Consumer complaint received 2023-03-04
Company: Upgrade, Inc.
State: NJ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
My name is XXXX XXXX, my wife is XXXX XXXX. We requested the card company, Upgrade Visa, to dispute a charge of $ XXXX placed on our account on XX/XX/XXXX. We had been corresponding with the home improvement company that issued the charge from XXXX. The $ XXXX charge was a deposit on the cost to replace 10 windows within our home. The deposit was paid contingent on approval for financing for the remainder of the cost. We made it clear to the representative of the company that if the financing was not approved, we would cancel the request and expect a refund of the deposit. The representative of the home improvement company, XXXX XXXX XXXX, indicated that would not be a problem. He reached out to us XX/XX/XXXX and advised the financing was not approved. We asked for a refund. He then sent several, texts, emails, and called several times trying to make other offers, and we continuously requested a refund. On XX/XX/XXXX we requested it again and we were denied by that companys representative. On XX/XX/XXXX we issued a dispute with the card company Upgrade. On XX/XX/XXXX we received a email request for documentation of the dispute, texts or emails. That email was sent to my personal email XXXX, with a deadline of XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I forwarded that email to my wife, and she returned the documents on her personal email to the email address the original request had come from on XX/XX/XXXX. She did not receive an undeliverable response. We then received a notification that the dispute was closed for no documentation. We called in XX/XX/XXXX and spoke with a representative at Upgrade who instructed us to send the information again to XXXX XXXX XXXX, which we did the next day. He indicated he would try to have the dispute reopened and call us back. No call was received. We called today XX/XX/XXXX, and were advised that the dispute would not be reopened despite not receiving any goods for thr $ XXXX charge, and that they didnt receive the documents because they had to be returned from the email they were sent to. Nowhere on the email that was sent to me does it indicate it can not be forwarded or that any correspondence has to be returned back from the email it was sent to, lest the dispute will be nullified. We were told we were now outside of the dispute window, again despite not knowing we had to return docs back from the email they sent to, and despite not receiving any goods for the $ XXXX charge. We were told to contact that XXXX XXXX XXXX  and that the ball was in our court now because they only have 60 days to receive the funds back from XXXX. Theyre internal practices and processes were never communicated to us. Additionally, they are enforcing their internal practice to deny us as the consumers our right to receive a refund for services and goods we never received. This seems illegal since they do not disclose that a customer is required to return emails back only from the email the correspondence was sent to. They were able to respond when I sent the email to XXXX XXXX XXXX to tell me they could not discuss my dispute unless i called in, but they did not do this when I sent the requested documents to the support email they had been requested from.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation