More from Wal-Mart

This is getting ridiculous. I'm pretty much at the end of my rope with this entire situation. I didn't blog about it yesterday because, well, I had other stuff going on.

Anyway, I spoke with the disputes department at Green Dot. As expected, they've denied our dispute. Their reason, 'You made a charge on your card 2 hours after the charge in Bulgaria.' I am not sure at ALL how this proves that we made the charge, but that is their stance on it. Apparently, even though I explained to them time and time and time again that the cards never left our wallets didn't mean a thing.

I have been told I can start another dispute, and provide more information. It was suggested to me that I contact the bank in Bulgaria to get information from them. Funny, I assumed that was the job of the disputes department...since, you know, they said they would be doing that.

At this point, I will be contacting the student legal services to see what we can do from here. I am tired of dealing with Green Dot, and this is utterly ridiculous. I have been advised that I should take this to small claims court, which is definitely an option.

I sent this letter to Green Dot customer service last night. I wonder if they'll actually respond to me?

To Whom it May Concern,

My name is April Horinek, and I am writing you regarding a situation
that I have been dealing with regarding my Green Dot Pre-Paid Money
Card through Wal-Mart. This situation has left me bewildered and
frustrated, and has left me encouraging everyone I know to avoid your
service at all costs. I found your e-mail address through various
other websites detailing complaints with your service.

On December 7, 2010, an unauthorized charge was made on my account in
the amount of $272. This was discovered when my husband (Colin
Douglas, secondary card holder) went to purchase groceries and it was
declined. As we needed groceries on our house so my family could eat,
he purchased just the essentials for the amount of $7. When he got
home and told me what had happened, I immediately logged into my
account online to see what the problem was.

This unauthorized charge was made from an ATM in Sophia, Bulgaria. I
immediately contacted your customer service department regarding this
situation. Since then, I have had nothing but trouble from your
customer service department - representatives, supervisors, and people
in the disputes department.

As a note - this happened on December 7th. On December 17th, my
husband and I took off on a cross-country move. Not having nearly
$300 was crippling throughout the move. We have had to borrow money
from family members and put off paying bills and it has really caused
a lot of issues in our lives.

I was told when I contacted your customer service department, that
there was nothing that could be done until the charge had posted to my
account. This in and of itself was strange, and was incredibly
frustrated. Several of your supervisors who I spoke to at this time
told me very clearly that my case was cut and dry...that there was no
way I could have been in Bulgaria making a withdrawal and then in
Oklahoma making one the same day! I was assured, numerous times, that
the money would be returned to me in a timely fashion. I was told by
one of your supervisors that I should call the bank in Bulgaria, to
see if they would reverse the charges for me. I explained, as
patiently as I possibly could, that I didn't speak Bulgarian. That I
couldn't even find contact information for this bank.

I also was advised to cancel my card and have a new one sent to me.
As I was moving in a week and a half, I was concerned that it would
not get to me in time. At first, I was basically told, "Tough. Thats
just too bad. But you can pay extra and get it overnighted!" Which I
thought was ridiculous. Eventually, one of your supervisors did send
us new cards at no expedited charge. That was one of the few things
your company did right through this whole mess.

I did in fact file a police report with the Tulsa PD. Unfortunately,
due to moving from Oklahoma to Montana, I never received my paper copy
of the report.

After the charge had posted to my account, I called your company to
file the dispute. At that time, I was told that they would begin the
process. They would do all of the research and all of the leg work,
and all I had to do was send in a dispute letter. As I was in the
midst of moving, it took me several days to get the dispute letter
sent. However, I was assured that it would be 7-10 business days from
the time they opened the dispute - regardless of when I sent in my
letter.

That, again, was a blatant lie. When I sent the letter in, I was told
it would be 7-10 business days from the time they received my letter.
Again though, I was assured that my situation was cut and dry, and
taht there was nothing further required of me. I asked every one of
your supervisors that I spoke with if there was anything additional I
needed to send your company. I told them I did not have the paper
police report, and I was assured that it would be fine, that it was
just not needed for my case.

This morning, I spoke with Mary in your disputes department. She told
me my dispute had been resolved, although not in my favor. Their
reasoning? "Because you made a transaction 2 hours after the $272,
you obviously still had your cards." As I explained to her - as I had
explained to EVERY SINGLE person I spoke with - we still had the cards
in our possession. The cards were never stolen. We had them, up
until we cut them up. No one else had our cards. But someone
obviously was able to get our information and forge our card. Mary
told me that I should contact the bank - IN BULGARIA - and speak with
them about getting further information and documentation proving I did
not make the withdrawal. As I said to her - that was their job to
research. I was told THEY would gather all of that information while
they were reviewing my case.

I was told that if I can get a copy of the police report, they will
consider reopening my dispute, and will start the process all over
again.

I am less than pleased with this entire situation. I have spent hours
on the phone with representatives and supervisors trying to work this
out. I have been reassured time and time again that I would have my
money back in a timely fashion, only to be denied on a completely
ridiculous basis. When my husband and I went to Mexico earlier this
year, I called a week before we left to inform your company that we
would be out of the country, just so that there would be nothing
suspicious on our card. It is impossible for a charge to be made in
Bulgaria at an ATM and then another made in Tulsa within 2 hours of
one another. I could even show you my passport that OBVIOUSLY does
not have any stamps going to Bulgaria.

I will be filing complaints with the Better Business Bureau regarding
this situation. At this time, I am discussing my options with my
husband and looking for advice through our legal aid office. We did
everything we were asked to do, and yet we are still out nearly $300.
Our money was stolen in what was OBVIOUSLY a fraudulent act, and we
have had nothing but trouble from your company - the company that we
chose to use, on good faith. I feel as though we have been given the
run around for over a month, and it is absurd. I as the customer - as
a paying customer who has been with your company for 2 years - should
not be treated in such a manner.

Thank you for your time,

April Horinek & Colin Douglas

Wal-Mart is the devil, you say? Surely not!

Or, maybe they are.
For those of you following along at home, I give you this -

So apparently I was in Bulgaria this afternoon. No, really, I was.

I am freaking out. This just might send me over the edge, here.

Colin went to get groceries. It was denied, said we were over on our card. Which is not true, since I checked it like 4 hours ago and we had nearly $300 on there.

Sometime between then and now, someone in FUCKING BULGARIA did an atm withdrawal for almost $300. Somehow they had my card and my ATM and were able to do that.

Of course, I called WalMart (it is a pre-paid debit card so we don't get ourselves into monetary trouble.) THERE IS NOTHING THEY CAN DO FOR ME. I screamed, a lot. It is the only time I've ever screamed and yelled like that on a call with someone. Apparently, at Borica Bulgaria RFB ATM, someone was able to take our money. It is pending at the moment, which means that the bank may or may not collect on it. If the bank collects on it? Then I have to write a dispute letter and we have to hope that the bank will give us the money back. If they don't, then it won't expire until the 17th. Which means I won't get the money until the 18th. A day after we are supposed to move.

I am completely freaking out right now. We SHOULD be ok without it...but that $300 was a buffer in case anything happened. That money was to make SURE that we would get to Montana safely.

Oh, even fucking better, I had to report the card as compromised. You know, so the dickwads can't take more money. Guess how long it takes to get a new card? 7-10 business days. Guess where I am SUPPOSED to be by that point? Fucking MONTANA! They can expadite it of course, but I had to pay an extra $20 to get my card in 3-5 business days!!!

I am so fucking furious I can't even see straight. I don't know what we're going to do if the money doesn't come through. I'm just thanking god that we didn't deposit the cash we have. Without the 300, we'll be OK...but...

Freaking out. Seriously. Don't know what to do. screams I don't need this!!!!!

