A Very Frustrating Experience

Four years ago I got a phone call from the bank that had issued a credit card to me. They said a number of charges were being made, and they were checking to see if I had made the charges. I most definitely had not. They had already put a hold on the the additional charges, and then canceled the card. They told me I would have to fill out an affidavit stating that I had not made the charges. The card was an AT&T Universal card that had been purchased by Citibank. I had not used the card for several years. I did not carry the card in my wallet, and I had never put the card number on the internet. The card was still in my possession.

 

I checked the card information online and found that charges were being made in Spain. A Paypal account had been opened in my name. I was terribly upset. I made a report to the FTC, I reported it to the Beaumont Police and contacted all three credit bureaus and requested a fraud alert be placed on my credit report. Citibank removed the charges from my account, closed the account and sent me a new card. At one point one of the Citibank representatives said we know you did not makes these charges. I did not even have to fill out the affidavit like they had originally said. The only thing I could conclude was that the information was stolen by a bank employee--an inside job.

 

Fortunately nothing else happened. I became absolutely paranoid about checking all of my financial accounts. Two years ago I mailed in my estimated tax payment to the IRS. Normally they cash the check in less than a week. More than two weeks went by and my check had not cleared the bank. I panicked. I called the credit bureaus and wrote a letter to them. As a result, I got an extended fraud alert placed on my credit reports. A fraud alert makes it more difficult to obtain credit. This was fine with me I thought I had reached a point in life where I had all the credit I would ever need. Fortunately my check cleared the bank. The IRS had moved to a new location and was slow in cashing the check.

 

Then my life changed when I decided to buy the new house and new appliances. I started watching the appliances sales at Sears and saw that often to get the best terms the appliance had to be purchased with a Sears charge card. When Sears started accepting Visa, MasterCard and American Express, I stopped using my Sears card and the account was closed. I applied online for a new Sears charge card. My application was denied. I called and was told that Trans Union said they required additional information. The merchant is supposed to verify the phone number that the credit bureau has on file. Sears does not routinely do this. They deny the application, and then it is up to the customer to follow up. Anyway after I made the phone call, I had a Sears charge card in less than a week.

 

To my dismay I saw they had not given me a large enough credit line to cover the three appliances I wished to purchase. I went back online and requested a credit line increase. Again I was denied. I called again and was told that a credit line could not be increased if the account had not been open for at least nine months. I explained that I was buying a new house and wanted to buy a washer, dryer and refrigerator. The representative said there was an additional account called "Sears Charge Plus" that was designed for such situations.

 

Two weeks ago I bought the washer and dryer with the regular Sears charge card. This morning I got the email with the 10 percent cash back rebate on appliance purchases offer. I printed out the email that announced the sale and all the fine print. It did say one day only on July 15, but the footnotes said through July 15. I was at the Sears store when the door opened. I asked for Amanda, the young woman who had sold the washer and dryer. I was told she would not come in until 1 PM. I said I did not want to make a second trip and could someone else help me. An older man named Chuck said he could take care of it. I stood and waited while he logged into the system and counted the money in the cash register, and then I waited while he answered two phone calls.

 

I asked him to check on the availability of the GE Profile refrigerator that I want for the Frisco zip code. The computer said it would be available on July 21. I have watched that date change from August 18, to August 5 to July 21. I told Chuck I wanted to go ahead and order the refrigerator and that I wanted it delivered in September to Frisco. I told him I had insufficient credit on my Sears card and asked what was involved in opening a Sears Charge Plus account. He whipped out the forms. I told him I had a fraud alert on my credit report. I explained the circumstances. I could see his attitude change. He thought he was dealing with a deadbeat. He entered my data into the computer. It came back with a screen that said to call a 1-800 number. It was a call to Citibank who handles the Sears card. After he gave some information, they asked to talk to me. They asked me a question and then wanted Chuck back. The computer then spit out a temporary account receipt for me. Chuck looked at it and got a big smile on his face and shook my hand.

 

I told Chuck I wanted to make sure I got the ten percent cash rebate. I also asked about the 12 months zero payment, zero finance charge deal. I showed him the email about the ten percent cash rebate. He looked at it and said he thought it was an online deal only. I said it does not say that. He took the cash register receipt which was my temporary Sears Charge Plus card and my email and disappeared for 15 minutes to find out about the rebate. He came back and called another man over. This man whipped out a yellow form that explained the rebate. The fine print said it could not be combined with the zero financing offer. Chuck said do not worry about that I automatically got the zero deal with the Sears Charge Plus account. Another man came up and said there would be a $65 dollar delivery charge. I said I had already paid a delivery charge on the washer and dryer. He said the refrigerator could be linked to the washer and dryer, and I would not be charged a second delivery fee. I did not have my receipt for the washer and dryer with me.  Chuck did not know how to find that sale. Another man who seemed to be a know it all came up and was able to pull up the information and he walked away. Chuck said he did not know how to link the sales. I asked Chuck if he would prefer that I came back in the afternoon and have Amanda finish the sale. At that point the smart Alec came back, and he said he could take care of it. He took over and then he told me the ten percent cash rebate is good only for tomorrow.

 

I looked at the temporary receipt for the Sears Charge Plus account. It said it was good for one day only--July 14. There is a bar code but no account number on the receipt. I said this is good for today only. What will I do tomorrow? He said that tomorrow I would be in the system, and they could search and find my account number.

 

I was in that store for more than an hour. I don't think I will ever recover from this experience. I have never seen anything so ridiculous.