[resolved] Credit Card Dispute with Valore Books Not Going Well

I've been having trouble with a Valore Books merchant. I ordered one book, and received a different one. The seller stated "no refunds." I contacted Valore Books, and they forced the seller to accept a return. I returned the book on my own dime, and the seller issued a partial refund for "buyer's remorse." I sent an email to Valore Books stating that it was not buyer's remorse, but that I was shipped the wrong book.

One week later, I received a reply from Valore Books stating that I had ordered an International Edition book (which I knew), and that the cover will often be different from the original. They would not entertain my request for a full refund. I replied back stating that the book was advertised as "same content as US edition." It was a different revision of the book with different questions, chapter layouts, and very different content. It was unusable in class!

I disputed the $19.95 difference with my Discover card. Valore Books replied that the $19.95 difference was a "shipping charge" that is not refunded. Discover rejected my dispute at that time, and are stating that I cannot dispute it again as they have to side with the information from the vendor, contrary to the information on my receipt.

I'm very frustrated; it's just $19.95, but it's the principle of the treatment from Valore Books and Discover that I'm upset with. Does anyone have any ideas of what more I should do to get my money back?

squinky86 said: I'm very frustratedMy advice is to let it go, learn from it, and don't dwell. It's 20 bucks, you've made that hundreds of times over thru this website. For 3 chipotles it's best to leave the frustration behind.

christoj879 said: Can you resubmit the chargeback under a different reason? Or talk to a CSR? I had a chargeback shot down by AMEX but a call to them cleared it up immediately.Call to Discover card again went like this:
Me: "So you're telling me they can charge whatever restocking fee they want, even if they send me the wrong item?"
Rep: "We're not a legal team. All we do is try to get the merchant to obey their business practices. If the merchant says it's buyer's remorse, they sent us a message stating that they can charge up to a 50% restocking fee. We have to side with that."

I can't even find a 50% restocking fee on the valore books site. My restocking fee was 25%.

I finally annoyed Discover into giving me their contact information for Valore Books, which they don't publish on their website. I'm calling them now. I've been on hold an awful long time...

EDIT: No dice. The representative for Valore Books was just the Paypal Pro processor. He took my information and said he couldn't guarantee anything.

I just received a reply from Valore Books. It is the same exact reply I receive every time I contact their support:Dear Jonathon,

Thank you for contacting Valorebooks.com customer service department!

What is the ValoreBooks Return Policy?

1. All items are refundable for 30 days from the date of purchase. Return items must be postmarked within 30 days of your purchase date to be eligible for a refund.
2. Orders that are returned due to customer error may be charged with a restocking fee up to 15% of total order price (total order price = shipping cost + book price).
3. Orders that are returned due to seller error will be refunded the full amount.


You have ordered an International Edition version of the textbook. The seller of your item provided notes at time of purchase, indicating that this item was an International Version. This item was also listed in the “Alternate Editions” section. Please see notes, “ Notes: "metric international version". Hardcover. ISBN is different from US edition but the content is same. Do not accept return. Fast shipping. Condition: New Media Mail ($64.00) $0.00 ($64.00) 30-Jan-10”.

Some sellers on our site choose to sell these versions in order to offer students a lower price for virtually the same content. An International Edition is basically the same as a regular Student Edition. International just means that this book was printed somewhere outside the US. Differences may include different ISBN numbers, a paperback cover, or a different cover design. Additionally, the pages inside may be in black and white rather than in color and the page numbers may be slightly off in some cases. Besides these cosmetic differences, the content of the International Editions are usually the same. If you wish to return this International Edition book for a refund, please follow our standard return policy, provided below.


Thanks,
Lani
Customer Service
ValoreBooks.com

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________________________________________
From: squinky86@gmail.com [squinky86@gmail.com]
Sent: Tuesday, March 09, 2010 5:34 AM
To: ValoreBooks.com
Subject: Marketplace Question - General Info (jonathon hood)

------------------------------------------------------
This email was sent from the ValoreBooks.com contact us page.
------------------------------------------------------

Name: jonathon hood (It's Jonathan Hood -jh)
Email: squinky86@gmail.com
Order #: (BLOCKED OUT FOR SECURITY -jh)
Subject: General Info
Let's parse this message a bit. Their first claim is that I received a 15% restocking fee. As you can see, I was refunded $64. The purchase is as follows:Item Total: $80.00
Shipping Total: $3.95
Total: $83.95
So a 15% restocking fee would be how much? That's right, $12.59. Let's also assume that they won't refund shipping. That makes it $16.54 I have to pay in fees. Now, $83.95 - $16.54 = $67.41!
According to Valore Books' policy, I should have received a $67.41 refund if the problem was on my end. I only received $64.

