Consumer complaint received 2022-07-07
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem when making payments — Problem during payment process
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (VA)

In XX/XX/2021, I called Synchrony to address a bill that I received in the mail for a charge I never made in the amount of {$1000.00}. This account was closed, so they reactivated it without my permission. During the call, I was informed by their customer service staff that they had mailed me a check for {$1000.00} that I never requested. I had not received the check at the time of the call. The staff person advised that the check was still in transit, so I should wait for the check, deposit it and then make the payment for {$1000.00}. I received the check later in XXXX, deposited it and called them to make the payment. During that call I was advised that they had charged late fees. I was very clear with the staff person that I would not pay any fees for a transaction that was their error, and gave authorization to make an electronic payment in the amount from my primary bank, XXXX XXXX. I was told that the payment went through, and my account was up to date ( except for the fee which they would handle later. ) In XXXX ( or XXXX ) I started to receive bills for the same account in the {$1000.00} plus fees. I called again, went through with customer service, was told it was their error and it was corrected. A month or so later I got a bill again for the {$1000.00} plus fees. I called again and asked to speak with the manager on duty. Long story short, they acknowledged their error, apologized and he promised that it was corrected. He refunded all fees and even sent an apology card. A month or so later, I got a bill for the {$1000.00} plus fees. I called again, was given the run around, and was advised that XXXX XXXX needed to send them confirmation that the payment was made. I called my XXXX XXXX who advised that this was not something that was done. They advised that this was very unprofessional, and advised that I file a claim. I followed their recommendation and filed a claim that Synchrony was claiming to not have money that was taken out of my account. A month or so later, I received a letter stating that I loss my claim because Synchrony provided proof that the bill was legitimate. I was livid because I never said that the initial bill was illegitimate. My issue was that they took money from my account that they were not giving me credit for. ( At some point during this process I also learned that Synchrony took {$1000.00} from my XXXX XXXX, which was the balance plus a fee. I absolutely never gave them permission to take that amount from my account, so on top of evening else they had taken money from my account that they were not authorized to take. ) Once I got the notice that I lost my claim, I called Synchrony again, and then called XXXX XXXX on a 3 way call. During that call i learned that according to Synchrony they had charged the payment and had it reversed by XXXX XXXX on at least three separate occasions, but all except the very first payment were marked as provisional. We all talked for over an hour, with the final agreement being that Synchrony staff would file a report with their accounting department, and XXXX XXXX would submit correspondence that the original payment was never reversed. Again, I started getting bills from Synchrony. The Synchrony representative called and asked that I fax my XXXX statement, because once again my Synchrony account was showing a provisional payment and a reversal. I faxed a redacted copy of my XXXX statement. It went directly to the manager I had been working with in addition to their accounting department. I received another reminder from Synchrony that I needed to pay my bill this week, so it still isn't resolved.