Student Resource USA

Student Resource USA was a great help to me finding a Masters Program that I felt comfortable with at an amazing price. I also was able to get a large amount of my previous student loans forgiven. Thank You for helping me. It was trully a blessing

I recently tried contacting this agency to inquire about student loan forgiveness. I spoke with [redacted], one of the representatives/employees with this agency. During my call, [redacted] stated that she often asks questions repeatedly, which I was fine with her doing so. However, when I began asking questions with respect to my financial aid as well as loan forgiveness, [redacted] became immediately frustrated.
Because the conversation - which was pleasant at the beginning - seemed to have taken a direction that felt unpleasant, I informed [redacted] of my concerns. [redacted] stated that I was being repetitive. [redacted]'s comment was extremely uncalled for, as I feel like I need to to ask as many questions as I can in order to understand a process and make sure that everything is clarified in a very explicit way. [redacted] also made an egregious assumption when she stated, "Well, if you don't want to inquire about the disbursements with your loan agency..." I became further incensed because nowhere in my conversation with her did I ever state that I was unwilling to ask my loan company about disbursements. [redacted] also asked me repeatedly if my loan was a [redacted], or a [redacted]. After repeating myself at least five times (funny how [redacted] needed repetition and explicit details in order to understand, but I could not have the same consideration), [redacted] finally understood that all of my loans were FEDERAL loans and nothing more.
I would not recommend this company to anyone who has student loans that need to be repaid. I felt the level of service was poor, and the employee was inconsiderate and brusque. I'm going to research on my own, call my loan company, and get things squared away myself.

I have had great experiences with this company, and I wish to retract me negative comments I made previously.

Great company to work for.

Review: Last spring, [redacted] to my school to talk to our the staff of teachers about the options they have in regards to loan forgiveness. I was very encouraged by her presentation and contacted her to get more information. In both my phone calls and contacts with [redacted], she make it very clear to me that I would definitely qualify for the loan forgiveness program. She stated that the present loan I had taken out 4+ years ago is not considered a direct loan but that I should consider going back to school and take out a direct loan because that will definitely qualify for loan forgiveness.

I had shared with her that I had applied for this forgiveness loan in the past but was not approved because I had had previous loans taken out prior to 1998. She assured me that that should matter and that I would definitely qualify for the $5000 forgiveness loan. I went ahead and applied for the loan, got the loan, registered back for school and filled out the forgiveness loan papers and sent them into my loan company.

Last week I received a letter back from my loan provider stating that I do not qualify for the $5000 loan forgiveness because I had previous loans prior to 1998, which is exactly what I shared with [redacted].

I contact [redacted] and the company through two different emails last week sharing my frustration at being mislead and misinformed. I was hoping to hear back from them and as of today there has been no response and no communication from either [redacted] or the company.Desired Settlement: I would like to have the company at least look into other options for me to apply for some other grants or programs in order to have some of these new loans that I have now taken out forgiven or reduced. I feel that [redacted] was very quick to offer me all this information and was so confident she gave me accurate information , but now that I am obligated to yet more student loans, which I would not have taken out if I knew they would not be forgiven, I am frustrated to think there is no accountability on this company's part to acknowledge there was a huge miscommunication on [redacted]'s part.

Business

Response:

Once this was brought to our attention, I ([redacted]) reached out to [redacted] on 10/14/2013 (monday) to see if we could help resolve the situation that had frustrated her to the point of submitting a complaint with the [redacted]. I explained that I wanted to resolve the issue and do whatever I could do in my power to help. I explained that I went to pull the call recording to listen to what our rep had stated to her and pulled the inquiry that she filled out initially from the presentation. I was unable to pull the call unfortunately because this was prior to having call recording 24/7. I was able to review the inquiry and pointed out that on the inquiry, there is a question that ask the following:Do you currently have an outstanding balance on any students loans? She answered yesIf so were any of your outstanding student loans taken out before October 1, 1998? She answered noThe second question was incorrect. She did take out loans prior to 1998 and even though she paid them off, she did not pay them off prior to taking out the new loans post 1998. By answering no to the second question, we would not have a reason to ask if she had paid off the new loan prior to paying off the one from 1998, because she indicated SHE HAD NO LOANS PRIOR TO 1998. She had loans prior to 1998 and furthermore, prior to paying off those loans prior to 1998 she took out additional loans, which makes her ineligible. The second Item: She expressed frustration about not getting better information regarding the Teach Grant that she could have pursued at her local school. I explained that our reps refrain from speaking out schools outside of the schools we partner with because it is impossible to provide educated responses regarding the programs schools offer that we do not work with. We can provide information about the schools we have partnerships regarding the teach grant, but she was not interested in attending one of those schools. she was charged nothing from Student Resource USA and she did not one of our partner schools so there was very little we could do for her. Had she provided the correct information, we would have replied with information that would have prevented her from thinking she was eligible for the Title One Loan Forgiveness.I had called her twice to make she she was satisfied. Once on the 14th and once on the 17th. When I was speaking with her on the 17th, she said she had to go and that she would call me back in one hour. I asked her to call my cell phone and she did not. She called my office phone and left a message saying that there was no need for me to call her back and that she would let the [redacted] know that this was resolved, no thanks to Student Resource USA, but that she found the information on her own. I would have like to follow up with her and just ensure there was nothing more that we could have done, however I feel it is more important to listen to her closing statement, that there was no need for me to call her again. It should also be noted that my rep also spoke with her and tried to resolve the situation on Wednesday the 16th. I feel we have done everything we could possible do given the circumstances and I can assure you we do everything we can to avoid these types of situations. This circumstance is always possible give the number of employees we have on staff. Quality control is of the up most importance to our organization. It is very difficult to avoid this type of situation when the incorrect information is provided. Having said that, I have advised my reps to be extra sure to ask more questions to make sure we have not missed anything as we access our customers eligibility and even more important is to never guarantee a customer will be able to qualify until they have confirmed that with their lender, which is what we always try to do.For further questions feel free to call [redacted] President

Consumer

Response:

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.

First of all, let me start out by saying that I made a big mistake when I even started contacting [redacted]. When [redacted] first contacted me it was on his cell phone, which is so conveniently made me feel like I was priviledged to have his cell phone. Now as I look back on what he shared with the [redacted], which is so misinformed, I don't have anything conversations to go back on because they were not held on his business line and were not recorded, how convenient.Let me say that I am shocked to see how he has completely turned out conversations around and has essentially lied to save himself. First all all, the questions are totally wrong that he states and are totally wrong to what we talked about. To the question Do you currently have an outstanding balance on any student loans? I replied No To the next question "If so were any of your outstanding student loans taken out before October 1998? I answered yes.I shared with both [redacted] this past week and [redacted] last May that I put "no" to any outstanding balances because I had paid them off. The reason I contacted the [redacted] was because [redacted] misled me by telling me that I in fact did qualify for the student forgiveness loan. If I answered "yes" to the question of "If so were any of your outstanding student loans taken out before October 1998?" then why did [redacted] tell me I qualified for the student forgiveness program? That would have been her big indicator that I would not have qualified for the student forgiveness program and she would have told me that I didn't qualify because I had loans out before 1998. When I first spoke with [redacted] he went on to say how sorry he was for the miscommunication and that [redacted] should have asked more questions as to my loan status and that he wanted to let me know I was his first priority in regards to taking care of the matter and how he can totally understand my frustration. When I spoke with [redacted] on October 16th, she also stated that she was sorry for her miscommunication on her part. She shared two websites with me that were completely useless because they were websites for people who are looking to go to a school and beginning to look at applying for loans. I am already currently signed up for a program and have already taken out my loan. When I asked [redacted] why she did talk to me about schools that partnered with their company in May, she told me that I said I wanted to go to a school around my home, which is totally false. She never mentioned anything to me about schools at all. And conveniently our conversations were not recorded last May, just like [redacted] conveniently asked me to contact him on a cell phone for each of our conversations, what a coincidence.Since they were offering me no help except admitting it was poor communication on their part, I went ahead and did my own searching on grants and loans and came across the TEACH grant. On Thursday, October 17th, when I again received a call from [redacted] from his cell phone he shared with me that he really wished that [redacted] did not contact me and that he wanted to contact me on his own. I went on to say that [redacted] offered me no help and that she admitted there was miscommunication on her part. [redacted] was quite shocked when I shared this with him and he said "she said that?" I went on to ask him why I was not offered information on the TEACH grant and he quick jumped to say "The school you are at doesn't participate in that", again not inquiring again as to what school I was attending, nor even asking me at that time what I wanted to go back to school to pursue. At that point in the conversation I had to go get my students from gym so I said I would call him back at 3:25pm, and he said "great call me back on my cell number, which I figured was the number he called me at, which I now am aware was the work number. I did in fact call him back at the number he called me at and left a message.I want to note that I did contact [redacted] inbetween our conversation, talked with someone from the financial aid office, she in fact confirmed they do participate in the TEACH grant and I am presently working with her on getting in all my forms. I had also mentioned my interactions with Student Resource USA and she went on to say she had never heard of them at all, as did the loan company I spoke with that I have my loans through.I want to end off by saying that if there is a company out there that is there to help guide people, they should be asking the questions because my biggest mistake in working with this company is not asking the questions I didn't know to answer. If you have people on your staff that cannot intelligently talk about a program out there that is available to people than you should be in that business.I am less than impressed at [redacted]'s feedback and I am glad I made the statement yesterday in regards to not bothering to call me back because I got not further with any conversations I had with him and felt more like he was trying to get on my good side with telling how I am his first priority, he understands my frustration and wants to do whatever he can to help me because he knew I was misguided, misinformed and misled. He went on to say, " I would love to say I would give you the $5000.00 but we are a for profit company that feels like not for profit"

