Consumer complaint received 2021-03-26
Company: Blackhawk Network Holdings Inc.
State: CA
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/2019 XXXX according to the company ), I purchased a {$500.00} Visa Gift Card from a local grocery store in the XXXX XXXX. I never got around to giving the card to the intended recipient, and I forgot I even had it until I had to move out of my apartment. Seeing the card, I opened it from its packaging and tried to use it on a trip I'm currently on. The card was declined. I called the number on the back of the card, thinking maybe it needed to be activated before I could use it. I was shocked to learn that a purchase had already been made at a XXXX XXXX grocery store in XXXX, CA, in the amount of {$490.00} on XXXX. That's only 4 days after I purchased the card. XXXX is roughly XXXX miles away from where I was that day, and {$490.00} is an unusually large purchase for a neighborhood grocery store -- and it is remarkably close to the {$500.00} limit of the card, which isn't printed anywhere. The company said the card was physically swiped at the location. 

I told the company that I did not make the purchase, and they said that their policies state that I only have 60 days to dispute a transaction. I was not made aware of any such policies, terms or conditions when I purchased the card, and while there is a legal-looking document, it's packaged with the card in its gift package. The only way to know about it is to tear open the gift packaging, which the purchaser ( me ) would never do if they intended to give the card to someone as a gift, which is its intended purpose. Also, the card number is obfuscated by the gift packaging, so even if I did know about the terms and conditions, I'd have to either give the card to someone within 60 days of purchasing it, or I'd again have to remove the card from its packaging so that I could get its number, and then monitor its use until giving it away as a gift. Who would want to receive an opened gift card as a present?? 

I've been emailing back and forth with the company for about a week now, but they keep refusing to do anything. They keep referring me back to their terms and conditions, despite my repeated explanations that I had no way of knowing such terms existed until removing the card from its packaging. They say that because so much time has passed, that they have no way of recovering the fraudulently used funds. I'm a XXXX XXXX, and I know these cards can be cloned if sufficient information about it is made available. Given how quickly it was used after I purchased it, the size of the purchase at a local grocery store ( and in a city that's known for criminal activity ), and the amount being so close to the card 's limit, all being made in a single transaction, I have no doubt that the company that makes these cards had some sort of data breach, and someone had access to the information about this ( and probably many other ) card so that they could not only clone it, but also know to only use it after the original card had been purchased by a legitimate consumer. This sort of data protection is the responsibility of the card issuer, not mine, so their inability to recover the stolen funds should not be my problem. 

As said, I've tried to work with the company, but they keep saying the same thing. I've also threatened to report the incident to consumer protection agencies, but that has not encouraged them to take any further action, and they say they are closing the dispute.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief