A Letter to GE Capital…
Since the first day of opening up our CareCredit account, we have been subjected to significant errors on the part of GE Capital, been treated horribly by “customer service” personnel, and generally plagued by problems with the account. The loan has been paid in full — actually overpaid by $1.55 — yet hundreds more dollars have been falsely charged to the account that I expect you to credit back. You have sent me to collections for these erroneous charges and subsequently caused my credit report to be marked with a negative rating. I expect the black mark to be removed.
The first problem? We opened up a 12-month, same-as-cash, interest-free credit account at our local vet’s office to pay for expensive healthcare for our cat. Despite several attempts at re-education, your customer service department has not correctly recognized the “12-month” aspect of the loan, continuing to insist that the same-as-cash promotion is only 120 days. Yet your form 181-168-00 Rev. 6/1/99 clearly states in several places, “Deferred interest for how long? 12 months”, “12 months deferred interest”, “Months Interest Deferred: 12″, and “No finance charges on the initial and subsequent services $1,000 and above charged to the Account will be incurred if you pay the amount charged in full on or before twelve (12) monthly billing cycles from charge date.” Five charges were made to the account, one correctly designated as 12 months interest free, two others were designated as 120 days interest free, and the remaining two were considered standard purchases and not under any promotion. All were supposed to have been 12 months interest free.
The first statement arrived late, only a few days before the posted due date. I immediately sent out a manual check for $1,000 on April 1, 2002 that posted on April 5th, two days after the April 3rd due date. So, of course, you unjustly tacked on a late charge and finance charges. On the day I received my next statement (almost two weeks late) that showed the fees, I contacted the only sane person that I ever spoke with at GE Capital, whose name unfortunately I no longer have. She reversed the late fees and finance charges, and made some adjustments to the account to convert the non-promotional purchases into the 120-day-long interest free promotion — still incorrect in terms of the longevity, but a step in the right direction. She said she’d make additional efforts to convert the promotions all to the 12-month period. I then stated that all I wanted to do was to defer the payoff until June 30th, and she indicated that it would not be a problem.
While the May 4th statement arrived late, as I had come to expect from GE Capital, I had already electronically scheduled the next payment of $200.00 in anticipation of the eventual arrival of the statement so that I could be assured that the payment would arrive on time, thus avoiding late charges. The problem is that the payment was posted in April (not May as intended) and, since I did not realize this and did not make a second payment for the month (Why would I? I’d already made my minimum payment!), I was charged a late fee and finance charges for May. There was still no new resolution on correcting the promotional period other than the agreement that paying the entire balance by June 30th would be no problem.
On June 17, I electronically paid $2,000, and on June 26, an electronic payment was sent for the remaining $2,398.03, not realizing that I had inadvertently paid an unexplained finance charge of $1.55 posted on May 4th. To date, no one has been able to explain the reason for the charge.
Therefore, on June 26, 2002, the entire account had been paid off, four days before the deadline I had agreed with customer service personnel, and a full seven months before the real deadline dictated by form 181-168-00 Rev. 6/1/99. Everything paid in full, interest-free and same-as-cash. I even overpaid by $1.55.
You’d think that the story would happily end there. It doesn’t.
On a September Sunday morning, somewhere around 7:00 a.m., more than two months after the account had been fully paid off, the phone rang and a “customer service” person claiming to be from GE Capital was on the other end of the line. He proclaimed that we were late in our payments and had been sent to collections. Since I had just been woken up out of a dead sleep, I gruffly said that I had no idea what he was talking about. The account had been paid off. I also stated how extremely rude it was to have called so early in the morning. I hung up with him and half stumbled off to my office to look through my CareCredit paperwork. Nope, the May 4th statement balance said $4,398.03 and my total payments listed in Quicken were $4,398.03. In fact, the account register showed a negative balance of $1.55 — that’s when I discovered that I had accidentally overpaid the account. A call to get more information from the GE Capital customer service department frustrated me even more; the customer service department isn’t open on the weekends.
It gets worse.
Two days later, I received a statement, the first since I had paid off the account more than two months prior. It showed a balance remaining of $354.49. What?!
After more than an hour and fifteen minutes of alternating between being on hold and shuffling from department to department, I finally reached someone who said that she was in a position to help me. Unfortunately, the woman — who never gave me her name — refused to listen to me talk about the problems that I was having with the account, consistently interrupted me to say that I had no choice but to pay the amount that was falsely claimed, and, without warning or permission, silently transferred me to someone else.
By then, I was livid.
I have dealt with customer service people from companies all over the world, from both sides: the consumer side and the corporate side. No one I have ever dealt with compares to the rude, inept, frustrating, bullying, ill-mannered “manager” (as opposed to the string of descriptive epithets that comes to mind) to whom I was transferred, some unknown person simply known as “Larry.”
Why “unknown?” Well, during the half-hour-long conversation in which he called me a liar, yelled at me, ludicrously proposed what he decided was a generous offer to split the charges, interrupted me, put me on hold repeatedly so that he wouldn’t have to listen to my complaints, spoke over me, threatened to blackmail me with erroneous postings on my credit report, he refused to provide any information about himself. He refused to provide his last name. He refused to provide his phone number. He refused to indicate in which department he worked. Why is “manager” also in quotes? He wouldn’t even give me his title. “How do I get in touch with you again if we get disconnected during the call,” I asked. “You don’t”, was his reply. “Just call back and ask for Larry. I’m the only Larry here!” I asked him if I could put him on hold in order to get some of the paperwork from my office. “I’m not in the habit of being put on hold, sir!” The word “sir” couldn’t have been laced with more venom.
As I write this letter four months after the fateful phone call, I can still recall almost every word, it was that incredible!
I gave up. There was obviously no point in trying to resolve a customer service issue with the “customer service” people at GE Capital. They obviously have no idea what it takes to retain a customer, and they certainly do not have an idea as to what service is.
So, I waited. When the October 4th statement arrived on time (a first!), it showed $390.77 in false charges. Obviously, I was not going to pay it, so I ignored it on the off chance that the mysterious “Larry” decided to do his job and was still attempting to fix the account. November, December, and January rolled around and I did not receive a statement. Hurray!
I assumed the matter closed — until I refinanced my house recently and discovered a black mark on my credit report, the first EVER in over 20 years of credit history. It is from GE Capital Consumer Card Company in the amount of $428.00, indicating that I am over 90 days late on payment.
You will not be paid for your mistakes.
In fact, you owe me money.
If I were to follow your own policies, you would owe me not only the $1.55, but also an additional $203.00 in late fees, and $13.34 in related interest charges.
I’ll settle for a check in the amount of $1.55 and an apology.
And also, according to your inane policies, Jeffrey Immelt, your CEO, deserves a phone call at 7:00 on a random Sunday morning demanding payment, since he is ultimately responsible for your policies and ensuring that GE’s payments are paid promptly. It is fitting that in 2002, Jeffrey “grew angry at the lack of communication from his financial services division and cast a lightning bolt at GE Capital, splitting it into quarters.”
Good call, Jeffrey! But GE still doesn’t uphold your standards of honesty, and your “worldwide reputation for honest and reliable business conduct” is being tarnished. I find it hard to believe that this “Larry” guy signed your internal “Spirit & The Letter” integrity policy, unless blackmail counts as a current goal of GE.
Credit all charges made on the account after May 1, 2002, remit a refund check in the amount of $1.55, and remove the black mark you have erroneously placed on my credit report.
Immediately.
Oh, and fire Larry. It should be pretty easy to find him since he’s the only “Larry” who works at GE Capital, a worldwide company with over 90,000 employees, all but one named something other than “Larry”�
This is a letter I sent to GE Consumer Card via Misicians Friend: 2-2-04 To whom it may concern, I would like to let you know about a bad experience with your credit and finance company. I bought an amplifier from you in November. I really like the amp. I thought I would have a year to pay with your one-year special financing. I paid that bill in full today because of the actions of your financer. I received a credit card from GE Capital Consumer Card Co. I paid the first bill when I received the statement. I had to call to request the second statement, which I paid once I received it. I have not received another statement from GE Capital Consumer Card Co. I started receiving harassing phone calls two weeks ago from the company’s collection agency. I called them tonight to find out what was going on. They said that statements sent to this address have been returned marked “Return to Sender.” The address for this account is my home address - a permanent private residence and all mail sent here is delivered to my mailbox (except this GE CC statement). I just wanted to let you know about how your finance company is doing business and that it does not reflect well upon Musicians Friend. This my friends is not the way to generate repeat sales. Please pass this along to whom it may concern. Thank you, John Sweton
I thank you, John, for posting this letter. I was online searching for any law suits/ consumer reports on this company as I too have been struggling just to receive my statement. They continue to tell me that my mail is undeliverable, which I find interesting since I received my first two statements with no problem. I have now been forced to send my check without a pay stub which no doubt will “delay processing” and cause me to incur late charges, if the check gets applied at all. I am disgusted with this company and plan to bring attention to it however I can. I was a fresh-out-of-college student who started a decent-paying job but could not simply write a check for the $2000 worth of dental work I suddenly had staring at me in the face. It is a shame that company’s like this exist.
Ah HA! Apostrophe!!! Huh? Aw, Rats. Wrong site.
A i see it GE CAPITAL AKA CAPITAL ONE, is and has been sued several times over this issue, so i want to know and under stand why congress has not put them in jail and or out of business, im still being charged a finace charge for an ATM cash withdrawl from 6 months ago that was paid back, account paid off, now im told i will be charged again because i have a new balance on the account, so i take it that when you pay off the account you should never charge again for two months so they have time to remove the finace charge, any way thats what im told, so i figured out a better way, DO NOT DO BUSINESS WITH CAPITAL ONE OR ANY COMPANY THEY OWN. best to all of those screwed by the ceo’s of america, god hang them all.
Similar problem here. I love the fact how Capital One will raise your interest rate to the maximum of twenty-four percent if you appear to be late on a payment. Then, retroactively apply that outlandish interest rate to your current balance. This is nothing short of fraud!
I have also had problems with GE Capital - over a Lowes account which is not mine. I have reported GE Capital to the Federal Trade Commission ( 877 382-4357) for violating The Fair Debt Collection Practices Act. The Federal Trade Commission will not take any action unless they see a pattern of abuse — please report them so we can establish the “pattern of abuse”.
I to have ge card sevice from FORD MOTOR COMPANY , it sound like a good offer at the time since Ford recommend them, I to have not received a statement for my 90 day same as cash, statement. I call and would you beleived, it’s in the mail. I Hope and Pray that this is not another corporate (bull sh..) that i done got caught in!
I went through GE credit card services to finance some performance tires for my mustang back in may of 2004 for 0% interest for a year. since then I have only recieved 1 bill from them and it is now september 2004. First they call me saying I was getting late charge fees and I said I never got a bill! They finally sent me a bill back in july and I have not recieved another bill to be able to pay for my account balance since then. Also when I talk to customer service on the phone you cannot half understand them and they have been a little rude also. I don’t think I ever will finance through them again.
I received a GE (CARECREDIT) card in Feb 2002, never applied for this card, but was sent it anyway. I immediatly cancelled the account by phone, keeping the document that the card came on containing the account number, also wrote the date of cancellation on the doc. Three years have passed, never hearing a word from GE, until March 15th 2005 when I was shocked at opening a letter from a Collection agency,Arrow Financial stating that they had bought my past due account from GE, & I owe $1,9000 something dollars! I spent two days trying to sort this mess out, & did finally get to speak to one Rep at GE whom told me “don’t worry, the account number is not yours, & your closed account has a zero balance. Anyhow I am not sitting back & waiting for this mess to go away, I have written to both Arrow Financial, & GE, also sent copies to the three main reporting agencies. After reading some of the horror stories on this site, it looks to me like we will never get to the bottom of these scam artists! But we have to keep on fighting for our rights, & not let these bullies get the better of us. I pride myself on having a clean credit history, & this mix from whatever party needs to be taken care of.
GE Capital is impossible to deal with. I had auto-pay set up and wanted to stop it. I called and got their OUTSOURCED account support. I was told that it was taken care of. Well, in November they debited my account again. Since I was no longer using this account, I was 75 cents overdrawn and it cost me almost 100 in overdarft fees. I called Bangledesh again and this time was told I had to write a letter to a PO box in El Paso. I did and three weeks later they made another withdrawal, but I had anticipated their lack of action and had sent money to that bank and avoided overdrafts. Again I called and got their OUTSOURCED account support. This time I demaned to speak to an American and they transferred me to Angel in Dayton, Corporate headquarters. For the first time somebody told me I could do it online, which I have done and only assume it will take effect. Bottom line, THIS COMPANY STINKS!!! Jeff Grob
I’m not surprised at everyone’s stories. I purchased cabinets for a new home ($14,000) through a GE Money Bank promotion (0% interest, 0 payments for 12 months). The due date of the promotion was 1/11/06. I mailed a $4000 payment to them on 1/3/06 and made an online payment of $10,000 on 1/7/06. I’ve been closely monitored my account balance to make sure GE received my $4000 payment in the mail. They CLAIM they haven’t received it yet!! I think it is odd that the mail takes that long between MI and FL. I can’t help but wonder if my check is sitting on someone’s desk just waiting for my promotional period to end…? After calling customer service the first time to communicate my concern of the $3400 deferred interest charges, she indicated the payment wasn’t received and that if they didn’t get it by 5pm EST 1/11/06, I would be responsible for the interest charges…I wasn’t happy with that, so I asked to speak to a manager. After 10 minutes of waiting on the phone, she came back and indicated there were no managers available…right! She indicated there was no grace period and that I should make an online payment (in addition to the check I sent)…it’s not like I have money growing on trees! I called back a few hours later and talked to another customer service person…he said the same except he indicated I did have a 2-day grace period and if the payment was received by 1/13/06, I would have to pay the interest…he even confirmed it with his manager (although he wouldn’t give me the manager’s name). Here’s the thing…I don’t trust these people. I truly believe they will say anything that results in collecting high interest and late fees …after all that’s how they make their money, right? To be on the safe side, I put a stop payment on the check I had mailed (a $29 fee out of my pocket…but worth saving me a hassle later) and made an online payment. Based on your stories, it will be interesting to see if I get any “misc” charges. I can’t help but think that GE is ripping people off through interest scams.
Hello everyone,
Sorry to hear everyone’s stories. I am trapped in the endless dispute case with GE Credit Care. Is there GE class action suit going on? Idiotic letters that I get from GE are signed by first names and phone calls to those people are not allowed. Does anyone know contact info for Jeffrey Immeltor or other GE official who can potentially solve problems.
Many thanks!
Maria
I’m having the same issue that most of you are having with GE CareCredit, pre-interest billing, huge fee’s tact on as a “late fees”, plus additional fees to do over the phone payment. This company is a SCAM AND uses DIRTY BUSINESS PRACTICE.
$1,000.oo starting balance
After making over $450 in payments, interest and combined fees
The card balance now totals $1,015.oo
Do the math. This company should be fined. If you know of a class action please let us know.
I have had similar problems with GE Money Bank, I am now convinved that this company thrives on fraud facilitated by deferred interest payment scams and sham late payment fees, what a scam, GE management should be embarassed to be affiliated with a subsidiary with such despicable reputation.
I will write to my state’s BBB, I know others have already done so, but one more voice to drive the point home, and hopefully this pathetic organization to the gutters where they belong.
I too started out thinking I had been had by GE Money Bank. However they immediately straightened out the problem in my favor. I had charged $6,000.00 in carpeting on a 15 month no interest no payment offer. They never mailed me anything and you guessed it, after 15 months they turned up on my credit as an over the limit. They charged the full $6,010.00 and added $2064.00 in interest. (WOW!) Stressed me out I can tell you. I called told them I had never received a bill and they admitted they had a wrong address. I paid the total $6,010.00 in full online. They corrected all and took the interest off my account. I can’t help think all of the complaints I am reading are causing a response to try and improve the bad reputation GE is getting. Thanks for listning, Brenda
I too have just finished writing a letter to GE - hopefully to receive positive results, though I am skeptical given their track record with me. The only time I was ever able to make a payment with this company was by phone because they never sent me statements, even though I had requested one several times. Ironically, the only way to access my statements online was by inputting my account information. But they couldn’t give this to me over the phone! Probably not to anyone’s surprise, in my last conversation with a representative, he promised to me (at least three times because that’s how many times I asked him) that my account was paid off. Lo’ and behold I receive a statement today FOR THE FIRST TIME and after I was supposedly paid off, informing me of a balance of $85 with finance charges- and conveniently, I’m already late on my payment!
If my correspondence with the company continues to be this unfruitful, I will feel obligated to take legal action against them. Please email me at BullsBash@aol.com if you have had similar issues to my own.
Good luck to all, and forgive me for the rant, but it is 3:30 in the morning and I wish I did not have to write this letter!
Since GE Capital sent a response, I am closing this for comments. If you have anything you’d like to add, click the link and read the response before commenting. Thanks!