Consumer complaint received 2018-10-31
Company: FIFTH THIRD FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: OH
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:
In XX/XX/XXXX we bought into what was believed to be an online marketing business called XXXX. XXXX educators presented very convincible scenarios where one could make money on-line simply by marketing XXXX products. The largest and most beneficial of those training sessions was called XXXX Masterminds, in most cases, this was a series of four ( 4 ) four ( 4 ) day  training sessions in XXXX XXXX, at another XXXX facility. 

From XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX, we consumed as much knowledge of online marketing as we could through XXXX online training webinars and our coaches. Our first XXXX  Mastermind was scheduled for XX/XX/XXXX through XX/XX/XXXX. XXXX was served a civil lawsuit by the Federal Trade Commission ( FTC ) on XX/XX/XXXX. Consequently, our Mastermind event was cancelled and products/services that were paid for were not received. On XX/XX/XXXX, a Preliminary Injunction was instituted by Judge XXXX in XXXX, FL which is the same as a Temporary Restraining Order ( TRO ), except that it continues indefinitely. 

All FTC filings and updates can be found here ; http : XXXX  To buy into the business of XXXX at a {$60000.00} level, XXXX  provided a process for credit card financing this cost. The process had you charge {$60000.00} on your personal cards and then open new cards to transfer the balances. 

The personal cards we used for this charge were XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX XXXX and Fifth Third Bank. Upon the news of XXXX shortly after XX/XX/XXXX, we filed disputes with all of these cards. Each credit card company reimbursed our full amount except Fifth Third Bank. 

Fifth Third denied our dispute ( Case # XXXX ) for {$18000.00} after their investigation. This investigation began XX/XX/XXXX with a dispute case number and was closed XX/XX/XXXX. When I called to get status updates, Fifth Third kept referring to a term I was unfamiliar with called charge back. It wasnt until my XX/XX/XXXX phone that this term, charge back was explained to me. I have come to find out that charge back was their term for charging back this amount to XXXX. This was not possible since the civil lawsuit, TRO, and Preliminary Injunction prevented XXXX from conducting any business or communicating with anyone. I feel that Fifth Third Investigator ( s ) did not do their jobs adequately because if they had looked at the web site ( http : XXXX  ), they would have realized or understood that a charge back was not possible. 

In my last conversation with the Dispute Department Supervisor at Fifth Third while I was asking many questions to better understand, she said the case was closed and hung up on me. 

We were awarded all other disputes with each of these credit cards, XXXX, XXXX XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXXXXXX XXXX, except Fifth Third Bank. 

Fifth Third practices and processes are not up to par with their competitors and they do not protect their consumers against fraudulent charges or scams. It is for the above reasons I am filing this complaint.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation