Consumer complaint received 2019-02-24
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: NC
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
I had an account with Lowe 's credit card ( ending in XXXX ) starting around XXXX. During the financial crisis of XXXX, I lost my job and could not afford to pay back the balance, the account was closed in XXXX and was forced to file chapter XXXX bankruptcy which was completed in XXXX. This Lowes account was included in the BK and was written off.

After the BK, I re-established credit and was issued a new card by Lowe 's ( the credit card portion was first issued by Lowe 's GECRB - now taken over by  Synchrony Bank with a new account number ending in XXXX ). My husband and I paid this bill through his XXXX Bill Pay account. In XXXX we bought a new fridge from Lowe 's. In order to pay it down quickly, I started making extra payments on the Lowe 's card through MY XXXX bill pay account. However, I inadvertently set the auto-pay to the OLD Lowe 's ( # XXXX ) account instead of the new one ( XXXX ) starting XXXX of XXXX. I set it to make auto payments of {$100.00} per month for 24 months ( except for the month of XX/XX/XXXX when I paid {$200.00} ). There were a total of 17 payments made by me for a total of {$1800.00} paid to Lowe 's.

This is a " paperless '' billing account - no paper statements are issued each month - and around the first of XX/XX/XXXX I become curious as to why this account still had a $ 3,400+ balance since my husband had been paying an average of {$400.00} a month + my {$100.00}. So I logged on to Lowe 's and I don't see any credits for the payments I made, but, in the right hand corner of the Lowe 's screen, it shows " CLOSED ACCOUNT XXXX ''. I went to click on the link to see what was there and you can not open it as it needs the 3 digit security code from the back of the card ( which I have not had since XXXX ). 

I logged into my XXXX bill pay and find out that my payments were going to this closed account since XXXX and simply not even being credited to anything. They were not returned to XXXX. They were not credited to my account. Nothing. 

I called Lowe's/Synchrony and explained the situation to them. I was put on hold for 12 minutes while the guy was checking it. He said he showed my {$100.00} payments were being made to my old account, that there was a " zero '' balance due on that card and he could not tell me where the funds were transferred to each month after they were paid. Then he said he had to " escalate '' it to another person who would take care of it. He then " transferred '' me to the " escalation supervisor ''. However, it simply disconnected. 

I called back and re-explained the whole situation, asking if there were any notes from the first guy I spoke with. She said there were some notes and she had to " escalate '' this again but she also gave me a phone number of who she was transferring me to " in case I lose you '' - which, of course is exactly what happened. 

So I called the number she gave me. I get a recording that its Synchrony Bank and I have to call back Monday thru Friday at XXXX XXXX as the other place I was calling was a foreign phone center and they can not handle anything like this ( but they never told me that ). These back and forth calls so far lasted 44 minutes. 

I decided to contact BofA bill pay and tell them the story and see if they have more power with them. The bill pay rep at XXXX was very understanding and professional and completed a three way call with me and Synchrony. Synchrony did not like this and made the rep and me jump through hoops many times to " verify our identity ''. The XXXX rep and I again went through the same song and dance and were " escalated ' and hung up on. After another 36 minutes of back and forth and getting nowhere, we gave up. 

We finally figured out that we needed to call back Monday the XXXX at XXXX when the Synchrony offices in the US were open. I called XXXX bill pay back and got a new XXXX rep named XXXX from XXXX on the line. She had the notes made by the other XXXX Bill Pay person from Sunday and pulled up all the copies of the payments I made to Lowe 's totaling {$1800.00}. We again got bounced from one dept to another to another, then given the phone number to their outside collection agency ( XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX ) who they said the payments were transferred to - without any notice to me or XXXX  . We called XXXX, they asked for all my identifying information and, after 18 minutes of her stonewalling, being obnoxious, etc, said she had no record of any payments and couldn't tell us anything as this was a closed account (??? ) and referred us back to Synchrony collections dept ( so far, by this point, we have been on the phone with them a total of 51 minutes ).

SO, we called back the Synchrony collection department, re-explained the situation again and he was telling us we had to call the XXXX people again. XXXX put a stop to this and told him " we already spoke to those people and they have referred us back to you. We have been on this call for 1 hour and 6 minutes. We do not want to be transferred again. I want you to give me your fax number so I can fax you the proof of payments so you can credit our mutual customer for these payments ''. He finally relented and gave us his fax number and said I would definitely hear back from them within three business days. It has been 14 days with no response whatsoever. 

I have the printouts from XXXX XXXX XXXX to verify all payments were made and that neither they nor myself was ever notified that these payments were going to a closed account. In addition, these payments were made payable to " Lowe 's '' - the credit card company back in XXXX when I opened it was not even owned by Synchrony. It was XXXX. They should not have accepted those payments whatsoever. They should have been returned.

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