Consumer complaint received 2023-01-10
Company: Zebit, Inc.
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Struggling to pay your bill
Sub-issue: Credit card company won't work with you while you're going through financial hardship

Complaint:
In XXXX of 2022 I was infected with XXXX which was severe due to several XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ). Shortly thereafter in XXXX our area was hit by Hurricane Ian which completely disrupted my work ( when I could work ) requiring me to work away from my home area. I have not fully recovered from the initial XXXX and have been in and out of the hospital several times ranging from days to several weeks and up until approximately 20 days ago had not been able to work. During my time away for work and hospital stays my family has been taking care of my financial obligations to the best of their ability and all of my current creditors with exception of Zebit despite having completed several previous purchases with no issues has been gracious and extremely helpful during an extremely difficult time for me. 

Until approximately four weeks ago my elderly parents ( XXXX and XXXX  years of age ) tried in vain to reach someone at Zebit by phone without success as they have disconnected their customer service phone numbers and apparently there is no other way to reach them by phone. I find it ironic the excuse they use for this decision is XXXX despite virtually the entire civilized financial world shifting their call-centers to work at home phone agents, oh but not Zebit. 

Despite being technophobes my parents tried several times in vain to reach Zebit by email, no emails from them however returned. They wanted to find out how they could pay my biill by USPS ( mail ) as they do not feel comfortable using a credit card online. Despite their efforts Zebit refused to respond. When I finally came home in XXXX upon discussing with my parents what was paid and not paid I was informed that despite my parents efforts Zebit was completely unresponsive and could not be reached through reasonable efforts despite several attempts by phone, email and also to their physical address in XXXX XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I as well sent an email to XXXX requesting assistance which was not responded to. When I received no response I sent emails again to XXXX and XXXX on XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and finally on XXXX I finally received a response telling me that my account had been placed for collection apparently within the last 24-48 hours because based on what I can see in my emails they had been sending normal account servicing information not indicating that the account had been placed for collection. 

Every effort possible has been made to reach Zebit and to arrange to get the account paid for months and only now on XXXX Zebit felt like responding but only after the fact. Had Zebit had working phone and responded in a timely fashion ( or at all ) to email and mail attempts to reach them they would have known the full extent to my hardship due to the impact of XXXX XXXX as diagnosed by my primary care doctor and the indirect impacts of not one but TWO hurricanes 30 days apart, however, given their behavior to this point it is doubtful they would have been honorable and worked with my parents who had legal authority to discuss and manage my accounts in my absence. 

Each and every one of my current creditors including my mortgage company went out of their way to assist me and my parents ( in my absence ) and have been paid as agreed. I had successfully completed several purchases from Zebit over almost two years without issue and a reasonable person would think that Zebit would also do the same however that has been my experience. Instead they opted to ignore our attempts to reach them and apparently it was easier to end the relationship and simply send the account to collection. Zebit 's lack of a functional call center, even work at home phone agents has further complicated things, they claim that due to XXXX they can't service their customers normally and yet when customers come to them with identical, even worse impact when you factor in the hurricanes Zebit ignores them and processes the accounts as if we are deadbeats despite all efforts to work with them. And now to make things even worse they have blocked my online account access so I can review past or current purchases or obtain any post purchase support as I have no access to my purchase or payment history.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation