I just joined SERVE.COM, a prepaid card by American Express. They happen to use green dot Money Pak to load money onto the card QUICKLY, BUT BEWARE. Yesterday I load $500 via 7-11 in San Francisco onto a Green dot Money Pak to load onto my SERVE.COM American Express card! Green Dot admitys that they were having problems wityh their system, and then with the load process, seems that they were unable to read the confirmation number, (which smacks of changes being rushed to production WITHOUT proper QUALITY TESTING, (let's just test it LIVE!)), they admit to the problems, but they are making it MY problem that my $500 has disappeared. They say that unless I have the receipt for the purchase of the Money Pak card , they WILL NOT refund me the money that their SYSTEM ERROR ATE, even though they admit that there was a problem yesterday with their system, and I am just one of MANY that are having this issue! Well I was traveling yesterday in San Francisco, and after I got the error trying to load my American Express SERVE card with the money pak, tried to call Green Dot and find out what was up. I couldn't get through, all circuits were busy all day,and when I did get through their automated system would just disconnect me, POOR CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE!! I spent the night trying to get through to Green Dot and never could, I did get through to SERVE.COM a and spoke technical person who explained to me that they had been notified by that thy Green Dot were problems with reading confirmation number, and that if I tried the load and got an error I should wait about an hour and see if the money showed up in my account. So I did, I tried the load 1pm, so I waited till 4pm and no money, so I again and this time the error was that the card contained zero WHERE WAS MY MONEY NOW THEN?
I went to bed up set and frustrated. So this morning I got up at 5am and called Money Pak. I sat on hold ever 3 minutes how they valued me as a customer, though they had shipped all their jobs to India and hired 2 people to answer the lines, yes they value me! Remember also I AM PAYING A FEE TO USE THIS SERVICE!
After being on hold for 2 hours and 45 minutes I finally got to speak to an almost English speaking rep, who spoke to me for a minute gave me no information and HUNG UP ON ME! I was irritate, I called SERVE.COM got a really wonderful woman who said she would 3 way dial her Green Dot rep, who was no all that helpful, he basically told me that I would need to have the receipt to do anything. all over the card it says treat it like cash, no where does it say SAVE THE RECEIPT He had me fax the card, the store I bought it at, the time, and told me to contact the manager to see about getting a copy of the receipt. Well I called 7-11 and the manager was not in yet, later he had left for the day. I spoke to the Assistant Manager who said "This is 7-11" and hung up on me.
Green Dot had the problem, their system fucked up, and yet I am having to jump through hoops to PROVE that I lost 500 bucks to their system glitch "and lack of system quality assurance" in their system updates!
So tomorrow I will try again to get a copy of their receipt, or I might be out $500! Great jpob Green DOT!
4:50 PM PT: Even through it is not their Problem, the people at Serve have been witnessing my pain at the handas of their abusive and unhelpful Green Dot Customer Service Reps, and just called to inform me that they have credited my account $100 for having to deal with it! I WILL NEVER GIVE UP MY SERVE ACCOUNT, but I will never use Green Dot to load funds again, I am going to link my account, and wait the 3-5 business days for a FREE ACH transfer from now on, Green Dot be damned!
10:35 PM PT: Per comments from readers I have filed complaints with the CA Attorneuy General's Office and the CFBC. I doubt anything will come of this, I doubt that the manager at 7-11 is going to want to bother, even if he can, track down my lost receipt, and I doubt that I will ever see a dime of my $500 from that slimy company, Green Dot. it is sad that companies like Green Dot exist to prey on those of us that can least afford it, but from everything I have read, Green Dot exists to do nothing else but steal and rob from people through their extraordinary fees and all too common mishaps! Why they have not been shut down I will never figure out. So just add this to the going number of rants about the slime buckets that call themselves Green Dot, may they long suffer for their wicked ways!
Wed Sep 26, 2012 at 4:01 PM PT: SHOCK OF SHOCKS! Today I got a call from a manager at Green Dot who said that she was able to verify my purchase, and the money is now available! BLESSED BE. This is a truly scary thing that a private corporation can have so much control over one's life and when the "system" messes up there is nothing that can be done!