Consumer complaint received 2019-09-06
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: NY
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/XXXX I purchased cell phone service with XXXX by XXXX from XXXX XXXX, for my brother, at a cost of {$190.00}. At the time of purchase I was sold one phone with the second phone free and I requested a {$30.00} plan, which is what I had on my own phone. I was told the second phone could be used to replace the phone I was using but I had to wait three days to transfer my data to the new phone. I returned to the store after the three days had elapsed, on XX/XX/XXXX, to transfer my data to the free phone. That is when I found out we had been duped. When I related the reason for my visit to the store, the rep brought up the account and disclosed to us that the account had two lines with a {$50.00} plan, she also showed us on the screen all the other charges, like insurance, that the rep who open the account had charged us, unwittingly. ( I remember asking her, when the account was opened, why it was so much if one of the phones was free and she provided a plausible explanation. ) At that point, I asked the rep to reverse the transaction. She indicated that she could fix it and claimed she did so. By the time she was done removing all the charges that I did not authorize, putting the {$30.00} plan on the account, and removing the second line, which we knew nothing about, a {$70.00} refund was due ( which I later found out should have been {$86.00} from the calculations the rep made on the back of my receipt ). She indicated that she would apply it to the bill so for two months and a partial month no payment would be due. The rep had to call the owner/boss to have the changes authorized and he asked to speak to me. He apologized and told me to keep the free phone for the inconvenience and assured me that everything was in order. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, my brother informed me that he received a text message that a payment of {$100.00} was due by the XXXX. I instructed him to return to the store and inquire about it. He did so and the rep he encountered was outright hostile so he called me before the situation escalated. I asked to speak with the rep and reminded him of the situation, since he was present in the store and we initially dealt with him before he turned us over to the rep who claimed to have resolved the issue, on XX/XX/XXXX. He remembered the situation and promised me to resolve it. My brother relayed that he called the rep, who had resolved the situation for us previously, and she told him to call the owner/boss since the issue should have been resolved. The rep then told my brother to go home and he would call the boss and have him resolve the issue. 
On XX/XX/XXXX, I tried calling my brother and discovered that the phone had no service. I had him pack up the phones ( we had never used the free phone ) and we returned to the store to return them and have the transaction reversed. We encountered both reps who we had dealt with on XX/XX/XXXX. I told them the phone had no service and I was tired of dealing with this issue and would like to return the phones and reverse the transaction. The female rep who had supposedly resolved the issue for us looked up the account and pointed out to the male rep that service was suspended and that shouldnt be. She told him he needed to call the owner/boss to have him resolve the issue. The male rep stated that he called him yesterday and was not calling him again. This gave me the distinct impression that after my brother left the store, the day before, he never called the owner as he was instructed to do by the female rep and he did not want to call in my presence to reveal that he never made the call. At this point, I insisted that the transaction be reversed and the male rep indicated that since we had used the phone for more than one hour of talk time we could not return it. I asked if he knew that I had other means of recourse and he said I should do it through my credit card company. 

I then initiated a dispute with Discover Card. The credit card company initially reversed the charges then re-instated them claiming that the merchant provided sufficient evidence to show that the charges were valid. This evidence included a return policy that stated that the phone could not be returned after seven day and documents that had my signature, that I did not sign. I pointed this out to Discover Card and nothing was done about it. I contacted Discover and was told I provided no evidence to show that I have no phone service. The rep advised me to contact XXXX by XXXX via email to get them to confirm I did not have service. I did this and submitted the evidence and requested that the charges be reversed since I did not have any service and the merchant refused to work with me to resolve the matter. I contacted Discover Card several times and the charges still have not been reversed. Now when I try to contact them about this dispute the system does not allow me to send them messages. I typed a message requesting a copy of the call recording when I spoke to the rep. Upon sending it I discovered the contents of the message had been deleted and was blank. 

I am submitting this complaint because Discover Card has not addressed my concerns and has considered the evidence provided by the merchant valid and has not considered the evidence I provided to show that I do not have the service I paid for. I have been a customer with Discover Card since XXXX and I expected better service than what I received for this issue. I am hereby requesting that Discover Card reverse the charges. I have the phone ready to return to the merchant.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation