Complaints

The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:12/09/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Similarly to some of the complaints on this board, I was a victim of a scamming agency disguised and enabled through Prosperity Benefit Services that *************** Solutions, LLC affiliated with in 2019. I will note both companies have the same formatted automated emails and the same city/state information (******, **). I have proof via signed documents claiming that in order for their conditions and my services that I thought were real and were to be enacted, I would have to pay a membership monthly of ***** and 4 consecutive installments of 250 totaling **** USD from October 2019-Januauary 2020. They put my loans on forbearance for 4 months, signed me up with my personal information with Prosperity Benefits Services, and both parties too my money as it was withdrawn directly from my bank account under 2 names: STUDNTDOCPAY.com and DocPrepPay.com which Prosperity Benefits Services uses as well. This was a complete scheme that went under my radar because of the pandemic and the ceasing of payments didn't allow me to uncover the scheme sooner. I have filed complaints with both companies, tried contacting their customer service only to be told shes on break or shes sick. I provided them my documents and they have shown me no consideration or asked me any questions or provided any actions from them that would tell me that they are willing to place more vetting mechanisms in place to prevent this from happening again. Only that my case is sent to a review board. In total I lost **** dollars and 62 cents from October 2019 to November 2022 when monthly payments were taken from my personal bank information used and entered by scammers. I would like to request a full refund by Prosperity Benefits Services as they are the profiteers of this scam. If they truly care for student loan payers they will admit to not being more diligent in their business practices and vet 3rd party agencies like this fake company *************** Solutions and pay me back.

  Business Response

  Date: 12/12/2022

  The Consumer enrolled with a document preparation company in October 2019, and they referred him to Prosperity Benefit Services to help him with recertification of his consolidated student loans. The Consumer received a consultation explaining the fundamentals of the membership and decided to move forward with the membership enrollment. The Consumer has to go through a process before we activate his membership. He needed to go through a compliance call and understand the membership terms. The Consumer also signed an agreement for the membership with Prosperity Benefit Services.
  

  Prosperity Benefit Services successfully recertified the consumer's consolidation and would continue to do so annually. We want to mention that the Consumer can use any other services as long as their membership remains active.  

  
  Prosperity Benefit Services only operates solely as itself and does not disguise itself as a different company. There may be some confusion because the Consumer was enrolled with *************** Solutions but referred to Prosperity Benefit Services for services we offer through our membership. Unfortunately, we are not able to take responsibility for any other company. The Consumer was also never denied a refund, but we have a refund process, and his membership is currently pending investigation, and he was made aware. We will contact the Consumer as we receive progress from the investigation.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/13/2022

  I do not accept this because I personally did not connect myself with Prosperity Benefits Services, they were passed to me via a scammer from *************** Solutions.  I would ask Prosperity Benefits Services, how that call came about?  Who notified them of my name and information?  How was that information handled and shared internally at Prosperity Benefits Services.  I was scammed into thinking that Prosperity Benefits Services was a partner agency with *************** Solutions and those charges and stolen money of mine was paid towards an agreement that my loans were going to be at a reduced monthly payment.  Their company logo is in that attached PDF.  Has Prosperity Benefits Services worked with or knew about *************** Solutions, LLC?  They had to in order for my information to be collected and reached out to by a representative of Prosperity Benefits Services.  There's a timeline and an order of operations with this scam and I have all the details and willing to share them with a representative at Prosperity Benefits Services if they are willing to listen and listen to understand not listen to reply.  If they genuinely cared about what happened, they would be interested in hearing about how myself and apparently several other possibly hundreds or thousands of student loan payers are being connected to Prosperity Benefits Services via a scammed agency or agencies.  Prosperity Benefits Services are the profiteers of what's happening and I notified the government and the department of education for their unwillingness to ****************** all the information from me.  If Prosperity Benefits Services wants to sweep this under the rug, so be it, but I'll make sure our government does not and I get my money back. 

  Business Response

  Date: 12/13/2022

  As the Consumer states, they did not contact Prosperity directly. The Consumer was working with a consolidation company, and they referred the Consumer to Prosperity. The referral company felt that the Consumer would benefit from the membership. The Consumer agreed and was sent an agreement by the referral company. The Prosperity agreement explains and outlines every term the membership has. The Consumer had the option to decline the membership purchase, but instead, he decided to move forward with the membership and purchased it. We never had any issues with the Consumer, and when it was time, we started recertifying his consolidation.
  Prosperity Benefit Services is far from being a scam, and we are still determining why the Consumer feels that way. Our membership services have always been available for the Consumer to use. He used the recertification assistance service twice. 
  
