A former MOHELA call center agent claimed there was an “atrocious” work environment at the student loan servicer as it comes under fire for its handling of millions of borrower accounts.
Speaking exclusively to DailyMail.com, the former employee said call center workers received “abysmal” training before they were tasked with speaking to worried borrowers about their debts.
Company policy stated that call center workers had to keep customers on hold for at least 15 minutes before they could transfer them to a supervisor, the anonymous worker alleged.
Many callers were concerned about the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, of which MOHELA was the sole administrator until earlier this month, they added.
The Missouri Higher Education Loan Authority, also known as MOHELA, faces growing pressure from lawmakers and borrowers over how it has handled the program and student loan payments resuming after the pandemic pause. of Covid-19.
Borrowers have complained about being left waiting for three hours or having outstanding debts they thought they had already paid appear on their accounts.
A former MOHELA call center agent claimed there was an “atrocious” work environment at the student loan servicer.
The anonymous worker, who is in his mid-20s and lives in Kentucky, said he was subcontracted by an agency to work for the MOHELA call center.
They worked as a level one customer service representative from October 2023 to February of this year.
“Representatives receive minimal and irregular training and are expected to be able to work effectively under high pressure,” they told DailyMail.com. “There was no individual training.”
The training involved practicing ‘mock calls’ in a group, they said, but some trainees didn’t even turn on their microphone on a group video call to participate.
When they began serving real borrowers over the phone, call center staff received a digital file of reference material, but received very little support from more experienced departments, the former employee said.
Elizabeth Warren criticized CEO Scott Giles (pictured) after he said he would not attend a Senate hearing on the company’s performance.
“The document is updated quite frequently, but many of the updates are simply irrelevant, inaccurate or do not arrive on time,” they said.
Borrower queries were often complex, but call center agents were instructed to handle everything in a single call without transferring the call, if possible.
“Even reading the reference material I had, I couldn’t find an answer for most of these people,” they said.
‘It was company policy that if you had to contact the customer advocacy team you had to wait at least 15 minutes because they are overloaded with work.
‘People will call MOHELA thinking we have some special version of their student loan agreement that only we can see, but we don’t. The information we have is the same that the borrowers have.”
To address any issue other than a borrower paying off a loan or changing a payment plan, call center agents have to transfer the borrower to the customer advocacy team, the former worker said.
But it is company policy to wait at least 15 minutes before doing this, they alleged, as the team is overworked.
“It was frustrating because they ask you to follow the script very strictly.
‘You can’t say “I’m looking for this” or “I can’t find anything.” You have to appear confident. You have to sound like you know what you’re doing.’
They stated that submitting a request for a case investigation can take weeks.
“There’s no way to get answers to these people quickly.”
In March, Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren invited Scott Giles, CEO of the administrator MOHELA, to testify before the Senate banking committee.
Until May 1, MOHELA was the sole administrator of the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program, which has been a major feature of the Biden administration’s debt forgiveness initiative.
The PSLF program, which was created in 2007, cancels the remaining balance for borrowers who work in the public sector or government jobs after 10 years of eligible repayment.
MOHELA became the sole administrator of the program in July 2022, but is now being transitioned to be administered internally by Federal Student Aid.
The trustee has faced widespread criticism for his handling of the program and for his handling of student loan payments that restarted in October of last year.
In March, Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren asked CEO Scott Giles to testify before Congress amid reports of “widespread service failures” affecting “at least 40 percent of its borrowers.”
DailyMail.com asked its readers to get in touch if they were frustrated by the service they had received from the servicer and received dozens of responses from graduates concerned about their loans.
Deborah Soto said she thought she had paid off her daughter’s student loans in full just before interest started accruing again in September 2023.
But when she logged back into her account in December last year, she was shocked to discover that another loan totaling $16,947 had suddenly appeared in her account.
And, unbeknownst to her, she had been generating interest every day for months.
Deborah immediately tried to contact MOHELA, but faced wait times of 160 minutes and endless prompts to try to reach a person, she said.
MOHELA opened an investigation into his case in December, but has yet to receive any explanation from the company.
Tom Buchanan, 71, says he typically spent “three or four hours” on the phone trying to contact MOHELA to get clarity on the new pay figures he had been given.
Deborah thought she had paid off all of her daughter Elena’s (right) student loans before the end of the pandemic-era interest pause in September last year.
Pamela and Tom Buchanan have seen their monthly payments double, but have been unable to get an explanation from MOHELA.
The turnover rate for working at MOHELA was high, the former worker told DailyMail.com, and call center agents were often faced with frustrated and distressed borrowers.
“I saw two trainers quit in the short time I was there,” they said, and customers yelled at them and insulted them.
‘We had a meeting the day before we started making calls and we had to learn how to transfer someone to the death threat line.
‘My coach said that in the 10 years he worked there he only took three. But a couple of people in my training class on the first day had someone threaten to hurt them or themselves.
‘We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars for some of these people, and most of that amount is interested in that they don’t know where it came from. And we can’t tell them because we don’t know either.
There are people in the company who want to do their jobs well, they added, but the system is “very disordered.”
‘Looking at what I saw from within, I would have to say that there is a lot of incompetence higher up the chain at MOHELA and also at the Department of Education.
‘It’s a question of infrastructure. There is not enough knowledge circulating. The left hand does not know what the right hand is doing.’
A spokesperson for MOHELA said in a statement: ‘The average customer service wait time at MOHELA today is between 1 minute and 5 minutes.
‘As a federal contractor, MOHELA was tasked last fall by Federal Student Aid (FSA) with repaying 6 million federal student loan borrowers after an unprecedented pause, at the same time which operated under FSA directive to reduce expenses and hours of operations, which caused higher than normal wait times over a period of time.
Call center representatives go through an extensive training process and receive support in responding to customer queries, the company said.
‘Representatives receive routine updates (on a daily basis) on any relevant FSA-mandated changes to the servicing environment affecting borrowers.
“Claims about a company policy requiring a representative to put someone on hold for 15 minutes are false,” the spokesperson added.