Sears Gold MasterCard

We have had a Sears card since 1966 and have never had a problem until Citi Cards took over the Sears credit card. In May of 2006, we found that someone had stolen the number of our Sears Gold MasterCard and we immediately informed Sears of this fact and told them we had not used the card and had not authorized any of the $8000.00 worth of charges.

We received a non-descript letter from Sears saying they had closed the account and report the claim to their Fraud Department. At the same time, we received a statement from the credit card company stating that we were over our limit and owed a payment of $1500.00. We called the credit card number and told them we closed that account because of fraudulent charges and were not going to make that payment. The nasty customer service person told us that they had no record of the account having been closed and that we should call the Fraud Department and file a complaint. Again we told this person that had been done and we even received a letter on June 10th that a Specialist would be calling us shortly.

Late August and we were still receiving collection notices from Citi Cards and no Specialist ever called. We called the credit card company and again some very nasty person told us there had been no action on our account and that we should call the Fraud Department and ask for a Fraud Affidavit. After waiting on hold for 30 minutes, we finally got in touch with a representative that said they had no record of any complaint on this account but that they would send us an affidavit within 30 days. We are still waiting for that affidavit to arrive as of September 11th.

Every other company that was affected by our identity theft cooperated fully except the Sears people. After 40 years of being a card holder this is the kind of treatment they give loyal customers!