Consumer complaint received 2022-04-11
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer — Card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase or transfer
Company: Incomm Holdings Inc. (PA)

BRIEF SUMMARY : A brand new Vanilla XXXX Gift Card ( prepaid card ) purchased at a XXXX grocery store was compromised with fraudulent purchases before being removed from its packaging. As instructed by Vanilla Card, I submitted the fraudulent charges to the merchant ( XXXX ) for review. XXXX agreed the charges were unauthorized and issued refunds for nearly all charges. However, only some of these refunds showed up on the prepaid card and {$390.00} of the refunds are still missing. XXXX has confirmed that the transaction was completed on their end, emails and details of which were all submitted to Vanilla with in the requested Dispute Packet. Vanilla has exceeded their stated 90 day review period for this dispute and are now not providing any updates about the case. They request I call at 72, 48, and 24 hour intervals, but no information is provided each time. Additionally, I had the card itself placed " On Hold '' with funds in the amount of {$68.00}, but now they have fully inactivated the card such that it is " Invalid '' on their website ( https : //balance.vanillagift.com/ ). It is unclear how those funds will be returned as well. 

DETAILED SUMMARY : [ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : Vanilla XXXX was purchased at XXXX # XXXX and loaded with {$500.00}. The package was not opened. 
[ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, XXXX ( XXXX ) : All unauthorized purchases occured on the card at the XXXX XXXX XXXX, leaving only {$0.00} remaining. The card was sealed inside the packaging during this time. 
[ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : The package was opened for the first time and the first intended transaction failed due to low balance. I contacted Vanilla customer support right away by phone. They could not provide any information as to how the card was compromised inside the packaging. I was told to contact XXXX directly about the unauthorized charges, or to submit a dispute form to Vanilla that would take up to three months to review. With this information, I contacted XXXX XXXX both online and by phone, and followed instructions to file the first two ( 2 ) claims for unauthorized charges. As there were over a XXXX charges to process, multiple claims had to be submitted. XXXX informed me that any refunds would be returned to the same prepaid card number, which was included in the claim report. 
[ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : XXXX XXXX confirmed refunds for both claims in the amount of {$330.00} ( I will refer to this as Batch # XXXX ) and {$65.00} ( Batch # XXXX ). I have email confirmations from XXXX for all transactions they completed regarding my claims ( which were later sent to Vanilla as well in a detailed report ). I contacted XXXX about the remaining unauthorized charges and they recommended that I submit more claims due to the volume of fraudulent charges from the card. They also informed me that the refunds could take up to 10 business days to return to the card depending on the financial institution. On this date I also moved the {$0.00} remaining prepaid card off of the card ( to my XXXX account ) in case the card was hit again. 
[ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : I submitted three ( 3 ) additional claims to cover the remaining unauthorized charges as advised. Two of these claims were granted refunds ( Batch # XXXX and Batch # XXXX for {$75.00} total ). ( Of the almost {$500.00} in unauthorized charges, all charges were deemed unauthorized by XXXX except for a few totaling {$28.00} ; I did not file another claim for these as XXXX had already finished their review. ) [ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : Refunds from Batch # XXXX and # XXXX began to show up on the card. As funds began to reappear, I moved {$6.00} to my XXXX account out of concern for the compromised card. ( I later asked to place the card on hold to keep the funds secure while the process was ongoing, resulting in what is now a balance of {$68.00} on the card. ) However, the refunds for Batch # XXXX and Batch # XXXX still were not showing on the card. I contacted XXXX XXXX again to investigate, and they provided confirmation that the claims filed on XX/XX/XXXX were in fact completed, which included 79 transactions of {$390.00} in total. XXXX provided me with an additional confirmation email to provide to Vanilla. I then called Vanilla customer support regarding the missing # XXXX and was sent to the Vanilla accounts department. I was told to expect an email from the " back office '' within 3 business days regarding the missing refunds. However, I did not receive any email or update after 3 business days. 
[ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX and XXXX ( XXXX ) : I called Vanilla customer support again and was assigned Case # XXXX and the Dispute Packet to return via email as an email reply. This instruction was incorrect, and I had to resend the Dispute Packet one month later upon receiving no further contact from Vanilla. 
[ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : I discovered my form had been sent to an unmonitored inbox and properly submitted the Dispute Packet to the correct Dispute Resolution Team email stated on the packet ( XXXX ), later confirmed by Vanilla as the correct email address. I included all supporting documentation and email confirmations from XXXX XXXX in the packet. On the same date, I received an email confirmation from the Dispute Resolution Team stating, in part, the following : " Your dispute packet has been received and forwarded to the Dispute Department for review and investigation. Please be advised that disputes are worked in the order they are received. You should expect complete resolution within 90 days from received date, however, most are resolved before then. If additional information is needed, you will be contacted via email. '' [ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : I called Vanilla customer support, who told me to wait as the dispute team still had time within the 90 days to complete their review. 
[ XXXX ]. XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : I called Vanilla customer support, who acknowledged that the 90 day period was reached. Customer Support contacted the dispute team after asking several times to confirm the case number, email submission date, and submission confirmation date ; it appeared as though the dispute team had not initiated any course of action on the case. I was told to wait an additional 48-72 hours and to call for the conclusion. Per their suggestion, I also emailed the dispute team, but I have not recieved any reply ( as of today, XX/XX/XXXX ). 
[ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : I called Vanilla customer support past the 72 hour deadline they provided. The exact same conversation occured with verification that I sent the dispute form on XX/XX/XXXX, revealing that again, no work had been done on the case. I was told to again wait an additional 48 hours. Customer support acknowledged that it was past the time window allotted. On this date, I also clarified as to why I could no longer check the card balance online. They stated they inactivated the account because the card was compromised, but that the balance ( {$68.00} ) was still secure on the card. 
[ XXXX. ] XX/XX/XXXX ( XX/XX/XXXX ) : After an another 48 hours, I called Vanilla customer support. Once more, the same conversation ensued, and again I was asked to wait. I became clear that the dispute team had not begun any review, and when asked how long this process was supposed to take, customer support continued to refer to the 90 day review period despite it now being well over 90 days. I asked if they could provide me further instructions via email so that I could keep a record, and they said they were unable to send me any emails. They also said I could email the dispute team ; I told them I never recieved any reply, and they did not provide any further assistance. I asked once more if they indeed had my dispute packet and all notations by customer support from each time I called in, and they said yes to both. 

As Vanilla card has surpassed their stated 90 day review period for this dispute, no updates or documentation has been provided, and because the {$390.00} in missing refunds from XXXX has not been returned, I am submitting this complaint to the CFPB. Further documentation of emails and transactions mentioned in this complaint are available and have already been provided to Vanilla. I have attached to this complaint the Dispute Packet in its entirety that was successfully submitted to Vanilla on XX/XX/XXXX, which includes the emails from XXXX, all card transactions, and the remaining balance held on the card. I have also attached the confirmation email on XX/XX/XXXX from Vanilla stating that the Dispute Resolution Team received my packet ( my name redacted ).