Dan's Webpage: Because everyone loves a farce: Indeed, they know nothing of heroism

Our Bold Hero: "I'm sorry, I'm not interested."
Telemarketer: "Not- what are you talking about? We've already sent you a packet!"
Our Bold Hero: "Yeah. I know. And I looked at that packet and decided that your company wasn't the best choice."
Telemarketer: "But-"
Our Bold Hero: "Sorry."

And so I take my revenge, a tiny, petty revenge, after jerking them around for a while. That guy sounded a bit higher up on the food chain than the grunts I'm used to, which would explain his incredulity.

I hope I've wasted as many of your resources as possible, Hero Student Loans.

I think it was when they flat-out told me I had to give them my social in order to get an informational packet, or maybe it was after the third time a call from Hero Student Loans woke me up in the morning — but at some point I decided there was no way a company this irritating would ever get my business.

Hero Student Loans has probably called me seven or eight times, at this point. The first time they called, I said I didn't need the spiel, but I am looking for a loan consolidation service and could you just give me your web address. When the time of reckoning comes, that first telemarketer will be spared.

It turns out that any sign of interest was foolish, because they called again for my address, so they could send me a packet that duplicates the information on their website. I'd told them that I wouldn't be home for weeks, but that they should still send the info there to be sure I got it, yet no matter how many times I said this, they never passed that message to the next telemarketer. So the friendly reminders kept coming.

Sometimes they called and didn't say who they were right away, and I thought they were some other company but when I asked for a website they said herostudentloans. I may have snapped at a telemarketer at some point.

This is not normal. I've come to expect one or two telemarketer calls a week, and there have been a few other student loan consolidation services in the mix. None of these companies, however, has been so consistently rude and ignorant. None of them even called me a second time after I asked for a web address. None of them has ever asked for my social on the phone.

Hero Student Loans was different, in a bad way. So I decided to spite them, and though there was very little I could do to harm such a big company, now I can at least say I tried.

Hopefully they'll call again, because I think I could have strung them along for a few weeks more. I had almost beaten X-Men: Legends and I wasn't thinking.

Also, I haven't tried patronizing the telemarketers yet, mainly because I'm not sure I could. I have the time and patience for spite, but I'm not sure I have what it takes to fake a near-sale on the phone.

In case anyone is still looking for a loan consolidation service, I'd like to recommend IDAPP. They came to the U and gave an informational presentation that was useful no matter which service I use; they even recommended some respectable competitors in case we decide not to go with IDAPP.

Hero Student Loans was not mentioned, but services of its ilk were alluded to.

I would like to submit a complaint about HERO student loans for unethical marketing practices. I received a letter from them thanking for applying for a federal student loan consolidation even though and have never heard of them before and asking me to contact them to resolve the problem with "my" application.

Any ideas where I can submit a complaint. This may not be outright illegal but it is deceptive and also raises privacy concerns.

I can take it one step further. As one of the sorry saps who actually did his consolidation with HERO. My initial application was submitted June 2006. It is now Aug 2007 and my consolidation loan is still not complete. What is the hold up you ask? I am waiting on HERO to send a simple fax to my lender so that they can complete the process. This final stage has been held up now for 4 months. Apparently it takes a member of the upper echelon of the HERO bureaucracy who actually has the technical skills and ability to operate a fax in order to finalize the process. In the meantime my credit has been damaged, graduation postponed, and a substantial amount of hair lost forever. THERE ARE DOZENS IF NOT HUNDREDS OF CHOICES OUT THERE...DO NOT USE HERO UNLESS YOU WANT TO COMPLICATE YOUR LIFE ON A SCALE PREVIOUSLY UNIMAGINED.

Hey, I randomly found your blog on Google while searching for news on HERO.

See, I'm a former employee; I was initially on the front end as a low level agent and later switched over to the back end, doing data entry and NSLDS lookups.

First off I just want to say, if I ever called you, I am SO sorry. I know what lying douchebags my co-workers were (I was old at the ripe age of 25, most of them were snot-nosed 19 year olds). They trained us heavily in the art of manipulation and it was all about scare tactics and getting the social. They made us outright lie to people. When I was on the phones I was in API, so I was one of those awful people who demanded your social in order to get the packets...we were encouraged to lie and play up our supposed connection to the DoE in order to make people feel secure about giving up socials. And once we got those socials? Well, I will tell you that once I had to move to a different cube because my computer was busted, and inside the drawer of the new one were sheets with dozens and dozens of socials. I lost count at 30 sheets. Being responsible I handed them to my supe, who greeted me with indifference.

HERO is located in Tempe, AZ, home to many call centers, and it's pretty incestous; at the one I'm working at now, there are 4 other ex-HERO employees. All you need to know about HERO is that a good chunk of my co-workers (and a lot of the supes) there used to work for the big MCI call center in town until they went out of business. If you know anything at all about MCI and the way they did business, HERO's antics should be a lot more explainable now.

The back end was even more incompetent. My job in data entry consisted of qualifying people for consolidation. Management constantly changed the rules on us and didn't seem to know themselves wtf they were doing half the time. Turnaround time was atrocious. And they treated employees even worse than the customers. Pretty much no one on the phones had insurance, due to the shifty bullshit they pulled with shift scheduling. In data entry they constantly sent us home (we were hourly) around the holidays because there was literally nothing for us to do. At one point they had us sorting through returned packets. When I finally had enough and quit, the Department of Education was investigating them. This was shortly before the new rules came out restricting NSLDS access to schools and students. I have no doubt HERO's bullshit was a big factor in that rule change.

As penance, I'd like to offer the following bit of good news: thanks to the new DoE regulations and the crackdowns on shady consolidation outfits like HERO, HERO is now out of business. MSA Solutions, the evil telemarketing company that started HERO, has even put a for lease sign on their building. See, they stupidly put all their eggs in one basket and cancelled all the outsourced accounts they had from Toyota, Countrywide, etc once they saw how much many they could make in the student loan consolidation racket and poured everything they had into HERO. They lost a metric fuckton of money this peak season. I call it karma.

Unfortunately I am also one of the sapps that consolidated with HERO. I wasn't told that my six month grace period would be revoked if I consolidated, so I called HERO to explain it to me......and I called......and called......and called. Today was AT LEAST my 10th call to this company and all I get is a answering machine or a message that says I have called code ABC123 whatever. The point is this company SUCKS!!!!!!!! How can you be a national company and have no one to pick up the phone. I'm starting to believe I've been had. When you consolidate your student loans do not EVER EVER EVER EVER use HERO, please for my sake. No one should have to go through this.

Thank you so much for the info on HERO. I've been waiting to consolidate my loan with them and have not been able to get ahold of them no mater what I 've tried. As a result, I have my original lender wanting me to pay them now since the grace period is over.
Does anyone have any ideas on who is a good company to consolidate with?

I would like to let anyone who has deal with this company and are unhappy that they should file a complaint with the Ombudsmans office in Washington DC. This is the agency that oversees companies that are not compliant. Their phone number is 877-557-2575. they will assign a casworker to you. Also you can file a complaint with the office of the Inspector General in Washington the best way to reach them is by email oig.hotline@ed.gov Hope this helps all of you.

AS a former employee of HERO/MSA Solutions, I was the Dialer Manager at the company. I was tasked with managing the team that ran the dialers that called all of the people for the consolidations.

I had been with them for almost 4 years. I never liked teir tactics which were simply dial the numbers over and over and over again.

they did finally close up shop and move to a new location.. finding any telephone number for them at this point is not easy. to date I have not been paid my 4 weeks of severance pay that I have a signed agreement for. nor have I received any w-2 information so I can actually file my taxes.

I was hired as a disabled worker..The rules snd regulations for there employees was worse than they way they treated customers..I was constantlly harrassed that i was not working fast enough even though they were aware that my disability..They paid us for only the time we were actually on the phone..If we needed to use the restroom we had 5 minutes to return and even if you were one second over due you were docked..so even if you were there 8 hours aday or more you would get paid for less than 8 hours..Since I couldnt walk very fast or had to use my wheelchair I rarely got a full pay check.. What made it worse is they had me seat almost the full lenghth of the building so had a long distance to go..There also was many times that I was forced to go farther as the restroom on the first floor was closed for cleaning in the middle of the day where i had togo farther to take an elevator to the 2cd floor..and docked more time..they hired more people than they had available spots for disabled workers to park...I complained about it many times for months..only saying they couldnt do anything about it..They could care less about needs of the disabled..The needs of the abled workers..as well as there customers and non customers...I worked there for 2 yrs till they fired me while I was legally on medical leave under the federal family medical leave act..By the way I was diagnosed with Parkinsons disease and it was funny how I was fired just2 months after diagnosed..which they were aware of my illness..

i also use to work at msa and i quit a month in they were bullshit, but now i'm trying to get my w-2 and i can't get a hold of them and i need my w-2s if anyone knows what to do or how to get a hold of them please let me know thanks.

I also worked for that crappy compamy. I am ashamed to even put it on my resume. When I did though I would get people and companies to call me for other telemarketing jobs and I refuse to take them. MSA made me feel horrible forcing people to give me their SSN's. Lying to parents and grandparents it was sick.

To the person that left the comment on 5/1/08....I never said that I was treated unfairly by all people...matter of fact most treated me well..I was making the point that that HERO/MSA broke alot of labor rules that including labor laws for discrimination against disabled workers..I'm the one who experienced time after time that I was harrassed for not working fast enough between calls..which was caused by my illness and disability..Being ill and working at the same time was very difficult but I always gave 110% of what i had to give...Sressing someone out contiually that is ill will also effect there performance as well..To the person who made the comment that I couldnt do my job...If that were the case I wouldnt have been employed for 2 years by msa..Iwas only laid off when everyone else was..And to make another point I was on medical leave when this happened an no one had the decentcy to cal me to let me know what happened with the layoffs...I only found out a week later when I called in to say I was going to try and come back to work the following week..Another thing how dare you say that they tret them well when your in a wheelchair and told that you would have to park a far ways away from the front door that there are more disabled people working there then handicap parking spaces that were available..that I was told there was nothing that could be done..You stupid ignorant individual that has made that comment...SHAME ON YOU!!!! You probably know who I am..Since I'm not ashamed to say that I suffer from PARKINSONS DISEASE and can not work any longer..collecting social security disability rhe rest of my life..And another thing if I was that bad...why when I came back after a month off and went through a retraining refresher class with new employees did when the vice president of dialers come into the class introducing himself,tell the class I was one of the best dialers MSA had...Unless you have the whole story dont make stupid remarks..I left some very good friends behind not being able to say good bye which included management and supervisoral personnel..To that person that made that comment to me call me or anyone else who wants to get in touch with me..MY NAME IS STEVE STEINER AT 480-655-6525