Consumer complaint received 2017-07-03
Product: Debt collection — Credit card debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was result of identity theft
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (NV)

Starting in XX/XX/XXXX, I called Synchrony Bank about fraud charges on my card. That day, the lady from Synchrony went through every single purchase made on my card and I pointed out the fraud charges to her. From there she transferred my call to the fraud department and they said an investigation would be opened, but they could only pull up the chargers from the pasted 6 months ( since XX/XX/XXXX ) and that they would send me a packet in the mail and I had to write down every fraud charge ever made on my account. I never received this packet. I ended up having to go to XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX for family medical reasons and I called Synchrony and explained what was going on. I said that before I left, I never got that packet in the mail and I was n't going to be back in XXXX for several months so I changed my address to the address I was staying at in XXXX. A few weeks later, my parents said my packet came in the mail in XXXX so I called Synchrony Bank and told them that I had called a few weeks before and changed my address because I was n't in XXXX to receive that packet. They had absolutely no record of this in their files. They said I never called and changed my address, but I did. On top of that, they said the fraud investigation was closed and I had been refunded all of the money which was impossible because they only had access from XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX, and did n't have the completed packet from me to document fraud charges starting back in XX/XX/XXXX. After the man argued with me, they passed me on to a manager in the fraud department and I got them to resend me the packet to the updated address so I could fill it out. He said when I received it to call and go over it so they could reopen the investigation. I received the packet in XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX I called them again and went through the packet and every single fraud purchase on my account and the lady said it would take a minimum of 30 days to go over it and re-open the case. During all this time, starting around mid XX/XX/XXXX, I 've been called multiple times a day by Synchrony saying that I 'm past due on paying my bills. Back in XX/XX/XXXX, I was told not to pay any more bills until the investigation was complete, so I had n't paid anything. Starting in XX/XX/XXXX, I 've been getting called multiple times a day from collection agencies saying I was past due on paying my bills. I repeatedly told them that my account was under investigation for fraud and was told not to make anymore payments. Today ( XXXX XXXX, XXXX ), after receiving yet another collection call, I called Synchrony and spoke with another fraud manager. He said my investigation was closed XX/XX/XXXX, 7 days not 30, after my investigation was re-opened, but nobody alerted me. He said they did n't have a letter stating it was closed. However, I received a letter in the mail dated AFTER XX/XX/XXXX stating that my investigation was reopened. When I asked the manager for copies of everything they had on my file about this investigation he said " What do you mean? '' and then proceeded to tell me that they have no letters to send me about my own case. Every single time I 've tried to contact Synchrony Bank about my investigation, I 've either been hung up on or everything we talked about was n't even recorded. I 'd say 3 out of 15+ phone calls with Synchrony were successful. Even after all of this, not all of fraudulent charges have been resolved.