After having been a customer for over a year and having made several very large purchases and payments on my ongoing card, I have found that you cannot trust the customer service reps to know what they are saying or care that it is accurate.

I recently called in to ask about a purchase of a new machine that I was getting ready to buy while it was $1000 off the regular price. I also had an existing past promotional purchase with a remaining balance due later in the year that I decided to pay off now and then re-use the credit line to purchase the new machine.

When I called in to explain all of this and to ask about applying my full payment of over $1000 only to the past promotional purchase instead of the general balance, I was told to make the payment and then to call back within two days to tell them to apply the funds however I wished. I did this and they did apply the funds to the past promotional balance. They also reflected the new total balance as that much lower.

However, they did NOT make the funds available for use. I called again a few days later and asked about the funds since I already had a machine on hold at a store that was ready to ship. I was told the funds would be available two days later. So, I called again two days later and was told the funds would be available as of that night and to call again the next day.

I called again the next day but was then told that the funds would not be available for TEN more days. Of course, this was not acceptable as I had made that payment in good faith that they would follow through, and at no point down the line had anyone told me that the funds would be held (obviously so they can skim some interest) for ten full days.

I then asked for a supervisor and told them that either I need that credit opened right away or that they can refund my payment and I'll just put the purchase on another card. She put me on hold and then came back to say that there was nothing they could do. So, in spite of the fact that THEY gave me false information and mislead me into believing that they would apply my funds immediately for me to be able to utilize them, they instead kept my funds and refused to release them until they have earned enough interest off my money.

I am scheduled to leave in five days for at least ten weeks of travel and need to take this machine with me. It has to be shipped from Los Angeles to Chicago for me to take it. So, obviously, none of this is now going to happen. The only options I have are to purchase it on another card that WILL charge me interest, or to wait until they finally get around to crediting my funds so that I may make the purchase interest-free for the promotional period and then try to have it shipped to wherever I will be and hope it arrives in a timely manner there.

What I have learned from this experience is never to trust anything they say. Their customer service staff either is terribly under-trained and unfamiliar with their own policies and procedures, or they simply don't care. Either way, that is the last time I will ever depend on them. From now on, I will always assume that they will hold my larger payments for at least two weeks and will plan accordingly. I won't use them to make purchases that I will need right away.

They have failed in customer service.