Consumer complaint received 2024-04-12
Product: Credit card — Store credit card
Issue: Other features, terms, or problems — Other problem
Company: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL (TX)

According to our promotion, Synchrony offers the use of its credit card in exchange for 1 year with no interest, with the year beginning on the date that we receive our furniture. Their terms also states that if we do not pay off the promotional balance before the promotional year ends, we will accrue all of the back interest. 

My wife and I purchased a large quantity of furniture from XXXX XXXX, XXXX  XXXX in XX/XX/XXXX. We paid cash for most of it, but financed quite a bit. The items were delivered to our home weeks or months apart, as they were made ready. Hence, there were different promotional balances with Synchrony Bank that corresponded to the dates of delivery from XXXX XXXX. 

We have XXXX complaints. 

The first, and most pressing is the contract date on XXXX of the purchases. XXXX XXXX mistakenly notified Synchrony Bank that we received our dining room chairs in XX/XX/XXXX. They should not have notified them because we refused delivery. The chairs were infested with some sort of beetles. The items were taken back to XXXX XXXX, XXXX  XXXX by their delivery team that very day. We live XXXX miles away. 

As with all other refused deliveries that preceded this delivery, and per XXXX XXXX  policies, we were not supposed to get charged for the chairs. XXXX XXXX does not add charges to customer 's Synchrony cards until the customer accepts the merchandise. XXXX XXXX ordered us new chairs that very week and we received them on XX/XX/XXXX. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, we noticed the error with the promotional date on our Synchrony statement. We notified XXXX XXXX and there was a little back and forth. They told us to notify Synchrony and Synchrony told us to notify XXXX XXXX. That went on several times. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, a XXXX XXXX 's financial representative stated that she deleted the transaction from XX/XX/XXXX, and replaced it showing that we purchased the item in XX/XX/XXXX. ( She stated that that was the ONLY way that should could fix the problem ). Hence, the promotional balance would reflect a new ending date, XX/XX/XXXX. They extended their apologies and also provided us a {$100.00} gift certificate, for our troubles. She'd told us that it would take a couple of days to process. However, It never processed completely through. Synchrony put a stop to that. 

After several calls to Synchrony Bank in XXXX and XXXX, checking up on the aforementioned transaction, initially, their agents stated that they could see the transaction and that it hadn't processed just yet. Later in XXXX, there was a change. The agents stated that they could not see the XXXX transaction at all. Once I'd mentioned that I recorded all previous conversations, they'd found it, but stated that it had not processed yet. Note, not only hasn't the date changed to the original correct date of XX/XX/XXXX, it also did not change to the modified date of XX/XX/XXXX. 

I called Synchrony in XX/XX/XXXX and asked to speak to a XXXX. I spoke with XXXX. XXXX stated that she could see that I was sent an email in XX/XX/XXXX, which stated that Synchrony Bank was not going to change the date of the transaction. ( I've never seen this email, but I assume she is correct ). 

I explained to XXXX that this sounds like fraud and a breech of contract. She reiterated that the date would not be changed. 

This brings up my second complaint. 

As we made payments to our account, the Synchrony system automatically applied each individual payment towards the promotion that was expiring next. If there were XXXX promotions expiring on the same day, they applied the payment to the lesser amount, first. Customers have no way of telling their system where to place the money. 

In XX/XX/XXXX, we had a promotion set to expire. Not only did we pay off our XXXX promotion in XXXX, we'd made XXXX additional payments to apply towards the next expiring promotion. 

Oddly, this time, they applied those payments towards the erroneous promotion that ends in XXXX, instead of the promotion that was scheduled to end in XXXX. They promptly charged us {$1200.00} in back interest. 

When we called to complain, they had the audacity to tell us that we did not identify which promotional balance we wanted those payments to be applied to. Both, the front-line customer service agent said this, and the manager XXXX. I told both of them, based on precedence, we'd never been required, prompted or told to do that before, and that that there is not even an option to do that when paying. They both stated that we have to call and tell them where to send the money. We were not required to do that with any of the other lesser previous expiring promotions. 

XXXX fixed the account, supposedly. It was an accounting nightmare. She did not move any of the money the way it was supposed to go. She took partial figures and danced them around, here and there, and confused me with her accounting jargon. I am not an XXXX, but I do keep good books on what I've paid and what I owe. She was missing accountability of {$130.00}, that had shown on a previous statement as XXXX credits ( Applied on XX/XX/XXXX : {$14.00}, {$.00}, {$82.00}, and {$41.00} ). 

After I inquired about the credits, she attempted to fix it and couldn't. She ended up asking for advice from XXXX of her colleagues and ultimately told me it would take 60 days for it all to be reconciled. I do not have trust or confidence in their processes or ability to be ethical. 

If they've done this misapplication of funds with our money, in order to get thousands of dollars in interest, I am pretty sure that this is a business strategy used to deceptively acquire money from their consumers. If not fraud, it certainly lacks financial ethics. Business strategy : the XXXX XXXX and the XXXX both gave us the same reply that we have to tell them where to apply the money. Those were lies. Synchrony applied our money for 11 months where it needed to go, then in the last month did a bit of trickery. That's a business plan. 

To summarize, we have XXXX complaints : 1. Synchrony Bank is attempting to fraud us by not changing our promotional date to what it is supposed to be, in a prompt manner ( the date that we received our furniture : XX/XX/XXXX ) and 2. Something should be done about their attempt to defraud us and consequently cause our account to be a mess. XXXX made debit and credit entries to their various financial accounts, moved money here and there, and caused our account to not make sense on my end, while also temporarily misplacing our credits and telling us that we would have to wait and see for 60 days, if it will all balance out. 

I have attached the XX/XX/XXXX delivery ticket. It refences the XX/XX/XXXX delivery was refused due to bug infestation on all XXXX pieces.