification, we have on record on this client's account emails reach out to the client to notify her of her annual renewal is coming up and is due immediately, the email address on file is *** also our system indicates when a client receives our emails and also indicates when the emails we send out to the clients have been viewed by the client, in this client's case she viewed all of our emails reaching out to her, we did not stop there, we also called the client on file our records show phone calls made to the client with the number the client provided for her account which is 401-327-4833, all calls inbound or outbound are recorded for training and quality assurance, each recorded call made to the client received the client's voicemailWe do not change our client's information, all payment statements are viewable for all clients, the financing company has a website which the client can call Equitable Acceptance or us to help the client's create an online account which the client's can view their up company payments, set up for automatic withdrawal and or change billing accounts for payments, the client has all access to everything with our company, no personal information has been changed or can be changed unless the client calls in to make changes on their accountNo refund will be given to this client, all work was rendered, our customer service team and renewal department reach out the client each month to assist further, this client deiceded to not communicate with us and now is past due on her monthly payments which is a breach in contractThreatening our company with legal action will not suffice, our legal team that take these threats seriously and we have all documentation and phone recordings to give to this client's legal representative to clear our name of all hearsay from the client

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ***, and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint. For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below
The statements this company made about contacting *** *** services are incorrectI have been in “contract” with this company for yearsI submitted my own renewal both yearsI also placed myself In the correct loan program as I was never placed in the correct loan repayment program to begin with as promised by this companyI have all emails and phone records backing this upI also responded back to them on 2/22/that they do not have my permission to speak to f** *** services on my behalf and I want all contracts ended with this companyI got no responseI also called and got a voicemail and no response backI’m paying for a service that I’m not receivingI have done all of he work myselfThe incompetence and lies of these people is ridiculousFunny how I can not get a return phone callF** *** services told me this company was a scam and to end all ties with themI submitted my own renewal after they never submitted mine causing my payments to double to $hen I was told I was going to get forebearance for a month while they correct their mistake and they screwed that up toI called myself and *** *** services corrected the mistakeThese people are liars l!!!!!!
Regards,
*** ***

We completed our services and [redacted] received an Income Base Repayment plan with a monthly installment of $0.00/mo, which started on 8/2/2015.  If that is what she calls "doing nothing"  she should rethink the process.  Also, we are not on her credit report.  We have no ability to extend credit.  She financed our services using a third party who probably did not know she would not pay her bill.

Revdex.com:
I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and have determined that this proposed action would not resolve my complaint.  For your reference, details of the offer I reviewed appear below.
Thank you for reviewing my complaint and getting back to me. I authorize your office to send my correspondence and any associated materials to the business and/or refer to other agencies or organizations as appropriate.I currently have a case open with the Revdex.com (Complaint ID: [redacted]) to have my contract cancelled and $[redacted] refunded. However, Student Advocates is not being truthful with Revdex.com.  I have also brought this to their attention.In the communication logged from the business, they state the following: "We cancelled our agreement and contacted her finance Company to cancel her."  This differs from what they actually e-mailed me, which states: Please contact us within 7 days from the date of this letter if you wish to continue our Services without further delaying us.  Otherwise, we will cancel our services.  At this time your file is being placed into a possible cancellation status for 7 days until we hear from you or not.  Your financing agreement with Equitable Acceptance is still active and you need to contact us immediately.  Please be advised that your student loan payments may change if your servicer does not receive the requested information we have been trying to obtain.  We hope to hear from you within the next 7 days, please do not delay.I will forward the message to you.  
Regards,
[redacted]