Consumer complaint received 2022-08-11
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — Store credit card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc. (CA)

I am copying the letter I sent Comenity Bank for Ann Taylor, as it best enumerates all the issues : I want to preface by stating that my experience with Ann Taylor/Commenity Bank has been nothing short of the worst experience I have ever had with any corporation. 

First off, I am sending you proof of payment in full on the XXXX of XXXX, XXXX As it turns out, I was obliged to pay in person at the Ann Taylor store at the XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX, XXXX, as your system would not take payments. 

I had been attempting payment from the moment I received my first statement. I wont go into depth about this particular aspect, as your sales associates are the only aspect which recommends Ann Taylor to me at all, but I was misled about the card by an associate at the store, and I was calling to cancel the card upon receipt. As you are fully aware, the phone system said one of three things : the system was being worked on ; it stated call back later, upon which it immediately cut off the call. 
The call volume was very high; please, call back later. Cut off, again. 
Please wait for the next associate, and then Id be cut off after waiting up to forty five minutes.

Of course, I have records of everything. 

Once at the store, I explained what was happening and was told that they could do nothing about the credit card part of Ann Taylor. I know this is true because it follows the current day template of corporate lack of accountability. 

At what was, I assume, the due by date to pay the card ( which I had, as I stated above, already paid in full ), I began receiving phone calls from an automated system ; not even a live person that a customer could answer : look, I paid, to, thereby forcing the customer to spend his/her own precious time on wasted phone calls. I had, in fact, called, and continued to be put on hold and dropped. I managed to speak to someone for a few minutes, in New York, but that call was dropped, and then, to someone at a call center who stated I now had a late payment. He was unable to help in any way. 

So, I returned to the store and begged for help. I realize they are mere employees ( cogs in the machine, as it were ), and are limited to what they can do. However, ( blank ) ( the store manager ), seeing my distress and hearing about my inability to resolve this matter, called on her own phone and we waited together for the call center to answer. 

Id like to add that Its amazing that even the managers have no other direct numbers to call, because the credit card bank Ann Taylor uses is just as much the responsibility of Ann Taylor as the stores are. 

Finally, a worker came on the line, investigated, and found no payment. However, he assured me, he was cancelling the amount owed and I would receive a letter from Ann Taylor/Commenity Bank XXXX upon which I would send back the receipts to complete the process of getting my account up to date. He said he could not cancel the past due portion because I had canceled my card (? ). But, he assured, I would receive no more phone calls. 

Untrue. I have continued to be harassed, because, at this point, that is what Commenity Bank calls have become. You call from all sorts of sketchy numbers, with your computer, often at early hours of the morning, waking me up and waking my mother ( who has XXXX ), who then begins the day more anxious than usual. You have no right to do this. It is unethical and harassment, I repeat. You are causing undue, and unacceptable anxiety for everyone in the household, and taking up inordinate amounts of time that I do not have to spare, which is also costing me money, as I took a day off of work on the one and only day I was able to reach someone on my own.

You are also affecting my stellar credit score, which I demand you fix with XXXX and any other credit agency involved. ( Blank : store manager ) advised I ask you to, in fact. 

You will also bring my closed account up to date, and remove any late fees. I am sending this with your statement, as well as receipts and copies of receipts ( if the original is not enough ), as well as the part of my XXXX  XXXX XXXX statement which shows the deduction of the balance of {$120.00} which the Ann Taylor store provided ahead of the so called letter, which has not arrived, if it ever will. 

I plan to forward this letter as a complaint to Ann Taylor headquarters ( though I dont think it will matter ), as well as to entities overseeing Ann Taylor and Commenity Bank business practices. The company changing owners is absolutely no excuse to put customers through this kind of treatment. We are not inanimate objects to fall through the cracks, and neither Ann Taylor nor Commenity bank have the right to affect peoples lives in this way.