Consumer complaint received 2018-12-11
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: WA
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:
Original Dispute : On XX/XX/XXXX, my husband and I booked XXXX vacation property # XXXX from property owner XXXX XXXX, via XXXX for vacation dates XX/XX/XXXX-XX/XX/XXXX. 

On Ms. XXXX property posting and throughout the check-out process, there was a prominent cancellation policy stating, 100 % refund for cancellations requested by XX/XX/XXXX. ( Images of this property listing and check-out process have been included ). 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we realized that we would not be able to take this vacation and submitted a cancellation request to Ms. XXXX via XXXX. The cancellation webpage once again prominently gave us the cancellation policy that the refund would be 100 % if we canceled prior to XX/XX/XXXX. ( A screen shot of this cancellation page as it appeared on the date of cancellation has been included. ) After submitting our cancellation request, the property owner, XXXX XXXX, informed us that she would not give us a 100 % refund, but would instead withhold one day of rent from the booking, {$680.00}. She defended this by stating that a hyperlink to a rental agreement was provided during the rental checkout process on XXXX. Inside that several page long rental agreement was a stricter cancellation policy which conflicted with the 100 % refund policy posted upfront. The cancellation policy in Ms. XXXX hyperlinked rental agreement allows her to withhold one day of rent for any cancellation. 

Subsequently, Ms. XXXX proceeded to change our reservation dates to XX/XX/XXXX via XXXX website. This change gave the appearance that we had cancelled less than 60 days before our reservation date, thereby permitting her to retain part of our deposit through the XXXX website. 

We have only received a partial refund from Ms. XXXX and she still owes us {$680.00} per the advertised cancellation agreement. 

Credit Card Dispute with Bank of America : On XX/XX/XXXX, after Ms. XXXX refused to refund our money, we proceeded to dispute the charge with our credit card bank, Bank of America. We submitted the screen shot of the cancellation confirmation page at this time, showing the 100 % refund policy. 

In response to our chargeback, Ms. XXXX submitted documents to Bank of America purporting to support her case.

Two of the documents were emails from Ms. XXXX to us, both sent after the booking was completed, one sent after the cancellation request had been made. Since both were sent after the original booking was complete, neither provide evidence of the advertised cancellation policy at the time the booking was made. 

Second, she sent generic website screen shots of the booking process on XXXX for one of her rental properties. The website images she submitted however : ( 1 ) Were not from the website we used to book her condo. Ms. XXXX submitted images of one of her property listings on XXXX. We booked her property through XXXX. XXXX is the parent company to XXXX ( and therefore the charge on our credit card appears from XXXX ), however, XXXX and XXXX are two different websites with two different booking processes. 
( 2 ) Were not from or related to our reservation but were simply generic screen shots she took of one of her listings after receiving our dispute. The ONLY screen shot from our actual booking process was submitted by us, and clearly includes the reservation dates, reservation ID specific to our booking ( HA-FQTFCF ), and the 100 % refund cancelation policy. This screen shot has been included with this complaint. 

Ms. XXXX submitted no documents demonstrating or even suggesting that we agreed to or were notified of a stricter cancellation policy at the time we made the booking. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, Bank of America denied our chargeback request stating We can not intervene in situations involving a merchants return, refund, or cancellation policy... Merchants may.. .set return and refund policies that best suit their business needs. Consumers have the opportunity to inquire about the merchants refund policy before making a purchase to ensure that if will offer them the flexibility they need. 

Shortly after receiving this letter we called Bank of America to question the decision, noting that we did inquire about the merchant 's cancellation policy at the time of booking but that the cancellation policy was changed post-booking. The representative reopened the dispute for further evaluation. 

Shortly after this phone call we submitted a letter to Bank of America responding to Ms. XXXX documents, explaining that the website images she submitted were not from the same website we used and that they were not related to our booking. We also submitted additional images showing the check-out process highlighting the displayed 100 % refund cancellation policy on Ms. XXXX listing on XXXX. 

Over two months later, on XX/XX/XXXX, Bank of America sent us an identical letter to the one sent on XX/XX/XXXX, stating that they do not interfere with merchant cancellation policies. This letter was received by us on XX/XX/XXXX. Unlike the XXXX letter, however, this letter concludes by saying The timeframe to dispute the transaction has expired, so were unable to continue pursuing your dispute. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we once again phoned Bank of America regarding the dispute. We were told that Bank of America was relying on Ms. XXXX documents and would not overturn their decision. No appeals process was offered. 

We booked this property on XXXX  relying on the 100 % refund cancellation policy that was guaranteed at the time of the booking. We are asking the CFPB to help us recover these funds that were fraudulently withheld.

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 monetary relief