Jake S.

I have been trying to purchase ACDSee Ultimate Pack through Digital River for many months.

Whenever I attempted to pay using a credit card or PayPal, the order was immediately cancelled, even though all information (e.g. The name and the billing address) was 100% correct. I tried several different credit and debit cards and both my business and personal PayPal accounts. I also tried placing the order both through my desktop and my cell phone.

On August 8,2016, I decided to place an order of the Ultimate Pack again, this time paying using a wire transfer (paying the wire transfer fee on top of the order total). I got an Order Confirmation with wire transfer instructions.

I made the payment using a wire transfer exactly in accordance with the instructions provided by the online store, including the Wire Transfer Reference Number. The wire transfer was booked on August 9,2016.

Several days went by, and nothing happened. I wrote to the online store and got the response that my order was cancelled and that "orders are typically cancelled when incorrect billing information is used".

Even though I sent proofs of payment several times (obtained from online banking), the online store customer service representatives insisted that I need to send "an actual proof of purchase" or "an actual proof of payment".

I have discussed the issue with a manager at my bank, and she told me that the wire transfer cleared correctly on our side and that she advises that the recipient contacts their bank and asks them to find it. She also gave me a printout of the transaction record, saying "this is the best we can do". I sent this document by fax to the online store.

Finally, on August 17,2016, they said "I have received the attached proof of payment" and that they will locate the payment and send it back to me. More than a week passed, and, again, nothing happened.

On August 26,2016, I sent a follow-up email and got no response. I got the following response to my August 27,2016 email: "We've looked into the status of order number *** and show that it has been cancelled. Your credit card has not been charged." (I have replaced the order number here by '***' for privacy reasons.)

From this pattern of responses, I have to assume that Digital River is refusing to refund my wire transfer payment for the order that they cancelled.

It is not a good business practice to arbitrarily cancel orders and then even refuse to refund a wire transfer payment that was made in accordance to the wire transfer instructions provided to the client. The latter is also theft and exposes Digital River to legal liabilities.

Digital River is legally obligated to provide the refund in the full amount of $53.03.

I have submitted a complaint to Better Business Bureau. It it doesn't help, I will submit complaints to Minnesota Attorney General and the Federal Trade Commission.