Consumer complaint received 2021-01-06
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Unexpected or other fees — 
Company: U.S. BANCORP (MD)

Hello, Below is an email that I had written to MasterCard on XX/XX/XXXX to resolve my problem of not being able to use a MasterCard gift card as I found out it had {$0.00} balance when using it for the very first time. I was later referred to the consumer support team, who had not been able to resolve this issue. I will attach related emails and attachments for your reference. Their last resort is always to blame the US Bank and escalate the issue to the US Bank, but in all cases ( including in the very last email attachment XXXX XXXX XXXX  Mastercard Gift Card ( 3 ) ), I have not heard back from the US Bank, which is why I am writing to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( CFPB ) as I have lost hope in the entire system and you are my last resort. 

I would like to prevent this type of traumatic experience happening to other consumers, and would appreciate your support to help and inform the public of such scam-like traps in purchasing/using gift cards like these. I have excluded personal/account information from the below as instructed, but include them in the attachments. 

In the attachments you will find : Message to MasterCard Executive Response email : Original email letter to the MasterCard Executive that explains this issue ( see the text below as well ). 
XXXX XXXX XXXX  Mastercard Gift Card ( 1-3 ) email : Emails going back and forth with the customer support team. 
Pictures of the MasterCard gift card both front and back. 

Please see the email below : XXXX and MasterCard Executive Response Unit, I would like to bring your attention to my struggle I am having regarding the MasterCard gift card. I am losing trust in the MasterCard gift card, and now feel as if I had been ripped off by spending {$100.00} plus a purchase fee to buy the gift card. In summary, I bought a MasterCard gift card for my mother and I to use before its stated expiration date in XX/XX/XXXX, but was shocked to find that the card had XXXX balance on XX/XX/XXXX after opening the packaging for the very first time. In the end, we had been taken away the {$100.00} gift card that we had bought and can not get it back. It feels like we have gotten {$100.00} stolen from us, and even paid a purchase fee for it. The details are below : In XXXX, we had bought a {$100.00} MasterCard gift card that is set to expire in XX/XX/XXXX. Please see the attached card and its packaging. As the expiration date on the packaging says XX/XX/XXXX, I had saved the whole package to be able to use later before the expiration. As the expiration date is approaching, we decided to use the MasterCard gift card. The package was unopened for the past years since the purchase date, and we had saved and kept the card in our safe, and so it was definitely not used by anyone else as we even had the gift card in its protection packaging unopened until the very first day on XX/XX/XXXX when we tried to open and use it for the first time. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, we opened the outside packaging of the card for the very first time, but was not able to use it in store. To find out why this was so, we registered the card online at XXXX. When I registered the card, I was stunned to see that the gift card balance was {$0.00} as it was the very first day we ever opened the gift card packaging and had never used it before. 

While I was aware that in the fine print on it says that the an inactivity fee of {$2.00} per month after 12 consecutive months of inactivity, except where prohibited by state law. I had interpreted that the 12 consecutive months of inactivity to mean from the date of first using the card balance hence the first date of use and not the date that the card was bought. This is very tricky to me, especially for a gift card, as it is not necessarily that the card will be given within a year or even a few years to the gift receiver, and so I had interpreted that the inactivity to start from the first date that the receiver started to use the gift card, as long as it is within the stated expiration date on the card. Additionally, if this is the case, it is very misleading to write down an expiration date on the front of the card ( as XX/XX/XXXX in this case ) that is past the true expiration date. 

I have called your customer service multiple times since XX/XX/XXXX, but have still not been able to resolve this issue. When I talked to your customer service representatives, they keep blaming the bank, which I am assuming is the U.S. Bank National Association, for taking the transaction fees, and yet, they would not get me in touch directly with the bank and just kept telling me the bank will call you to see if your request to solve this issue will be resolved. The U.S. Bank National Association has not called me. Additionally, while the bank might be the ones executing the transaction, the MasterCard name is on the gift card and I believe having the association does entail responsibility for MasterCard to fulfill their customers satisfaction. Thus, I had put my trust and money into what I thought was a reputable MasterCard gift card that I had worked so hard to pay for. 

I would not be writing this letter if someone told me from the beginning that I would be losing the transaction fee every month if not used for 12 months since the purchase date instead of the first date of use. No staff really cared or took responsibility when trying to resolve this issue. I would very much appreciate it if you could fix this problem and give me the {$100.00} as I had purchased. Otherwise, I will stop my relationship with MasterCard because I do not have any more trust in this financial service company anymore since I had been deceived. It may just be {$100.00} to you that you would like to blame an external bank about, but to me, losing {$100.00} plus the purchase fee is very painful as my family and I had worked so hard for this. I will have to warn those around me about avoiding buying gift cards from MasterCard for their consumer protection safety. 

Ive entered the workforce for a very good finance job after completing my XXXX program, and need a reliable credit card and financial service company more than ever in the near future ; To me, I would like to have a dependable and trustworthy company that I am proud of and will be loyal to. Please do not deceive those who trust in your company to buy and share a gift card.