Purchased 3 nights at a hotel on despegar.com that was 100% refundable. Ended up canceling it. Despegar only put 2 out of the 3 nights back to the Barclaycard Arrival. Despegar has apparently 0 English support so we went to Barclay. We have proof we are owed the full 100% amount (everything ever sent to us says refundable with no strings attached.) Everyone at Barclay agrees with us on the phone and understands the problem.


Original purchase: 1,000
Refunded amount: 700
[Despegar, today, still shows All inclusive / Cancel for free until 10 days before check-in.
Book now and save 35% on your stay!]

We want the full $1,000 obviously, yet Barlcay claims "this is in our favor" because we got $700. Do they not understand? Three cases later, the SAME FORM LETTER is consistently sent to us. Again, every single person we speak to understands we are owed $1,000 back, not just $700, yet the same damn letter comes. It's ridiculous. I don't even know where to turn now, because if I call in, the agent is going to be super nice and apologize and state, yes we should get the full purchase price of $1,000 ($300 more back to the card) but are simply going to create a new "case" and about 3-4 weeks later a letter will come and say "congratulations, despergar.com has refunded $700."

I've never had any issues with Chase or Citi like this, we don't know what to do at this point.

Barclays CS is horrendously bad.

Ring and attempt to speak to a supervisor.

Its funny how all the blogs scream so much for Barclay Arrival cards but never mention that their CS is completely incompetent. Very poor and bordering on the worst of the major companies across the board.

I use a few of their products. However when there ever is a problem or issue of any kind they are very poor one of the worst. By the way I have minimal CS issue and I have a large high volume business. However for me the best is FIA, AMEX, and BOA is pretty good an some of the premiim cards like Merrilsl Lynch card even better CS.

Barclays is utterly incompetent.

Case in point...

Today in the postal mail, both myself and my wife received an identical form letter from Barclays. It informed us that "recently" I had applied for one of their business cards. They were unable to approve the request for that card, which they had already notified about me in a previous mailing. But they said that they had failed to provide the reason they denied me. They were now informing me that the reason for the denial was because the business had not been open long enough.

I applied for their business card in June of 2013.

It appears their working definition of "recently" is almost a year and a half. Or else they have a bit a backlog in their mail department.

I generally try to charge anything that I might need to dispute on an Amex card.

It's not just disputes with Barclays that are a joke - any customer service interaction at all is a mess. They just pick from a list of allowed options. Often, none hit the mark.

Messaging their customer service is also pathetic. Often, the response doesn't even have any relation to the question.

Great rewards come with useless CS.

It sounds as if the person creating the case is entering the disputed amount as $300. The person who investigates the case sees a credit for $700, and thinks you have received more than you requested.

I would enter the dispute, in writing as required by law, for the full amount of $1000.

Chase is the same way (if not worse)
it seems like all their "decision makers" are all outsourced overseas, and the US based reps are not much better
.
Also I had the Hilton hotel in Madrid, charge me a "no show" fee" even though I cancelled in ample time
Anyway, I enlisted the help of Chase, they sent me the usual "documentation from the merchant" (supposedly) proving the Charge as valid and, all but closed the case
I ended up resolving the issue and getting my refund through Hilton corporate Anyway, Chase disputes department SUCkS
the only good news is , I got the UR points

No surprise, because bloggers make money on applications through referral links, not on the well-informed-ness of blog readers.

The first one or two cases, they made the dispute $300. They wouldn't let us do anything else even though we protested. The last two cases, which yes, we did have to fax things several times (they lost them, shocking), we did dispute the full $1,000 and explained we did receive $700, but that isn't a full-refund as shown by the documentation attached. No one from Barclay has even contacted the vendor, and this has been open since July!

My husband called yesterday and the last case (#4 I think) was closed, but #3 is still open they claim...and are continuing to investigate. We always knew Amex had the best CS, but really are still shocked at just how bad Barclaycard is with disputes. I've had great luck with Citi, so we'll stick to Amex or Citi in the event we use a new website/seller.

PS everyone stay away from despegar.com obviously, and shame on tripadvisor for showing them as the lowest rate. Live and learn, we wanted to lock in the lowest rate for a wedding in Cancun, but then the wedding planner had a lower rate a month later so we jumped on that instead. The Barclaycard Arrival came with $400 of free credits so I guess we're technically still ahead by a small amount...

Barclays are basically subprime.

One of those companies where as long as you never need to contact them and you're getting your 2.2%... Everything is great. As soon as you do... FML.

My data point is my wife applying for the Arrival+. It's been a month and the card isn't here yet. CS keeps telling her to wait. The card is obviously lost or never mailed in the first place.

Then they say ok, we can UPS it... For $30.

Makes you wish for Amex.

I agree this card is only worth the rewards as long as you don't need cs support. It's like a self service gas station. Best card for dispute is amex. I used amex and chase for disputes. Chase would ask for more info but amex was quite simple. I did it online and it was done deal. I just hope I would need to call Barclaycard cs cause they are incompetent.

Citi is also great

That's why I switched back to them from Chase
In my opinion, what's the point of having a good relationship with a bank and use their rewards program If you can't rely on them in times of need?
best give up some rewards potential but have the best of both worlds and some peace of mind. Especially overseas...

based on what I am reading in this thread added with my personal experience with Chase disputes, I will call it a tie
Chase's outsourced "decision makers " are so dumb that it's their own lack of even attempting to understand a problem, is what takes up the most time during a dispute, more than anything else

Barclay is useless with support but good with waiving fees and such

I stayed 2 nights at a B&B and, because their merchant code is "restaurant/eating places", I could not redeem my Arrival points online. Called customer service to see if I could redeem anyway and they were powerless/useless in being able to change the designation. Capital One Venture's customer service will gladly and easily change it for you.