On 12/25/08 I discovered that 14 unauthorized charges were made to my Netspend debit card. I called Netspend and was HORRIFIED to find out that not only was all of my money taken but there wasn't anything I could do about it. According to netspend, because these transactions are still "pending" I have to wait until they go through and then and only then can I start the dispute process (oh yes, and all the transactions were made on 12/24 and it is now 12/26 & they are still "pending"). Meanwhile I have $0 and I could be waiting for who knows how long to get my money back. The company treated me as if I were to blame for using my debit card online at some point in my life allowing someone to hack into my computer and gain access to my #. I was able to contact some of the companies that charges were made from and they were wonderful in immediately refunding my money when they realized that the billing address that the person who stole my number used and my actual billing address did not match up.
Another point I brought up to Netspend was how the transactions were allowed to be authorized if the billing address did not match up. They had no answer for this and continued to tell me that they couldn't do anything until the merchants collected their money. Many of the merchants were unable to be contacted because they are fraudulent businesses who's telephone numbers lead to no where or have been disconnected. I was informed by Netspend that many of these companies were associated with an online gambling site that is out of the country. I am filing a complaint because of the inability and unwillingness of the company Netspend to answer for why they approved transactions when the billing address was incorrect and also for their "too bad so sad" attitude towards refunding my money or helping me expedite the return of my money from these fraudulent charges. They made me feel like i was being punished for having my debit card # stolen and now I have to figure out what I am going to do for money until my dispute goes through. Nobody at the company speaks English and they all read from a script. God forbid you ask them a question that they don't have a scripted answer for because then they just start rattling on about the closest thing they have in their script even if it has NOTHING to do with the question you just asked. If you are even entertaining the thought of using Netspend don't!
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