Consumer complaint received 2017-01-18
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: FL
Product: Credit card
Issue: Billing disputes

Complaint:
To whom it may concern, I am having an issue with Zales. On XX/XX/XXXX, I bought my wife a ring from their store. The sales representative recommended that I do the in-store financing, so I agreed at the time because of the deferred interest incentive. I received my first bill along with my physical Zales card in the mail exactly on the day the first payment was due in XXXX. When I got home that night, I went ahead and created an online account and paid the payment. After the fact, the payment defaulted to the next day and caused me to incur a {$25.00} late fee ( which I discovered in XXXX XXXX. I then proceeded to exchange the ring for a more expensive ring on XX/XX/XXXX. The sales representative told me that I would not be charged an additional financing fee and my payment schedule would change to reflect the new purchase. When XXXX comes up, I noticed that I did n't receive a bill, so I called the store to speak with the representative and he recommended that I pay the minimum payment, which is always {$25.00}, while I wait for the new bill, he even told me that the bill technically would be due XX/XX/XXXX ; I went ahead and paid {$50.00} on XX/XX/XXXX. I never did receive a bill for XXXX. In XXXX, exactly one month later, I log on and make another payment for {$25.00} on XX/XX/XXXX because I also did n't receive a bill. At the time when I logged on, I saw I was hit with late fees for every month and the payment date never changed ( it remained the original XXXX of each month ). Prior to this month, online statements were not available so I really had no idea of what was going on. I also saw that I was hit with an additional financing fee because of the way the sales rep rung it up. I called the financing department and spent over 45 minutes on the phone and the agent gave me a hard time and finally agreed to waive one of the late fees ( that 's {$25.00} of {$75.00} ) and only through my persistence, she agreed to waive the secondary financing fee. I do n't understand how a company can be so unaccountable, the agent told me it 's my fault not the sales representative for giving incorrect information. She also said it does n't matter that I have n't been receiving my statements it 's still my fault. Ironically enough, after that conversation with the agent and verifying that the correct contact information was on file, I mysteriously received both XXXX & XXXX 's bill approximately a week and half later. I have already spent enough time on this matter trying to reach your company via phone and social media and I feel as though I 've been taken advantage of. I have spent over $ XXXX in the past 3 years in your store ( including recent purchases made during the XXXX season of XXXX ) and I feel greatly disrespected by your company. I writing to you today as a last attempt for your company to take some responsibility, educate their sales staff, and resolve these issues on my credit account. I will exercise any and every avenue to pursue a claim for these egregious late fees tacked on to my account and I will only accept a full and complete refund of the remaining {$50.00} in late fees. 

Update*** XX/XX/XXXX I just called customer service to verify the 12 month deferred interest promotional plan expiration date and it turns out that even though I returned my purchase made on XXXX and bought something else in XXXX, the representative rang up the net difference rather than doing a full return and repurchase and charged it to my Zales Card. This has now caused me to be on XXXX different promotional plan cycles in terms of when the deferred interest incentive ends. This is also why I have been getting hit with late fees. Additionally, because I am getting hit with late fees, they are n't fully applying my payments because they are offsetting the late fees ; it now looks like I am not even making the minimum payment.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief