topic Re: unbelievable synchrony in Credit Cards

unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 02:42:06 GMT

What else can I say

Early December, I request a replacement card paypal mastercard because I forgot check my pocket when doing my laundry. After one week, no card in mail. Call in, representaives stated should be arrived already, and offered me another replacement card. After one week, same story. After one week, same story. Last week, I got three new cards together. Three letters all have same date, three cards all have same card number, same expiration, same security code. The only difference is the sequence number. Then after activation, there is no way to know which card is activated since the activation does not verify sequence number. So I called customer service and ask for which card is currently active, then got an answer, problem solved. She does not speak English very well, and I do not speak English very well, but we were able to have basic communication. Three days later, I received credit karma alert that my paypal mastercard is closed. I called synchrony, ask why, they told me I reported my account as fraudulent opened account three days ago, and closed my account to protect me in case of identity theft. I said that is not correct, I never close my account, I was just trying to ask questions about three cards I received. I requested them to open investigation, listen to the phone recording, then request to get my account back. Everything they say is no. The lesson of the story is my account is closed because I want to know which card is activated. Many people will not read my long story, if you did, and if you want to know more, I can answer questions. I am sad, not a lot, because the card is about 6 months old. Just want to share my experience.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 02:43:42 GMT

These kinds of stories with them are unfortunately not all that uncommon with them lately. I am sorry to hear that you were not able to get them to reverse their mistake.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:01:40 GMT

@Anonymous I am sorry for the loss of your account. Did you request to speak with a supervisor?

I would honestly attempt to escalate your situation to a supervisor and then if the supervisor can't help, to their supervisor.

If you can, find a backdoor number for Synchrony and call it.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:08:08 GMT

@Anonymous

It is worth a try. They said fraud department have supervisors but fraud investigation department does not have supervisor. I was assigned a fraud investigator which is someone I cannot talk to.

Like I mentioned, it is a small loss for a 6 months old account. But, I will try more calls in the next several days, I will take this as an opportunity for me to imrpove my English speaking skills.

Thank you.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 03:13:08 GMT

@Anonymous

Thank you.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

adelphi_sky — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 19:54:08 GMT

This to me doesn't sound like it is Synchrony's fault. Mail has been slow for everyone. I received a Christmas card last week that was mailed on December 23rd. My church mailed out something to us and it took a week. They are 5 miles down the road.

It sounds like when the OP didn't recieve the card in a week, he called and they offered to send another one while the first one was still on its way, albeit delayed. Mail has been absolutely backwards the past few weeks. Nothing is guranteed to be on time anymore. I'm still getting Amazon delayed shipping messages and we are three weeks removed from Christmas.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

AndySoCal — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 20:00:58 GMT

I would send an email of the CEO of Synchronny Bank.

https://www.ceoemail.com/s.php?id=ceo-82177

State in the email the dates and what was requested when you talked to them etc. I did that for another Synchronny Bank account someone from the office was helpful in resolving my concerns. I agree with you and the other posts the CSR's are terrible at best.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

K-in-Boston — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 20:03:56 GMT

@adelphi_sky wrote:
This to me doesn't sound like it is Synchrony's fault. Mail has been slow for everyone. I received a Christmas card last week that was mailed on December 23rd. My church mailed out something to us and it took a week. They are 5 miles down the road.

It sounds like when the OP didn't recieve the card in a week, he called and they offered to send another one while the first one was still on its way, albeit delayed. Mail has been absolutely backwards the past few weeks. Nothing is guranteed to be on time anymore. I'm still getting Amazon delayed shipping messages and we are three weeks removed from Christmas.

@Anonymous wrote:
Last week, I got three new cards together. Three letters all have same date, three cards all have same card number, same expiration, same security code. The only difference is the sequence number. Then after activation, there is no way to know which card is activated since the activation does not verify sequence number.

While there have certainly been some rather ridiculous USPS delays the past few months, the OP did state that all three cards had the same date on the letter enclosed.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 01:16:18 GMT

@AndySoCal

That is very interesting link. Thank you very much for sharing with me. I will be happy to give it a try.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 01:22:18 GMT

@adelphi_sky wrote:
This to me doesn't sound like it is Synchrony's fault. Mail has been slow for everyone. I received a Christmas card last week that was mailed on December 23rd. My church mailed out something to us and it took a week. They are 5 miles down the road.

What would slow mail have to do with the OP having their account closed? When they called to inquire about the card the first or second time, all Synchrony had to do was look and see the status of the first and act accordingly. Account closure doesn't seem like a valid solution to anything that transpired.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 01:24:37 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@adelphi_sky wrote:
This to me doesn't sound like it is Synchrony's fault. Mail has been slow for everyone. I received a Christmas card last week that was mailed on December 23rd. My church mailed out something to us and it took a week. They are 5 miles down the road.

What would slow mail have to do with the OP having their account closed? When they called to inquire about the card the first or second time, all Synchrony had to do was look and see the status of the first and act accordingly. Account closure doesn't seem like a valid solution to anything that transpired.

It seems to me the rep misunderstood and thought OP was calling to ask why they are getting any cards rather than calling to ask why they got three of them and which is active. It's not inconceivable to have such confusion when there is a language barrier involved.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 02:00:50 GMT

@Anonymous

You understood the story correctly.

