Raise Marketplace Inc

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  I understand Raise has a 100 day guarantee, but the circumstance of this situation falls outside of a normal circumstance.  Raise should have informed all buyers of the fact that Lowe's was no longer accepting these vouchers thus making them void and that it is imperative that they take action to receive the physical card or BETTER yet Raise should have retrieved the physical card and send it out to the buyer themselves.   It should not be the responsibility of the buyer to "figure" this out by themselves.THe fact of the matter is the voucher I purchased is void due to Raise not informing me that I must contact them immediately to get the physical card.  This is negligence on Raise's fault as they went into my account and changed the voucher status to a physical gift card.  Why would they do that?  What right do they having changing the type of merchandise I purchased?  I don't even have access to the worthless voucher I received now because they deleted it.  Why?  This is fraud and I want to be refunded the purchase price of the voucher
Sincerely,
[redacted]

After receiving and reviewing Revdex.com complaint number [redacted] and the corresponding order number, it appears that the current resolution is warranted.The customer purchased four [redacted] gift cards from Raise.com on November 13, 2015, all containing a value of $200.00 for a purchase price of...

$166.34 each. At the time the purchase was made, the gift cards were confirmed as each having a full $200.00 balance ready and available to use. On June 23, 2016 the customer reached out to Raise Member Services and expressed to the serving agent that the gift cards had not worked when redemption was attempted. The serving agent explained to the customer that the order fell outside of the 100 Day Money-Back Guarantee period and that a refund could not be provided. After speaking with the agent, the customer was transferred to a supervisor on the Member Services team who also explained the Raise Guarantee to the customer and offered $50.00 as recompense for the issue.While we understand that this is an unfortunate situation, as the order falls so far outside of the Raise Guarantee, we are unable to provide the customer with a refund for this order. We would like to sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and look forward to serving the customer again in the future.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:  As stated in Raise's response, my complaint was acknowledged and validated by Raise (additional documents or attachment aren't required).Raise failed to address my issue.  My primary issue doesn't have anything to do with the100 Day Guarantee Policy.  I understand this policy and concur with the policy.  My complaint is that a "merchandise credit card" was sold  as a Gift Card which lead me to believe that the Gift Card will never expire or a policy change could occur.  Raise falsely identified and sold a merchandise credit card as a Gift Card.  Lowes Gift Card policy hasn't changed, since I purchased this card.  Lowes suspected fraudulent activity in the merchandise credit card area, and consequently they changed their policy regarding the merchandise credit card.  I had no idea that I had purchased or was holding a merchandise credit card number, until I tried to redeem the balance.  Raise acknowledges in their response that they didn't make any distinction between merchandise credit card vs Gift Card,  since the difference will not affect the member’s purchasing experience or redemption method.  As we now know the difference between the merchandise credit card vs a Gift Card is huge, and Lowes is making a distinction between the two.  As a customer, I would never purchased a merchandise credit card.  I made numerous attempts to resolve this matter via e-mail without any success.  My e-mails went unanswered.  I then tried to get a resolution via telephone, and I was offended by Raise's $5 promotional code offer.  Then I decided to seek Revdex.com complaint process in hopes of highlighting this issue as a warning to others, and in hopes of obtaining a  proper resolution.  Although the refund amount is only $17.95, I believe a business shouldn't advertise a merchandise credit card as a gift card, and when the situation  gets exposed they leave the customer holding the bag.  Raise needs to make this right, and I would appreciate the $17.95 refund
Sincerely,
Eva Silva

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:The card on file is not my correct card number. Them putting money back onto that card will do nothing for me. I request they mail me a check in order to make sure it comes back to me. I have ZERO access to that card anymore as it has been closed.  Sincerely,
[redacted]

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,
[redacted]

After receiving Revdex.com complaint number [redacted], we were able to review the order and offer a solution to the...

customer.
On May 16, 2016 the customer placed an order on Raise.com for a [redacted] gift card with a value of $203.75 for a purchase price of $169.74. The customer had been expecting to use the APP10 promo code to take $10 off of this purchase. The promo code was not working for the customer so he placed the order anyway without the promotion applying then contacted Raise Member Services about the issue.
This promotional code was initially created for all Raise users, but as the promotional was so popular, it had to be limited to first time purchasers. Customers who had received the Raise email but had been unable to redeem it had the opportunity to call in and receive another code if they did run into an issue. As the customer submitted the order without a promotional code, we are unable to refund the member for the $10, as the Raise Guarantee does not cover promotional codes that do not apply for whatever reason. We would, however, like to offer the customer $15 in Raise Rewards for the $10 that were not taken off with the APP10 promotional code, and the additional $5 as there is not a promotional code equivalent to what the customer has requested.
We would like to apologize for the time the customer has spent on the issue and hope that he finds the $15 in Raise Rewards a suitable settlement. We look forward to serving this customer again in the future.

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2014/12/09) */
In Response to Revdex.com complaint # [redacted]
Dear Ms. [redacted]
I have read your complaint in its entirety and explored all details to ensure I understand the issue you have dealt with. I'm sorry you had to experience this situation. I...

sincerely apologize, and ultimately I was glad to come to a great resolution with you.
We do ask that when Members purchase [redacted] gift cards, that the Members don't merge them with any other cards or accounts. This is because due to the secondary nature of our marketplace, there is always a small chance an issue may arise with a gift card. If it does, keeping cards separate help resolve any issue quickly and simply. I am sorry that [redacted] refused to give you your funds back, but I was happy to be able to help restore the funds you lost from them.
Again I am very sorry about this, but I am glad in the end we could help resolve it.
Sincerely,
[redacted]Member Services Manager

Initial Business Response /* (1000, 6, 2015/09/08) */
Dear Ms. [redacted],
I was able to fully review your case regarding your J. [redacted] card. After further communication with both you and the brand, I am pleased to say we have come to a conclusion.
The J. [redacted] card you purchased was indeed a...

merchandise credit. We have since established that these are nontransferable and therefore will not be offered on our marketplace in the future. As a secondhand marketplace, all of the cards on our site are listed by other members. The cards are always verified before they're approved for the marketplace and again before your order is processed.
We were able to issue a full refund of $140 back to your original payment source. An additional credit has been notated on your account as well. We thank you for bringing this issue to our attention and overall we are glad to have resolved this for you.
Please don't hesitate to reach out if you have any further questions. We would be happy to help in any way we can.
Kindest regards,
[redacted]
Initial Consumer Rebuttal /* (2000, 8, 2015/09/10) */
(The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.)

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because:
If I understand correctly, Raise feels that the 100 day policy should relieve them of any responsibility to their consumer.  So effectively, a product that does not have an expiration date is only good for 100 days if purchased through this site and should be advertised as such.  
Where did the $481.76 go?
Respectfully,
[redacted]

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: Raise's 100 day protection policy is illegal.In 2009, Congress passed the Credit Card Accountability Responsibility and Disclosure (CARD) Act, which set consumer protections for gift cards based on many state laws. The law provides that gift cards cannot expire within five years from the date they were activated.Particularly, in Illinois where Raise's headquarter locates, per §505/2SS(c) The face value of a gift certificate issued on or after Jan. 1, 2008, may not be reduced in value and the holder of a gift certificate issued after Jan. 1, 2008, may not be penalized in any way for non-use or untimely redemption of the gift certificate.That being said, Raise is obligated to protect the card they sold in five years. Furthermore, Raise forces their customers to use the gift card in 100 days, otherwise penalizes the customers by cutting off the protection of the gift cards. Such action is neither responsible nor illegal.I insist on my initial request --- get my money back.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

After receiving Revdex.com complaint number [redacted], we were able to review the order and offer a different resolution to the customer.On November 20, 2015 the customer placed an order on Raise for a Five Guys gift card with a balance of $100.00 for a purchase price of $75.00. The customer then contacted...

Raise Member Services on June 6, 2016 and expressed to the serving agent that the gift card did not work on attempted redemption. At this time the agent informed the customer that the order fell outside of the Raise Guarantee and for that reason, no further action could be taken on the order. At that time the customer was provided a promotional code as recompense. The Raise Guarantee is in place to protect the member’s purchase price for the first 100 days from the date of purchase. After that strict time frame has passed we are unable to provide a refund or replacement card in the same way that we would within the first 100 days. While the order does fall outside of the Raise Guarantee, we would like to offer the customer a courtesy refund for the full purchase price. Unfortunately, the customer has opened a dispute on this order. This being the case, Raise is unable to go ahead and refund the purchase at this time, as all activity on an order is suspended while a dispute is open. Disputes can take up to three months to complete, but we will be happy to follow up to make sure that the customer receives the requested resolution. If the dispute is not closed in the customer’s favor when it has been completed, we will be happy to follow up with a refund directly through Raise.We hope that the customer finds the promise of a refund of the $75.00 purchase price a reasonable resolution and would like to consider the issue resolved at this time.

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.
Thank you
Sincerely,
[redacted]

After receiving and reviewing Revdex.com complaint number [redacted] and the corresponding order number, it appears that the current resolution is warranted.On June 16, 2016 the customer purchased a [redacted] Coffee eGift/voucher through the Raise marketplace with a balance of $97.69, for a purchase price of...

$92.06. The customer then contacted Raise Member Services on the same date and expressed to the serving agent that he was unable to add the gift card to his [redacted] account. At that time, the serving agent informed the customer that the gift card did, and still does hold the full $97.69 balance. The Delivery & Redemption information for the [redacted] Coffee gift card listing does state not to transfer the gift card balance to an already existing [redacted] Coffee account. This is a precautionary instruction as Raise can no longer look into gift card details and information once a card has been transferred to an existing [redacted] account.The Delivery and Redemption information is available before a purchase is made, on the gift card’s listing page. Every gift card listed on the marketplace does have specific Delivery and Redemption information available for customers to view before making a purchase. While we do ask customers not to add their [redacted] Coffee gift cards into their pre existing [redacted] account the cards can still be used directly through the Raise app or through the printed voucher from Raise. We do understand that this can be an inconvenience for some customers and this is why the Delivery Information is available for customers before, as well as after, they complete their purchase. In this particular case, the [redacted] Coffee gift card does still contain the full and valid balance of $97.69, and as the Raise Guarantee does not honor returns on gift cards with full active balances, we are unfortunately, unable to honor a refund for this gift card. As that is the case, the customer was also encouraged to resell the gift card on the Raise marketplace if he no longer wishes to keep the card, as a true return cannot be made.The customer has also opened a dispute with his banking institution against this order, and as that is the case, the resolution that the customer receives will be coming through his bank dependent upon their findings at the conclusion of the dispute.At this time we would like to consider the issue resolved, but if there is anything further we can do for the customer while the dispute is resolved, we would like the customer to feel free to reach out to us at [redacted]

Revdex.com:After posting a negative review of Raise on another website, I was indeed offered a $10 credit.  As a result, I consider my issue resolved. But I encourage Raise to offer an appropriate solution more quickly to other customers when this problem occurs, and not require them to take their battle public to get a resolution.  Their policy of offering another coupon on a future purchase is not sufficient. 
Sincerely,
Charlotte [redacted]

After again reviewing Revdex.com complaint number [redacted] and the corresponding order number, we are, unfortunately, unable to offer the customer a different resolution. The 100 Day Money-Back Guarantee is in place to protect customer’s purchases, but much like a warranty, that is a strict time frame so we do encourage customers to use the gift cards within that first 100 day period from the date of purchase. As stated in the Raise Guarantee, requests regarding orders outside of 100 days are not honored. While we understand that the gift card did have an issue, and the customer is not just looking to return a product, as Raise was not contacted within the guarantee period, we are unable to honor the request.The 100 day period for this customer would have ended as of January 15, 2016. Had the customer contacted Raise regarding the issue on or before that date, we would have been able to look into this and provide further assistance. As the Raise Guarantee has ended, we are unable to provide further action on the order.For the inconvenience in this we would like to sincerely apologize.

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,
Donald [redacted]

