On October 30-31st, I went to Walmart with almost $5,000.00 to purchase Walmart MoneyCards for my wife. She is an attorney who needed a way to pay case filing fees to the Federal Courts because her bank accounts had been hacked and her debit Visa cards were not safe to use. This was a short-term, stop gap measure. Filing fees to the Federal Courts must be paid online with a credit or debit card and multiple cases needed to be filed at the time her business account was hacked.
I was told by the clerk at the MoneyCard desk that "The largest amount that could be put on one MoneyCard could never be more than $500.00". Based upon that information, I told the clerk I needed 10 MoneyCards. I advised her what they were to be used for. She sold me the 10 cards after checking my ID and loaded the purchased amount onto each card.
I took all the cards back to my wife's office. Each card was activated and used to pay filing fees to the U.S. Federal Bankruptcy Court Clerk. Since each filing fee is either $274.00 or $306.00, the balance remaining on each card was less than necessary to file a second case. My wife then gave me funds to take each card back to Walmart and "reload" to a maximum of $306.00 each. The clerk accepted my money without hesitation, again looked at and copied my ID and "reloaded" the cards.
I then took the cards back to my wife who attempted to use them to file the remaining cases. Each and every card was declined. I contacted the Customer Service number on the back of the card and was informed that the cards had all been "frozen" due to "suspicious" activity. I was further told I was banned for life from every again purchasing a WalMart MoneyCard because of this activity and that I had purchased "too many" cards. I told them that the clerk didn't have any problem or explain to me any reason that would have caused me not to purchase the cards. This all occured between October 31, and Nov. 1.
On that date I advised the customer service rep that I would return to the local Walmart to have my money refunded. He told me that it would be several weeks before my money would be returned to me by check and that I should receive this check within 9-12 business days.
On November 19, I went with my wife to our local Walmart and went to the service desk. They called the customer service number at that time. I was informed then that a "refund" had been processed on November 14 and that I should receive my check in 9-12 business days yet again. I reviewed each of the card numbers with the rep and was given the same date and info on each.
After waiting the 9-12 days, no check arrived so I again contacted the customer service number. This time I was told the refund had been "stopped" and was going to be held until I faxed or emailed to them my ID, each receipt, the front and back of each temporary card that had been given to me by the clerk and the front and back of the permenant cards that had been to sent to me in the mail. I asked the rep if they didn't have that in their records and he at first told me yes, but I still had to send it anyway. His supervisor later told me that they didn't maintain any records of their transactions so I had to send it. I obtained their email and fax addresses/numbers at that time.
Oh, and I can't forget the last rep told me they had to have this proof because I could have stolen the cards. I pointed out to him that yes, it was possible that anyone could run into a store and steal a handful of cards, but impossible for them to electronically "load" money onto them. That seemed to stump him for a few minutes, but finally he admitted that I couldn't have loaded to cards without paying for them first!
So... 2 weeks ago I emailed a copy of all of the above requested to the address provided. Now no one will talk to me and I have still not received one red cent. I think if I had stolen over $3,000.00 from someone and they could ID me as the thief, I'd have been charged with a felony crime weeks ago. How can they get away with it so easily?
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