On December 30, 2010. I bought a greendot Wal-Mart prepaid credit card for $250.00 plus the $3.00 fee because way back when you used to be able to fund your PayPal account with credit cards. It's my bad I didn't check and make sure you could still do it this way. So no problem I saw where you could get a moneypak card to fund your PayPal account.So I paid the $2.00 fee the atm charged plus the $2.00 fee greendot charges that left me with $6.00 on the card.(Oops I went to the smoke shop and had them charge $7.00 on the card.I guess I owe them $1.00.)I then went back and purchased a moneypak card for the $250.00 plus the $4.95 fee.
Still Dec 30, 2010 I thought now I'm set, I don't have to wait 5-10 business days for PayPal to load my account if I transferred the money from my bank account.Moneypak is supposed to transfer instantly.Right.Guess what it didn't work. I tried going to PayPal and using the add funds with moneypak it didn't go thru due to technical difficulties and to try back in an hour. One hour later I tried to put the $250.00 toward my PayPal account again. I received the same messages.So I waited and tried again the next day
Dec 31, 2010 I received the same messages on 3 different occasions. I tried calling customer service both with moneypak and PayPal the guy I talked to from PayPal said he had never heard of anyone having that type of problem the guy I talked to at moneypak said the card was fine and that it was a PayPal issue.
Jan 1, 2011 I tried several more times received the same messages I tried calling customer service for both moneypak and PayPal again they were both closed for New Year's Day. I had noticed on moneypaks website that it said you can pay some bills with moneypak so I thought I would see if the moneypak card would work doing that.Dish Network was the bill I paid with my moneypak I used $75.00 dollars of the moneypak card towards my dish network bill I figured that would leave $175.00 for my PayPal account when the customer service opened the next day.
Jan 2, 2011. I tried loading my PayPal account again it showed where I had the $175.00 left on my moneypak but I was still receiving the same messages.I called customer service for PayPal and told my story to 3 different people (the first person transferred me to the second person who transferred me to the 3rd person) and the 3rd person transferred me to a customer service person at moneypak who told me that I needed to talk to PayPal and she said that it showed it still had the $175.00 on it, I explained that I had talked to PayPal several times and they said they had no issues she then transferred me to a second person at moneypak and she told me the card was invalid. That freaked me out where the heck did the $175.00 go, she then transferred me to a third person at moneypak and that woman said that the reason the moneypak didn't work was because I had used it to pay dish network and that you could only use it one time.I asked her about the times I had tried to use the moneypak to load my PayPal account before I used it at dish network. She didn't get it she just said that once I used it a dish network it wouldn't work on PayPal or anywhere else.I had to try to explain it to her 6 different times I tried using it on PayPal first. Then she told me it must have been a PayPal issue and offered me a refund of the $175.00. I asked if she could put the rest of the moneypak money on the greendot credit card I purchased and she said no that the moneypak card wasn't good anymore because I had used $75.00 of it for dish network. She said I could get a refund check in 2-4 weeks.Seeing as how this was my only option and at least she wasn't telling me that the card didn't have any money on it I decided to take the refund check before the money magically disappeared again.
I don't understand how if the moneypak and greendot credit card is with the same company why she couldn't put the moneypak money on the greendot visa card so that at least I could access to it right away.
I don't understand why on the moneypak card it doesn't state that it is good for a one time use only.
I don't understand why PayPal and greendot customer representatives said they had never heard of this issue before.Especially when the PayPal website community page has several comments on the PayPal and moneypak nightmare and the moneypak website under frequently asked questions mentions that PayPal may reject moneypak though it doesn't really give a reason why.
Wal-Mart and greendot seem to have a pretty good scam going.You pay $3.00 or $4.95 to get the cards and since moneypak doesn't tell you that you are only able to use it once and you have to wait 2-4 weeks for a refund of the additional money plus Wal-Mart also gets check cashing fee when you take your refund check in ($175.00 I know isn't that much to them but multiply that by thousands of customers and I'm sure it adds up) they get to use that money for whatever they want for free on top of the fees they charge for their cards. It's interest free money for them.I'm not sure what is in it for PayPal on denying loading the card maybe they get some kind of kickback but I am figuring it's actually on greendots side.
IThink some lawyer ought to get rich filing a class action lawsuit against moneypak for not warning customers that they can only use the card once maybe if they were made to pay enough they would straighten up their act.
I think Wal-Mart should stop partnering with greendot on prepaid credit cards they are big enough to help some other company mass market a prepaid credit card program. The other stores would follow suit with them in supporting another company.
I spent over 5 hours on the phone with customer service both with moneypak and PayPal over a 4 day period.It made me more depressed and physically and emotionally exhausted for the last 3. It does not help that I am bipolar.
It cost me $9.95 and the use of my $175.00 for 2-4 weeks plus I think Wal-Mart charges $3.00 to cash the check when I receive it so I guess that will actually be $12.95 to pay $75.00 dollars on my cable bill.
I am not sure if dish charges any of that $75.00 as a fee for using a moneypak I didn't see anything on their website but I thought I saw where they would charge a fee on the moneypak website.
I will update this when I receive my refund check in 2-4 weeks 4 weeks will be up Feb 1, 2011.If I don't get my check I will let everyone know that too. |