  We have no issues agreeing to a solution with the Consumer and have always agreed to work with him. The agreement the Consumer uploaded with the BBB does not show the agreement he signed with us. The Consumer may remain under the impression that we are representing his consolidation company, but those are false statements. He was referred to our company and utilized one of the membership services twice. 

   

   

  Customer Answer

  Date: 12/14/2022

  I spoke with *******************, Operations Manager at Prosperity Benefits Solutions which he began working for this 'company' in 2016 according to LinkedIn and his ******** account but according to the BBB this company did not begin until 2017.  I tried receiving updated information about the President and CPA since those names are not current and the available contact information in unreachable.  They told me they can't disclose that information to the public and they were unwilling to share with me their supervisor information to escalate this case and get my refund amount paid back in full.  ******************* looks to be the mastermind behind this 'company' and trying to blame these scamming companies and member negligence to cover their bases.  *************** Solutions, LLC is that cover for them and Prosperity Benefits Services is the actual profiteer of this scam.  It's generating them 3 million annually.   I will get to the bottom of what is happening to myself and hundreds of other members going through this nightmare.  Sending refund checks of a fraction of the amount they manipulated out of student loan payers seems to be their business model.  Associate with fake consolidators, use them as a cover to get personal information from victims, sign them up through their accredited business, and then handle complaints the same way, offer $150 - $250 USD in hopes that that would shut people up.  I'm determined to find out how this happened, what security mechanisms they have in place to check against 3rd party activities like the fake one they had with ***************.  Their response to this will be the same, we don't know who *************** is, we have no connection.  But they do, they have these fake alias names in their system, ******************* admitted to it.  So its a scam.  I'd like my money back and I'd let it be resolved from there. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/04/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  I was contacted by this company to help me switch over to a different loan servicer, which they did through Nelnet in July/August of 2019. I was told I needed to provide a monthly fee of $39.99 each month for their services to keep my loan with Nelnet and they took out a direct deposit every month for the past 3 years. I believed that this was needed, but when I moved this past August and had to change my bank information, I contacted ****** about it and asked about Prosperity. They told me they have never hear of this company, and was most likely a scam that lies to get money out of people and that my payments to them has nothing to do with my loan or Nelnet. I never contacted Prosperity back about my new bank information, but they have called me many times to get my new information. Something needs to be done about these scammers. They got me for three years, scamming me out of over $1,400!! I would love to get my money back!

  Business Response

  Date: 10/04/2022

  We are sorry to there is dissatisfaction with the acquired membership and we would like to have the opportunity to clear things up. As the client stated, they obtained a membership with Prosperity Benefit Services and unfortunately, it does require a membership fee in order to remain active. The membership acquired by the client comes a variety of services, and one of them being assistance with their annual recertification, and that service was rendered without any issues. As long as the membership remained active, we would continue to render any service that is part of their membership. We understand the client may have some concerns and these concerns could of been addressed by our customer support team. There is an agreement the client signed that explains how the membership operates. At one point the client's payment was returned and our customer support team was contacting him to resolve the matter, but we were never aware that the client was intending to cancel or had any concerns regarding their membership. We will look over their membership account and come up with some sort of refund to satisfy the matter.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/04/2022

  Ok, first it is not acceptable that I only have 30 min to reply. It'a 2022. 

   

  This company intentionally preys on people and tricks them into signing up for a service I did NOT need. I was dealing with working multiple jobs, family health issues, death in the family, moving twice, personal health issues. And now this.

   

  I have been charged $39.99/mo for 3 years. That's $1439.64. I will 'accept' that being paid back to me. Not a fake, online apology.

   

  I encourage your organization and any other that is in charge of investigating companies like this to look into their predatory practices. If this isn't illegal, it should be.

  Business Response

  Date: 10/05/2022

  We understand the client's concern and would like to address all issues. 

  1. The client was referred to our membership to help them stay in their current program by making sure their recertification is done properly and on time. This service was done successfully and would continue until the clients loans are forgiven. If the client loses interest on this membership, they always have the right to deactivate the membership at any time. As far as we knew, the client was satisfied, no concerns were ever brought up to our attention, until now.

  2. The client is not obligated to use any of our services or use our membership, it was recommended by another company and the client chose to subscribe. The process of subscribing includes a compliance call that verbally explains how the membership works and what the client can expect from it. The client agreed to all terms, we were very transparent with the client.

