Consumer complaint received 2019-11-12 00:00:00
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: Block, Inc.
State: OR

Complaint narrative:
In XXXX I received my bonus and decided I would purchase some art from an online retailer/broker. It was collector character style art at a discounted price. At first, I sent the company {$400.00} and it was refunded as they said it would be easier to track each purchase if I made separate payments for each piece. Throughout XXXX the they contacted me multiple times about new pieces and I made around 20 purchases totaling close to {$1800.00} to the same merchant. They told me they would have them all delivered by XX/XX/19. I called to check on them in XXXX and 15 calls and many emails later XX/XX/19 arrived. By this time, I already knew I had been scammed but I read in the Visa rules that I had 120 days to dispute credit transactions and also, I had to wait until the agreed upon date had passed. Once it had I contacted the card issuer, Square Cash App support team, to start the dispute process. After 3 emails telling me I could not dispute payments to another account holder and after repeating it was a purchase made with my Cash App prepaid debit card as it is called by Cash App themselves, I finally get a rep, XXXX XXXX, that understands and has me fill out this dispute questionnaire and email him back each transaction. This was day 95 I believe ( I have every email saved that I am submitting ). After a week since sending XXXX XXXX my list of transactions and not hearing back from him, I email him again. My email was inquiring about the status or at least a confirmation that they had received my email. A few days later I was blown away when another Cash App support rep had emailed me to say that my transactions are over 60 days old and they can not be disputed with the card network. I quickly replied back and explained that I purchased these online ( no pin ) from a msp/processor that clearly states they process all debit cards as credit. Therefore, my transactions using my Cash App Prepaid Visa Card awarded me the right to dispute per Visa rules. Another week goes by and still no reply. This is the common theme as they have the worst copy and paste customer service I have ever experienced. I finally received an email stating that the mailbox I was replying to was not monitored ( not joking ). So, I went through the app with the same email message verbatim and received an email that stated if you have any questions please reply to this email ( same exact email address XXXX ). I continued to email them back explaining in more detail my point but received the same copy and paste denial every time. I finally turned to Visa and asked them, If your Visa prepaid debit card is processed as credit, can you dispute charges up to 120 days with the network if merchandise was not received. As I waited, I researched the processor and I read the Cash App TOS where they have a link to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureaus website. The processor, who I spoke with, states that they process all debit cards as credit unless they give you the option to charge it as debit as a funding source ( this would be a prompt ). Cash App support at this point kept telling me no further comment or help would be provided. I ended up asking them 3 or 4 emails in a row for the Customer service management, Square legal team and executive management team/s email. No replies. Finally, Visa wrote me back on day 120 and told me this, " Visa Dispute Rules are the same regardless of the type of Visa Card ( Credit or Debit ) used for the Visa Transaction, that includes the timeframes for initiating a Dispute. The Issuer of your Visa Card will have to assist you with any Dispute Resolution according to the Visa Core Rules and Visa Product and Service Rules. If the Issuer of your Visa Card needs assistance, they need to contact their assigned Visa Representative. I immediately emailed the Cash support team and they, now after the 120 day time frame Visa allows, email me back the same response We can not dispute your charges and we have no other information to provide. I believe cash app support failed to dispute my transactions due to a lack of knowledge or policy that directly misleads consumers. I trusted the Visa logo when I used that card. I believe many others have suffered as well,

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation