Complaint Review: Green Dot Corporation

I purchased a prepaid Nascar VISA card with $100 cash (could not purchase any other way) to give my son for his birthday. During the activation process, after everything seemed to be done, the "activation specialist" started trying to sell me something else and before I could say no thanks, the call was cut off or dropped. I called back and when I re-entered the activation code, I got a message that the card was already activated. This was on a Saturday. That same day, I gave my son the piece of paper I was given as a facsimile of the gift card until I received the actual card. On the following Monday I found an email from Green Dot Corporation (email address said "AutomatedMsg@NextEstate.com, whatever that is . . .) stating that their records indicated that they started the activation process but were unable to complete the process. It gave a phone number to call to complete the activation. When I called, it asked for the activation number, which I no longer had in my possession, and after several attempts pressing "0", "*", etc., it finally went on and I finally reached a live person. I explained the problem and asked if they could tell if my card was activated or not. They couldn't help in any way, but gave me a reference number and promised that someone would investigate and give me a call within one day. No one called back and now when I try to call either the activation line or the customer service line, it says my activation is "still under review--thank you, goodbye" and hangs up!!! I have called over and over and there is NO WAY to ever get to a human being to speak to about the problem.

At this point, I am quite certain that I have been ripped off to the tune of $100 cash and have no recourse to recover it.

Diane
Dallas, Texas
U.S.A.