Sofa Surprise
They found the sofa and chair of their dreams. And such a good deal, no interest for two years. But final payment for that dreamy furniture turned into a nightmare.
You've seen the offers. Buy a big ticket item now. Don't worry about paying for it until later. Sometimes much, much later. It seemed like a good idea to Danny and Susan Frank.
They found the furniture of their dreams at Thomasville of Paramus.
"I was really excited," said Susan. "I had waited a long time to buy new furniture and saw the sofa that I loved and saw this chair which finally my husband would have a chair just for himself, I was really psyched about it!"
They decided on the sofa, a new chair with matching ottoman and a beautiful round lamp table. It was a splurge, the total cost was close to $5,000 but Thomasville offered their credit card, GE Money. The whole thing could be interest-free for two years..a deferred payment plan. Good until January of 2009.
Susan Frank didn't even think about paying on it until a year into it. "I literally had ignored it for so long, and you know, I paid $800, I paid five and five and five so by the end of the year all I had left was a thousand dollars. The worst thing would have been for me is the deal would expire and that I was paying interest based on the balance, it would have been tolerable."
Until she missed that last payment of a $1,000, Then she found out the interest had accrued from the date of purchase in 2006. She owed $3,000 in interest.
She called GE Money. She waited on hold for over an hour. When she finally got someone on the phone to see if there was anyway to negotiate that whopping finance charge, the woman refused.
"I felt like an idiot," said Susan. "This is the most frustrating situation. I think I did what alot of people do and it doesn't matter who you are, how much money you earn how educated you are, everyone gets sucked in and it's a great way to lull you into a false sense of security and then a year down the road are you really thinking about it."
So it was all in the fine print, those were the terms, but still, it felt abusive. Some lawmakers are demanding changes.
"I think it's exceptionally sneaky and underhanded," said Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney.
"In this case," she said, "the woman ended up paying more in interest than she ended up paying for her couch."
Congresswoman Maloney and Senator Chuck Schumer are working to get a Credit Card Bill of Rights through congress and onto President Barak Obama's desk.
"He said he would sign it into law," insists Maloney, "You need to have a confidence level and a trust level between consumers and the issuers."
An in fact GE Money has gone a long way toward restoring that trust with this consumer and this reporter. When we called GE Money they said they'd take another look. They told us just before this story aired, they consider customer service a priority. Based on this woman's good payment history and good credit history they will issue her a credit for the entire $3,000 in finance charges.
A GE Money reminder: Read the fine print. Be aware of the terms of your loan. Make sure you understand them before you buy. And stay aware of the promotional end date.
Comments: 2
I know what she is going through. I'm currently going through the same thing with GE Money. I talked to CS with no help at all. Am I just stuck paying a $3700 bill?
Reading fine print doesn't matter!
We were on a cruise & my wife wanted to buy a painting from Park West Gallery (another shady company, I now know why they work with GE Money – Con Artists stick together) they were pushing this card (which we did not need at all, we had enough credit) they said 0% interest, 0 payments, NO PENALTIES for early payment, AND they would throw in a free painting & give us a discount on the framing. My wife was reading the agreement & SAID “NO Honey forget it look I think the interest starts from the beginning read this” but the representative there said she was reading it incorrectly she just misunderstood what it said and he assured us that for ONE FULL YEAR –
1. We had the choice to either make payments or not
2. There would be 0% interest
3. There would be no penalties for early pay off,
4. {THIS IS THE CLINCHER} the interest "Did not start to accrue until the END of the promotion"
He was absolutely SURE about this; he had been w/the company for years and they always used this card it was reputable BLAH BLAH BLAH. Now with it being a reputable company interest doesn’t begin to accrue until the end of the promotion, we get 0% interest for 1 year, NO PAYMENTS for 1 year if we choose, a free painting, and a discount on the framing we would have had to be FOOLS not to get the card!!!! We did and NOW like everyone SCREWED US TOO!!! We got the bill thinking it had to be a mistake but before we could call we saw the news & wanted to die. I would like to tell all of you what I have been going thru with them so far even though we were BLATENTLY LIED too.
First you must know I work in the telecommunication world and I am aware that most companies farm out their call centers to other countries for “business reasons” it’s MUCH cheaper countries like India. I have no doubt this is the country that is being reached when you & I call in about the GE Money card. They are all using fictions names and refuse to give any type of employee identification and with the fictions name insist they are the ONLY one with that name “if they were in the states it would be impossibility.
• 3/27/09 – sp/w gentlemen who refused to give me his name said that we were $11 past due and that’s why the interest was added? Also stated that my account was now over the limit and that I had an over the limit fee I needed to pay. I asked how that was possible since I made a payment and he stated that interest was added & the payment I made was not large enough so I had a past due balance & my account became overdue and over the limit. I repeated what he told me that in interest was added because I was $11 past due and told him I didn’t receive my statement yet. I asked him how card could be over the limit when there should be more than $2000 in open credit. He hung up on me.
• 03/31/09 – Received statement, $2385.64 in interest was added, as well as $39.00 over limit Fee and $39.00 Late Fee, even though a payment was made!!!! The payment that was made was not enough after they added the OUTRAGOUS interest so they added a late fee & over limit fee on top of it all. I really thought it just had to be a mistake.
• 04/02/09 – Saw the piece on Channel 11 about GE Money. Realized it was not a mistake but that we had been taken by a bunch of con-artists. (NO PUN INTENDED)
• 04/03/09 –
o Spoke w/Mike Johnson – explained situation, asked that he have the interest and fees credited and advised that we would continue to pay the remaining balance. He read me the terms of the agreement, I told him I didn’t care I was lied to; I was going to fight this. He offered to bring my interest down to 10% and put me on a payment plan OR settle the account he would take off $1100 off the total bill if I would pay it in full now. I told him to put his supervisor on the phone.
o Mack Steele – again I explained the situation and asked to have the interest credited so we could continue to pay the remaining balance and again; I was read the terms of the agreement! I asked Mack if he had listened to anything I said, we were LIED to in order to sign the agreement, we are not trying to get out of paying what we know we owe that we will pay however we were told by a person representing their company that the interest did not begin to accrue until the promotion ended so we would like that promise to be upheld. He AGAIN, read me the terms of the agreement. I asked to speak with the next level of management.
o Shawn Davis – got on the phone very abruptly, rude, and said that he would settle the bill for $9660 did I want to do this? I said absolutely not. I asked him if he was aware of our situation but he just continued to cut me off. I asked for his supervisors name after pulling teeth he said Alex Shaw was his boss but that he did not take calls that he Sean was the end of the line. I began to tell him we were lied to and wanted to pay our true balance but he was very rude and just cut me off. I verified his name, his boss’ name and the fact his boss did not and would not accept calls from customers’ and ended the call.