After receiving Revdex.com complaint number [redacted]
rgb(51, 51, 51); background-color: rgb(245, 245, 245); font-size: 14.6667px; font-family: Arial;">, we were able to review the order in question.
Order [redacted] was placed by the customer on September 29, 2016 for two gift cards, one for Starbucks Coffee and one for [redacted]. The total purchase price for the [redacted] card was $42.00 with a value of $50.00.
The customer contacted Raise on October 3, 2016 by both phone and email notifying us that they desired to cancel this order as they did not realize the [redacted] card was only applicable for online use. The agent informed the customer that due to the gift card having a full balance, we were unable to cancel the order for misinterpretation of how a particular gift card is redeemed, as stated in the 100 Day Money-Back Guarantee (https://www.raise.com/return-policy).
The customer reached out to Raise again on November 6th, 2016 and November 10th, 2016 to notify us that they were not able to use the [redacted] gift card online as it was showing as invalid. Regrettably, our Member Services Team was unable to respond in a timely fashion and this inquiry was responded to on November 16th, 2016. The agent informed the customer that the gift card was still indeed valid, as it was showing a full balance online. The balance was double checked in a test order to ensure validity. As a result, we have requested an image of the error message, to better understand what the issue may be and offer further assistance.
We are working to minimize our overall response time as we understand the extra time taken is an inconvenience, and it is our greatest priority to improve our communication with members.
Again, we would like to apologize for any inconvenience this has caused for the customer and are happy to continue to work with them through email to make sure the issue is resolved.

After receiving Revdex.com complaint number [redacted], we were able to review the order in question and offer a solution to the customer.On May 5, 2017, the customer purchased two [redacted] gift cards valued at $25.00 each for a final purchase price of $46.58.On May 6, 2017, the customer contacted Raise...

via live chat informing the supporting agent that these cards were coming up as “zero balance or invalid”. The member had also requested a refund via Raise.com’s self service tool via the customer’s order history. Due to this card coming from a trusted seller, the refund request would have to be sent to our Gift Card Support team for further review. The supporting agent informed the customer that this process will take anywhere from 7-10 business days.On May 19, 2017, our Member Services team reached back out to the customer with an update after hearing back from both our Gift Card Support Team and the brand. The brand had informed us that both of these cards were merged onto a 3rd party card on May 6, 2017, and then redeemed on May 8, 2017. The brand’s redemption restrictions state that only one gift card may be used on an online booking.In addition, our terms for this brand state that “Raise is not liable for the value of [redacted] cards once their funds have been consolidated and/or fully redeemed.” Because of the information that was provided directly from the brand, and these cards being sold directly to this buyer from a trusted seller, we are unable to provide a refund for successful redemption at this time.We encourage the customer to reach out to the brand directly for more information regarding these cards. We are unable to gather more information due to privacy concerns. At this time, we would like to consider the issue resolved as the brand has informed us that these cards were successfully redeemed after they were merged into one. If any other information is obtained by the customer, we would be happy to work with all parties to ensure this gets resolved if there was any miscommunication. Any follow up can be sent via email to [redacted]@raise.com and we’d be happy to review further.

Complaint: [redacted]
I am rejecting this response because: The 100 day guarantee is not acceptable considering the gift cards never expire and the seller can just wait until the 100 days is up and use the gift card before the buyer has a chance to use it knowing that you won't do anything about it after the 100 days is up.  The seller use this guarantee to their advantage and it seems to happening more often now.  If the gift card does not have an expiration date, then the guarantee should not expire either.  You should stand behind the gift cards you sell instead of making it so easy for the seller to steal the funds back after the 100 days is up knowing you won't do anything about it.  All gift cards can be looked up to see when they were used with a little research.  This policy is not acceptable.
Sincerely,
[redacted]

After receiving and reviewing Revdex.com complaint number [redacted] and the corresponding order number, it appears that the current resolution is warranted.On February 15, 2016 the customer purchased a [redacted] Subs gift card from Raise.com with a balance of $100.00 for a purchase price of $80.00. The...

customer then contacted Raise Member Services on June 13, 2016. At that time, the serving agent escalated the case to the Gift Card Support Team. This team addressed all orders outside of the 100 Day Money-Back Guarantee to assess if we are able to offer any further assistance on the order. 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 July 25, 2016. The customer was not offered a refund as the request for review was brought to the attention of Raise outside of the Raise Guarantee. The Raise Guarantee is in place to protect the purchase price of all gift cards for the first 100 days from the purchase date. After that time, Raise is happy to look into the issue, but a refund or replacement card is only guaranteed for the first 100 days. The Raise Guarantee does abide by a strict time frame, so we encourage members to use the gift cards within the Raise Guarantee period so that if an issue does occur, we are able to fully cover the purchase. We understand that the customer waited an unacceptable time frame for a resolution, and we are actively working to minimize our response times for the Gift Card Support Team. Our sincerest apologies go out to the member for this inconvenience, and we would like to consider the issue resolved at this time.