It is a language issue, just like the previous commentator cannot understand my original post.

It is fine, I learned a lesson, and I have to continue to imrpove my English skill, and I will try my best to prevent this from happening. And people who understand my post can be careful about this.

Life is still good.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 02:09:39 GMT

Are you sure that the account is really closed without a replacement? When my card was lost/stolen, the account shows as closed on my credit report, and when a replacement card (with new account number) arrived, there's a new entry on my credit report (fortunately the history of the old card was also moved there)

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 02:10:17 GMT

@Anonymous

I am happy that you can understand my story. Thank you.

You are correct, when she has language barrier, and I have language barrier, that is when misunderstanding comes to place. The only thing I want to add is during the phone call, she was able to tell me and confirm the 005 card is the one currently active after she activated my card. After that, she asks me is there anything I can do for you today, and I said no. Then we disconnected in a polite manner. In this way, it looks like she was able to understand what I was asking and provide me with an answer. In this way I feel she did understand correctly about what I was asking. So I do not know what is story after this come from especially in the end she asks me perfectly is that the only thing I can help you today. In a way it may not be a misunderstanding. I am just trying to share, I am not trying to blame. I am not sure did I express myself clearly to you?

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 02:16:45 GMT

@Anonymous

I am not sure, they told me my account was closed because someone else opened as a fraudulent account. I said I opened myself, and they said the account is already closed so it does not matter anymore. Basically I believe it does not make any sense. If I can get it reopened like you, it is good, if I cannot, still fine. I have much more important things to do other than telling them 10 times it is my account and I opened myself while they keep telling me it is too late already. Anyway, I am fine with both because I believe it will not increase or decrease my credit score a lot since it is 6 months old.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 02:25:09 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous

I am not sure, they told me my account was closed because someone else opened as a fraudulent account. I said I opened myself, and they said the account is already closed so it does not matter anymore. Basically I believe it does not make any sense. If I can get it reopened like you, it is good, if I cannot, still fine. I have much more important things to do other than telling them 10 times it is my account and I opened myself while they keep telling me it is too late already. Anyway, I am fine with both because I believe it will not increase or decrease my credit score a lot since it is 6 months old

Hi, just to be clearer, I didn't have to get it reopened, it was part of their standard process:

a) card has issues (stolen/lost) they close account (which would create an alert if you have some monitoring)

b) then they send card with new number and new account on credit report

Since your original replacement cards took a while to arrive, I was just wondering if they have "sent" the new card and you just haven't received it yet. Unfortunately, with this particular card, it won't show on Paypal until several days after you activate it, so no way of checking without calling. And, as you don't particularly care, and your great experience with calling them(!), might not be worth the effort.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

creditfan — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 02:27:40 GMT

I would say forget it let's move on. Based on so many horror stories reported, if you're lucky you might get back your account today but who knows what will happen tomorrow for different story and so on.

There are so many 2% cards to pick from

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 02:45:20 GMT

@Anonymous wrote:
@Anonymous

I am happy that you can understand my story. Thank you.

You are correct, when she has language barrier, and I have language barrier, that is when misunderstanding comes to place. The only thing I want to add is during the phone call, she was able to tell me and confirm the 005 card is the one currently active after she activated my card. After that, she asks me is there anything I can do for you today, and I said no. Then we disconnected in a polite manner. In this way, it looks like she was able to understand what I was asking and provide me with an answer. In this way I feel she did understand correctly about what I was asking. So I do not know what is story after this come from especially in the end she asks me perfectly is that the only thing I can help you today. In a way it may not be a misunderstanding. I am just trying to share, I am not trying to blame. I am not sure did I express myself clearly to you?

I understand you perfectly. 👍

It could also have been a situation where a supervisor or lead was monitoring the call and they didn't understand the issue or thought it was suspicious or the rep hit the wrong button on the computer... Many things can happen with phone calls to customer service. While working for Comcast for around 3 1/2 years, I saw all kinds of stuff come through.

Unfortunately it doesn't really matter how it happened to Synchrony, they are extremely rigid when it comes to closed accounts being closed for good.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Credit12Fico — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 03:02:10 GMT

Okay, so first of all Synchrony is completely wrong for closing your account.

But second, you were a bit impatient when you requested card replacement. Not sure if you've been following the news but USPS was absolutely slammed in December. You should not have expected your card after 1 week if Synchrony didn't say they were giving you expedited shipment. And knowing Synchrony, they would take their sweet time to do anything other than CLD you or close your account lol.

Once you had 3 cards with the same card number and expiration, and CVV, there is really no way that Synchrony can help you identify which one works or was activated. Synchrony doesn't make the cards by the way and a Sync CSR won't know what sequence number is on the cards seeing as they never even see the cards. The cards are made offsite with contractors. The contractors just change the dyes and ink for whichever bank they are doing cards for. It would have been better to just go to the store and try to use all 3 than to call up Sync talking about sequence numbers.

What's done is done I guess and as you say, it's not worth your time and Synchrony are ultimately very very silly for making this error.

Re: unbelievable synchrony

Anonymous — Thu, 14 Jan 2021 03:50:53 GMT

@Anonymous

Yes, I decided to move on.

But you said this is the standard process? Do you have to send a form to synchrony and sign your name or anything like that? That is an interesting standard process. It is very standard.