I have a problem that I need some advice for. Last month I had an unauthorized charge on my bank card/Visa for $399. My wife had called the company for some information and was talked into a free 30 day sample of the product. She gave them the credit card number and they shipped the product. (yes, I have told her not to do it again), We immediately shipped the product back and got a confirmation number. We where billed anyway.

Here's the problem. We asked the company to credit back the money and it has been over 45 days and they still haven't done it so we went to the credit union and asked for a chargeback. We showed them all the information we had including the confirmation letter from the company. The credit union wants us to go to the police department and file a fraud charge against the company before they will do anything.

From my experience of having charges reversed against me I know the police were never inolved. Does this seem strange to you guys?

At this point they have the product and my $399 and we aren't getting help from either side.

That can be the case yes, The police may not do much since it is under $500 dollars and a misdemeanor, I would do what your credit union aks. Or ask them to file the police report and you will do your portion

Yeah, I will do what they want. It's just a pain. You are right, the police don't even want to be invoved it seems. Got the police repoprt though. In the past if I had a disputed charge I never had to got through all of this. The bank usually had my money back in the account within 30 days. Haven't had it happen much but it has happened. Had a waitress add $20 to her tip once. She was fired and I got 4 free appetizers. (and yes I had already tiped 20%) I guess she figured I wouldn't notice it.

When you're done with the chargeback, start using a different credit card. There are more helpful banks out there.