topic Re: Synchrony customer service in Credit Cards

Synchrony customer service

Anonymous — Tue, 19 May 2020 05:48:58 GMT

Okay so I have to say that I have had nothing but good experiences with Synchrony customer service so far. I had always heard they were very difficult to deal with but that hasn't been my experience at all so far.

I had a transaction that processed as a cash advance on my PayPal Cashback unexpectedly (I had heard that MasterCards were usually fine for this purpose) when opening up a new credit union account this week and I called Synchrony last night when I noticed that it was going to process as one and the guy advised me to just call back when it posts and they'll waive the fee.

I called the credit union today and tried to get them to reverse the charge and let me put it on my debit card but after the girl called a few different people, I was told that their system won't let them refund it. I figured I was going to have to eat the fee.

I went ahead and pushed the payment from 1stBank today for the original $249 of the charge and then I logged into my account tonight and saw that I already was charged $7.47 for the CA fee so I figured I would call. Got a representative and explained what happened and asked if I could get a courtesy credit and he said that he does see that it qualifies for a credit. He went ahead and credited the fee and told me that any interest associated with the charge will be cleared off when my payment is received too!

I am absolutely blown away honestly. I didn't have any hold time before either phone call, both reps were friendly and knowledgeable, and they obviously didn't have any obligation to waive these fees to begin with, mistake or not.

I had to speak with Synchrony when I got my Marvel card because my card was declined after doing some in app purchases back to back and again, I got a very friendly rep (he and I actually spent more time chatting/flirting than actually fixing the locked card lol) and my issue was resolved quickly.

The only middle of the ground experience I had was when I was calling PayPal Cashback support about the deferred interest promos they have in the terms and conditions but it seems like that was just a misunderstanding, the rep thinking I was talking about PayPal Credit, because while the deferred interest offers are in the terms they have never actually offered one of those promos.

Anyone else have decent experiences with Synchrony customer service? I am pretty impressed with them considering their reputation as a subprime lender.

Re: Synchrony customer service

CreditInspired — Tue, 19 May 2020 08:44:08 GMT

Thanks Saeren for sharing your positive experience with Synchrony. I have to say, it is a breath of fresh air from the usual rantings on here from thoroughly unhappy Sync customers.

Re: Synchrony customer service

Anonymous — Tue, 19 May 2020 08:52:00 GMT

@CreditInspired wrote:
Thanks Saeren for sharing your positive experience with Synchrony. I have to say, it is a breath of fresh air from the usual rantings on here from thoroughly unhappy Sync customers.

I mean generally speaking happy customers don't post about how happy they are anywhere near as much as unhappy ones post. I also think people are likely being rude to these agents for certain things beyond the agents' control and that's changing the interest in the agent helping the customer rather than rushing them off the line.

Obviously Sync isn't perfect and I could wake up tomorrow to all of my accounts shut down but actually dealing with the front line hasn't been bad at all.

Re: Synchrony customer service

Gmood1 — Tue, 19 May 2020 11:22:00 GMT

Good to hear @Anonymous !

Most of my dealings have been ok. I gave up on the eBay card support though.

You'd think after being in the system with the same address for 5 years.

They'd send card to correct address.😂

Well that's not the case. After calling and repeating my address multiple times.

Guess what, wrong address again!😂

I received the CC over a month after apping for it. It was still address incorrectly.

I haven't bothered since. I had plans for it, but just threw it in the SD. The only reason I received it, US mail got tired of sending it back and figured out where it needed to go.😆

No ranting here, just a real life experience.

They've been pretty good too me as a whole.

So you still got a CA on the MC? Wow

I've never gotten that before. I have with several Visas though.

Citi has been rock solid and I've never been charged a CA for any transaction.

Re: Synchrony customer service

M_Smart007 — Tue, 19 May 2020 12:06:48 GMT

@CreditInspired wrote:
Thanks Saeren for sharing your positive experience with Synchrony. I have to say, it is a breath of fresh air from the usual rantings on here from thoroughly unhappy Sync customers.

Re: Synchrony customer service

M_Smart007 — Tue, 19 May 2020 12:09:10 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@CreditInspired wrote:
Thanks Saeren for sharing your positive experience with Synchrony. I have to say, it is a breath of fresh air from the usual rantings on here from thoroughly unhappy Sync customers.
I mean generally speaking happy customers don't post about how happy they are anywhere near as much as unhappy ones post. I also think people are likely being rude to these agents for certain things beyond the agents' control and that's changing the interest in the agent helping the customer rather than rushing them off the line.

Obviously Sync isn't perfect and I could wake up tomorrow to all of my accounts shut down but actually dealing with the front line hasn't been bad at all.

Actually other than the occasional "off cycle reporting" have rally been no issues with Synch,

(I just had to gripe about something)

Re: Synchrony customer service

kdm31091 — Tue, 19 May 2020 12:13:49 GMT

They generally rank near the bottom of the JD Power rankings, so it's nice to see a positive experience. I know you have had some gripes with them and the Paypal card especially, so it's good to see it is not all a negative experience for you.

Re: Synchrony customer service

Remedios — Tue, 19 May 2020 13:28:22 GMT

I had a single Synchrony card in the past. A few interactions I had with them were beyond horrible.

I dont expect CSRs to be chatty, friendly, or even nice, I only expect them to be competent.

These people..weren't, and that's me being nice.

I'm glad you had positive experiences.

Maybe it depends on type of card you have.

Re: Synchrony customer service

Anonymous — Tue, 19 May 2020 17:14:09 GMT

@Gmood1 wrote:
Good to hear @Anonymous !
Most of my dealings have been ok. I gave up on the eBay card support though.
You'd think after being in the system with the same address for 5 years.
They'd send card to correct address.😂
Well that's not the case. After calling and repeating my address multiple times.
Guess what, wrong address again!😂

I received the CC over a month after apping for it. It was still address incorrectly.
I haven't bothered since. I had plans for it, but just threw it in the SD. The only reason I received it, US mail got tired of sending it back and figured out where it needed to go.😆

No ranting here, just a real life experience.
They've been pretty good too me as a whole.

So you still got a CA on the MC? Wow
I've never gotten that before. I have with several Visas though.
Citi has been rock solid and I've never been charged a CA for any transaction.

Yeah I was admittedly taking your advice that MasterCard was fine. What's funny is that it's never happened with my NFCU cashRewards VISA before. 🤷‍♂️

Oh well, lesson learned. Maybe I will get a Citi DC after all. I gotta make a priority list for post-Cash+ apps. Or maybe I'll just PC Rewards+ to DC if they give me a CLI next month after my BK drops off.

Re: Synchrony customer service

kdm31091 — Tue, 19 May 2020 17:21:01 GMT

Not much point in cold app for DC since there's no incentive. You may as well just PC the Rewards+ unless you get a ton of use out of it. Plus your AOD card beats them both anyway as does your Disco Miles right now.

Re: Synchrony customer service

Anonymous — Tue, 19 May 2020 17:21:18 GMT

@kdm31091 wrote:
They generally rank near the bottom of the JD Power rankings, so it's nice to see a positive experience. I know you have had some gripes with them and the Paypal card especially, so it's good to see it is not all a negative experience for you.

Yeah the PayPal card itself is fine. The only thing that ever irritated me about it is the lack of transaction alerts. That still hasn't been addressed and that's why this was the first time I used it since February. I probably won't use it again until July now.

They didn't even give me the worst APR on it, I got the lowest of the three tiers. It was 21.99% I think when it was approved. Absurdly high but still low for Sync.

Re: Synchrony customer service

Anonymous — Tue, 19 May 2020 17:24:51 GMT

@Remedios wrote:
I had a single Synchrony card in the past. A few interactions I had with them were beyond horrible.
I dont expect CSRs to be chatty, friendly, or even nice, I only expect them to be competent.
These people..weren't, and that's me being nice.
I'm glad you had positive experiences.
Maybe it depends on type of card you have.

I am sorry to hear that you didn't have a good experience with them. Obviously people tend to have really bad experiences with them and I do wonder if it is card dependent. I have never had to call and deal with customer service for my Amazon card, for example, and it wouldn't surprise me if that card has worse customer service than Marvel or PayPal does. It would kind of fit with the whole red headed stepchild vibe of store cards vs majors.

Re: Synchrony customer service

Anonymous — Tue, 19 May 2020 17:30:50 GMT

@kdm31091 wrote:
Not much point in cold app for DC since there's no incentive. You may as well just PC the Rewards+ unless you get a ton of use out of it. Plus your AOD card beats them both anyway as does your Disco Miles right now.

