Consumer complaint received 2021-09-08
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt is not yours
Company: TD BANK US HOLDING COMPANY (DE)

In or around XXXX of 2021, I received a letter from TD Bank claiming I owed them approximately {$140.00}. The alleged debt originated with Raymour and Flanigan, a furniture company that I had a financing account with. I first contacted Raymour, because I did not make a purchase on the account for at least six months prior.

The source of the charge was not identifiable from my bill, and it took five or so phone calls to the store that the charge originated from to even get a description of the item I supposedly purchased. I spoke with several managers and other personnel who worked at the store, and eventually I confirmed the I did not put the charge on my account, and that it was likely a computer error or some other error on Raymour 's end ( Raymour later confirmed this ).

Rayour refused to correct the error and insisted that I resolve it with TD Bank. TD Bank consistently sent me back to Raymour, saying they could not fix the issue on their end. I was stuck in this pattern for over a month, calling several times a week.

Eventually, I disputed the charge with TD Bank. Over the time I was dealing with the dispute, I was told at least three times that my account qualified for " payment protection, '' meaning I would personally incur no penalties for not paying the outstanding balance while my dispute was pending.

At least one month later, I received a letter from TD Bank saying that it ruled against me in my dispute. I immediately contacted the bank to determine what happened, and was told over the phone that the bank had actually ruled in my favor and a letter should be in the mail. I waited about a month, and having received no letter, I reached out again. This time I was told that the dispute was ruled in my favor, but I would still have to pay. I pressed further, and was eventually told that the bank decided against me in the dispute.

Eventually, TD Bank arranged to have someone from the dispute department call me. The representative from that department told me that a Raymour employee informed them over the phone that I did purchase the item in question and that I had it delivered in or around XXXX. I explained to TD Bank that something was wrong, because there would be a document with my signature purchasing the item, and a document that I signed at the time of delivery in XXXX. Because I received no deliveries since XXXX, I knew no such document existed. 

The representative from the dispute department said she would provide this information to the dispute department and they would investigate further. I was assured that my account still qualified for payment protection because the dispute was ongoing. She said they would get back to me. To date, I have not been contacted by the dispute department. 

I sent multiple requests via email requesting the documents upon which the denial was based, with the earliest one being sent on or around XX/XX/2021. After at least two of these emails, I was contacted by a member of TD 's customer service. I was told these documents would be sent to me via mail in XXXX. To date, they have refused to send me such proof. 

On Friday, XX/XX/2021, I received collection letter from TD Bank saying my account was about to be placed in bad standing. The balance, with interest, was nearly {$300.00}. I spoke with a representative and a manager from TD Bank that night, who informed me, for the first time and contrary to what was represented to me during the course of my dispute, that my account did not qualify for payment protection and that I had to pay the minimum amount due ( nearly {$150.00} ) by XX/XX/2021. 

This weekend, I saw for the first time that my credit score has declined nearly XXXX points. Prior, my score was consistently at or around XXXX. The only negative item on my credit was the charge from TD Bank. 

I have since received an email from a manger at Raymour confirming that the charge is not valid.

I estimate that I have spent over 15 hours on the phone between Raymour and Flanigan and TD Bank, and I have sent numerous emails. It has become clear to me that this dispute can not be resolved. I know for certain that if TD Bank did in fact conduct an investigation, it did not do more than receive a verbal assurance from someone at Raymour that I owed the money. There is no documentary proof that the charge is valid, and I did not authorize the charge. 

Raymour and Flanigan acknowledged that they posted an unauthorized charge to my account. They have made no meaningful effort to fix the problem, and have instead insisted that I resolve it with TD Bank. Specifically, XXXX XXXX, the customer care manager, has repeatedly acknowledged the problem but made numerous misrepresentations to me about his ability to correct it. TD Bank has made clear, many times, that they will not fix the problem unless someone from Raymour and Flanigan says the charge is not valid. Raymour and Flanigan affirmatively prevented TD Bank 's minimal efforts to investigate the dispute by providing them with false information, and would have known that was the case if the Raymour employee spend any amount of time looking into the issue. They have refused to talk to each other directly, despite my many attempts to get them to do so.