Consumer complaint received 2023-10-07
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: MA
Product: Credit 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:
XX/XX/2023 My spouse used my credit card from Bank of America to purchase clothes for {$440.00} on XXXX. The return policy is " We offer returns on all merchandise orders within 7 days of delivery. To be eligible a return, your item must be unused and in the same condition that you received it. '' XX/XX/2023 We received the package. 

XX/XX/2023 We contacted the merchant ( XXXX ) through email for the return request. 

XX/XX/2023 The merchant asked for which items to return, and then never replied to us, even though we sent multiple follow-up emails in the following days. 

XX/XX/2023 Due to our awareness of the return policy ( within 7 days since delivery ), but we still couldn't get a response from the merchant, I filed a dispute claim with the email conversation between us and the merchant. However, when we filed the dispute on Bank of America 's website, there was no category specifically for the case where the merchant does not respond. Therefore, I chose the closest dispute reason related to purchase return to the best of my knowledge. 
We still keep the package in its original condition to be prepared once we hear back from the merchant regarding the proper return address and method. 

XX/XX/2023 Bank of America issued temporary credit and indicated the research started. The merchant still hasn't got back to us. 

XX/XX/2023 Bank of America completed the research and denied the claim, due to the lack of a return receipt, but the bank totally ignored the fact that we do not have a return address and method from the merchant, and the merchant never replied to us. Therefore, I requested to reopen the case with a more detailed letter describing the situation. 
Also, we found that the merchant updated its website with this added to its return policy " There is no quality problem with the product, Returns and exchanges are not accepted ''. The policy change was made after our purchase. 

XX/XX/2023 Bank of America completed another round of research and denied the claim again, still based on the same reason, and still ignored the fact that we couldn't return since the merchant never replied. The decision letter took a few days to reach my mailbox. 

XX/XX/2023 I called Bank of America to request reinvestigating the case. The representative from the bank conjectured that the reason why the merchant did not respond might be our items were ineligible for a return since the merchant 's current return policy does not accept items without quality problems, therefore did not agree to reopen the case. 

XX/XX/2023 We have found more evidence supporting our claim, including a screenshot of the merchant 's return policy that my spouse took after purchasing the items, and also a public web archive of the merchant 's website in XXXX, indicating the website change and the return policy was not tied to quality issues. 

Current Status : We still keep the package in its original condition and are prepared to return it once we receive the return instructions from the merchant. However, the merchant ( XXXX ) is still unwilling to respond to us and even changed the return policy after our purchase. The bank ( Bank of America ) is unwilling to reopen the investigation and issue the money back to us.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation