Consumer complaint received 2022-12-15
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: FL
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:
I have been trying to resolve a problem with the merchant and Discover credit card company for the past XXXX months. I made a purchase of XXXX drones from XXXX XXXX XXXX, a XXXX company, from an ad on XXXX on XX/XX/2020. 

The initial purchase for XXXX drones appeared not to go through, as there was no acknowledgement or email, so I ordered, again. I also sent an email to the merchant telling him to please cancel XXXX of my XXXX purchases. 

The merchant replied with an email, directing me to call a telephone number, which I did, but it appeared out of order. I sent another email telling them it is out of order, and they sent me an identical email telling me to call that same number. I called the number several times over the next several days. I googled the merchant and found horribly negative reviews, making it sound like a scam. 

I became suspicious, and notified Discover card of the problem I had reaching the merchant. I requested that they not pay the charges. They told me to wait until the charges came through, and then they could deal with it. They did gave me another number to call for the merchant, and it, too, did not answer. 

I filed a complaint and later received a notice from Discover that they would not credit my card because the charges were valid based on information provided by the merchant. I took a deep breath and sent them the attached letter and emails. After they reviewed the letter and emails, Discover sent me another denial. 

I couldn't believe it and called to speak with the Dispute department, today, and was told that the only way they could get my money back was to have something showing that the merchant had authorized the return, which wasnt possible since I could not reach the merchant. I had to ask her to repeat herself several times that she said she could not help me further until she receives something from me that shows that the merchant agreed to refund my money. I tried to explain that it was impossible since I couldn't reach the merchant. 

As a side note, at XXXX point, late in the conversation ( argument ), she told me that the merchant give XXXX days to return the product for a refund. I had notified the merchant the day after the purchase. 

At another point, Im sure she said that the merchant had agreed to a refund if I returned the product. Once again, I was flabbergasted. I have been arguing for half an hour, and that was all that I really wanted. I told her that was acceptable, but when I tried to address it later in the conversation, she ignored me. 

Lastly, during my previous conversation with Discover, I told them that the drones were not Blackbirds, as was identified on the advertisement. I told her this was fraud. But when I brought up the issue of fraud, she told me I was not allowed to file a dispute of any kind on the same claim, even for fraud. So we are also dealing with deceptive marketing practices, I would think. 

Thank you for your time and consideration. I hope to hear from you soon. 

XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation