TD Financial Services Premier Designs Credit Card Fraudulent Fees + Rude Representatives = Bad Business, Internet

Last May, I became a Premier Designs jeweler and opened up an account with TD Financial Services (the Premier Designs Credit Card). They market themselves as a company that is proud of their 24-Hour customer service, easy online bill pay options and incentives for jewelers. They are anything but.

In the interest of doing my part to make less of an impact on the environment, I opted out of paper bills and decided to take part in online bill pay. Since this is how I pay my other bills, adding this one into the mix was no big deal. TD Financial Services sends out email statements and reminders about your billing due date and your payment information. 

Additionally, they offer the billing due date and payment information online when you log into your account. Both the electronic correspondence they sent to my email and my account online reflect that my account billing date is on the 20th of each month yet I was charged an erroneous late fee on the 15th of January. I paid my bill on the 19th, before the due date that was indicated to me by TD Financial Services. 

When I called into their "24 Hour Service", they were closed for the weekend. It clearly states on the back of the credit card that the customer service line is open 24 hours. It is not. My husband called in and spoke to a man who was unhelpful and rude. The customer service representative hung up on my husband (I need to note that my husband was professional and was not angry with the representative).

I called in immediately after and spoke with a woman who was extremely unprofessional and rude to me. She questioned my choices in having online bill pay in leu of a paper statement (not that my choices are any of her business) and said she would not credit our account for the late fee because they deemed it as a "valid" charge. It isn't valid.

I asked that my call be escalated to a manager, who was also rude and unhelpful. The manager "informed" me that, regardless of the information that TD Financial Services sends to their consumers, the bill is due on the 15th. I was somehow supposed to have this insight despite the fact that both the electronic statement they sent to my email and the information on my account indicated that the bill wasn't due until the 20th. She sited the "terms and conditions".

Legally speaking, when a company sends correspondence that conflicts with the original terms set forth by them, they new information is a change in terms and conditions. Not that it matters because the bill being due on the 15th isn't even in their terms and conditions. I explained this and they still would not credit the late fee. 

I would never, not under any circumstances, suggest someone opening up a line of credit with TD Financial Services.