Consumer complaint received 2020-12-07
Company: Army and Air Force Exchange Service
State: WA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Credit card debt
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Attempted to collect wrong amount

Complaint:
The Army and Air Force Exchange Service ( AAFES ) card, associated to the Military Star card, took out a double payment out in XX/XX/XXXX. When I contact them, after finding out that they double charge me, they only stated that the payment my husband made was to close to the date to when the automatic payments comes out. During the conversation, the representative stated that they would refund the payment my husband made, but they never did. Instead it was credited to my account the following month XXXX XX/XX/XXXX ). They also told me that I would have to re-setup the automatic payments. I did what they said and re-setup the automatic payments. The automatic payment didn't come out for a couple of months, even though the website showed automatic payments were set up. Then on XX/XX/XXXX we noticed that none of the payments came out. I had to make another call and the customer service rep. said that there was never a automatic payment set up. I was told again to go online and setup autopayments again. During this conversation we had to pay over {$400.00} to get the account back to current. We did that and set up auto payments once again. Thinking that everything was done we went on with daily life. Now in XX/XX/XXXX, we received a letter from the Exchange stating that we were delinquent in payments from XXXX - XX/XX/XXXX so I setup a payment to come out of my savings. That payment never came out. In XXXX I noticed that the payment never came out, so I called them. I was baffled and asked how are we behind with automatic payments. The customer service rep. stated that they gave us notice on our monthly statements. I asked where this would be in the statement and they stated in the middle of the statement. I said that's not somewhere that stands out and how is that fair when it blends in with everything else. They proceeded to say that its our responsibility to make sure it was paid. I explain to them that this wasn't the first time in the last year that their automatic payment system wasn't taking the payments out even when it says we are enrolled. They said that there was nothing they could do and that the account was put in their in-house collections. I asked is there a way to pull it out and make it so that nothing can be charge until the amount was paid off. They just said it's out of their hands. They explain that their in-house collection doesn't report it as in collection and can help keep it off my credit as so, but we would have to wait until we get the letter that would have the payment agreement on it. When I got the letter in XX/XX/XXXX, it said to sign and either mail or email it. I signed the agreement to pay {$89.00} a month and sent the copy to the email address they provided XX/XX/XXXX. I never received anything back saying they received it. I sent a follow up email on XX/XX/XXXX, trying to figure out how the payments are made and decided to call. During the phone call the customer service rep. couldn't find any information on my account. They look using my social security number and the account number on the debt letter. They found nothing. The rep. thought that it was pulled from their in-house collections and put back with AAFES. They transferred me and I was in que then was disconnected. I still have yet to get a response from the second email sent on XX/XX/XXXX. Today I looked at my credit and notice that it was sent to an outside collection company.

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