I don't know what I'm going to do yet. I'll look at it when October comes along. The fact is there aren't many cards left that I want so it doesn't really matter either way. Freedom isn't as much a goal card as in worth gardening for, more that it's a card I'll be checking for offers in Credit Journey for but I have no intent on getting under 5/24 so if I go Cash+ (EX), DC Power VISA (TU), Langley Cash Back (EQ), and DC (probably two), it's not a big deal to me.

Re: Synchrony customer service

recoveringfrombk7 — Tue, 19 May 2020 18:18:57 GMT

Always good to read good news! Glad it all went well.

Re: Synchrony customer service

MoneyBurns — Tue, 19 May 2020 18:37:38 GMT

Did you mean when PayPal had that banner up for 0% interest? Then for some mysterious reason disappeared? That had happen to me too.

I got talked to a rep and they also thought it was PayPal credit. After speaking for a bit, she did return my interest charged.

They gave me a $100 promo when I signed up and raised by CL to match marvel. I have nothing but gopd service from them.

Happy to hear you did too!

Re: Synchrony customer service

Anonymous — Tue, 19 May 2020 19:05:56 GMT

@MoneyBurns wrote:
Did you mean when PayPal had that banner up for 0% interest? Then for some mysterious reason disappeared? That had happen to me too.

I got talked to a rep and they also thought it was PayPal credit. After speaking for a bit, she did return my interest charged.

They gave me a $100 promo when I signed up and raised by CL to match marvel. I have nothing but gopd service from them.

Happy to hear you did too!

No if you read your terms and conditions, it talks about deferred interest offers. I was calling to ask how to get them and she was totally confused. I had to guide her to the website to read the terms for herself before she believed me that it was even there for the PayPal Cashback.

https://www.synchronybankterms.com/gecrbterms/pdf/PAYPAL_CASHBACK_MASTERCARD.pdf

I knew from the start that the 0% was an error and didn't trust it so I didn't have to deal with customer service on that but with how willing they were to waive this cash advance fee, I don't believe that they would have been difficult to work with about the 0% too.

Re: Synchrony customer service

ChazzieT — Tue, 19 May 2020 19:12:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
I am sorry to hear that you didn't have a good experience with them. Obviously people tend to have really bad experiences with them and I do wonder if it is card dependent. I have never had to call and deal with customer service for my Amazon card, for example, and it wouldn't surprise me if that card has worse customer service than Marvel or PayPal does. It would kind of fit with the whole red headed stepchild vibe of store cards vs majors.

I have Care Credit and Amazon Prime Store cards through Sync and it is "night and day". The Synch/Amazon CSR's have been very much like @Remedios describes, while the Care Credit CSR's I've dealt with have all been more like the experiences you describe in the OP. I even had a late pay on Care Credit that was obviously out of character for me and, after I noticed it, I called them up and they volunteered to remove it from my CR as I'd been with them a while and never screwed up before and it was pretty obvious what caused my lapse.

Re: Synchrony customer service

Anonymous — Wed, 20 May 2020 03:49:51 GMT

Well they kept their word. Was checking to see if the payment posted and my card is zeroed out.

Re: Synchrony customer service

M_Smart007 — Wed, 20 May 2020 11:56:23 GMT

Well Done ^^^^^^^^^^^

Re: Synchrony customer service

DaveInAZ — Wed, 20 May 2020 17:11:48 GMT

I've only called Synchrony once for an issue with my PayPal Cashback MC and they were very pleasant and helpful, and it was for my own stupid mistake a year or so ago. My payment due date is the 10th of the month and that was a Friday. Overly greedy to earn a few more nickles of interest on my savings I paid slightly more than the minimum payment on the 10th and then paid the remaining statement balance on Monday the 13th. When the statement posted I wash charged interest and realized I'd just lost my interest free grace period by not paying the statement balance in full by the due date. So I called, I was more concerned about losing my grace period than the actual interest charge as I have several recurring monthly bill charged to the card. The rep said that as I'd never had an issue requesting a credit before he could credit back the interest charge which would restore my grace period.

But, the one annoying thing about Synchrony is their due date is 10 days before the statement date, almost all my other CCs it's only 3 days before the statement. But, for the no hassle 2% cashback on everything I can deal with it, and I won't make the mistatke of not paying the statement balance in full before the due date again.