I had a Sears card for a very long time almost 20 years, My dad was a big fan of Sears also and I spent some Satudays with him shopping at the Catalog store in my hometown of New Rochelle NY. He would sometimes leave me at the TV section go place an order then come back. It’s a nice childhood memory. Yes he came back for me.
Sears Credit is now run by Citibank. I was issued a new card last year, I never even took the sticker off it and never even called to activate it. Funny thing in August it bought itself an online subscription from a company in CA for $59.99. When I saw the bill I called and explained that someone must have gotten a hold of my number or was issued the same number for fraud had occured. They said I should send in a letter explaining and they would take care of it. I sent the letter and thought that it would be taken care of. They closed the bad account labeled it fraud and sent me another card with a new account. They also took the fraud charge and posted it to the new account.
Why? I have no idea.
I called them again and asked why they had not taken the fraudulent charge off my account? They said that I had to fill out a form and that the letter I sent in was no longer acceptable. The Affadavit would be mailed to me. I never got the affadavit, and I doubt they ever sent one.
I got a notice today and I now owe 86.77 on a fradulaent charge that I never made in the first place. I called and spoke to them again and tried to explain and I was told that they never received the affadavit and thats why the charge stands. I also noticed however that this fradulaent charge was now on my credit report as a past due bill. When I asked them to remove it because of their egregious error they said not without the filed affadavit. So basically Sears Credit aka Citibank has ruined my credit report over a 59.99 charge that I never made.
They did wave the late fees and interest on the fradulent charge I never made however and seemed happy with themselves that they did so. They assure me that they will fix it, once they have the affadavit, but I now have to baby sit Citibank and make sure they do the right thing this time every step of the way. I don’t trust Sears Citibank , would you?
Sadly, I also won’t go to Sears stores anymore either. It’s now relegated to just a nice childhood memory.
The Bensleygram 