Consumer complaint received 2023-10-05
Company: BARCLAYS BANK DELAWARE
State: CA
Product: Credit 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:
This is now my 3rd attempt to try to resolve a dispute submitted on XX/XX/XXXX on my Barclays Business MasterCard. From the very beginning, Barclays has clearly demonstrated an unwillingness to fairly adjudicate this matter. Despite touting their liability protection on purchases for business customers, Barclays continues to manufacture a variety of excuses to avoid dealing with this dispute claim. From account representatives in the dispute department, to agents assigned to investigate, to supervisors who can not be reached directly, to the Office of The President, there is no accountability at any level of the company. 

For some context, I am a long-time Barclays JetBlue cardholder . I have both business and personal cards. My entire family has Barclays credit cards. I am what is considered a " high value client. '' Nonetheless, my dispute rights are being violated. 

In brief, the dispute is over a {$50000.00} deck that was supposed to built by a subcontractor I hired in XXXX of XXXX. I paid this subcontractor through XXXX, his preferred method of payment. I have used XXXX for over 5 years. Hundreds of transactions paid for goods and services, mostly done on a XXXX XXXX credit card. I have never had any problems. That includes several individual disputes also initiated on XX/XX/XXXX for the same subcontractor for the same job. All investigated and adjudicated by XXXX. ( attached ) No issues whatsoever. I used my Barclays business credit card for ONLY {$3000.00} of the $ XXXX in payments for this job. I paid the 3 % XXXX credit card fees to have the protection of my credit card company, in the event goods or services are not produced. 

As it were, the dispute centered around work that was paid for and never performed. I have ample documentation, which I have provided to investigators working on the XXXX disputes. However, just a few days after filing the dispute with Barclays, I received a denial letter dated XX/XX/XXXX ( attached ). An investigation was never opened. The verdict read : " services were rendered... the merchant is due payment. '' Not exactly a thorough investigation. As this case was escalated, Barclays kept switching the excuse. The second reason, now presented to me as official letters from the Office of the President, ( attached ) asserts XXXX does not offer dispute rights on these transactions. That would mean XXXX has a different standard for Visa and MasterCard when it comes to disputing charges. XXXX categorically denies this. Given my experience with Visa disputes for the exact same merchant, exact same payment method for the exact same job, I also know this is completely false. The third excuse claims the method in which the XXXX payment was made violated XXXX terms and conditions and therefore is not disputable. I have spoken to XXXX at length. They deny each and every excuse presented by Barclays. The fourth excuse, and easily the most galling, is that the time to file a dispute has passed and now there is nothing they can do. 

What Barclays has effectively done here over the last 2+ months, is run legal interference for a subcontractor who willingly defrauded a " valued cardholder. '' This case has been escalated as high as the Office of the President. It has not moved the needle at all. Only a frustrating barrage of false, insufficient responses, sparse communication and endless excuses. XXXX has sent several emails ( attached ) stating that this case must be decided by my credit card company. XXXX as a payment processor, or the method in which XXXX payments are processed holds no barring on this dispute, according to XXXX. If Barclays Business MasterCard would like to restrict all purchases made on XXXX, they should do so. Immediately. Or, at the point of purchase, it should explicitly state that by paying for services on XXXX, the cardholder waives all liability protection. It should also explicitly state that XXXX transactions are treated as ATM cash withdrawals built with astronomical recurring hidden fees. None of this was disclosed. It has been over 2 months. A dispute was never opened, investigated or fairly adjudicated. I will keep trying.

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 explanation