Consumer complaint received 2023-10-16
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: OK
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge 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:
Synchrony Bank has made a mess of my account since XX/XX/XXXX. {$1600.00} will not make or break me, but to pay for a debt I did not incur, that Synchrony repeatedly admits is their error, yet refuses to correct, is unacceptable. Six months of chats online, live phone calls to call centers through their customer service line, phone calls to their Dispute office, follow up eLetters from Synchrony Bank, supposedly confirming my issue has been resolved, while both these letters and the monthly statements show nothing has been done to correct it, and finally, phone calls from a man named XXXX ( no last name given ), claiming to be a Senior Operations Manager for Synchrony, who confirmed what I have listed as owing to Synchrony, is correct ; that he can see exactly what happened and assured me he would have it corrected; and stating that Synchrony had made the error. 
XX/XX/XXXX, last payment on an interest free promotional purchase. Balance {$0.00}. XXXX Statement confirms this. 
XX/XX/XXXX, we purchased {$1600.00} worth of lumber from XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX in XXXX, OK. The sales associate made a mistake entering it as six-month promotional purchase instead of the 12 month we were entitled to as Synchrony Account members. 
o A manager at the store immediately called Synchrony for assistance. I was standing right there. Synchrony assured the store since the payment had just occurred, just refund and re-charge putting it on the 12-month promotional purchase plan. That was done. 
XX/XX/XXXX we came back to the same store to purchase an additional {$1000.00} worth of lumber which was put on the 12 month promotional purchase plan correctly. That made my total owed to Synchrony Bank {$2700.00}. Final interest free balance to be due XX/XX/XXXX. 
No further charges have been made to this credit card. None. And that is key here. 
No payment was due in XXXX, but being proactive, I made a {$200.00} payment to be ahead. 
XX/XX/XXXX statement showed their first error. 
o They show that {$1600.00} was credited back, yet {$1600.00} is listed on this statement three times. As three separate sales. 
o Add up the Promotional Purchase Summary on the first page of the statement to get {$2700.00} as total owed, which is correct. Yet New Balance claims we owe {$4100.00} which is an overage of {$1400.00}. 
o The {$200.00} payment reflected? They allocated that to the {$1600.00} that was supposed to be credited back, hence the {$1400.00} balance reflected. 
XX/XX/XXXX we made a {$250.00} payment to stay on time, but had already spoken via Chat with a Synchrony associate, who assured me they saw the error and it would be corrected in one to two billing cycles that phrase has become a joke to us. 
o The XXXX {$250.00} payment we made was also allocated to the {$1600.00} that was supposedly credited back to us. Total of {$450.00} not allocated on future statements. 
o XX/XX/XXXX statement continues the same incorrect information and amount owed. 
o Another chat with a Synchrony associate assures me they see the error and will get it fixed. 
o XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I received a secure message ( all of the eLetters are attached in the file named simply Synchrony eLetters ) from the bank stating that the {$1600.00} credit was applied, yet the balance was incorrectly stated as {$3600.00} on this letter, and again it would take one to two billing cycles to be reflected in my account. 
Having had enough at this point, I called Synchrony Dispute office. They told me they would get it resolved. They agreed this was taking too long. Three months at this point. Inconceivable. 
o Two days later, I get a call from the lumber company where wed spent the {$1600.00}. They told me they were sending me a check for {$1600.00} as a refund. I was stunned! They didnt owe me a XXXX! To accept that check would mean we were dishonest and willing to essentially steal product we knew we had purchased just to clear up Synchrony Banks errors. I called Dispute back and said as much. They assured me they would drop the dispute with the lumber yard and get my account corrected. 
o XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I received another letter claiming they had resolved the issue and I would see the correction. You guessed it. In one to two billing cycles. BUT this letter still showed an incorrect balance due of {$3600.00}! 
XX/XX/XXXX statement continues the erroneous information. Yet we continue to make our $ 250 monthly payments expecting to be fully paid off by the due date of XX/XX/XXXX to avoid interest. The {$250.00} payments are being applied correctly, yet no one has reallocated the {$450.00} paid in XXXX and XXXX, to the correct promotional purchase. So, the individual promotional purchase balances also continue to be incorrect. 
XX/XX/XXXX statement is incorrect, and my live calls are now just telling me to be patient. This will be corrected by the XXXX statement. I even received another letter telling me one to two billing cycles. So, I wait, impatiently, but I do wait. 
XX/XX/XXXX statement comes out and is still incorrect. As my spreadsheet ( Synchrony Activity Dispute.xls ) will reflect, we know we only owe {$1500.00} as of the XXXX payment due date. However, because of the on-going erroneous activities of Synchrony Bank , the statement shows we owe {$3200.00}. And, the bank has now added a random fee, not reflected in the statement, of {$30.00}. 
o I XXXX Synchrony Bank home office for a phone number at the home office in XXXX CT and make a call. After 24 hours, I hear from a man named XXXX, who claimed to be a Senior Operations Manager. He stated he had reviewed the files and saw that I was correct. We only owed {$1500.00} ( after he adjusted for the {$30.00} fee that he called an interest payment that had been included on his end ), and would get it fixed in a day or XXXX. That was on Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX. He asked for a few more days and assured me he would call me to keep me updated. I asked him if he saw how many times I had called or chatted with their associates. He said he had, and five months ( at that point ) was unacceptable. 
o XX/XX/XXXX he called just to tell me he was on the problem and expected resolution. 
o XX/XX/XXXX he called to update me stating this was just a bit more difficult than expected, because of the overage amount Synchrony had incorrectly been claiming we owed. He needed a few more days. I agreed. 
o But then, it was XX/XX/XXXX, late in the day and no word from XXXX. Amazingly, on XX/XX/XXXX, I had received yet another ridiculous letter telling me this would be resolved in one to two billing cycles. 
On Monday, XX/XX/XXXX I sent a complaint to the XXXX XXXX XXXX in Connecticut, who sent it to the Ohio XXXX because they couldnt find the home office in CT. I heard from XXXX again on XX/XX/XXXX claiming he had escalated this further. 
Statements are consistently higher than we know the amount due to be. We worry and fret and agonize over waiting for the correction, because when we pay off what WE know we owe, come spring of XXXX and stop making payments, Synchrony Bank will likely report me to the credit bureaus for missed payments and my credit will tank, which will take months, if not years to correct. 
I paid our regular {$250.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, which brought our balance owed, down to {$1200.00} ( reflected on the spreadsheet Synchrony Activity Dispute ). But will the XX/XX/XXXX statement reflect this?

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