New level of desperate

[Anonymous]

There are so many LEGITIMATE issues with my student loans, we could be here a WEEK going over them!

In the interest of time, we'll scale it down to the biggest issue, at the moment:

The school I attended, Phillips Jr. College, Condie Campus, Campbell, CA, was closed down (along with their 90 other campuses) due to fraudulently collecting financial aid funds, falsifying attendance records and a host of other long-running violations at each campus. 

Here's the crisis:  I am unable to locate ANY records for that campus AT ALL.  I need my student records in order to find out whether they falsified my attendance records, secured additional loans under my name, etc. 

Over the past week or so, I've called & emailed all over the United States...everywhere from the National Archives in North Carolina, to more than a half dozen agencies and departments in California, to the place in Mississippi that houses the records for those MS campuses.  All of these calls & emails were the result of countless hours of painstaking internet searches both by myself and by another AWESOME myFICO member!  She found things it would've taken me WEEKS to find while wading through thousands of documents looking for the smallest amount of viable information.

Each phone call ends with a "try this office, department or agency, as we have nothing to do with proprietary schools". 

So far, the ombudsman I've been assigned has frustrated me by answering parts of questions, rather than addressing the email one question at a tme. 

My questions / hopes at this point are:

1- can I request a new ombudsman?  I don't have the time or inclination to wait 5 days for a half-a$$ answer

2- did ANYBODY out there attend this campus?

3- does ANYBODY out there have ANY CLUE where I might locate the records from a closed-down, fraudulent joke of a school from the early 90s???

The former owner's name, address & phone number are posted online (not sure, of course, whether that info is current or valid), but I'm definitely considering paying Mr. Phillips a friendly visit...he's only a couple hours' drive from here! 

These loans are really causing problems for me, as you may have seen in an earlier post.  They're being double-reported, so three loans looks like SIX, ALL SHOWING BALANCES and I don't believe I owed the ORIGINAL amounts they show to begin with, as I wasn't at the school very long before realizing I honestly was wasting my time!

Thanks in advance...any help is greatly appreciated!!!

[MattH]

Call at least two different lawyers (most offer free initial consultations) and ask each of them to describe his/her previous experience with this type of situation. Do not rely on advice from an Internet discussion board over something so serious and potentially disastrous as this: a good lawyer's time won't be cheap, but you cannot afford to delay getting a good lawyer involved.

[LynnInMN]

Personally I wouldnt waste the money on an attorney.  Most quite frankly are useless when it comes to student loan issues.  They will charge you a fortune for research that you can do yourself,

Have you checked out this link..  http://www.bppve.ca.gov/transcripts/custodian_records.shtml

When I was working in collections, one of my major clients was the California Student Aid Commision.  I managed to help many of my debtors thru the paperwork of loan cancellation for this particular school.  Some were more difficult than others.  I am assuming you got copies of your prom notes and that you have been in touch with CSAC-Edfund and done the closed school paperwork for cancelation. 

I remember one of my debtors actually went to the library and pulled old newspaper articles on the school closure.  She was actually quoted in the paper on the day the school closed....she was one of many students reporters talked to.  Up until then she had had no luck proving she was in attendance when the school closed.  The article did the trick and she was refunded everything she had paid in.

[Anonymous]

Thank you for the suggestion, Matt, but at the moment, I simply don't have the money to spend on an attorney.  Truthfully, if I had that kind of money available, I'd just pay these b****rds off just to get them off my back even though I believe they used me, along with all the others, to defraud the government!  I requested a refund from the school when I dropped classes & they told me they didn't do refunds AT ALL.

I don't think that's one of the links I've been to, and it will surely be my next stop after this message!

Isn't the ombudsman's office supposed to be able to help me with that paperwork?  Here's the further complication ~ I don't have copies of ANYTHING (except MAYBE some old books left from the school in a box somewhere) and I actually wasn't in attendance WHEN they closed down.  They closed not long after I left but I'd have to go back and look at the actual date of closure in order to know how long.

I no longer live in CA so access to their local libraries isn't happening for at least another year (we're hoping to make it out there for a visit next summer, as there are aging great-grandparents who haven't seen our kids since they were babies). 

Every single place I've turned to for records has said "nope, we don't have those here"!  I have literally made a dozen or more contacts, everywhere from MS to NC to CA in multiple departments of several different agencies in each state only to repeatedly be told "we have nothing to do with that campus" OR "we have nothing to do with proprietary schools"!!!  It's as though all the records are holed up in the former school owner's basement or buried in his acreage somewhere! 

Waaaay before learning of myFICO, I requested copies of actual documentation & their response to that request was to send me, as I mentioned in a previous post, a terrible-quality photocopy of a piece of paper about the size of a business check with my first & last name poorly printed.  There was no copy of the front of the "check" and no writing above or below the "endorsement" to indicate that it was, in fact, a CHECK.

I will also contact the CSAC-Edfund (not sure if I've already contacted them) and see what I can find out. 

Thanks, Lynn, for giving me more avenues to travel in my quest!  I've worn deep grooves in all the other avenues, it's time to turn in a different direction!

---

LynnInMN wrote:

Personally I wouldnt waste the money on an attorney.  Most quite frankly are useless when it comes to student loan issues.  They will charge you a fortune for research that you can do yourself,

Have you checked out this link..  http://www.bppve.ca.gov/transcripts/custodian_records.shtml

When I was working in collections, one of my major clients was the California Student Aid Commision.  I managed to help many of my debtors thru the paperwork of loan cancellation for this particular school.  Some were more difficult than others.  I am assuming you got copies of your prom notes and that you have been in touch with CSAC-Edfund and done the closed school paperwork for cancelation. 

I remember one of my debtors actually went to the library and pulled old newspaper articles on the school closure.  She was actually quoted in the paper on the day the school closed....she was one of many students reporters talked to.  Up until then she had had no luck proving she was in attendance when the school closed.  The article did the trick and she was refunded everything she had paid in.

---

[Anonymous]

Lynn, I was mistaken!  In fact, I have contacted the custodian of records and they ONLY house the records for the Mississippi campuses.  I know their website says otherwise, however, after multiple phone calls & emails, I was informed that they don't understand WHY the website says  that, as they only have records for the campuses in their own state.

So, it seems I'm back at square one.  Thank you for trying to help!

I did email CASC and will call them on Monday.  You'll forgive me for not being optimistic, but this has taken up soooo much time to be further screwed at every turn  . 

Have you checked out this link..  http://www.bppve.ca.gov/transcripts/custodian_records.shtml

[Anonymous]

shameless bump