Consumer complaint received 2024-08-25
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers — Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (MD)

In late XXXX, a Synchrony Bank Home Design XXXX Credit Card was opened as a personal loan on my behalf by the construction company that replaced our family home 's roof. Under the terms of the payment plan selected, " Plan XXXX Months No Monthly Interest Until Paid in Full '', a fixed monthly payment of {$250.00} was supposed to be withdrawn every month for XXXX  months. Instead, the full amount of the loan ( {$6400.00} ) was withdrawn in the XXXX  payment, on XX/XX/XXXX. I notified Synchrony on XX/XX/XXXX of this first error. The customer service representative immediately understood the error, said he would send a refund check in the full amount of the payment within XXXX business days, and indicated that I would need to continue making the {$250.00} fixed monthly payments once the balance had been reinstated. After not receiving the check in this time frame, and following up with Synchrony on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX, XXXX, I then filed a complaint with XXXX XXXX ( attached ), which is the checking account from which this payment was made, and I eventually received the refund. Meanwhile, I set up auto-payments for the minimum amount due to ensure my future payments were all made on time and thereby avoid losing the XXXX rate. 

When I realized on XX/XX/XXXX, that I was still paying this loan beyond the XXXX term, I immediately filed a dispute with Synchrony by call ( XXXX XXXX XXXX # XXXX - his employee ID number ) to inform them that they had been erroneously charging me interest on a XXXX Interest XXXX XXXX and XXXX them to refund the interest. I learned then that Synchrony had made a second error by reinstating the balance on my account as a " Purchase '' at 26.99 % XXXX rather than a " Promotional Purchase '' ( XXXX Interest ), as the original customer service representative indicated would be done to correct their first error. From XX/XX/XXXX until XX/XX/XXXX, I was charged a total of {$2900.00} in interest- on a {$6400.00} loan that was not supposed to incur any interest charges. I confirmed with XXXX that paying off the account balance would not affect my dispute with them, and I then paid off the remaining balance ( {$5900.00} ) that same day. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, Synchrony made a third error by issuing me a refund check in the amount of {$5800.00}, which is equivalent to the amount of my pay-off payment minus my monthly payment due of {$160.00} ( which included some {$130.00} of interest ). On XX/XX/XXXX, when I discovered this error, I again called Synchrony ( XXXX, extension XXXX ) to request that the refund check be cancelled so that my balance would remain XXXX pending the investigation of my dispute, to avoid paying further interest fees. XXXX informed me that they had issued the refund check in response to the dispute I had filed in XX/XX/XXXX - apparently, when I uploaded the original XXXX dispute letter in the Synchrony XXXX XXXX XXXX that I had sent to XXXX back in XXXX as evidence supporting my XXXX dispute, they misinterpreted this letter as asking them to refund my XX/XX/XXXX payment. I was informed that XXXX 's XXXX cancelled the refund check and my account balance would return to zero in XXXX billing cycles. Regarding my XXXX dispute of the erroneously charged interest fees, I was informed that their " investigation was on-going '' and that " if the error was on their end, they will refund the interest paid. '' I recorded notes of this call in their Secure Message Center - which has since been shut off - and received a response ( that I can no longer access ) that a refund check would be issued for the interest I was erroneously charged. 

I followed up again with Synchrony by phone on XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX ), XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX ), XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX ), and most recently today, XX/XX/XXXX ( Radel and XXXX XXXX on the status of this dispute and the refund check. Over the course of these interactions, I was repeatedly informed that an investigation was on-going that would take 60 days to resolve, that the refund check had been requested ( a total of 5 times, according to XXXX today XXXX, that the refund required additional time to be processed because of the large amount ( either XXXX or XXXX business days after a XXXX week or a XXXX review process ), that it was not possible for Synchrony to send any written communication to me about this matter until it had been resolved, and that someone would contact me once the dispute was resolved via mail or email. The representative I spoke with on XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX ) indicated he had another customer with the same issue ( Purchase interest rate applied to what should have been a XXXX interest Promotional Purchase ), and she received a full refund from Synchrony for the interest she was erroneously charged. 

As of XX/XX/XXXX, there are no disputes showing in the Activity Center on my Synchrony online Account XXXX, and XXXX different Synchrony customer service representatives ( including XXXX, an account XXXX ) today confirmed that while they do have " detailed notes '' of my phone calls, no formal dispute investigation was ever opened on this matter, and there is no claim ID number- which is supposed to be issued when a dispute is raised. XXXX confirmed that they had communicated with me via their XXXX XXXX XXXX on this topic- which I recall used to have a " XXXX '' subject in the drop-down list - and indicated that the reason they could not provide any written communication with me on this matter at this time- even to confirm the actions she had taken during our call- is that " we are not a normal credit card company. '' After at least XXXX follow ups and multiple promises to issue me a refund check over the course of the past XXXX  months, I still have nothing in writing from Synchrony about the status of my dispute ( now that their XXXX XXXX XXXX is shut off )- which, according to their policies is supposed to be resolved within 60 days, with the dispute status displayed in the Activity Center of their online Account XXXX - and I have received no refund check for the erroneously charged interest totaling {$2900.00} over XXXX despite Synchrony representatives having requested this refund XXXX times.