Consumer complaint received 2024-05-22 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — Store credit 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: SYNCHRONY FINANCIAL
State: CA

Complaint narrative:
A year and a half ago I went to XXXX XXXX in XXXX to purchase some furniture for my home. I believe it was in XXXX of XXXX. They gave me a store credit card and placed the purchase order on the card. After I bought the furniture, I was waiting for it to be delivered. Almost immediately after purchasing it, however, I went to back to XXXX XXXX and told them I wanted better furniture than what I had purchased and asked to cancel the order and buy new furniture. XXXX XXXX told me they could do so, so I bought new XXXX from them that same day. They placed the new purchase on another card. 

Several weeks later, I get my new furniture, and everything was good. At least until I started getting billed for both sets of furniture. I called XXXX XXXX and asked them what happened, and they said it was a mistake by the credit card company. I told XXXX XXXX they needed to fix this, and they said they would. Even more so since I never received the original furniture order. Another month later, I got another bill from the credit card company. It was Synchrony. I called them and told them the situation of how I never received the furniture for this order due to upgrading, and they claimed they couldn't do anything about it. They said I had to go back to XXXX XXXX. 

I went back to XXXX XXXX, and I argued with them about this bill and also about receiving a bill for items never received. For months it was back and forth of being sent between Synchrony and XXXX XXXX. After a while I gave up trying to speak with them, and I started disputing this account from my credit report. Nothing ever worked. 
Finally, in XXXX of XXXX, I hired a local credit repair company to try and help me resolve this situation. According to them, they spoke with Synchrony and said they were asked to submit a power of attorney by fax to fax XXXX XXXX. They did so XX/XX/XXXX, and then they continued trying to speak with Synchrony in order to figure out a resolution to my dilemma. Synchrony would never speak with them. Again, according to the credit repair company, they tried calling Synchrony on XX/XX/XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXXXX/XX/XXXX. On every occasion, Synchrony would claim they never received the POA and couldn't speak with them. 

Afterwards, disputes were submitted to the credit bureaus, but no responses were ever received for several months. At first, I thought maybe the credit repair company was scamming me and saying they were doing work when they weren't. But when I went to their office, they showed me proof they had done what they said they did. They did submit a fax to Synchrony with my signed and notarized limited power of attorney back in XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX. They even showed me that it was successfully transmitted. I will provide you a copy of that record they gave me earlier today. It was 3 pages which included the cover sheet, a signed power of attorney, and a notarized acknowledgement. Synchrony did receive this, but they were just playing games and not wanting to resolve this or speak to an authorized third party or representative. At least that is the only conclusion I can come up with after so many phone calls with no help from Synchrony. 

Here we are nearly two years later, and this account is on my credit report as a charge-off. They are trying to collect {$1600.00} for furniture I never received, and neither Synchrony nor XXXX XXXX cares or is doing anything about it. How is that possible? How can they get away with saying I owe them money when they never gave me anything to earn this money? And how is it that they get to ignore disputes without responding or refuse to actually speak to anyone about this account when they have been given written and legal permission to do so? Please help me as I am uncertain as to what else can be done anymore short of hiring a very expensive lawyer and spending far too much money and time to try and get this fixed. I shouldn't be responsible to pay something I never received.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation