In Jan. 2003 Ip urchased approximately $1800 of furniture form CITY Furniture and financed it through GE Capital Con CC with deferred oayment and no finance charges for a year.in May I pruchased a dining room set for apprxoimately $1300 with the same provisions (one year deferred payment, interest free.
In January I snt the company a $2000 payment to cover the $1800 sofas and partial payment on the dining room set. As far as I was concerned, I did not need to make any payments until May when the deferred payment for the dining room would come due.
In February I received a call from GE Capital Con CC saying I owed $98 in finance charges. I asked how that was possible since I had paid off the sofas PLUS $200. The representatiave said my payment was due on Jan. 17 and it wasn't posted unil Jan. 25 and I owed finance charges. I asked whether it was possible that their office had received it in time but not posted and she said it didn't matter, there was no window of
flexibility, and I owed the $98, which I paid via phone. At that point she said I was up to date, the couches were paid off, and thanked me for my payment.
I disregarded any statements from Citi as I knew there were none due until May, when the promotional agreement on my dining room set expired. I opened an old statement and wrote a check, and noticed that the statement said my dining room was paid off but I still owee $1600 on the OTHER Purchase. I called GE Capital and spoke to a representative and then her supervisor who said the intital $2000 was applied to the dining room set (which wasn't due until MAY, that it was unfortunate that I had a misunderstanding with the representataive who called in February
to collect my outstanding $98 in finance charges, and that I was still being charged monthly for unpaid finance charges on the couches. No matter how hard I explained that the $2000 I sent in January was to be applied to the $1800 purchase of the sofas, they said I should have known that it was expired and they do not apply payments to expired promotional agreements.
This is outrageous. Not only have I been accuring interest I didn't know about for three months, I am shown as being delinquent on the account I thought I had paid off three months ago. They refuse to make any adjustments. I find 1) this to be a reprehensible and sneaky way to conduct business 2) to be an unacceptable customer service practice 3) dangerously bordering on unethical business practices. At this point, I owe an additional $300 that I knew nothing about. The company refuses to make adjustments even when the customer service representative KNEW that their company representative had given me the wrong impression. She maintains it is not their job to apply payments to a particular purchase.
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