Consumer complaint received 2018-12-23
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: VA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments
Sub-issue: Problem during payment process

Complaint:
We received our XXXX XXXX credit card account statement on XX/XX/XXXX. My wife and I have a joint credit card account with XXXX XXXX   and when we make a store purchase we come home and write a check for the amount of that purchase. The check ( s ) can be written on my bank or my wife 's bank accounts. When the credit card statement arrives we match the check amounts to the credit card amounts on the statement, add up the amount of the checks, post that amount in the box on the payment stub and mail our payment ( s ) to  XXXX XXXX XXXX/XXXX XXXX  in XXXX Georgia. We have done this process since starting our credit card in XX/XX/XXXX and have never had any issues. We do not pay interest because we pay our bills on time. We have very good credit because we pay our bills on time. 

Upon receiving our credit card statement I noticed an interest charge of {$25.00} and a balance due of {$1200.00}. I knew we had mailed checks for our previous statement charges and was surprised to see interest charges and a balance in this amount. I called customer service on the eve of XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with XXXX and asked what the issues were with our previous payments. As you will see on the attached credit card statement there were 9 payment adjustments made on XX/XX/XXXX for a total of {$1100.00}. These payments represent checks that my wife and I mailed on the previous statement. Of the 9 payment adjustments, 6 of the payments were my checks and 3 of the payments were my wife 's checks. XXXX told me these checks had been refused and when I asked why she strongly suggested that we contact our banks to make sure there were funds in our accounts to cover the checks. I assured her that there was not a problem with fund availability and told her the checks had never been presented to our bank for funds. As you can see noted in the column of the statement the first check was written on XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. We continued our conversation and XXXX could not tell me why the checks were refused and upon my asking told me a letter of explanation had been mailed on XX/XX/XXXX. As of this writing we have not received any such letter. XXXX told me she would remove the service charges and transferred me to a supervisor voluntarily. The supervisor had to listen to my same story and her response was that we should check with our banks to make sure there was funding in the accounts. I assured her there was no problem with funds in our accounts, that we do not pay interest and we pay our bills on time. The supervisor, during our conversation, noticed a memo on the account that said the checks had been refused because of signatures but she could not give me any further details. 

I called our local XXXX XXXX store in XXXX Virginia on the morning of XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to XXXX, store manager. He listened to my story and told me that I would need to talk to the lady in accounts and XXXX the Finance Manager called me around noon on XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX said she could not tell me why the checks had been refused but would do some research and call me the first of the following week. Not hearing anything, I called the XXXX XXXX store on XX/XX/XXXX and a young lady said XXXX was not in and would leave a note for XXXX to call me. I finally talked to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and she said she did not receive a note to call me. She transferred me to XXXX, Admin. Manager and I once again gave my story to XXXX. She could not give me any explanation as to why the checks were refused and suggested that I call XXXX because they handled check payments. I spoke to XXXX at XXXX and he asked me a number of personal questions even needing to know my Driver License Number and in a short time came back on the phone and said he had no record of any of our transactions through their business. He indicated they deal with in-store payments and our payments were made through the mail. I then called XXXX XXXX Corporate at XXXX and spoke to XXXX. And once again told him my story. After a lot of wasted time he told me my only option was to call the XXXX XXXX again. 

I called the XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to XXXX, and once again told her my story. We went through the same conversations as I had with previous contacts and she suggested that I issue a new check for the payments that were refused. I told her I will not do that until this problem is resolved because our banks had not had checks presented for funds, and I did not know where our hard copy checks were. She told me a letter of explanation had been sent to us XX/XX/XXXX, as of this writing we have not received a letter of explanation. I ask XXXX to have our hard copy checks sent back to us and she said they could only send a copy of them. She told me those copies would be mailed on XX/XX/XXXX. 

I went to my bank on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with my banker about this situation. She showed me copies of checks written to XXXX XXXX on my bank account from XX/XX/XXXX and the signatures were identical to the signatures to the checks I sent and she could not understand why they were refused. She told me she had never heard of this excuse in her banking career and informed me that if a signature went below the line on the check it was not a problem because when the checks are scanned, the scanner only reads the Micking number and does not read the ink from the signing. She called the XXXX XXXX and spoke to XXXX. XXXX asked for my permission to allow my banker to allow her to discuss this problem and I granted her permission. After talking to my banker, XXXX got on the phone with me and I told her my story, once again, and she told me there was no letter of explanation mailed on XX/XX/XXXX. She also told me she had never heard of checks being refused because of a problem with signature. She transferred me to XXXX and XXXX said she had never heard of this happening and also said no letter of explanation was sent on XX/XX/XXXX. I asked XXXX if she could look at my wife 's checks and her signature. She did, and said there was no problem with her signature and could not understand why the checks had not been submitted for payment. 

I came home from the bank and called the XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX and spoke to XXXX and once again told her my story. She said that in her 11 years with XXXX XXXX XXXX she had never heard of checks being refused for this issue. She was very nice, very helpful and seems to want to find out why this problem occurred. During our conversation I was on hold for approximately 25 minutes as she checked with co-workers. She looked at my wife 's signatures and said there was no problem with the signatures and said she would like to have a couple co-workers look at the checks. She put me on hold and came back and said that her co-workers saw no problems with the signatures and had never heard of this excuse. XXXX said one of her co-workers theorized that the Federal Reserve could have been involved. I asked XXXX where our hard copy checks were and she told me they had been destroyed by XXXX XXXX. I asked XXXX if I could provide her with my phone number and have her call me and update me on the progress on this matter. She promised me she would call me within 7-10 calendar days. As of this writing I have not received a call from XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I received a copy of my 6 checks but the 3 checks written by my wife were not included. Attached is a copy of the letter along with the 6 checks from XXXX XXXX. 

Hours upon hours have been spent begging a large business and their credit card system to take our payment. We have never had this happen in our lifetime to either of us. We feel XXXX XXXX Credit Card Center got the cart before the horse by sending us a statement with interest charged and payments refused and no explanation. Upon asking for an explanation we were told the explanation had been sent before the statement but as you find in the previous paragraphs that explanation was never sent. 

We were forced to make a large purchase XX/XX/XXXX from a competitor because we were nervous about how our payments were being handled by XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX.

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