Argh, JC Penney!

[sisyphuswins]

A few months ago, my OH and I are buying some things at JCPenney.   They ask him if he'd like 15% off for applying for a store card.  He hasn't got a lot of credit of his own, so this seemed like a good start.  They approved him for a $400 limit and charge the purchases to the card.   The total was around $75.

I set up the account online to pay the bill immediately.    I make a payment in full the day the bill arrives in the mail.   When the next bill arrives, there's a late charge!  I check online and it says the bank returned our payment.    I check the bank---there's no sign of anything from JCP, no overdraft charge, nothing.   I know there was plenty of money in the account too, so there really shouldn't have been any problem.    OH calls, yells a bit, threatens to cancel card.   Fearful fellow on the line removes the late fee, promises all is well, says to make the payment again because it must have been a glitch.   

So, I make the payment again.  I double check the account number--everything is fine.   A few days later, nothing has come out of the account, but JCP says the bank returned the payment as NSF.    OH gets a nasty letter from JCP that he's very delinquent--as if the guy on the phone had done nothing  I check CreditKarma and he's got a 30 day late for his new JCP card.     He calls, yells some more.   Person on phone promises to cancel both late fees and report to credit agencies that there is no delinquency.    He actually does do all these things and account it back to good standing and the payment miraculously goes through this time---no idea why twice it would have been "returned" as our bank still has no record of either transaction.

So, a few days later, he gets a letter in the mail that JCP is cancelling his account because of all of his delinquencies.   And sure enough, they cancel the account.   So, he had a ding to his score for the inquiry, then a boost from new credit, then a ding because they cancelled---and the account is showing as open for 2 months, cancelled at credit grantors request, never late.

Besides just the release of ranting about this, I'm wondering if we should do something because I'm concerned at the negative impact the cancellation is causing.   Any suggestions?   or should we just let it be?

[Anonymous]

I would be writing a letter to the CEO, file a complaint with the proper authorities.....that is complete BS. Its like they never even gave him a chance to be a good customer.

[gdale6]

If the problem was not your error in entering payment information then I would file a complaint with the CFPB.

[Anonymous]

Seems to me if your bank bounced it back for NSF they should have a record, for both times. If they have no records of the attempted transactions the problem is on JCP's end have your bank print a letter saying so and take it to JCP.

[sisyphuswins]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Seems to me if your bank bounced it back for NSF they should have a record, for both times. If they have no records of the attempted transactions the problem is on JCP's end have your bank print a letter saying so and take it to JCP.

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Yes, I'm quite sure they would have charged us for NSF--never had an NSF charge with them, but surely they wold charge.   And since the balance was over $4000 both times and the JCP payment was only $75, it certainly would have cleared.    That's a good idea to get a letter--then we can send to JCP and see if they'll reinstate the card, just because of the closed account ding and, if not, file a complaint as gdale6 has suggested.    No matter what, we'll never shop there again.

[sisyphuswins]

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@gdale6 wrote:

If the problem was not your error in entering payment information then I would file a complaint with the CFPB.

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I double checked the account number, especially the second time, and everything was correct.   

[RobertEG]

Since its a billing related dispute on a credit card, you have the dispute process under the Fair Credit Billing Act available, which has more teeth than the DCRA dispute process.  I suggest you look into filing a dispute under the FCBA.  Details can be found on the FTC web page.

[Anonymous]

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@sisyphuswins wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:
Seems to me if your bank bounced it back for NSF they should have a record, for both times. If they have no records of the attempted transactions the problem is on JCP's end have your bank print a letter saying so and take it to JCP.

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Yes, I'm quite sure they would have charged us for NSF--never had an NSF charge with them, but surely they wold charge.   And since the balance was over $4000 both times and the JCP payment was only $75, it certainly would have cleared.    That's a good idea to get a letter--then we can send to JCP and see if they'll reinstate the card, just because of the closed account ding and, if not, file a complaint as gdale6 has suggested.    No matter what, we'll never shop there again.

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I can expand on my first post. Find out if the transaction request made it to the bank, and if so, why was it denied. NSF is a generic term which might mean NSF, or might not. Over the years with debit card and transfers I've had dozens of transactions declined for "NSF" but only one or two were actually due to NSF. If your bank never  received the request then it seems the problem is on JCP's end.

Either way, the bank or JCP should fix it.