Raise Marketplace Inc

After receiving Revdex.com complaint number [redacted], we were able to review the order in question. At this time, the customer has received the requested resolution.On March 24, 2016 the customer placed an order on the Raise marketplace for a [redacted] eGift card with a value of $480.97 for a purchase price...

of $436.48. The customer then contacted Raise Member Services on July 5, 2016 and expressed to the serving agent that the gift card was only used for $160.00 before an issue occurred and the remaining balance could not be redeemed. At that time, the serving agent informed the customer that the order fell outside of the 100 Day Money-Back Guarantee, and that being the case, the order had to be escalated to the Gift Card Support Team for further review. All orders received outside of 100 days from the purchase date, must be reviewed by the Gift Card Support Team before a resolution can be offered. Regrettably, our Gift Card Support Team was unable to respond in a timely fashion and this inquiry was resolved and the customer was notified via email on August 25, 2016. The Gift Card Support Team was in contact with the brand and confirmed that there should have been a balance of $267.82 before the gift card was devalued by the brand. That being the case, the customer was provided a partial refund of $243.05. This partial refund was calculated by subtracting the amount used by the customer from the value of the gift card and then the percentage of savings the member received on the original purchase price was applied to the new value to determine the new purchase price.Dependent upon the customer’s banking institution, they should see the refund available back on their original payment source at this time. We would like to apologize for the delay in resolution and any inconvenience this may have caused. In the future, we look forward to better serving the customer.

Complaint: 11465715
I am rejecting this response because:  Raise continues to deflect the issue while they trumpet their 100-day guarantee.  Everyone knows about the Raise 100-day guarantee including criminals who sell gift cards on Raise.  These criminals exploit Raise customers by waiting for the 100-day guarantee to expire then stealing back the value of the gift card they sold to a Raise customer.  Raise is happy to help facilitate and profit from this activity while deflecting any responsibility by hiding behind their 100-day guarantee.  It was refreshing for Raise to briefly hint at an acknowledgement of my complaint when they said, "...there is no specific language covering the customer’s particular concern..." referring to my inability to find ANY warning ANYWHERE on Raise.com about the dangers of leaving any gift cards unused beyond the 100-day guarantee period.   Unsuspecting customers, like myself, believe that once I've received the gift card and the balance has been verified I should have no future troubles.  Since gift cards don't expire we decided to "stock up" on certain gift cards we knew we would use eventually.  We verified each gift card when it arrived, then after knowing it was good we put it in drawer with the others to be used someday.  For several cards "someday" never happened because the value was stolen shortly after the 100-day guarantee was up.  Again, Raise is being negligent at best by not proactively warning customers of the possibility of theft of the value of a gift card after 100 daysOne sentence in Raise's reply was a little surprising.  Raise replied, "We understand the customer’s concern, but customers are encouraged to use the gift card within the time frame that the Raise Guarantee will cover any issues, so that whatever does occur will be resolved."  I would like to know where...exactly...this statement can be found on the Raise website prior to the filing of my Revdex.com complaint and what exactly the text is that is supposed to "encourage" the use of gift cards within 100 days.  I have checked the Raise website from top to bottom and inside out and never found any such statement "encouraging" customers to use the gift card within 100-days.I encourage those who operate Raise.com to commit to operating an honest and reputable company that puts people before profits.  Make the decision today to start providing appropriate warnings to customers and educate buyers of the risk of not using gift cards within the first 100 days.  Be a positive influence in the industry .  Explore ways to help customers keep track of and monitor their cards to protect them against fraud and theft.  You may think doing these things will hurt profits, but I believe you will find higher profits from putting customers first.
Sincerely,
John McNamara

Revdex.com:I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID [redacted], and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me. Sincerely, Leonette [redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: I dont feel I should be penalized because I accidently hit purchase. I do not have "buyers remorse" because the purchase was an ACCIDENT! I dont want a coupon or promo or credit. All I want is the money I paid put back into my account.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

After receiving Revdex.com complaint number [redacted] we were able to review the order and offer a solution to the customer.On November 21, 2015 the customer placed an order on Raise for a Panera eGift/voucher for a value of $25.00 with a purchase price of $20.00 for which the customer paid $5.00 out of...

pocket after $15.00 in promotions. The customer contacted Raise Member Services via email on September 13, 2016. Unfortunately, the customer was not responded to in a timely manner, and although the order falls outside of the Raise Guarantee, a full refund of the purchase price was provided to the customer on September 19, 2016. The promotions that the customer utilized on this order have been returned to her Raise account in the form of Raise Rewards. The $15.00 in Raise Rewards will automatically be applied to the next purchase made through the customer’s Raise account. We would like to sincerely apologize for the inconvenience that this has caused the customer and would like her to be informed that this refund has been offered as a courtesy as the order has fallen outside of the Raise Guarantee. Any time there is an issue, we are more than happy to take a look into the problem. Orders that fall outside of the Raise Guarantee period, unfortunately, may not be refunded or replaced as an order within the guarantee period would be. Ultimately we are happy to have resolved this for the customer and look forward to better serving her again in the future.

We were able to further review Revdex.com Complaint number [redacted] as well as the Raise order in question....


Order number [redacted] was placed on July 24, 2015 and contained one [redacted] gift card valued at $184.38. On January 25, the customer reached out to our Member Services Team to let us know that they were no longer able to use this gift card as an electronic card due to a change in [redacted] policy. A balance of $100.01 was remaining on the gift card.
Because of the change in [redacted] policy, Raise is shipping physical [redacted] cards to the buyers when possible. This was offered to the customer, but they declined and asked for a refund. Because this order was outside of our 100 Day Guarantee, the customer was initially denied a refund.
Upon further review, we were able to issue an adjusted refund of $90.55 to the customer’s credit card. The adjustment accounts for the balance that was unable to be used as well as the original discount received for this gift card.
We apologize for the inconvenience this caused and hope that we will be able to serve this customer again in the future.