Consumer complaint received 2018-09-05
Company: BANK OF AMERICA, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION
State: TX
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 a dispute with Bank of America ( Claim # XXXX ) over charges made to my credit card by a company called XXXX XXXX XXXX, that the Federal Trade Commission along with the Minnesota Attorney General has shut down as a scam. The merchant charged {$490.00} on XX/XX/2018 for a 3 day workshop I attended on how to sell and make money on XXXX. At that workshop they convinced me of an up-charge offer of an education and assistance program to become a successful XXXXXXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/2018, at this workshop, they charged my Bank of America credit card a {$15000.00} deposit for their program, which costs {$34000.00} total. But on XX/XX/2018, I received a partial refund of {$5000.00} because they needed to lower my debt to credit line ratio so that I could acquire a few more interest-free credit cards to make my full payment to XXXX XXXX and start my XXXX XXXX XXXX. So Seed Capital was utilized for getting me other lines of credit. However, before I could even get all the funding together and start the XXXX training that was offered by XXXX XXXX, the FTC shut them down on XX/XX/2018 as an illegitimate scam operation. I then opened a dispute against the charges to my credit card account with Bank of America. They gave me a deadline of XX/XX/2018 to provide verification. A week before that date, I mailed to the bank a 2-page letter explaining everything, and included all the documentation I could gather, which consisted of the XXXX XXXX contract pages with the services they offered and the length of time for their services, and I sent a copy of the FTC injunction against XXXX XXXX that shut them down. On XX/XX/2018, Bank of America denied my dispute claim for a partial refund of the XXXX XXXX charges. Their reason was that I did not submit a cancellation letter from XXXX XXXX. I am unable to get such a letter from them because they have shut down all operations and are not responding or receiving any phone calls, letters, or emails. In addition, Bank of America rejected my dispute stating that they will not give me credit for services that the merchant has scheduled to provide me at a future date. This is not even possible now that the FTC and Minnesota Attorney General has shut them down completely. Even if the merchant were to somehow beat the injunction against them, the fact that the XXXX gave them an F rating tells me all I need to know that this is a scam operation. I have wasted hours of my time and money to try to get this resolved in my favor. I have asked the FTC to please provide to Bank of America some other proof, like a cancellation document, that XXXX XXXX is closed down by them, but I don't know if they will do that. My FTC Complaint Number is XXXX.

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