Regards,

Business

Response:

Very disappointed to read Mrs. [redacted]'s response. The only reason I gave her my cell phone instead of my office line is to ensure that she was able to reach me as I was in and out of the office frequently around the time she called me and I wanted to be available. This was in no way a ploy to not have the call recorded and in hindsight I realize I should have only had her call my office line where the calls are in fact recorded. I have never had a complaint like this on the [redacted], so yes I am frustrated that we have had an interaction with a teacher who is unhappy. All I can do is ensure that are reps are using the word "May qualify' with potential teachers. Ultimately it is up to the lender and we are not the lender, which is why we refer students to speak with their lender to get the process started. Unfortunately I don't know if [redacted] said "may" or actually said you will "absolutely" qualify for this program. We instruct all our reps in training to refer them to their lender and to be sure they qualify. In regards to her local college participating in the teach grant I want to be clear that I said I don't know if her local school participates in the program she wants and that typically schools will participate in one or two programs and typically local schools will not provide the programs that a teacher is looking for, hence that is why Student Resource USA can be so advantageous since we have over 40 Teach Grant Eligible Programs. This has been a learning experience for me and I will do everything I can to ensure we provide further probing questions to ensure this doesn't happen again. Once I learned that her loan was paid off two days after taking out her new loan, it was clear to me why she did not qualify and I also understood how this could be confusing on both sides. I have never seen this type of circumstance in six years of doing business. Very dissapointed in the outcome[redacted]

Consumer

Response:

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.

This is a he said she said back and forth, pointing fingers, who can throw the biggest stone conversation that needs to just be done. Any information that [redacted] received in regards to my loan I provided for him, I was honest and can only ask the questions I know to ask. He only knew that my loan was paid off one day before my other loan was taken out in just these past two weeks. I, again, did the investigating as to what the issue was. At the time though I talked to [redacted], last spring she was informed of this. In my conversation last week with [redacted] he said "[redacted] should have probably investigated more when you told her about your loan or asked some more questions." Again, [redacted] shared in looking back I should have had my conversation recorded, this is how this how my whole interaction has been with this company, "I could have, I should have, I assumed, I figured, I thought."Bottom line I am the consumer that went to a business for help and guidance and was misguided and misinformed which in the end cost me the money. Was part of it miscommunication on both our parts yes, but again, I went to them looking for help, didn't know the right questions to ask and trusted I was be provided with what I needed to go ahead and make some informed decisions about what options were open to me.In looking back I do wish that all the conversations were recorded because I would not have to deal with these slight truths that are being shared, or selective memories on what was really said. In the end, when backed into a corner [redacted] made the decisions to start twisting the actual truth and that is what has driven me to this point. Sometimes it is easiest to just have someone say, "we are sorry we made a mistake, there was a miscommunication on our part as well as yours." Unfortunately that is not how it was handled and it became the blame game and that is no way to deal with a situation.

Regards,