For the past MONTH and some change, I have been battling with them. They have given me nothing but the run-around, and we still do not have our money back. I have sent them their dispute letter, I have waited patiently even though they give me conflicting information and I can hardly understand most of them. I have been incredibly patient.

Until today.

Today was a day where I nearly went through the phone and smacked someone.

Today is 10 business days from when they received my dispute letter and theoretically, they should have had a resolution for me. First call I make, I ask to speak with a manager and I am on hold for nearly 10 minutes - at which time the system automatically transfers me to the customer satisfaction survey. How do I know that is what happened? It's happened to me FIVE times through all of this.

Next I call back, and demand a manager right off the bat. Once again, on hold for too long, and I get the customer satisfaction survey. I actually DO the survey this time, and give them all crappy marks.

Third times a charm, right? I call and demand a manager off the bat, again. The guy must have realized I was incandescent with rage, as he promptly got me to a manager. This one was bright enough to check in with me every few minutes to make sure I didn't get shuffled off again.

Before I go any further, I must state that I am not mad at the supervisor I spoke to. He did everything in his power (as far as I can tell) to help me resolve my issue.

I spent another 15 minutes or so on hold, but he was very polite, and kept checking in with me. I tried very hard not to be pissy with him, he was being competent. So he gets back on the line, and tells me he has bad news for me.

He tells me they have denied our dispute. And the reason given is because 2 hours after the unauthorized charge was made, there was a $7.00 charge at a grocery store in Tulsa. So, because my husband bought groceries so we could eat, we would be penalized nearly $300? Oh hell no!

I started yelling. A lot. And crying. There were tears and a lot of incoherency. To his credit, he apologized profusely and commiserated. I explained to him in exact detail what had happened the day that the money was taken. Apparently, that was not quite what they had in the system...even though that was what I had described EVERY time I had talked to people there. And that was the exact information in my dispute letter. He offered to speak to the dispute department to see what else could be done. I told him that'd be a VERY good idea.

He told me he had sent my information along to to the dispute department with a high priority. He told me that they would review my information and they would call me back. I told him, as calmly as I possibly could, that I had been promised that before. I'd been told someone from disputes would call me, and no one had contacted me. I also impressed upon him that I wasn't angry at him, but that the situation was utterly ridiculous. That it is completely unacceptable to treat a customer the way I have been treated.

Not even 10 minutes later, I got a call from the dispute department. She assured me that the review was NOT completed yet. When I informed her that it was 10 business days, and I wanted a resolution, she told me that they had sent me an extension letter...so it would still take some time. I pretty much got the same run around from her, being told that they were still reviewing it and that it should be resolved by the end of the week. But she did promise to make sure someone called me back sometime this week.

We have to face the very real possibility that we will not be getting our money back from this little fun time. We discussed trying to go to Legal Aid if they won't give us the money back. But as Colin's dad told him, it is an international situation. So I'm guessing that is why it is taking Wal-Mart so long to do this. In fact, I am fairly certain they will not be able to get us our money back, and we're just going to be shit out of luck over it.

I can't really begin to describe how upset I am right now. I have been given the run around for over a month, and we STILL don't have our money back. God only knows when - if ever - we'll see that money again. Their customer service representatives are rude, they are IMPOSSIBLE to understand, and they obviously cannot take accurate notes. The supervisors are marginally better, but they promise things they can't deliver on.

When this is over, we will be closing down our Wal-Mart account, and we will not be using it again. If you have a Wal-Mart money card, I encourage you to do the same thing. This entire thing has been utterly ridiculous, and I feel like I've been treated horribly. In fact, at this point, I plan on avoiding Wal-Mart when at all possible. I realize there will be times when it is the only convenient option, but I will avoid it when I can. There will also be letters written to corporate and complaints written to the BBB.

So that is that. I should be getting my student loans in sometime in the next week or two, but we could REALLY use that money to live on until then. All in all, I am totally unimpressed, and pretty much furious.