Consumer complaint received 2015-09-09
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: NY
Product: Credit card
Issue: Billing disputes

Complaint:
Dear Sir or Madam : I am writing to file a complaint against USAA following their handling of a dispute of a billing error in the amount of {$1300.00} XXXX on my USAA XXXX XXXX account. The amount is inaccurate because, while I have never disputed purchasing the items from merchant XXXX XXXX XXXX, I do dispute the amount the merchant charged for the items. 

My wife and I purchased XXXX gold-plated pendants approximately the size of a dime. The total amount for XXXX pendants was supposed to be approximately {$130.00} XXXX. When we checked our bank statement a few days following the purchase, we noticed that the merchant charged {$1300.00} XXXX for the purchase. USAA emailed us after freezing our account because they noticed suspicious activity that did n't fit our purchasing history. After our account was frozen I immediately reached out to USAA for assistance and asked if we should return the items to avoid any issues. While we were promised a response within 24 hours, we did n't hear back from them. 

As a result, I looked into the matter on our own and, after further review, I think the salesperson at the checkout counter did n't type in the exchange rate correctly ( I believe she left out a zero ). I think this happened because the woman at the counter was using a calculator to do the math. On XXXX/XXXX/15 XXXX exchange rate was XXXX. I believe the approximate amount of our purchase was supposed to be {$130.00} XXXX. If you do the conversion correctly for {$130.00} XXXX it is : XXXX XXXX x XXXX = {$130.00} XXXX. However, it looks like they left out a zero - XXXX XXXX XXXX x XXXX = {$1300.00} XXXX XXXX. Accordingly, I believe the {$1300.00} XXXX charge is due to this miscalculation ( $ XXXX = XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX is the approximate total I remember for these XXXX pieces ). I 've attached a copy of the XXXX exchange rate on XXXX/XXXX/15, as well as a copy of the receipt from this transaction. 

If one were to examine my credit history, a purchase in the amount of more than {$1300.00} USD is completely out of the ordinary for my jewelry spending as I only spent {$1100.00} XXXX on my wife 's wedding band and would never purchase gold-plated pendants for such an astronomical price. 

After more than two months of contacting USAA for assistance with this dispute and receiving conflicting information during each conversation ( including contacting USAA while I was XXXX asking if I should return the items to avoid any issues ), USAA has informed me that the charge was valid and only gave me a copy of the receipt from the transaction. USAA never addressed my dispute, which was the amount charged - I told USAA that I did purchase jewelry from this merchant and am happy to pay the correct amount, but that the amount the merchant charged is incorrect. Furthermore, the receipt does n't indicate the XXXX equivalent and the merchant never offered to provide the total XXXX. Had I seen the XXXX amount on this receipt I definitely would not have agreed to the charges and would have noticed the salesperson 's error ; however, while dealing with an unfamiliar foreign currency I did n't notice this gross mistake. In addition, the merchant removed the tags from the jewelry and kept them, so we have no way to prove the accurate cost of the jewelry. However, we did pull the price for similar items from their website - gold-plated pendants - and the prices were between $ XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX ; XXXX XXXX ). As you can see, they are not worth {$1300.00}. 

I am requesting that the error be corrected, that any finance and other charges related to the disputed amount be credited as well, and that I receive an accurate statement. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation