Consumer complaint received 2021-05-10
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: UT
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Confusing or misleading advertising about the credit card

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX Discover XXXX XXXX sent out a promotion that if we were to buy a new XXXX 'XXXX XXXX Membership that the {$45.00} cost would be reimbursed on our account, so we would essentially be getting the first year free with a XXXX XXXX XXXX Membership. My spouse and I discussed the promotion and decided we would do it for the year to see if the membership is worth it for us because it would essentially be free. On the email it said something about activating the Promotion. That same month XXXX XX/XX/XXXX XXXX, we sent a request to Discover through their app. Here is the conversation word for word : Us : " Hello, I got an email about a promotion for XXXX XXXX  membership and I don't know how yo ( sic ) activate it. It said it was valid until the end of the year. '' Discover : Hi, this is NAME in XXXX. I am so sorry for the delay in responding to your message. Congratulations on receiving teh email promotion for XXXX XXXX XXXX All you need to do is purchase the XXXX XXXX XXXX  membership using the Discover card and the {$45.00} statement credit will be added onto the account within 1-2 billing cycles after XX/XX/XXXX. '' We proceeded to purchase the membership on XXXX XXXX, XXXX ( still within the promotional period ) and waited for the statement credit 1-2 months later. It's now been over 4 months and we still received no promotional credit. We contacted Discover this morning, here is the conversation : Us : " I never got a promotional credit after a purchase. '' XXXX Responding to their Virtual Assistant ) Discover : " Hey NAME! This is NAME in Delaware Thanks for messaging with me today! I understand your concern on the {$45.00} statement credit. I just checked the offer it says 3 billing cycles after the promotion ends. One moment I will review your account. '' Us : " Thanks for checking '' Discover : " Thanks for you ( sic ) hold. What date did you make the purchase? '' Us : " XX/XX/XXXX '' Discover : " Great give me a few minutes I am reaching out to another department. Be with you shortly. '' Us : " Thanks '' Discover : " Thanks for your wait! I'm sorry. The ( sic ) did say it did not post due to it did not qualify & you can review the terms and conditions in the promotion email. Any other questions? '' XXXX : " No, I never saw that. Also, I verified with NAME before I purchased it that I was qualified? You can see that in the above messages Also, I don't have the promotional email because it was 5 months ago? '' Discover : " Thank you for your patience, and I do show the messages above, however I do apologize, as we are unable to adjust the missing statement credit, and I would like to issue this complaint to my headquarters, advising that you did not receive your statement credit for the promotional offer you had received. I do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you. Was there anything I may further assist you with? '' Us : " So does that mean I don't get the credit ever? Or will it be issued in the future? '' Discover : " As of this moment, we will not be receiving the Statement Credit for the promotional XXXX 's XXXX offer that was taken advantage of back before XX/XX/XXXX. Again, I do apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you, and will be issuing a complaint to my headquarters. Did you have any questions or concerns I may further assist you with? '' Us : " Yeah you haven't resolved the issue. I have it in writing that I would be receiving this credit and you didn't grant it. Submitting this to headquarters doesn't resolve this. Who do I need to talk to get this taken care of? '' The conversation continued on stating that they " aren't able to see which ones XXXX terms XXXX weren't followed. '' Ultimately, we called and spoke with Discover over the phone and asked for a resolution. They stated that on the email there was supposed to be an " Activate '' button that would apply the promotion to our card. However, we didn't see that button in the email, which is why we reached out to Discover in the first place. When we reached out, we were told that the only thing we needed to do was to purchase the XXXX 's XXXX membership with our Discover card and the statement credit would be applied. Now, Discover refuses to give us the credit because we followed the advice of one of THEIR employees.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief