Consumer complaint received 2018-08-12
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: CA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
Around XX/XX/2018, I saw an ad on XXXX XXXX XXXX website for the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. The promotion said XXXX bonus miles if {$1000.00} was spent in the first 90 days. In early XXXX, I checked my spending on my online account and saw that it was over {$1000.00}. It was pretty close to the 90-day cut off date, so I decided to double check if I was good to qualify for the promotion just in case. I contacted customer service thinking that I could trust the representatives. Besides it being more convenient than trying to read through all the fine print, I felt like it would be more reassuring to be able to check with an actual person who could give me guidance and more clarification in case I required any. I was a bit worried about the annual fee in particular, so I asked the rep specifically about whether the fee counted toward the total spending for promotion. I was told that ANY spending was counted, and that as long as my spending showed as over {$1000.00} on my account, then I was good. Reassured with this information, I believed that I'd already hit the {$1000.00} target and didn't go out of my way to make more purchases. Again, the main reason I contacted customer service was to confirm that I hit the target spending amount so that if I didn't, I would know I had to make a few purchases with the card before the XX/XX/XXXX cut-off date. However, according to the information I was given, I already reached the necessary {$1000.00} amount, so I thought I didn't have to worry about it anymore. 

But then I realized I never got my bonus miles, so I started contacting customer service around end of XXXX/XX/XX/XXXX. First I was told there was no promotion attached to my application, and I should talk to the airline. Airline kept  sending me to the bank. This time I decided to contact the bank in text format. I was told that I didn't qualify for the promotion because the annual fee didn't count and with the annual fee deducted, my spending during the 90-day time frame fell below {$1000.00}. I messaged back explaining that I was told by the rep that any spending counted, and that I had even specifically asked about the annual fee, and was reassured that there wasn't any spending that would be excluded from the total. I then received a reply that basically put all the blame on me saying that I should have reviewed the fine print of the documents myself instead of believing the rep. 

I find this extremely unfair and unethical of Barclays/XXXX XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX. There is no disclaimer on their website warning customers that their reps give out false information. I feel like they took advantage of the fact that I trusted their customer service and are now trying to get out of honoring the promotion. What's ironic is that I even went out of my way to contact customer service and make sure that I was fulfilling the required terms, but my effort in exercising due diligence resulted in me being deceived. Given that their website doesn't warn customers about their customer service reps lying to customers, I'm not sure how I as a customer was supposed to know that I couldn't trust information from a rep and that whenever I get information from a customer rep, I need to do a separate investigation on my own to verify it. 

My main issue right now is that I was given false information that deceived me into not fulfilling the spending requirements that I had full intention of reaching. I had hoped this was a case of miscommunication caused by an honest mistake by a rep who probably wasn't familiar with the policies. But the subsequent response I've been getting from customer service has basically just been blaming me for trusting the rep 's information and zero acknowledgment that I was lied to. This attempt to cover up makes me wonder if there is internal direction from management instructing customer service to lie to customers and mislead them in a manner that would allow the companies to avoid honoring promotions. 

I find the airline and bank 's conduct absolutely abhorrent. The only reason I thought the {$89.00} annual fee was worth paying was because of the bonus mileage promotion. I feel like I've just been scammed - actually I was scammed. I am still just shocked by the fact that they are ok with their reps giving false information to customers and even have the gall to blame customers for being gullible enough to trust their reps. Since when did it become the customer 's responsibility to investigate whether customer service is being truthful or not? This is an impossible burden that is being placed on customers. In my experience, whenever I have questions or need clarification, I go to customer service because that's the most direct way, and sometimes the only way, to contact the company. But now, it's being expected for me to verify the information I receive from customer service on my own, so basically even information directly from the company can not be trusted. It seems like XXXX XXXX and Barclays are just trying to create a loophole that would allow them to use their reps to mislead and deceive customers by putting all the responsibility on customers to " verify '' things on their own. 

Perhaps if their website had a clear warning informing customers that their customer service gives false information, it might be reasonable to expect me to verify that information I received from the rep. But since there is no such disclaimer, I don't know how they can deny any accountability for lying to a customer and the subsequent consequences I suffered as a result of the deception. Right now I just feel so stupid for trusting their customer service reps. 

I sincerely hope that CFPB can help me. I've tried my best to resolve this on my own, but it seems that these large companies are intent on lying to customers and scamming them and are more than comfortable to ignore any protests or reproach from individual customers like myself. Any assistance is deeply appreciated.

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 non-monetary relief