Consumer complaint received 2024-08-27
Product: Debt collection — Other debt
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed — Debt was paid
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (NY)

Synchrony Bank dispute account number XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX, I entered into a contract with XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX, XXXX  doing business at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX  XXXX for design and installation of new kitchen cabinets. The sales person was XXXX XXXX, license number XXXX. Through this sales process, Synchrony has engaged in predatory lending resulting in tens of thousands of dollars in illegal interest being charged, damaging my credit and causing undue stress and financial burden. 
Aggressive sales tactics In XX/XX/XXXX, when I met with XXXX XXXX, my family was in the process of moving across the country, and I had a tight time window to get the cabinets installed. My husband had already moved east to get my daughter in school, and I was cleaning up the house to rent it. 
XXXX XXXX sold me a new set of kitchen cabinets, and encouraged me to take the financing as it was offered at ZERO interest. XXXX advised As long as you make the monthly payments, you will be good. No interest charged. He further cajoled its like leaving money on the table Im sure you need that money for other things right now during your move might as well finance the cabinets, as you wont pay any interest. He reiterated Just dont miss any monthly payments and you will be fine Im sure you are the kind of person that pays their bills monthly, so not to worry. 
Terms of engagement I was sold. I signed the five page contract with XXXX XXXX  ( Exhibit A ). I put down a deposit of {$7200.00} via check to XXXX XXXX, included as the last page of Exhibit A. 
On page one, the contract clearly states that the amount due is {$16000.00} financed with Synchrony bank with 18 months no interest. Consequently, heeding XXXX warning, I set the vendor on auto-pay, at the requested monthly amount, so that I would be absolutely 100 % sure not to miss any payments. 
{$16000.00} financed with synchrony bank with 18 months no interest. 
The terms of the contract I signed were very clearly zero interest. The terms were not deferred interest. Nowhere in the contract is the word deferred used, and it was never mentioned in our conversation. To the contrary, I was clearly told that it was a zero interest contract, and as long as I made the monthly payments the loan would be paid off and there would be no issues. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I moved across the country to join my family. We began making payments to Synchrony bank via automatic payments that we set up according to the monthly amount we were being billed. We paid 100 % of what was asked every month, missing no payments, as advised by XXXX. 
Deceptive financing terms from Synchrony Synchrony bank charged monthly payments of {$420.00}. I later learned this amount was well below the amount that should have been charged to pay off the loan within 18 months. I trusted that they were charging me the appropriate amount to finance the loan according to the terms under which I agreed to financing with XXXX XXXX. 
Synchrony deceptively charged a lower amount such that 18 months would not result in a XXXX balance, as expected. Instead, on XX/XX/XXXX, a deferred interest charge of {$6800.00} hit my account lump sum, on top of the remaining balance. 
This interest charge, and all subsequent charges are wrong on several accounts : XXXX ) Bait and switch. The terms of engagement written into the sales contract were no interest -- not deferred interest, or any other scenario other than ZERO interest. Synchrony is specifically named as the provider of financing at NO INTEREST for 18 months. Hence, this charge of interest by Synchrony was illegal. 
XXXX ) Predatory lending. The payment amount they charged was too low to pay off the debt within 18 months, setting me up for failure AND inconsistent with the terms of the financing that I was sold, based on my written contract with XXXX XXXX XXXX  and verbal assurances from the salesman, XXXX XXXX. XXXX indicated several times that all I had to do was not miss a monthly payment and I would not pay any interest. 
XXXX ) Illegally charging interest on interest. Since XXXX of XXXX, Synchrony has been charging interest upon disputed interest, and now the total debt is at XXXX -- - THIS CHARGE IS ALL DISPUTED INTEREST ( the original principle was paid off some time ago ). 
Seeking to resolve misunderstanding, and payment of principle in good faith. 
From XX/XX/XXXX to XX/XX/XXXX, my husband and I continued to make the payments via autopay, not realizing that the 18 months had long passed and that the loan had not been paid off. We called customer service in XX/XX/XXXX for the first time, and were dismayed to learn that XXXX ) Synchrony had not set up the financing according to the terms set out in the sales contract ( deferred interest was charged, but zero interest was the condition that we were sold ), and XXXX ) that they had intentionally charged less on a monthly basis than would be necessary to pay the principle off in time to avoid any ( illegal, deferred ) interest. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we called Synchrony in an attempt to resolve the misunderstanding. They claimed our loan terms were different than what was in our sales contract, and that they would not and could not correct any issues with our disputed balance. We agreed at that time to pay off what they stated was the remaining principle in one lump sum of {$5500.00} ( confirmation number XXXX ), leaving only the disputed interest on the account. 