This scenario assumes that I was in the wrong. I, the buyer, was not in the wrong - the seller shipped me an earlier edition of the book and did not advertise it as such. In fact, they advertised it as "ISBN is different from US edition but the content is same." This turned out to be very untrue. Therefore, it is the seller's mistake.

squinky86 said: GreyRabbit said: Write Discover a letter disputing the charge. Say something simple like this, I purchased product, received product was different then product offered, I dispute the whole charge and will not deal with Valore Books in the future.
Make sure you send it as a letter.I didn't know there was a difference between starting the dispute process over the phone or via snail mail. I will definitely send them a letter tonight.

Per the law, you have 60 days to dispute. The dispute MUST BE IN WRITING to preserve your legal rights. While many CC's allow you to verbally file a dispute, a verbal dispute does not receive the same legal rights as a written dispute.

Also as mentioned above, keep the dispute to about two sentences. Reason for dispute is that the book received was not the book as described.

gatzdon said: The dispute MUST BE IN WRITING to preserve your legal rights. While many CC's allow you to verbally file a dispute, a verbal dispute does not receive the same legal rights as a written dispute.
This point cannot be overemphasized. Do it today!

Thanks guys; I missed the mailman today. The letter will be sent first thing tomorrow.

ziffy said: DamnoIT said: Discover is the absolute worst to dispute with. I have a couple times where vendors send bad products and din't refund. Disputed with Discover and they always sided with the merchant. I canceled then signed up a couple times to get some bonues and have canceled again. Maybe if they have another big bonus I will do the same to get back even better at them.

I have to agree. That's why I don't use Discover. Don't even try to use Paypal with Discover... no winning on dispute.

I'll add my agreement. Discover card does not support the consumer at all. Of all the cc's I have ever had, they are the worst for disputes.

I would recommend you get a copy of Howard Strong's book, "What Every Credit Card Holder Needs To Know: How To Protect Yourself and Your Money". It has great advice about how to dispute charges correctly. That being said, Discover Card has a reputation of siding with the merchant. Good luck.

How is Schwab as far as protecting the customer rights? I only ask because Discover is my basic card for purchases, but I've been looking at moving to the Schwab 2% card.

I just received a call from April from Valore Books. She apologized profusely for the misunderstandings on their end, and issued a refund that should show on my credit card statement in 2-5 days! Bravo for Valore Books finally fixing the issue. It did take them four tries, but when they realized their mistake (and with a bit of persistence), they fixed it.

markbyte said: Maybe they found out you were posting about them here.They found out I was posting on mymoneyblog.com

vsk said: Discover card is the worst [...] HSBC is the worst.So which is the worst?

squinky86 said: I just received a call from April from Valore Books. She apologized profusely for the misunderstandings on their end, and issued a refund that should show on my credit card statement in 2-5 days! Bravo for Valore Books finally fixing the issue. It did take them four tries, but when they realized their mistake (and with a bit of persistence), they fixed it.

Congrats!

I do think you give them too much credit though in your comments on the MyMoneyBlog. They completely shafted you and only reacted in response to some bad PR. It's like being grateful to the guy who's beating you w/ a stick when he stops.

Sure it's better than continuing to ignore you but the problem never should have happened in the first place and they have made no pledges to change their process so that the same error doesn't happen again. They fixed your mistake because of the bad PR but give us no reason to believe they're not going to continuing shafting others.

CUSTOMERSERVICEVB said: Thanks for giving us the opportunity to make it right
You can do this (in my world, "to thank" means "to show gratitude", not just a figure of speech) by refunding him for the shipping back to the merchant. And keep the money he spent for the multiple phone calls.