Consumer complaint received 2020-05-17
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NY
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Fees or interest
Sub-issue: Charged too much interest

Complaint:
Synchrony Bank has blatantly refused to remove the {$2100.00} deferred interest charge on a {$4800.00} promotional purchase I made in PC Richards that expired quietly after 18 months despite my offer to pay off the entire promotional balance. They did this despite announcing in the media that the company will " weave interest fees across accounts '' and assist customers during the corona virus pandemic ( Please see attached XX/XX/XXXX XXXX article ). Synchrony displayed a total disregard and a selfish, uncaring, and disrespectful attitude when its account managers did not want to hear my explanation that I was a front-line XXXX worker who, since late XXXX this year have been tirelessly battling the quickly escalating pandemic, got sick  twice since XXXX, and have been living with XXXX  XXXX   from wearing N95 mask for 12 hours a day in a XXXX  full of COVID patients. At the same time, I have also been going through a very stressful and costly litigation since XX/XX/XXXX related to my past relationship. With all of this going on, Synchrony representatives still directly blamed ME for not monitoring the e-statements for the expiring promotion date.These selfish and uncaring treatment I received on the phone from Synchrony between XX/XX/XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX contradicts the company 's CEO letter she published recently on synchrony.com website in response to the corona virus pandemic, in which she states Synchrony " puts people first and acts with empathy, " and " appreciates essential workers who are here helping the rest of us through these uncertain and uncharted times. '' ( Please see attached Synchrony CEO 's, XXXX XXXX 's, letter and highlighted paragraph ). But three out of five Synchrony Bank representatives engaged in direct accusatory language towards me repeatedly blaming ME for missing the promotion expiration date despite my explanation that I did not receive any notice the promotion was about to expire and that I do not receive paper statements from Synchrony Bank. Rather, each month, I pay all my bills electronically via XXXX bill pay feature. I do this to simplify my busy and extremely stressful life. It is impossible to remember all the different passwords to pay bills via each companys separate websites. Knowing that all my transactions and statements have been electronic only, Synchrony has NOT emailed me ANY warning the promotion was going to expire. Instead, each month, they were sending me emails asking for minimal payments only. This practice is very deceptive and misleading. XXXX XXXX XXXX business review author, XXXX XXXX, agrees that many consumers " do not realize '' deferred interest promotional deals silently expire and suddenly hit them with extremely high interest charges appearing on their statement ( please see the attached highlighted XXXX  XXXX article ). In the same article, the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX attorney, XXXX, calls the Deferred Interest Promotion credit cards " the most abusive '' business practice, which " should be banned '' ( please refer to the attached ). The three out of five Synchrony Bank account managers I spoke to were extremely rude, unreceptive, displayed quick temper and impatience in an attempt to discourage me from trying to have them remove this sky-high interest charge. The last one I spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX at about XXXX displayed a particularly impatient and arrogant attitude towards me when I insisted on obtaining a contact number of her supervisor by trying to make me believe there was nobody else I could speak to but her : she refused to provide me with such number saying that if she gave it to me, I would be " calling and calling [ the supervisor ] so she stated, there is no such number. To make me feel even worse and helpless, she also repeated several times that even if I speak to the supervisor, she will NOT remove the {$2100.00} interest charge. She emphasized that she has " NEVER '' seen Synchrony remove interest charges from clients ' accounts.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation