Consumer complaint received 2016-04-27
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: MA
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Other bank product/service
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
On Monday, XXXX XXXX, XXXX I spent over an hour trying to get a manager on the phone to help me with payments to multiple accounts. ( All of my accounts are in good standing and in fact some are almost paid off and others have been paid off in total ). 
To make my payments I call XXXX because for the past six months my statements have either not reached me or have been delivered late. I had been fortunate enough that managers I spoke to in the past were considerate enough to help, waived the fees, and assisted me with making my payments. 

Synchrony Bank, unlike other banks, charges a $ XXXX/PER transaction fee -- so you would be charging me {$50.00} to make my payments on the phone using a live person. 

Unfortunately, the manager that I reached on Monday, XXXX XXXX behaved more like a XXXX and immediately rebuked my concerns/needs. She apparently had been one of the managers I spoke to before, but this time she took on a whole different persona. When I asked for her full name she refused. She would only give me her first name and ID, which were XXXX ID # XXXX. 

XXXX proceeded to reprimand and chastise me for XXXX to ask to make my payments again in the way I had done in the past. She began to belittle me, holler out banking and federal rules, which I assure you most consumers know little to nothing about, and basically tried to make me feel like a subhuman for requesting assistance. She rattled off names and dates from XXXX ( as if I was to remember all of them ) given that she had the luxury of looking at the information on-screen, and continued to persecute me about the help I was requesting and had received before. She in fact made a deliberate production to elevate herself by saying I AM MAKING MY REPORT TO THE CORPORATE OFFICE RIGHT NOW ... and began clicking away ... making it a point to say THERE, I 'M DONE! -- meaning that she had sent her information -- was I supposed to be scared, or was she trying to deliberately infuriate me beyond the frustration I was already feeling?! You use intimidation to deal with customers? What is next, extortion? Actually, I know she was going out of her way to do this after I told her I would be reaching out to your executive offices. 

I am a customer, so why do you allow an employee to incite additional irritability and anger? During the course of this awful conversation I realized that the XXXX # could actually assist in making payments without a fee! I had NOT known/realized this in the past and told XXXX several times that I was unaware and would now use the phone system, but she was apparently having fun with her rant and continued with her criticism towards me. 

You have also disconnected all of your corporate numbers so that no one is allowed to escalate an issue to a member of an executive resolution team. Is this because there are so many, hundreds, of complaints by other people on-line and in social media? Who are you really since you took over GE? 

The way I was treated is deplorable and inexcusable. You deal with the public in away that incites further incident and for that someone should be putting you on notice. This is not the way to speak to a customer who was already upset for being on hold, transferred around, interrogated, and repeatedly asking for a manager. XXXX should have taken a very different approach in talking to me. I am a customer in good standing and if I am not allowed to speak to humans to make payments without a fee, there was a better way to speak about the overall problem I was experiencing. 

I will report this incident to the Federal Consumer Protection Bureau and would also appreciate a phone call back at XXXX as soon as possible.

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