Bank Credit Card Dispute from H*l!
Banking reform missed a chance to protect the Credit Card user from abuse, victimization, and robbery.
I have posted this account on my facebook page to see if it gets any traction with Facebook
Users. My purpose in sending it to you is to make people aware how Wells Fargo and VISA
Acting in concert make it possible for a VISA on-line merchant to steal from you with impunity. I hope you can see that my experience also reflects the experience of a multitude of other on-line
Credit card users (google TicketsNow scam) who have become tragically aware of the abuses of card issuers like Wells Fargo and VISA who enable predatory on-line merchants.
My documented experience shows that an on-line VISA merchant can abuse on-line credit card customers, in a venue where trust forms the basis of commerce, with a policy that victimizes his customers. The merchant and Bank escape accountability behind a false cloud of implied trust that hides a discriminatory VISA agreement and Regulation Z clause enabling banks to escape accountability. This is theft! I was violated and robbed of $678.00. Wells Fargo abuses its position of fiduciary trust and deludes customers with a false sense of security leaving them open to exploitation and fraudulent practices of predatory on-line merchants.
Consider my story that unraveled over the several months it took me to unsuccessfully pursue a
Wells Fargo dispute process involving a credit card purchase on a web site of a VISA on-line merchant. At Wells Fargo, legitimate disputes are legally disallowed where neither the on-line merchant
Nor bank are held accountable. TicketsNow, VISA and Wells Fargo actually robbed me of $678.00. A crime was committed and there was no recourse.
Regardless of how experienced you are when it comes to shopping on-line, you will eventually be blindsided by a web site hosted by someone like TicketsNow. A dysfunctional order process whether by design or system glitch or user malfunctionsomething will get you. Regardless of events, if the policy of the on-line merchant is no refunds / no returns, you have been had. Banks who issue VISA cards must honor the policies of the VISA on-line merchant. Believe it or not, you dont have a chance in h*l in resolving the dispute to recover your loss.
I was blindsided on a dysfunctional TicketsNow site. Nothing could be done: Immediate calls to TicketsNow confirmed that I was held responsible for ordering eight tickets instead of two and there was no hope in protesting to my bank. As a TicketsNow customer service agent said, Your protest/dispute will fail.
On Oct 10, the TicketsNow site had several egregious issues (before 12 updates). Two notables: No visible no refund/returns warnings and no expected verification screen (ie, shopping cart review) allowing you to approve purchase. As if I would actually verify and approve of purchasing eight tickets (all available tickets in one section) instead of two. Five months of protest passed in failure.
TicketsNow is a VISA merchant and Wells Fargo honors the no refunds / no returns policy of every VISA on-line merchant, regardless. My dispute was denied at all levels of Wells Fargo Card Services. It was my fault, TicketsNow was blameless. My $678.00 was gone and I could do nothing about it.
This TicketsNow customer service agent I spoke to admitted that there was a problem with the website that was going to be corrected.in fact by December it was corrected. A letter from TicketsNow confirmed that website updates were performed in this timeframe between October 10 and December.
You can forget about appealing for help from your local Better Business Bureau, State Attorney General, Federal Trade Commission, and Federal Office of the Comptroller of Currency, or VISA. TicketsNow, VISA, and Wells Fargo did not break any rules or regulations. These rules and regulations
Currently in force provide a free pass to victimize and rob you at will.
I have found two issues that standout: First, the bank issuing you a card does NOT inform you in its pages of Credit Card Agreement, with which you are required to comply, that it places the merchants policies at a higher priority than your right to be protected from predatory merchant practices.in practice, this means the merchant can actually steal from you using a policy the banks must honor without having to account to you the customer, VISA or Wells Fargo for its predatory practices.
The banks say this blind VISA agreement prevents it from protecting you and besides the problem is obviously one you caused. You have to seek legal recourse with TicketsNow to resolve the issue. As if I had unlimited resources to spend in a court battle with TicketsNow. Even a small claims court procedure can be derailed by changing venue and legal maneuvering to extend and exacerbate you costs.
Secondly, there is a smoke screen the bank uses to deceive you into believing that it protects you from fraud and loss to merchants like TicketsNow when you use its credit card to make purchases. Consider:
Wells Fargo has written policy it publishes sayng it protects you from fraud and identity theft. Your vulnerability is disguised. You are not protected from fraudulent practices of predatory merchants.
Your monthly statement assures you of Special Rule for Credit Card Purchases: If you have a problem with the quality of goods or services you purchased with a credit card and you have tried in good faith to correct the problem with the merchant, you MAY not have to pay the remaining amount due on the goods or services."
Does this sound like the bank is looking out for your interests and will go to bat for you? My dispute was denied in full after I complied with all procedures! Continuing on, this special rule has a limitation that seems strange: You have this protection only when the purchase price was more than $50 and the purchase was made in your home state or within 100 miles of your mailing address.
The preceding quote is from Regulations Z which states you can hold the card issuer (Wells Fargo in this case) responsible for the mistaken online order if the merchant fails to make matters rightthat is if
The purchase was made in your home state or within 100 miles of your mailing address. Does this contrived rule sound like liability is limited to intrastate commerce? I think so and it conflicts
Directly with the Card Holder Agreement where the card holder must affirm his/her understanding that the transaction being conducted with the credit card is, in fact, interstate commerce. How can the bank specify that it is engaged in interstate commerce, yet use rules pertaining to intrastate commerce to escape accountability? How can Internet purchases be limited to "intrastate commerce"?
Once again, my documented experience shows that a VISA merchant can abuse good business practice, in a venue where trust forms the basis of commerce, with a policy that victimizes his customers. The merchant and Bank escape accountability behind a false cloud of implied trust that hides a discriminatory VISA agreement and Regulation Z clause enabling banks to escape accountability. Wells Fargo Fraud department and dispute process categorically deny a credit card
Dispute where a VISA merchant has a policy like no refunds/returns. This is theft! I was violated and robbed of $678.00. Wells Fargo abuses its position of fiduciary trust and deludes customers with a false sense of security leaving them open to exploitation and fraudulent practices of on-line merchants.
I ended a 25 year association with Wells Fargo going back to Wachovia, First Union and Atlantic bank.
I fired both Wells Fargo and VISA. There is no satisfaction in doing this since TicketsNow, VISA and Wells Fargo escaped any accountability for stealing $678.00 from me and are NOT held responsible for this crime and continue the same criminal behavior today.
An on-line consumer complaint web site records instances of greater loses than mine in on-line customer access to the TicketsNow website. I havent investigated how many more VISA merchants have victimized its customers in the same fashion. I do suspect that the abuse is wide spread.
Why else does VISA require card issuers to honor VISA merchant policies without exception (to the detriment of a banks customers) and why is regulation Z so contrived to limit banks liability and accountability to its card holders?
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