Anyone have experience with ConServe?

[mysharona]

Hi.  This is my first post here, though I've been watching/reading for a while.  Great forum, thanks for all the help.

Just this past Friday, I bit the bullet and called ConServe to rehab my old student loans.  Though they've fallen off my credit report, I really want to just square away outstanding debt and start fresh.  Truthfully, I've avoided calling the CA because I was just sort of scared--I've heard lots of horror stories aobut how mean and nasty CA's can be.  Thankfully, the person I reached at ConServe was extremely nice.

I told him right off the bat that I wanted to rehab--he asked some financial questions, and we agreed on repayment of 50 dollars a month for the 9 month rehab time (my loans are pretty small, only @ 4500 total.)  He asked if I wanted to put 100.00 down payment on it, and I declined, and said that I'd just like to go ahead and set up direct monthly payments of 50.00, starting on that date.  Again, he was very nice and accepted that with no  problem at all.

He told me that they would be sending me some paperwork to sign and send back, and that I should do that in a timely manner.  He asked if I would like it emailed to me as well.  I said yes, and gave him my email address, which he repeated back to me.  That was the end of the conversation.

About a half hour later, my phone rang, but I missed the call, and there was no voice mail.  I called the number back, and it was the person I'd been dealing with at ConServe.   He explained that he'd made an error, and accidently charged my card for 100.00.  He said that he could either refund the amount and recharge it for 50, or he could leave it as 100, and that would "accelerate" the rehab process, meaning that instead of paying for 9 months, I would be paid off a month early.  I said that would be fine.

So, checking my bank account, I see that ConServe has actually only charged my account 50.00.  Additionally, I have not received an email from them yet.   I googled "accelerated student loan rehab," and can find NOTHING.  Is there such a thing?  I am paranoid that he tricked me into agreeing to something that wasn't actually a rehab (mainly because I've read and heard numerous times how unethical and shady CA's are.)  I know that sounds stupid, but I really want to rehab this loan.  

Does anyone have any experience dealing with this group?  Good, bad...?  Thanks...  

[mysharona]

So..update, in case anyone else ever runs into this problem.

Turns out, ConlServe did in fact charge my debit card two 50.00 transactions last Friday.  For some reason, only one showed in pending, and I didn't know there was two until the payments cleared the bank.

I called ConServe today to find out where the paperwork they told me they were sending me was.  They put me on hold for several minutes, and came back to tell me that as if 2/10, HESC had recalled my loan, and they had no further information, and I would need to contact HESC.  I have a feeling I just handed the collection agency 100 bucks and it's not going to have anything to do with the rehab.

I tried to call HESC to find out what is going on, and "due to unforeseen circumstances, the office is currently closed."  I'm guessing it's because of the snowstorm we had yesterday (their offices are in the same city as me.)  They'll be closed Monday, too, I imagine, for Presidents Day, so it looks like I won't get any answers until at least Tuesday.  I'm not a very good waiter.  

Does anyone know why HESC might have recalled the loan, and what that means?

[mysharona]

Another update--I hope no one else ever has this experience!

I finally was able to get a hold of HESC today after several unanswered emails and terminal holds.

The woman told me that according to their records, I didn't have any outstanding loans at all--they were all paid in full in 2012.  I knew she was wrong, and told her that I did indeed have a 4500.00 balance.  She put me on hold, and came back a little while later to tell me that I was right, and they had recalled the collection from ConServe a few days ago and sent to the the Dept of Ed.  I asked her what happened to the two 50 dollar payments I had made to conserve when we agreed on rehab terms, and she said that she didn't know.  (  )  The only information that she could give me was that hte loan was sent to DOE, and that I would have to keep calling them to find out what to do because she didn't know when they'd receive it.

I decided to just call DOE as soon as I hung up to try ot see if they could help me.  Thankfully, they had just rec'd my information, and they were able to set me up with a new rehab.  I asked the person there how I could find out about the payments I'd made two weeks ago, and he asked why I didn't call conserve and ask them.  I told him I had called them, and all they would say was the loan was recalled, no further information is available.  The DOE guy laughed about that.  He said there was some form I could send to DOE to have them verify those payments, and they would try to figure it out.

I don't know if this means that the payment I gave to DOE today will end up being my first payment of the 9 months, or my third one or what.  I'm so annoyed right now.  These loans weren't  even on any of my credit reports(they aged off, I think?)--I could have just let tax offset pay them off in full with no damage to my credit, but I really just wanted to follow through with the rehab.   I'm not going to be able to file my taxes until October now because of the offset--I don't want to risk the returns paying off the loan so I can't complete the rehab.  

So, there's my rehab saga.  I just hope HESC doesn't screw me up again and recall the loan from the DOE or something.  I still don't know or understand why they did that in the first place.