Consumer complaint received 2023-03-01
Company: Block, Inc.
State: TX
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
Some months ago, two transactions took place with a XXXX merchant ( {$1200.00} on XX/XX/XXXX and {$1200.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, respectively ), as a 25 % reservatory down payment for a virtual real estate coaching program. For nearly 4 months, the merchant ignored queries after the payments cleared, and initial comms were sent to prepare for the program scheduled to take place XX/XX/2023. This was alarming, and as a result, the agreement was terminated due to fraud concerns, and suspected scamming. No services were rendered or provided by the merchant. 

XXXX has been notified of this, and rather than taking action with the merchant, which could have been as simple as following with her to request they provide the refund ( noting : that the failure to render services and agreement to a refund because of it should constitute a violation of TOS, but also poor behavior on the merchant 's part ). The attached emails show a ) the agreement to provide refund, b ) paid invoices for the charges, and c ) the cancellation notice sent to the merchant, which was ignored for weeks before responding. Rather than providing me with a direct email to show the abundance of evidence collected, including admission from the merchant, XXXX management simply gave me an email address to law enforcement -- a team which does not accept queries from the general public or non-agency persons. 

After the Attorney General was aware of the transactions and behavior of the merchant, Assistant Attorney General XXXX XXXX XXXX was assigned to investigate the complaints against the merchant. The merchant finally responded to the emails, completely disregarding prior communications, and after providing documentation to them for a second time, they agreed to provide a full refund 100 %, because no services or goods were rendered for the referenced charges. 

XXXX is aware of this complaint, which now clearly would qualify as consumer fraud under the following definition : Consumer fraud is commonly defined as deceptive business practices that cause consumers to suffer financial or other losses. The victims believe they are participating in a legal and valid business transaction when they are actually being defrauded. 

This behavior is not only a violation of consumer protection laws, but they also violate XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. Again, there is no request from my side to have the account cancelled, but rather, to hold a merchant accountable for what would now be classified as a fraudulent transaction as they have the full burden of proof that no services were rendered, yet are being completely complicit in allowing impropriety to take place. 

As a business owner myself, my view is that XXXX is acting in poor business ethics and a very low level of moral integrity. And I will absolutely never do business with them, and will be taking to social media, and setting up a website describing my experience, and a forum for others, if this is not resolved amicably. They are responsible for ensuring safety and proper use of their platforms, and therefore, they are responsible for responsibly handling business impropriety, irrespective of whether merchant has any previous history of fraudulent activity, or whether they deem this to be fraud or not. The behavior is unacceptable, should be illegal to have merchant collecting payments for services they have not rendered, due to their own poor behavior and poor communication.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation