Hi - Throwaway.
Also, not sure if this is the right sub for this Question - if Not, please point me in the right direction!
So in April - I went a picked out a couch and opened a CC with the retailor. My credit has been in the dumps and this was a way for me to help boost my score. I didn't get approved for their store card, but a 3rd party lender/CC. Everything went through, signed all the paperwork, and I left the store without any hassle. The couch was to be delivered in a month and payments start on the day its delivered. Easy Peasy.
A couple of weeks later, I had yet to receive anything in the mail regarding the newly opened account. I tried creating an online account with the lender/CC. I had their information from the welcome packet they emailed on the day I applied for the card at the store. When I tried creating an account, my information wasn't found. I thought maybe because the couch hadn't been delivered yet, maybe that's why.
It's also interesting to note that this newly opened account has not shown up on any of the three major Credit Reports. I've been trying to increase my score and I've been taking advantage of the free reports and checking them every other week. My logic was that the bigger store credit amount on this card would boost my "credit limit" amount and therefor my credit utilization would go down because of it and hopefully raise my score.
Ok - so the couch gets delivered. Again, no issues. I get my delivery receipts in my email. So, now that it's delivered, I try the credit website again but still can't create the account. So, I call the lender/CC. They had my birthday off by a day. The account creation requires Name, DOB, and last of 4 SSN. The person corrects it and then the next day I create my account. I'm in!
I see the charge for the couch. It's listed as a pending charge so no amount is due. I check back every couple of days, if not daily. Nothing on this account is changing after a couple weeks of delivery, it's still pending.
I hit up the CC support chat and ask what's going on with this pending charge. He claimed that everything was fine on their end and it's an issue with the furniture store. So, I called the store. I laid out everything for her, like above. I could hear her clicking and typing away. She assured me that on their end....they got their money and it's an issue with the CC and to call them. It's a 3rd party lender, so she didn't have access to their systems anyways.
Well - I didn't really want to do the whole run around thing and keep calling everyone back. So, I didn't. Both companies claimed they were good and pointed fingers at each other. This was a month ago. I still check the account daily.
On Thursday, I got an email from the CC company that there was a $1 charge from the same furniture store but from a different state. I got 2 similar emails for $1 charge (same out of state store). I checked the account and saw the pending $1. I just kind of figured that they finally figured out their mistake and they are working behinds the scenes to fix it. They charged $1 and refunded it. Kinda like how Venmo sets up a bank account. It was also pointed out to me that it could be a fraud charge to see if the account with "live." I decided to wait it out and see.
I check back the next day. The $1 pending charges are gone and the pending charge for the couch is gone now and I have nothing on the account. The credit balance is back to 100%. There is NOTHING on this account anymore to indicate I owe money for this couch.
Of course the first thing I should be doing is calling the CC company and asking what is going on, but on the other hand....its starting to look like a free couch. I know what the morally right thing to do is. I'm more curious how long they have to get their money. Like, 30 days? 6 months? 1 year? I will probably comb through the paperwork I signed and see if there is any specifics in the meantime.
I'm shocked this hasn't been caught sooner by either company. It's not necessarily a small furniture store - they have over a hundred locations. I would think that there would be reports this would show up on and someone would come looking for their couch money!
I cannot find anything on Google about this - but mainly because I don't know what the hell to type to Google?
I still check the account daily and I'm still expecting this will work itself out and I'll have to pay eventually.
Thanks for any advice!
Submitted May 24, 2021 at 06:44PM by throwaway052421 https://ift.tt/3uhjaUm