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email Sallie May explaining my situation

Michael Agruss

Written and Reviewed by Michael Agruss

  • Managing Partner and Personal Injury Lawyer at Mike Agruss Law.
  • Over 20 years of experience in Personal Injury.
  • Over 8000+ consumer rights cases settled.
  • Graduated from the University of Illinois Chicago School of Law: Juris Doctor, 2004.

Since my husband retired from the Marine Corps a year ago, in Oct 2011, he has been unable to find work. I began working as a sub for our local schools in Feb 2012. In June 2012, I became unemployed as well as my husband. Beginning in June ’12, I began to email Sallie May, explaining my situation and asking for a hardship deferment. I always got an automated response. I continued to email. I also applied for a deferment on their website. I tried to call several times, but was rerouted and placed on hold for extended periods of time, to which I became frustrated and would hang up. I had to stop making payments at this time due to lack of income. My husband had been receiving unemployment and we also began using food stamps. In August ’12, I received, in the mail, a paper deferment request. I thought somebody finally saw one of my emails, or processed my online request and now this paperwork was a follow up. It said if I was claiming hardship, I had to send in proof of food stamps with the request. I made a photocopy of my husband’s EBT card (food stamp card) and mailed it in with the new request. Weeks passed and I received yet another bill, and no validation the deferment went through. I figured they were backed up and would get to my account soon. However, I instead received a phone call from a customer service representative demanding payment. I explained my whole situation and she said I needed to request a deferment. I said I had already sent in a deferment request in the mail, in addition to doing it online. She said I had not. Then she put me on hold and came back on the line and said she had found my request. Then she told me it was denied. Denied!?!? I was very frustrated at this point. She would not offer me any assistance and just said it was denied. I had also spoken to a man at some point, the after about 45 minutes, I was put on with a manager of some sort who said that the proof of food stamps I had sent in was not valid and that I needed to get a copy of our Awards Benefit Letter from Human Services instead. Her name was Sidney, employee number C35263. She said I could fax the information to 1-570-200-6259. She then said my account was to be labeled as In Forbearance from the time I missed my first payment until October 4, 2012. I had to agree to this before we went further, even though all this time I was trying to do the right thing and get a deferment and avoid forbearance. She also said that once the proof was faxed, my deferment would be approved. I faxed the food stamps award letter on September 5, 2012 @ 12:55 pm attn: Collections. Prior to this, I received yet another letter in the mail from Sallie Mae, indicating my forbearance began on May 29, 2012 and would end on September 4, 2012 (which was a month sooner than Sidney had told me.) This letter made no mention of my deferment request. After the fax, I expected to receive notification via mail that my deferment was approved and active. HOWEVER, instead, I keep getting bills. Why is my deferment not being taken care of by Sallie Mae? I have always paid my bill on time, with integrity. Once I knew we would not have funds to pay Sallie Mae, I immediately began contact with them to get a deferment. Sallie Mae has been at fault for not communicating with me, not processing my request in a timely manner, losing paperwork, and forcing me to accept forbearance when I had been trying to get a deferment since the beginning. My husband and I are both still currently unemployed. My dad is paying our mortgage. My husband’s dad is giving us money to get by on each month. We are still on food stamps. We have also had to file Chapter 7 bankruptcy. We indeed are in an economic hardship

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