We also formally lodged a complaint about the terms of the contract being different ( fraudulent bait and switch ), and were told by the agent said she would submit a complaint/dispute to that effect and they would contact us shortly about it. 
Willfully ignoring our actual complaints Roughly a week later we received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX, saying they had research our claim of a missing or delayed billing statement, and they found no issues ( Exhibit D ). This was the beginning of a pattern across multiple conversations of willfully distorting or simply ignoring our actual complaints as stated above. Agents would continue to fall back on the claim that since we got a statement, there were no issues. The truth is they never actually sent us a statement. They send an email, with a link to their website, where you can pull up your statement, and if you read it closely there are different loan terms outlined than the original contract we signed. 
Repeated attempts to resolve the issue On XX/XX/XXXX, we spoke with another customer service agent, XXXX. After telling her the complaint filed did not actually reflect our dispute over the interest, she agreed to file a new complaint. We repeatedly conveyed our issues as stated above to her. We emailed the original contract from XXXX XXXX  showing that the terms were NO INTEREST, not deferred interest, and hence, the interest charges for the first 18 months were invalid. We asked XXXX for a call from corporate customer service, as XXXX only had authority to log disputes, not address them. She said it would take 30 days and we would get a communication via mail. She also said we should not pay interest charges during the term of the dispute. 
After 30 days we had received no response from Synchrony regarding the dispute, and interest continued to be charged. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we again called Synchrony. We spoke to XXXX, an agent, who confirmed that no complaint had actually been filed by XXXX. He wasnt sure why, but he said he would do so. We were disconnected mid-conversation ( after 30 minutes ), and then spoke to XXXX, another agent. She saw what XXXX had done and said she would make sure to file a report regarding our actual issues, which we clearly stated to both XXXX and XXXX. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, we received a letter from XXXX XXXX at Synchrony, dated the same day as our calls with XXXX and XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) ( Exhibit B ). 
The letter again did not even acknowledge any of our stated complaints regarding the bait and switch contract terms, the predatory lending practice, or the continued charging of interest on interest. Instead, this letter incorrectly stated the terms of our loan as a deferred interest promotion. No such promotion was ever mentioned to us and it is clearly not contemplated in the terms of the original sales contract that I signed with XXXX XXXX. 
A Sham Investigation On XX/XX/XXXX, I called XXXX XXXX to discuss this matter. She said the matter would not be resolved today, and she wrongfully asserted that the program we were in included deferred interest ( we were unaware of being enrolled such program ) and she said she had conducted an investigation and arrived at the conclusion that the deferred interest charge was valid. ( It could not have been a very thorough investigation if the letter to us was dated the same day of our call to customer service requesting a review of the facts our dispute. Because the letter was dated the same day, interest on top of interest continued to accrue uninterrupted, despite our dispute having been registered. ) In the call on XX/XX/XXXX, I asked XXXX XXXX if, in her investigation, she had reviewed the terms of the original contract with XXXX XXXX, the sales agent, which is undisputedly a no interest contract, with no reference to deferred interest. This sales contract with XXXX XXXX  was furnished to Synchrony multiple times. She said she had not reviewed it. I asked again, just to make sure, that her investigation did not include reviewing the terms of the original contract. She said no, she did not. She only reviewed the terms and conditions of Synchronys financing, not the original sales terms, which are materially different. This is the heart of our dispute, and the agent conducting the review willfully chose to ignore the evidence that sets out the facts of the case. This conversation is recorded, by the way, by us and by them. We are happy to provide a tape. 
To reiterate, Synchronys investigation which XXXX XXXX conducted in one day, did not include a review of the original contract which set out the sales terms for the kitchen cabinets at no interest for 18 months, which is materially different than the terms of Synchronys financing ( deferred interest ), resulting in thousands of dollars of invalid interest charges posted to my account at XXXX  months, and XXXX  of dollars in interest upon interest posted to date to the account, even though the principal was paid off some time ago. 

Interest on top of invalid interest As of XX/XX/XXXX the total amount in dispute is {$10000.00}, which includes the original invalid deferred interest charge of {$6800.00}, plus interest calculated on that invalid deferred interest which continues to accrue. ( Exhibit C ). 
Resolution We are seeking immediate resolution of this matter via dismissal of all interest charges, constituting the entire remaining balance on the account, and restoration of my credit rating for the recent missed payments which I have not been making while this matter is under dispute. 

Thank you for your consideration and support in this matter. 

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