I am currently in AES hell - have been for 2 years now. I got pregnant and had to leave school to have my child - I got the 6 month grace period and then they started hounding. I applied for a deferrment because I was pregnant and had a high-risk pregnancy and could not work or afford the payments. It was a run around - my Dr had to fax them forms and then she would and then they would say they had not received them. This went on for about a month - all while they are threatening to report me for non payment, etc. Finally I sent a letter return receipt requested with all the forms, threatening to tell the Attorney General about them, and suddenly I was deferred - imagine that.
But they would only give me the 6 week post partum because I had an emergency c-section - then it was back to the harrassing. I had to stay home with my baby due to her health problems and the fact that daycare is so expensive here, so I filed for an economic hardship forbearance - by the end of that, I had to file for food stamps to get them to grant me a measly 6-month deferrment (mind you, all the time I spent battling them counted in this, so really it only ended up being a 4 month deferment.
It is now up and I requested the usual forms to defer again - after they ignored my emails for a week, I finally got an email saying I've maxed out my deferment time - WHAT?! All my other loans give you 3, 1 year deferments before you have maxed! I'm furious and asked them to provide me a link ontheir site where it states this. I'm getting ready to contact the attorney general and BBB on them, they have horrible communication and misleading practices.