Consumer complaint received 2025-09-08 00:00:00
Product: Credit card — General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement — Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement
Company: DISCOVER BANK
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
I notified Discover Bank that on XX/XX/year>, I was subjected to fraudulent misrepresentation of merchandise and deceptive trade practices by the merchant XXXX XXXX at their store. In-store, I was deceived into paying full price for merchandise that was tampered with. Post-purchase, I uncovered a damaged retail tag hidden within a pocket of the merchandise I purchased from the store - the damaged price tag was ripped and concealed from my view and most importantly, was not replaced with a new price tag to indicate that the merchant properly examined the merchandises quality and confirmed no signs of wear before making it available for consumers to purchase at full-price. Instead, the damaged price tag was scanned by an employee at the point-of sale to ring up the {$3400.00} transaction and then was immediately tucked back into the pocket of the sweater merchandise in order to prevent me from noticing the damaged tags during the transaction. This deceitful behavior occurred so that the merchant could present their merchandise under a false appearance, conceal signs of merchandise being tampered with, and greedily subject unknowing consumers like myself to deceptive trade practice and fraudulent misrepresentation by tricking consumers into thinking they are purchasing pristine items. I aimed to resolve the situation by returning all XXXX XXXX merchandise in exchange for a full refund within the merchants allotted return window. However, upon returning all merchandise by XX/XX/year> and within XXXX XXXX 30 day return window, I was never issued a refund within XXXX business days. Consequently, I contacted my creditor, Discover Bank, who assured me they could help with this billing error so I proceeded to initiate multiple disputes with the merchant, to no avail. Discover failed to protect me as a consumer and ruled all of my disputes in favor of the merchant. As soon as Discover Bank opened the initial dispute, XXXX XXXX responded and lied to say that they did not receive the merchandise within their return window. Although, I provided Discover Bank with XXXX proof of delivery and the tracking number to prove that the merchandise was received and signed for within the merchants return window, on XX/XX/year>. The merchandise XXXX XXXX sold to me under false pretenses and poor quality assurance was initially returned back to them by XX/XX/year> within the return window, but then it was sent back to me outside of the return window on XX/XX/year>, so I promptly shipped the merchandise back to the merchant on the same day and it was delivered XXXX final time the very next day on XX/XX/year>. As the first billing dispute had already been in progress, I called Discover Banks billing team to update them that XXXX improperly brought the returned merchandise back to my address without receiving my personal signature on XX/XX/XXXX and I told Discover Bank that in response, I immediately sent the merchandise back to the merchant on that same day and then told Discover Bank that the merchandise was re-delivered within XXXX day, on XX/XX/XXXX, and I requested that the Discover billing agent add these emerging details to the notes of my dispute, in order to prevent the dispute from being closed incorrectly. However, Discover Bank disregarded the updates I shared with them and a few days later, closed my first billing dispute with XXXX XXXX in the merchants favor because XXXX XXXX said that the merchandise was returned outside the return window, even though I had provided Discover Banks XXXX team with the proof of delivery PDF generated by XXXX, provided the investigation team with the tracking number, XXXX, that would allow them to access the proof of delivery status and see for themselves that the merchandise was returned inside the return window on XX/XX/XXXX, and provided the Discover team with multiple updates to no avail. I called Discover Banks billing department to reopen my dispute on the grounds that the merchant lied about not receiving the goods within the return window and reiterated that my supporting documentation contained PDFs of XXXX proof of delivery which clearly showed that the merchandise was received and signed for by XXXX XXXX, a XXXX XXXX employee on both return dates, XX/XX/XXXX ( within the return window ) and for the final time on XX/XX/XXXX the tracking number of XXXX shows the proof of delivery on XX/XX/year>. After I had my case reopened, I proceeded to speak with a Billing Manager at Discover to find out why my dispute was closed incorrectly. The Billing Manager put me on hold to review the details of my dispute and returned to the phone stating that Discovers billing team would fight for me as long as I provided supporting documentation to show that I was within the return window this was the second instance of the Discover billing departments negligence in reviewing because I had already provided this evidence in my supporting documentation before the first dispute was closed! My second billing dispute was yet again, closed in the merchants favor because the merchant refused to accept the return, yet kept the returned merchandise, and Discover billing department told me there was nothing more they could do to get my refund. In my last attempt to solve this matter through Discover Bank, I contacted their fraud/security team in XX/XX/year> and notified them that I was subjected to fraudulent misrepresentation of goods and deceptive trade practices by the XXXX XXXX employee who deceitfully sold me merchandise that was tampered with and concealed it to make a sale, and emphasized that the XXXX XXXX organization as a whole essentially committed theft by not giving back my money and keeping the returned merchandise. The fraud/security team seemed to take immediate corrective action by setting up a new account and card for me, and issuing a security adjustment that credited all of my money back on XX/XX/year> but then, this credit was essentially reversed as of XX/XX/year> when the initial transaction reposted to my new account. I have received no documentation from the security/fraud team as to when their investigation began and received no timely updates about the status of the security dispute currently. I simply just see that yet again, I have not been protected by neither Discover Banks billing department nor their security/fraud department. As of present-day XX/XX/year>, both the faulty, returned merchandise and the funds I was scammed out of to purchase tampered-with-merchandise unknowingly, remain in the possession of XXXX XXXX. I have contacted XXXX XXXX via telephone and via e-mail several times over the past few months and nobody has responded about my refund for deceitfully selling me goods in a tampered, unsalable condition and ultimately, nobody has done anything about me returning this merchandise. I have attached screenshot evidence of all XXXX proof of delivery PDFs that were shared with Discover Bank as supporting documentation on my disputes to show that I was within the return window and to show that the merchant has the final possession of the merchandise.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation