Consumer complaint received 2019-03-13
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CA
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: I do not know
Issue: False statements or representation
Sub-issue: Impersonated attorney, law enforcement, or government official

Complaint:
This complaint is about the business practices of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX located in XXXX XXXX, California and its staff who lie repeatedly and appear to be running a total scam. Trying to collect debts and demanding you pay them or they will threaten to sue you, put a lien on your house, they admitted to calling relatives we don't speak to -- -even though they had our number and we have lived in the same place for 8 years. They lie when they call and refuse to identify themselves, they demand your full name and SSN and Birthdate and when you don't give it they begin threatening you repeatedly. If you tell them you don't know what the debt is, they claim you are a liar and you are not allowed to get a word in to the point you have to hang up. If you write them ANY letters, they will claim not to have received them. 

When this company began contacting me they could provide me with XXXX  answers. They act like you are their slave and that they are the only people entitled to any information. They failed to provide me with very basic information like the original account number and name of the company claiming I owed the money. They refused to do any of this, they also have an incorrect last name, this is not the name I use, I will not give these people my SSN and they had the incorrect Birth date, and then changed the birth date to match the correct one illegally. 

I am not paying this debt since I had to do all the work myself -- -I have never had any credit with the business they are claiming which turned out to be some XXXX XXXX I have not been to since XXXX. When I had gone to this place I used an ATM card not credit to pay for my pet to get fixed and that does not cost anywhere near the amount these people are claiming. Also in order to get your pet back, you have to pay the bill and since I still have my pet its obvious I did. I moved not long after I last visited this place, and have since that time used a totally different clinic since XXXX. I have no line of credit at any of these places. 

My husband works for the feds and the constant attacks on XXXX caused our information to be stolen and used by unknown persons locally and not locally numerous times and we retain the statements from XXXX telling us we are victims. They too have recently conducted their investigation and ruled in our favor with regards to this debt. These people can provide me with NO information despite the multiples of times I have asked for it -- -all they send is a piece of paper that has an amount due and threatening comments about suing me, they have also sent me fake court documents and I took these to the court house and they stated they were FAKE. That's not legal, they also call and leave messages calling themselves " investigators '' that's incorrect as they are debt collectors. Its also not legal to state they are investigators. A few called claiming to be attorneys and told me they could garnish my wages. They send letters demanding you respond 7 days from the date on the headers, and then make sure to mail the letters the day before the last day of response, this way when you receive it -- -its already expired for response. 

The BBB gives these people a " C '' rating and I can see why. I took a trip to find out where this place was, but it appeared to be operating out of some elderly people 's hospital which didn't make any sense. 

They have called my house and when my daughter or sister answered the phone the man or woman on the other end called them " XXXX '' and claimed they were me. Calling these people or making any contact at all with them is a lost cause. They have NO information to share with me other than a supposed amount I know with no account number attached to it. Its not the first time some creditor has done this and I am sure it wont be the last since our information as govt workers is never secure. These people did not even begin contacting us until mid XXXX and claimed they had been trying to collect since XXXX ... the last phone call I received was a threatening call about how she was going to see me in court in XXXX, well past the statute of limitations for collection. I have asked for their business License and have gotten no response, I have searched for the names listed in the fake documents only to find said people use false or fake not full names. 

They are constantly playing games. Its getting very old and its obvious they are trying very hard to collect a debt they can not prove I own. No signature card, no correct Birthdate, no SSN, refused to give me the name of the original creditor, I actually had to find this information myself. I called the vet clinic and also went in and they had no record of any such debt from any time period. However, they also claimed they had no control over the bank they used to offer credit to people. They would not give me the name of that bank either. 

Their fake threatening court docs were signed on XX/XX/XXXX and claimed you had 7 days to respond ... the item arrived in the mail box XX/XX/XXXX way passed the 7 days dead line- this is also bad business practice and its the second time they've sent the same letter and did the same exact thing making sure you can not respond to them. It also still does not state the account number for this line of credit, it does not give a start date or an end date for it, and they added all kinds of other false charges to the debt. 

They contacted my husbands mother, a woman he does not have contact with. She is an XXXX and XXXX XXXX, these people shared my information with her, and she called my home and told me about it. My husband is not listed on this debt, so why was his mother who lives in another state contacted? I had not spoken to this woman in 15 years and have no intention of doing so ever again because of some company like this. I do not owe this debt, the very business claiming I owe it stated they had no record of said debt. I was also told by the XXXX XXXX that this debt is passed the statute of limitation for collections according to the dates they give, which change as time goes by. At no time did I ever take responsibility for this debt, nor did I ever state I would make any payments to them, they are so rude over the phone to my family members who live in my house that I will no longer speak to them at all. These people need to learn to identify themselves properly by not XXXX  about being " special investigators '' or some other such fake titles.

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