Consumer complaint received 2023-02-22
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: UT
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:
On XX/XX/2023 I made a purchase on XXXX. I purchased this reservation on the understanding of the rate for a 3-night stay as {$320.00}. The reservation was for XXXX XXXX. There was a banner above the purchase stating the reservation had a free cancellation until XX/XX/2023. This website is deceptively named to suggest a relationship with whatever hotel the purchaser believes the reservation is made under. In this case, it came up as a sponsored website after a XXXX search for XXXX XXXX, and the link showed it as XXXX. After I made the purchase, I got an email for a total amount of {$1300.00} and the summary that the purchase was prepaid and nonrefundable. 

I called my CHASE card that I made the purchase with, and they have not helped me to resolve my dispute. On XX/XX/XXXX, within 10 minutes of making the purchase, I called CHASE and the representative said they could not do anything until the charge posted to my account ( XXXX XXXX is my husband and the primary cardholder ). They recommended I reach out to the merchant. I called the phone number listed on the reservation confirmation, XXXX, and the message was that this reservation is non-refundable but to say I had the option to cancel, change, or keep the reservation. I hung up at this point because CHASE appeared to have a dispute process that I could follow to get my money back. 

Yesterday, XX/XX/XXXX, I called CHASE and verified that the charge of {$1300.00} had posted to my account. The dispute department representative stated that CHASE couldn't proceed with the dispute process until the reservation was cancelled. I shared my concerns that the website was operating fraudulently and that my communication from them was that the reservation was non-refundable. The CHASE representative stated that in order to proceed with the dispute process I would have to cancel the reservation. I did call guestreservations and cancel the reservation, and shortly after got a cancellation confirmation email. I called CHASE back and was then informed that since the company had a policy of that reservation being nonrefundable, they could not proceed with any type of dispute process. I talked to the fraud department but they said they could not count it as fraud since I had provided my card info and authorized the charges. I explained that I had not agreed to the total at time of purchase, but the fraud department said that the most they could do was to lodge a comment about the company. 

I called guestreservations back to try to " un-cancel '' my reservation since I could not now dispute it, but the representative I spoke with stated it was not able to be reinstated and that, again, my money was nonrefundable. 

I called the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX and they said that the hotel did show a record of a reservation for XXXX XXXX in my name, but that it showed as being cancelled yesterday morning. 

I am now out {$1300.00}, in part because the CHASE representative counselled me to cancel the reservation as part of the dispute process that they will not now honor. 

If I had not called guestreservations to cancel, I would at least have had a legitimate reservation to use for my money.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief