I was extremely annoyed after graduating and consolidating my loans. After a lot of pressure from the financial aid department about consolidating being a good idea, once it was all said and done they just picked the highest interest rate of all the consolidated loans and applied it to the new one. I guess I should have seen that coming but it was a surprise after it felt like the financial aid dept touting it as a good thing.
However, I never had trouble regarding the loans being sold to different services. I had mine switch three times and got multiple emails and physical letters. It was a little shocking the first time I logged into my account and my loan was "paid off", but it quickly became apparent what had happened.
Consolidation should write a new loan from the total of the originals. The rate given would be the current rate. For example, when I consolidated years ago I cut my rate by over half because the rates had simply gone down since I had taken the original loans.
However, I never had trouble regarding the loans being sold to different services. I had mine switch three times and got multiple emails and physical letters. It was a little shocking the first time I logged into my account and my loan was "paid off", but it quickly became apparent what had happened.