Consumer complaint received 2020-12-12
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: OH
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
Amazon Prime Membership Fee : I am an Amazon Prime member and my membership fee is auto charged to the same bank credit card each year for the full annual amount. On XX/XX/XXXX this charge was made and Amazon Prime gave me credit for paying my annual fee for the XX/XX/XXXX year. 

Synchrony Financial unauthorized repeating charge : Without any notification on XX/XX/XXXXXX/XX/XXXX Synchrony Financial charged my account {$12.00}. The same charge was repeated on XX/XX/XXXX and XX/XX/XXXX. The charge was described as " Amazon Prime Cons XXXX WA '' 1st COMPLAINT : Synchrony Financial did not describe the charge in a way that, as a consumer, I could understand the reason of the charge. To understand the charge, I invested over an hour and half of difficult communications with multiple people and multiple methods with Synchrony Financial. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I contacted Synchrony Financial using a number ( XXXX XXXX ) supplied by Synchrony, and after 22 minutes, the conversation was unexpectedly disconnected. This conversation did not resolve the issue and at the time of disconnection the representative had asked me to wait on hold. Until that time the representative explained that I must pay {$12.00} per month, each month, for my Prime Membership and there was no record of any other annual payment. 

2nd COMPLAINT : Synchrony Financial does not use customer representatives capable of researching or understanding simple customer issues. This practice discourages the customer to try to resolve issues that favor of Synchrony Financial or Amazon. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I contacted Synchrony Financial using the Chat service offered. To use this service a customer must first try to resolve a problem with a A. I. system called " XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX. '' This was extremely difficult and could not be altered until the Virtual Assistant gave up on the problem and a real person was offered to the chat. ( See 2nd COMPLAINT ) The chat person was known as XXXX and said that this was a Amazon Prime problem not Synchrony Financial 's. Only after I pressed did he ask for my identification and then asked me to " hold '' until he did some research. After a few minutes of holding, I was disconnected. The complete conversation was not able to be printed, but I was able to print and record the last few seconds when I was asked to hold. 

3rd COMPLAINT : Synchrony Financial 's customer service is so poor it seems to be designed to frustrate the consumer. I can not dispute a future monthly charge. To dispute any charge, for each charge, the customer must : Download a PDF form. 
Fill it out Mail or Fax it as required As compared to other Financial institutions, this process is consumer unfriendly and designed to burden the customer. 

The burden of problem resolution is completely on the consumer and over difficult. This favors the the institution and helps the institution carry on deceptive practices. 

4th COMPLAINT : Charging my account without my permission is a deceptive practice.

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 monetary relief