I recently completed a 3 year enlistment with the US Army, and one of my benefits was the student loan repayment program. The Army paid off my student loans, 1/3 of the loan per year for three years, making payments directly to my lender, the infamous Sallie Mae. The first two payments were a month or two later than the Army said they would be, but still, free money, and I made the small in-between payments to keep the account current.

Then I finished my enlistment, was honorably discharged, and waited for the last payment to come in. It was 4 months late and when it got there (mid-December), it looked like it was $1500 MORE than what was left owed on my account. I called the Army and they confirmed that they had payed the correct amount they owed me, taking interest into account. The overpayment belongs to me. Yay, more free money!

Alas, no such thing...

I called Sallie Mae to see how they would handle the overpayment. They said a check would be sent to me about the third week in January and to call them back if it didn't arrive. Mid-February, the check has not appeared and I called Sallie Mae again. They said the problem may have been my recent address change and said they would stop payment on the first check and send a second one. It would take 3-4 weeks.

Late March, the check has still not arrived, and I call Sallie Mae again. Reading Consumerist pays off - I recognize that the customer service representative does not speak English as well as it appears and is using the "keyword" strategy...meaning she spouts phrases irrelevant to the situation I describe based on words she picks out of my description seemingly at random. I ask to speak to a supervisor, who surely must speak English better than the service rep did.

Sadly, he speaks better English than all three of the representative I had previously spoken to - since all of them had given me the wrong information. The check had never been sent to me at all. Since the overpayment was made by the Army, the money had been sent back to the Army. Simple company policy. Which not one of the service reps apparently knew about. The payment on the first check had never been stopped because the Army had already cashed it. No one at Sallie Mae though this might be important to tell me.

My $1500 has been with the Army since January, and I should have spent all this time trying to get the money from them. The supervisor declined to pay the interest on the money I could have been collecting all this time (sure a lender understands about interest and timely payments) but was very sorry. Suffice to say, Sallie Mae will never get my business again.

Heidi, Colorado Springs

Sprint eventually apologized and agreed to reinstate all the accounts of those who called in and identified themselves as members of the armed forces.

Really, though, the Sprint robots were just doing their job:cancel the account, without prejudice, of anything unprofitable that moved.

The flip-side of course being that if you want to cancel Sprint without early termination fee, just figure out a way to make more than 50% of your calls for a few months while roaming. We hear the Army still has a few open slots.

Sprint Giving Military Members the Boot [SprintUsers.com]

(Photo: foundphotoslj)

"Just joining the army is not enough. You have to be called to "active duty". That is to say sent away somewhere on a specific mission/deployment. A solider can cancel the contract without penalty under the right circumstances, but will still owe any normal usage fees up to that point. If a collection agency was sent after the solider the collection agency has to stop pursuing the matter until the solider returns, but the money can still be collected eventually."

There's an added bonus to escaping contract: you'll also learn valuable technical and leadership skills that employers are looking for in the post-apocalyptic future.

After the jump, a few more words from Davros about how carefully the cellphone company looks at those marching orders you present as evidence. Think forged doctor's notes...

"At AT&T Wireless (AWS) the reps had the power to not ask for documentation and just cancel. As getting the documentation requires more time and effort than not getting it, it was never asked for. The documentation that we could ask for was a copy of the orders. These orders usually had a number on them. On a rare occasion a rep might record the numbers from the order in the customers notes. We had no way to confirm them though. Any series of numbers would do."

We aim to be compleatists about this story, so the post in its entirety after the fudged jump. Click on the first 'Read More', not the second!

Read More... and comment!

Message to all Soldiers

As you are likely aware, the Department of Veterans Affairs recently lost a computer drive with the identifying information (names, SSNs and dates of birth) of as many as 20 million veterans. We now know
that many active and reserve servicemembers may be affected. Although there is no evidence that the data has been used illegally, all Soldiers should be extra vigilant with regard to their financial
well-being.

You should closely monitor your personal financial affairs while the DoD, VA and the Military Services work in earnest to determine the details and impacts of the compromise. We ask that you carefully
monitor your bank accounts, credit card accounts and any other financial accounts for suspicious activity. For more information on how to protect yourself, contact DoD's Military One Source at
www.militaryonesource.com or 1-800-342-9647.

The Army will work to keep you informed and ensure that you are aware of the resources available to help deal with this issue.

Peter J. Schoomaker Kenneth O. Preston
General, United States Army Sergeant Major of the Army
Chief of Staff

We don't mean a line of his-and-hers sweatshirts that say "Army of Two," either. We want the real deal.

The military already has a vast supply chain. How much harder would it be to ramp up the supply of non-combat gear, like thermal underwear, coats, gloves, hats, and rocket launchers, then sell that excess to sporting goods stores like REI and Dick's under the 'Official U.S. Military Issue' brand? Many would be inclined to pay a premium price, knowing that they were wearing the same gear as our fighting forces. If it's good enough to keep our boys cool while they hunker down beneath an unarmored Humvee, it's good enough for us to wear to a barbecue.

It seems a natural revenue generator to us. Obviously, dress uniforms and the like wouldn't be as necessary, but we can think of many outdoor enthusiasts who would pay top dollar to have a head-to-toe official military issue outfit.

Yes, we know about military surplus stores, but that's not the same. We want to be able to head into our neighborhood sporting goods store—or even better, wander into our neighborhood web browser—and buy us some ugly, functional clothing direct from the source (direct from their vendors).

If the profits were channeled into a retirement fund for our military, so much the better. (Yeah, now we're reaching.)