   

  3. The client was charged a membership fee. The membership fee is a monthly fee because as stated above, the client has the right to terminate their membership at any time. Being a membership, there are other services the client can use at any time, whether they use them or not is up to them, but we are always readily available to fulfill the services at no further cost.

  4. We would of preferred to handle this matter over the phone so we can both have a better discussion regarding all issues, and be able to go into more detail. Our membership's primary service is in the Tax industry (Tax Services), some members are referred to our membership to help with services in other areas (as this one) and we do our best to offer them the help they need. 

   

  We understand the client is no longer happy with their membership, but they did use one of our services with a successful outcome, therefore a full refund would be quite unfair. We are willing to work with the client regarding a refund, but within reason. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/14/2022

  There is nothing they can say to me on the phone they cant say on email. Have no desire to speak on the phone. This company swindled me out of money and I dont not accept this response. My loan server had confirmed they have no connection to this company or my loan and recertification. I was told to believe differently. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/23/2022

  Type:Billing Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Hello,Since April 29th 2022 to July 29th 2022 I have been paying a total of ****** each month to this company because I was under the impression that they were helping me consolidate my student loans. I just spoke with my student loan service and was informed that this is a scam and they have never heard of this company before. I thought I was paying off my loans but in reality I was getting scammed. I gave them my bank account info and my social security. I am now very concerned about what they can do with this info. I do not make much and these payments were harsh on my bank account and I would love to be refunded for being mislead. This is not right, taking others money by lying and saying this is how you consolidate should be a crime.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/25/2022

  The client called in on 8/23/22 and requested to cancel his membership and we confirmed his cancellation during the phone call. We are sorry to hear that there are some concerns he has towards the validity of the company. We would like to clear up a few discrepancies regarding the clients initial statement. The $289.74 was not a charge from Prosperity Benefit Services. The client hired another company to have his student loans consolidated, and that company was not Prosperity Benefit Services. We are a membership company that offers numerous services as part of the members subscription. The client did subscribe to our membership as a referral from another company. We would be more than happy and work with the client regarding a refund, but unfortunately we are not able to refund any fees that we did not charge. As a courtesy we will refund the client two membership payments via check.

  We recommend the client contacts the correct company that charged the payments $289.74.

   

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/09/2022

  Type:Product Issues
  Status:

  AnsweredMore info

  Complaint statuses

  Resolved:

  The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.

  Unresolved:

  The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.

  Answered:

  The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.

  Unanswered:

  The business failed to respond to the dispute.

  Unpursuable:

  BBB is unable to locate the business.

  Prosperity Benefit Services started taking money out of my bank account in 2020. They gave me a membership fee schedule and I paid it to them through docuhelp.info as scheduled with the understanding that the company using them, Federal ************************** would be consolidating my student loans. FDAC was shut down as being a scam and I am still awaiting Prosperity Benefit Services to refund me $1,000+ I paid towards their membership fees.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/09/2022

  As the client stated, she was referred to us by a third party company. Members are required to make monthly payments in order to keep their subscription active and receive access to our services.  

  We received a phone call from the client on 1/27/21 where she requested to cancel her membership, and she also requested to cancel her student loan services. We went ahead and deactivated her membership subscription as requested. We also informed the client we are not able to cancel her student loan services because that request has to be done directly with that company, not us.

  We have no issue offering her a partial refund on her membership fees, and we will be contacting her with more details. 

  Customer Answer

  Date: 08/12/2022

  I have yet to be contacted via email by this company. Since the membership fees were paid with the understanding of services being rendered, and they were not rendered per their agreements, a full refund should take place to prevent further filing and investigations with the ********************* of ********* Protection and Innovation.

  Business Response

  Date: 08/12/2022

  We contacted ****************** via telephone on 8/10/22 to discuss her refund and did not reach her, we will try contacting her via email as well.

  The membership payments have nothing to do with her student loan services, those were completed by a different company and Prosperity Benefit Services has no liability over that company. Our membership fees are strictly for the Prosperity membership which is a membership that offers various services. Members can use the services we offer at any time by ordering them through our website, or by contacting customer service. Our membership fees are not charged in exchange for 1 service, its in exchange to using any of our services. Our agreement specifically outlines all terms of the membership.

  As mentioned in the previous response, we are trying to get in contact with ****************** to go over the refund details. She is also more than welcome to contact our customer service department. There has never been any mention that we don't want to issue a refund, we just need to speak to her in order to issue the refund.