ALWAYS HAPPY TO HELP

Coming back from a short holiday to Jersey with Flyby I noticed that they were offering a FREE flight if you took out the Flybe Credit Card, which, in addition also allowed you to earn extra points which would then again convert into FREE flights with Flybe. 

As we are always going away on short trips within Europe it sounded a good idea and, when I got back, I applied for the Flyby MasterCard. 

When it arrived I noticed that it was issued by SYGMA BANK, a limited company which belongs to TRIBUNAL DE COMMERCE DE PARIS in France and which specialises in retailers credit cards such as VISA or MasterCard.

I only used it once and spent about £40.00 before I received my statement and, as I always do, I paid off the full balance by BACS (Bankers Automated Clearing Services) direct into their bank.. About 3 weeks later whilst I was away on a walking holiday  in Andorra I received a text message asking me to call urgently a UK number. Thinking that something may have  happened at home I phone the number given, only to find that it was SYGMA BANK chasing a minimum payment of £5.00 which, so they said, they had not received.

I explained the circumstances, I told them that the full amount had been paid 3 weeks previously and that my account should be clear. The young man apologised for disturbing my holiday and assured me that he would check his records and that they would get back to me the following Monday, when I would be back in the UK, to confirm that the account was cleared.

In the evening I went to the Internet room at the hotel to make sure that the payment had actually gone through and had not been returned and I printed out a statement from my bank which confirmed that the payment had been sent to
SYGMA BANK.

The next morning, just after breakfast, my phone rang and when I answered,  a young man told me that he was from the SYGMA BANK debt collection department and that he was chasing an outstanding payment of £5.00 which, so he said, they had not received.

I was getting a bit ratty by now but once again I explained the situation, I told him that I was on holiday, that I had already spoken to someone at SYGMA, that I had checked my bank account the previous nights and that the full payment had been sent about 3 weeks ago. He promised me faithfully that he would check it out and that they would confirm to me the following week, when I was back in the UK, that my payment had either been found or was still missing.

I returned to the UK on Sunday evening. Nobody phoned me on Monday or the rest of the week and, consequently I wrote them a letter repeating all the information and I asked them to confirm that they had found this payment or, alternatively, that the payment was still missing.

The next statement arrived on the 21^st June 2008 and showed that the payment had been credited to my account on the 7^th June 2008, FOUR days before they had phone me in Andorra and that this payment had cleared my account.

On the 25^th June 2008 I paid off the balance of the June 08 statement in full, once again using BACS from my bank account.

On the 3^rd July they finally confirmed to me in writing  that they had located the missing payment and that the missing amount had been credited to my account. ‘Any other charges incurred have been adjusted and will show on the next statement’ so the rather curt letter said..

On the 20^th July 08 I received my next statement which still showed the amount I had paid on the 25^th June 08 as being outstanding and overdue. This statement was followed by a letter dated 23^rd July 208 which said ‘ I am concerned that your account is overdue by £ 44.23. Please send your payment immediately.

It then continued to say ‘ The account, and the use of the card, has been temporarily suspended pending receipt of your payment’

The letter, and the statement,  had arrived whilst I was in Austria on yet another short break. After I got back and checked my phone I noticed a large number of calls, all from the same number which I did not recognize. They looked to me like some of the nuisance call numbers so I did not bother to phone back. Instead they phone me the next day and it turned out to be SYGMA BANK chasing the outstanding payment of £44.23.  This was on the 31^st July 08 and, once again, I explained quite patiently that the full statement amount had been paid on the 26^th June 08 and that I most certainly did not owe them £44.23 or any other amount. The young lady with a rather strong foreign accent took down all the details and promised to investigate.

In the evening I made yet another transfer to SYGMA and I paid off the balance of my account but I deducted the £ 12.00 LATE FEE which they had charged to my account. As far as I was concerned this was my final payment to SYGMA.

In addition to this I also wrote yet another letter to SYGMA, I enclosed a copy of my bank statement which clearly showed the transfer of funds to SYGMA, and I requested their confirmation that my account was now clear. I closed my letter telling them that there was no need to lift the suspension of my card as I had no intention to use my FLYBE card in the future.

The next day, just before lunchtime I received yet another phone call. This time it was another young lady telling me rather rudely that I had not paid the outstanding minimum amount on my credit card.  When I asked her why she had phoned me when I had already spoken to them the previous day she replied ‘ I am phoning you because you have not made your payment and we will keep  phoning you until you pay up.

She did not react to kindly either when I told her that I had no intention of making another payment, in which case, she said, we will take you to court to make you pay.’

I must admit that I did loose my cool but after a short while I controlled myself and, once again, I explained what had happened and gave her all the necessary details. She actually made me smile in the end when she seriously suggested that I should sign a Direct Debit mandate for all future payments and when I took great pleasure in telling her that she clearly must live in cloud cuckoo land if she seriously thinks I would want to continue to be one of their customers. Just imagine trusting them to help themselves to your money. 

Finally, after the phone call, I wrote yet another letter to SYGMA expressing my concern over the way they are running their business and the way they are treating their customers and I requested once again that they get back to me to confirm that my account with SYGMA BANK was now clear.

This was on the 1^st August 2008 and today, the 11^th August 2008, nearly two weeks later I am still waiting for a response.

The moral of the story is quite simple. Unless you are absolutely desperate for a Credit Card do what I did and put it through your shredder. It’s not worth the hassle, aggravation, frustration and irritation. There are plenty of card issuers out there who are only too willing to give you credit, you don’t need SYGMA unless, of course, you like being intimidated and verbally abused by rude and discourteous people who work for a disorganized and incompetent company.