Consumer complaint received 2024-04-07 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: Bread Financial Holdings, Inc.
State: OR

Complaint narrative:
I mailed a formal letter on XX/XX/XXXX after the XX/XX/XXXX fraud incident to follow up from my original dispute on the fraudulent charge from XXXX ( which is still up and running ) on our XXXX Comenity Credit Card. The original amount was for {$240.00}. We are now asking for the return of the above amounts plus all interest and late fees for a total of {$310.00} which we reluctantly paid on XX/XX/XXXX after consistently being denied a formal response on both the phone and in writing for the last 6 months from Comenity.

We were originally told Comenity was conducting an investigation, however fees continued to be applied to our account during this time and the fees would soon amount to the bill if not paid. We have an impeccable credit score which was subject to being ruined after XXXX  years since those fees continued to be applied and thus the reason we paid even though we were victims and never received the merchandise.

We went to the above website and put our credit card number in, and when we inputted the last number of the credit card, the screen changed, and stated a XXXX transaction has happened. We do not have a XXXX account and realized something was wrong. I was not given a chance to review my order or to confirm the address it was to be shipped to.

We immediately called Comenity to cancel the transaction and explain what transpired. The rep said she was unable to cancel the transaction and would need to wait for the transaction to clear in a month, even though we did not want the transaction to go through. The rep in fact discouraged us to call the Comenity  fraud dept, but we felt uneasy that the rep seemed passive and did not fully understand the severity, so against their advice, we called the fraud dept and closed down the card. A new card was sent out the same day.

From their phone records that are recorded, you can see that there are numerous inquiries from us on the status of the dispute between XXXX.We were diligent.

Several weeks after on XXXX  we received a letter from Comenity requesting more information in writing. We called Comenity and asked if we can supply the information by email or a phone call so it can speed up the process. We also asked them why this information wasnt requested as soon as we reported it on XX/XX/XXXX. No answer was provided. We then told the rep we would mail the information in and did, which they received on XX/XX/XXXX per the post office. On XX/XX/XXXX we received a letter dated XX/XX/XXXX with Comenity stating we didnt send the info to them and Comenity closed the case.

Since we had received confirmation they did indeed receive the information, we called again on XX/XX/XXXX and Comenity supposedly couldnt find our letter. 

We insisted it arrived XX/XX/XXXX. We have great records documented and mail receipts. 

The rep XXXX put us on a lengthy hold and found the paperwork we sent and confirmed it was received on XX/XX/XXXX. We were then informed it would take XXXX days to process. 
On XXXX we received a letter from Comenity confirming that they had received the additional information and please allow up to 90 days for them to complete their investigation. 

On XX/XX/XXXX we called and spoke to a rep asking for an update as XXXX days had passed. They said it was still being investigated. Our summary of bill activity read do not pay closing date XX/XX/XXXX. 

On XX/XX/XXXX we called back spoke to XXXX to see if we can get an update and they said they were still investigating.

Being concerned no one was looking into this in good faith, and we started to feel as if we were hitting a wall and Comenity was not giving us any updates we decided to contact XXXX as XXXX appeared as the merchant on our statemnt and we are not XXXX users. 

With this info we called XXXX and spoke to a gentlemen named XXXX and explained our situation. XXXX was very concerned and compassionate that someone would swindle us using his companys name. He said he would gladly look into it. He seemed he could help and wanted to help and needed a transaction number that Comenity had attached to this incident. We gave him numbers on the statement next to merchant 's name but that wasnt it. We immediately called Comenity again and spoke with both XXXX XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX to get this transaction number to give to XXXX at XXXX so XXXX could look into this incident on their end. 

Comenity said this incident was still under investigation for being disputed and still did not have an update or the transaction number XXXX was requesting. 

On XX/XX/XXXX we called Comenity and spoke to a Senior Acct Supv ID # XXXX to receive an update on the investigation and if we can get the transaction number now. We were told we would get an update by mail. To this day, nothing has been received by mail regarding the investigation update. 

On XX/XX/XXXX we contacted Comenity and spoke to XXXX, who connected us to her supervisor, XXXX. He said our case was closed because they never received our information. We informed him that he is looking at the wrong letter that crossed in the mail and the case is actively being investigated as they found our paperwork, as stated above, and the case was open as recently as XX/XX/XXXX. He didnt want to discuss the matter and wanted to avoid the conversation so we asked to speak to his boss, and he said his boss would tell us the same thing. We said we would like to speak to his boss so he connected us to XXXX, the senior account manager. XXXX told us the information he is seeing is that the case was closed on XX/XX/XXXX and he is not able to read it. We replied how can the case be closed when it was up for discussion and investigation as recently as XX/XX/XXXX and we have a letter in the mail that they are looking into the matter dated XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX said '' he didnt have a letter '' and I said I am looking right at it and he said well if you have a letter that the case is open then you can send it into the billing dispute inquiry department because they will be very interested in seeing that letter implying that this changes the whole case if we have proof of the letter. 

Now this brings us up to our final two phone calls one was to XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX just to verify what XXXX told us because we have been told a different story every time we call someone at Comenity and because someone made an error in reading the dispute, it was never looked at appropriately. 

In addition, additional fees were being charged. Therefore on XX/XX/XXXX we decided the fees and late charges were going to add more than the fraud charge so reluctantly we called XXXX and paid the bill for a product we did not review nor confirm payment and we did not receive the merchandise. She suggested a partial payment and we said absolutely not we will rack up more fees that way. Something we have never been subjected to. We pay early. We pay in full.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief