Consumer complaint received 2022-09-02
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: MO
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Getting a credit card
Sub-issue: Card opened as result of identity theft or fraud

Complaint:
XX/XX/2022, we arrived to pick up our tickets to see a show in XXXX from when my wife ordered them from. After purchasing them she asked us if we would take a tour of your facilities, which would take about 2 hours but wasnt high pressure at all, so we took her up on it as it sounded like an interesting opportunity. Not to mention the {$150.00} they were going to give us to attend. We went right over to take them up on this offer. We directly went over to your visitor center to begin the tour. 
At first the experience was quite enjoyable. Chatting with the lady that was helping us was quite entertaining and for the first two hours she was a delight. Then it was time to turn up the pressure, I guess. I understood this to be her job, so it didnt bother us. Since I was kind of interested in what they were selling it was fine. It seemed like an interesting concept. 
Then she had my wife do some stuff on the tablet. During which we asked several times we are not signing up for anything at all here, correct? She assured me that no, nothing would be run until I signed the paperwork in the back. That was fine by me to get prequalified before the tour of the property, so I did as ask after repeatedly being told it wouldnt hurt my credit and I wasnt signing up for anything. 
We went on the tour of the property and came back, lovely, somewhat high pressure. We went back and sat down at her table, and we informed her that while a lovely idea and something for us to consider in the future. We explained we have two elderly parents to take care of and three properties to take care of now wasnt the time for us to do this as vacations for a few years would be few over the next decade. 
So, then the pressure got turned up, thats fine we understood. Another gentleman came over to speak to us with her. That was fine, I understood how things worked. So as this gentleman is giving us the numbers, they pulled up by running our credit, numerous times mind you ( my excellent credit score I discovered dropped XXXX points even though I was assured by her that it would not do that. This of course I discovered later. 
What really irritated us and made it, so we were both ready to walk was my wife asked him, as a XXXX veteran, what you do for Veterans. His reply to her was to take an attitude of how dare she ask for something extra and he pushed the paperwork towards her and said I show them this! This attitude he struck and annoyed tone that she dare ask such a thing was the end. Even if we decided to get a timeshare it wont be though you due to the utter disrespect I was given. He made me her ashamed for asking. Not the way to treat your Veterans, especially not in XXXX, MO. 
So these high pressure tactics lasted 3 hours on a 2 hour tour. By this time, we are irritated due to what I have mentioned. When I pointed out that we needed to go because I needed to get to the car to take his XXXX which was due at XXXX, it was now about XXXX. We informed them that I was starting to go into a medical emergency without his medicine so, she then took us to the back room. 

Back there we were confronted by several men one sitting behind the desk what was terribly pushy. We wouldnt even sit down because my husband at this point needed his medication and we had already made our decision not to buy anything that day as it was the wrong time for us, we expressed this to them over 20 times. We finally said we had to go because I was feeling ill, to which the guy behind the desk suggested that my I go down to take his XXXX  and the come back up! That was the final straw we walked out hearing jeers from the other men back there crying out that thats a shame and such things. So very disrespectful! 

You might think this letter is about to end, but wait, it isnt over yet. While we are going through this, Im getting a ton of notifications from my credit being ran, despite being told it wouldnt affect my credit, which as mentioned it dropped it XXXX points. Now let me remind you I repeatedly asked to make sure they were not signing me up for anything and was told no every single time I asked, I get out to the car to find emails thanking me for taking out your credit card and their reward set up! 

Despite repeatedly being told that only a soft inquiry would be made and it wouldn't hurt my credit my score has now dropped XXXX points because of their inquiries and credit card.

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