Consumer complaint received 2021-12-14
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: VA
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Store credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX, I opened a Lowes Credit Card and purchased all new appliances for my new house. Over the following year I bought thousands of dollars on the card in appliances : a washer, dryer, stove, microwave, fridge and dishwasher. I used the card specifically to get the " 24 months zero interest '' offer. -- In XX/XX/XXXX, I went to pay off the full amount, both to not pay more than 1-2 months of interest that it was now accruing, but also so that I could buy more appliances. The balance seemed high, but I didn't look into it at the time. I had never received any statements or notices on the account, so would need to log into the payment portal later and figure it out. -- When I went and purchased a new appliance in XX/XX/XXXX, I had to agree to a big notice that the interest free period I again qualified for would end after x months, and that if I didn't repay in full before that time, all the back interest that I had avoided would be charged to be in a lump sum penalty. I had never heard that before, and thought it odd. -- I went and checked my online account and saw that I had been charged {$1200.00} as a lump penalty fee in XX/XX/XXXX. I called and through three levels of customer service, I was told that the fee was intentional. If I had paid it before XX/XX/XXXX, there would have been no fee. If I had contacted them within 30 days fo the fee they would have waived it entirely. Since I was contacted them ~60 days after the fee ( and the first that I knew about it, as I had never seen any statements ), they would do absolutely nothing for me and thought I deserved to pay the full amount. -- A reasonable consumer would expect that a zero interest period is a period during which there is zero interest, and after that promotional time, you start a normal ( high ) interest rate. It is misleading to have a " delayed interest '' period and advertise it as no interest. I am sure that the paperwork I was provided in XXXX had fine print explaining this, but it was never said to my wife or I, and neither of us ever had any actual knowledge of it. -- They set my wife 's email up as the contact email for my credit card, we suspect because she was the contact person for the delivery we were purchasing, but because of that I never received any notices or statements for my account, and she never knew to expect any ( they all went to her junk/spam folder, which she had no reason to check for Lowes  emails ). We never actually saw any statements or notices ( I do see now that the monthly statements included this notice, but again, we never actually saw it ). -- They must think that their past notice was insufficiant, since on this new XX/XX/XXXX purchase, I had to digitally, specifically aknowlege the deferred full interest feature ( I have no recolection of any such aknowlegment in XXXX, despite specifically remembering the signing for the card. If there was such an aknowlegement, it was apparently ineffective, but I am as sure as I can be that there was not speical notice, and I am 100 % sure that I did not understand that at the time, and was not told about it verbally ). -- No reasonable person would do what I did, if they were given actual knowledge of the credit product. I paid {$1200.00} in interest for ~2 months of credit ... .. around 300 % annual interest. I clearly could have paid it off during the time period, or scheduled a payment before the period ended, if I had known I needed to. In fact, I would have accepted their x % off the price offer at the time of purchase instead of the interest free financing, and then paid it off immediately. So, instead of getting ~5 % off, I accepted their offer to pay them an extra ~50 % of the purchase price. -- I feel this is unfair, punitive, deceptive, and abusive. It seems at least a little predatory, as I paid for something that no one would possibly want or agree to. They said after three levels of customer service that they can refund these fees within 30 days, but that they can't after that ( clearly XXXX the company can, and just chooses not to, thinking it fair and appropriate to gouge people with an unreasonable fee. I was promised a follow up call with the next few days, but that was weeks ago and I never heard back. -- I also reached out to the store manager, who was very polite and seemed sincerely apologetic. I did not expect him to do anything as its not his field ( and the purchase was so old, he couldn't even see it when he asked to look it up ). He did promptly return the appliance I had bought that day, and I purchased it from their competitor ( since the sale windows were shorter than the period I expected a call from XXXX, and I needed to get the new appliance from somewhere and wanted the weekend sale price ). He said he would ask his regional manager about it, but I never heard from theme either. To reiterate, I am very happy with the local store and manager, despite their inability to do anything on their end. They know I have a long history of shopping large and small there, as I renovate my home during a pandemic. -- As I said on the phone with them, I have had a very good relationship with XXXX so far, and even drive past their competitor to go to them instead. I would like to do business with them in the future, but I will not do business with them if they have treated me this way and cost me over {$1200.00} for no benefit at all. On the phone they said that they hoped I didn't close my account, but that they would rather that happen then make this right and reverse the penalty.

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 monetary relief