Consumer complaint received 2022-03-13
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: VA
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:
To Whom It May Concern/Consumer Finance Protection Bureau : I am writing to file a formal complaint against Discover Card and their credit card dispute process. As a consumer and Discover credit cardholder of more than 25 years, I do not believe that Discover Card has represented my best interests fairly or transparently in the dispute process and, their actions and inactions in this case amount to gross negligence in addressing my concerns. I am asserting that Discover Card has failed to uphold their cardholder agreement for protection against fraud and receipt of fraudulent goods from a merchant and, therefore, I have not been protected under existing federal consumer financial laws. As you know, the Fair Credit Billing Act of XXXX  entitles me to dispute charges for failure to receive the goods that I purchased. In this case, I failed to receive the goods that I purchased, and I have supplied the Discover Card dispute team with necessary documents to substantiate and solidify the facts of my dispute case while the merchant failed to supply documentation to support the authenticity of the goods provided, and the merchant, in fact, has never denied my claim that the product is not authentic. 

In summary, my dispute to Discover Card was made on XX/XX/XXXX after my return from a vacation in XXXX, XXXX where I made a purchase on XX/XX/XXXX using my Discover Card. My dispute was in reference to receiving fraudulent merchandise and the goods received were not what I purchased. I purchased several jewelry items from a merchant, XXXX XXXX, who identified the items as precious stone jewelry to include a pendant and earrings with genuine sapphires and a jewelry set including a pendant, earrings, ring, and bracelet with natural Paraiba tourmaline  stones. I asked for documentation from the salesman of the authenticity of the stones purchased for which he provided a handwritten documentation of the stones and approximate carat weight on a merchant receipt. For these stones set in sterling silver, I was charged a total of {$4900.00} USD. Upon my return home, I paid for a XXXX-certified gemologist at a local jeweler to evaluate and identify the jewelry and stones. I was informed by the gemologist that the stones were cubic zirconia ( colored and colorless ) set in sterling silver and was provided with documentation of the XXXX-certified gemologist assessment of the jewelry. This supports my claim of fraud and gross misrepresentation of the product by the merchant and that I did not receive the goods that I purchased as I did not receive sapphire or Paraiba tourmaline stones as represented by the merchant at the time of purchase. I received fraudulent and unsatisfactory goods at a price commensurate with the price of genuine, authentic goods. 

Additional facts in the case presented to Discover Card during the dispute process included the fact that I discovered that the merchant was not XXXX XXXX, as listed on the jewelry item tags which is the name that we saw during evaluation and purchase of the jewelry. For reference, XXXX XXXX was identified as a store supported and recommended by XXXX XXXX  XXXX  in their shopping guide. I learned that the merchants name was XXXX XXXX which was not included in the XXXX shopping guide as a reputable dealer. This represented another deliberate attempt by this merchant to fraudulently represent their store as supported by XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX and amounts to an act of deception by the merchant. In fact, the salesman in the store informed us that XXXX had purchased many of the stores at port including the one where we made the purchase which we now know is not true. 

During the dispute process, the only response from the merchant has been that no returns were allowed for buyers remorse or size change and that I made the purchase with the card. The merchant has provided no evidence that the goods are authentic and has not denied my claim that the products are fraudulent. I notified Discover Card that this is not a case of buyers remorse or a size issue. This is a case of receiving fraudulent goods that were grossly misrepresented at the time of purchase, thus I did not receive the goods purchased and therefore, I have asked for Discover Card to fulfill their obligation to provide protection under my cardholder agreement against such occurrences. Despite being reassured by Discover Card agents along the process that I had provided all that was needed to support this with the official jewelers assessment and that the merchant would be required to prove that the items were authentic and as represented at purchase, the only response provided by the merchant through the entire dispute process was that no returns were allowed for buyers remorse or size change. After receiving this response for the second time, I contacted Discover Card again and this time I asked to speak with a supervisor. When the supervisor returned my call, she informed me that Discover card had initially submitted my dispute incorrectly, so she corrected it as a fraud claim but there was no additional internal review by Discover Card. She stated that the process would go to arbitration and that the documents provided would be all that was allowed as the merchant would not be allowed to submit anything additional to the case. This process started around midXXXX XXXX ( my call with the supervisor was on XX/XX/XXXX ). I was just informed on XX/XX/XXXX that Discover Card closed the dispute case and found the charges to be valid. I called Discover card to file an appeal on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX. I asked to speak to a supervisor who called me around XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX. I spoke with XXXX in the Ohio office of Discover Card and filed a formal verbal appeal to the dispute decision. She informed me that she had no other avenues other than filing a formal complaint to the Discover Card corporate office regarding my concerns. She searched for a means for me to file a consumer complaint as a cardholder, but was unable to locate any avenue for me to file a formal complaint with Discover Card. She also informed me that she was not allowed to tell me if or when I would hear back about the complaint from someone at their corporate office. I have also uploaded a formal appeal letter to my Discover Card dispute referencing my concerns. In addition, the charge has been reapplied to my account and will be due in the next billing cycle. She was unable to reverse the charge to my account during my appeal, therefore, I would appreciate an expedited review of my case. 

I am reaching out to you for assistance in this matter as, in my opinion, Discover Card has failed to uphold their cardholder agreement for protection against fraud as I have not received the goods that I purchased due to gross misrepresentation and merchandise fraud by the merchant. In addition, the Discover Card dispute process is inherently flawed and ineffective. I have provided necessary documentation, including a paid XXXX-certified gemologist assessment of the product, to support my claims. The merchant has provided no documentation that supports the authenticity of the product and they have also not denied my claim that the product is fake. The dispute process also lacks transparency and as a consumer, it appears that Discover Card team members lacked due diligence in investigating and resolving my concerns. Each stage of the dispute process returned the same response as if the dispute investigators were simply checking off boxes to move the process along to the next stage without any real investigation into the dispute and any attention to addressing my concerns. 
Based on Discover Cards response to my concerns, it appears that they will accept any response from a merchant in order to avoid a chargeback to the merchant. In this case, they have blindly accepted the merchants statement regardless of the fact that the merchants response failed to address the dispute claim in any manner. In this dispute case, my claim was for fraudulent merchandise received which has nothing to do with buyers remorse or issues with size. As I have noted, at each stage, I spoke to an agent to address my concerns regarding the dispute process and each time was reassured that I had provided all necessary documentation. If the initial dispute was filed incorrectly, as stated by the supervisor, there should have been additional internal review by the Discover dispute team prior to pushing this to arbitration given their own internal error. 
It is also my understanding that as a creditor, Discover Card, is obligated to resolve disputes within two billing cycles ( but not more than 90 days ) after getting the official dispute notification. I filed this dispute with Discover Card on XX/XX/XXXX and did not receive notification of their decision until XX/XX/XXXX which was a total of 187 days. I should have had resolution to my dispute no later than XX/XX/XXXX per these guidelines/standards. 

I am frankly very disappointed in Discover Card as this has been my primary credit card for more than 25 years and I have simply requested the buyer protection support that they claim they provide. I hope you will be able to help direct me to the next steps in proceeding with this complaint against Discover Card as expeditiously as possible given their failure to place the charge on hold pending further review. In addition, I hope you will be able to recommend any avenues to help me as the consumer to obtain a refund for receiving fraudulent merchandise from this merchant. 

Thank you for your attention to this matter. 

Best regards, Uploaded Attachments include : Receipt of purchase Written documentation from the merchant on the merchants receipt paper of the merchandise purchased detailing a description of the jewelry and precious stones as represented at the time of purchase Jewelry assessment documentation from XXXX-certified jeweler Jewelry tags removed from the items listing the store as XXXX XXXX instead of XXXX XXXX XXXXXXXX XXXX shoppers guide of approved/reputable merchants XXXX XXXX response letter to Discover Card

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation