Loan Woes: Beware of ACS

So I've been having major financial problems as of late (mentioned in THIS post). Now usually, when I have financial problems I'm more than willing to own up to them because more often than not, I have made a mistake.

This is not the case this time.

First off, my loan company (ACS Education) was telling me that I had a delinquent fee for not paying my January payment. Which was really odd because I was pretty certain that I HAD paid in January, but when I went to pay my loans online for my February payment, I just went ahead and paid it all thinking that they should know better than I would (which I should have just called them out on to begin with, but alas I didn't). So I paid all my loans and was frustrated by the delinquent fee.

Three days later I found out that my bank account is overdrawn. Guess what, my loan company had taken the money out not once, but twice. So I had over 500 dollars taken out of my bank account in one weekend.

So I called my loan company. They said it was a banking problem. I called my bank, they said it was my loan company's mistake. So I spent over 4 hours on the phone trying to figure out what had happened and how to get it refunded to my bank account. In the mean time, I look at my bank records and suprise suprise, I paid last month's loan payment.

So I was roally ticked.

Now I'm not easily angered, but when you get me mad enough, I have a very volatile temper. I spent the rest of the week battling with ACS trying to get a refund that I deserved. I shouted and I even called an attorney from my church. Basically I was told that I was going to have to wait 45-60 days for a refund. Um, not good enough as far as I was concerned. I finally shouted enough and got a hold of a woman who told me to fax her my bank statement which I did. She told me she'd put it on high priority. Whatever that means. But I wasn't going to get a refund for the delinquent fee that they slapped on me, even though I have proof that they took it out of my bank account last month.

My bank account is so messed up that I got paid today and I'm still overdrawn. My parents gave me a little money to live on until this is all resolved but it's not a lot. I've been the ultimate freeloader and I appreciate all that has been given to me in the last week and a half. My grandparents graciously bought my plane ticket to Orlando that I had budgeted for and wasn't able to get because of this mess. After all this, I'll be in dire need of that cruise.

All this to say, if you've got ACS Education, I would seriously look into changing. They seem very eager to slap on fees when you're delinquent (and even if you're not apparently) and it has been like pulling nails to get a hold of someone that could help me get the money they stole back into my account (and someone who's native language is English; today when I finally got a hold of someone who spoke English fluently I was told that they have an office in Jamaica where most of their calls go, isn't that brilliant?). They were also very adament that it was a mistake on MY part. I finally told the lady on the phone today to just own up to her mistake and stop blaming it on me. It wasn't an error on my part, it was an error on their part. She was more understanding than most of the people I've talked to.

Hopefully it will get resolved quickly. As soon as it does, I'm finding another company to buy my loans. This has been ridiculous and frustrating. I hope no one else has to go through this.