Consumer complaint received 2023-07-24
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: NY
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
This is a complaint about Bread Financial, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX OH XXXX I am getting harassing emails and phone calls from Bread about a consumer debt that does not exist. I have the emails. Bread recorded its abusive calls. Everything below is documented. Bread has : repeatedly : refused to contact the merchant to verify a nonexistent debt ( saying thats my job ), said I have to prove I didnt take out the disputed loan ( logically impossible ), continued to contact me repeatedly after I asked them to stop, threatened to lower my credit score, and attempted unsuccessfully to withdraw money from my bank account. Multiple people at Bread have done this. I doubt I am the only consumer Bread is abusing. Bread is shockingly ignorant of its legal obligations. 

I purchased XXXX  XXXX from XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX for {$2400.00}. I signed a single loan agreement for a single purchase. However XXXX tells me Bread mistakenly recorded 2 loans, on XX/XX/XXXX and again XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX has told Bread of its mistake. 

When Bread sent double payment requests, I said I have only one loan. Please fix this, Bread responded There are two orders, please follow up with the merchant.. .we are unable to make any adjustments to cancel or refund your order. I was asking Bread correct its records, not to cancel or refund an order because the " order '' is never existed. 

I responded that I had one order and one loan and Bread could not possibly have evidence of a second transaction. I requested that Bread acknowledge my dispute, investigate and tell me the results. I also asked for a copy of the claimed second loan agreement because I know there isn't one. Bread refused, saying that we are unable to resolve your request. Please reach out to the merchant where you made your purchase directly. 

That evening XXXX from Bread called me on a recorded line. She was nasty and abusive, and told me that Bread would not investigate my claim that there was only XXXX transaction unless I could give evidence of this. She refused to investigate, and said I was going to have to straighten things out and cancel the second ( nonexistent ) order. 

I then received a call from XXXX, a Bread supervisor. Also nasty and abusive, she said Bread was " unable '' to contact XXXX and that I had to and send proof from XXXX. She threatened to lower my credit score if I did not. 

Both XXXX and XXXX told me on a recorded line that it is my obligation to disprove the existence of the nonexistent XX/XX/XXXX loan. I asked them if they could prove that they didn't owe me a million dollars, and neither had a response. Disproving a nonexistent transaction is impossible. 

XXXX XXXX at XXXX contacted Bread and emailed me me, I just got confirmation, so we can proceed with getting all of this corrected. Even though the application I sent to you had the one device totaling {$2400.00}, it appears that was somehow transacted twice in Bread 's system. They are working on getting the second charge cancelled. And whenever you want to switch payment options, we can get that set up, so we can get the other financing charge cancelled as well. 

Given the trouble I was having with Bread, on XX/XX/XXXX I paid XXXX directly for my purchase, and XXXX paid off the the loan. Bread is now trying to withdraw money out of my bank account! This was confirmed by my bank ( XXXX ) and Bread. I did not authorize this and have managed to block their attempt, so far. 

Bread has resumed emailing me, now claiming that XXXX paid off a loan, but I still owe {$2400.00} on the nonexistent second loan loan. 

Breads practices are persistently illegal and abusive. I doubt I am the only person with a Bread problem.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation