Consumer complaint received 2016-06-08
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: CA
Product: Credit card
Issue: Advertising and marketing

Complaint:
Hello, Discover has refused to honor the original terms of their promotional offer and has requested that I violate my own health privacy by disclosing the contents of my purchases. I am reporting Discover for 1 ) false advertising with intent to mislead the customer regarding their credit card product ; 2 ) theft of significant cash reward benefits related to the spending I put on the Discover card with the belief that the terms of their promotion would be honored ; and 3 ) for tying their cooperation with the an undue required burden of proof that was not part of the original terms of the offer, and asking me to violate my own health privacy. 

Background : I opened a Discover card and was approved beginning on XXXX XXXX, 2015. The primary reason I opened the card was because Discover had advertised 10 % cashback rewards for making any purchases using XXXX, a method of transaction. Discover ran the promotion with no conditions requiring that all receipts be preserved, and that all receipts must be submitted to receive the cashback rewards. Discover represented to me and other consumers that the 10 % cashback rewards would be automatically deposited into my cashback balance after spending and paying using the Discover card through XXXX up to a limit of {$10000.00}. 

With the information from their advertising and promotions, I subsequently spent {$11000.00} on my Discover Card using the method of XXXX. Discover subsequently only provided {$210.00} in cashback rewards, rather than the full {$1000.00} cashback rewards that would have been required under the terms of the 10 % XXXX cashback promotional offer. As a result, Discover did not deposit {$780.00} of cashback into my account. After the company was contacted, the company requested that I send receipts to prove that the purchases were not gift cards. 

I would like to clarify a couple of items. First, Discover seemingly added this additional condition retroactively into their promotion. Second, I communicated to Discover that the purchases ranged from electronics to medicine/personal purchases, and thus did in fact qualify for their promotion despite the retroactive addition of non eligibility clause for gift cards. 

Furthermore, Discover did not include in the terms of their promotion that receipts must be kept and sent to Discover for analysis. Several of these purchases were made months ago, and I do not have the original receipt. Furthermore, a significant percentage of the purchases included personal health spending and I informed Discover that I did not want to violate my own health privacy and disclose my healthcare related spending to them. 

Discover has refused to honor their promotion and has held the cashback amount. Discover has falsely advertised their promotion, caused undue burden on the consumer to provide receipts from months ago, and requested that I violate my own health privacy. Discover should not be allowed to conduct bait and switch tactics and false advertising tactics like this, and should be investigated. I want my cashback missing in the amount of {$780.00}.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation