Complaint Review: Walmart Money Card

I have had a Walmart money card for at least 2 years now and up until this past year I have never had a real issue with the company. I once several months ago returned an item and the company I made the return with would automatically post the money back into your account. Well not with Walmart money card. I ended up having to wait 4 days before it was in my account. Not only was this an inconvenience for me but I only returned the item because I needed the money. I was very upset by this but I tried to not let it get to me.

Now I am ready to close my account. I made a purchase at a gas station on 12/23/2010. When I originally went to pay for the purchase I used my money card which I used as debit and was also requesting cash back. Well at the same time as I was using the card there debit machine went down and the transaction was canceled. At first the cashier wasn't sure if the systems were down or not so she tried my card a second time and both times the transactions canceled. So I went to the ATM to withdraw the cash and when I checked my balance I noticed that the two transactions that were canceled were still being held on my account and my account ended up being over $100 short. When I got home I called the customer service department and explained what had happened. The girl I spoke to told me not to worry and that the money would be back into my account by the 28th. Well that was Christmas weekend and I was short over $100 dollars short. The excuse they gave me for the delay was that the merchant had to release the money back into my account and that they were waiting for them. Finally I gave up with arguing with the person I spoke to and kept an I on my account all weekend. Everyday there after that I checked the account online my statement always said the the transactions were pending, which that was what it originally said. When Monday the 26th came around when I checked my account it no longer said pending but said posted and not only was it posted but the date it was posted for was the 24th. So I called them again. This time I got a completely different story. I was told that the transactions were never canceled, even though I have transaction slips to prove it, and that they had to pay out to the merchant and that I needed to contact them for the money to be returned back to me or that I would need to dispute it and that if I dispute it it would take 10 business days to resolve it. So the person I spoke to told me to check with the merchant and so I did. I spoke to one manager on that Monday and she looked through all the transactions for the 23rd and saw nothing with my card being charged. She then told me to check back in the morning and to speak with another manager who may know a little more. So I called the next morning and spoke to the other manager. She as well looked through the transactions for the 23rd and for the whole weekend and never found anything showing these transactions. I once again called customer service back and spoke with a supervisor this time who ended up calling the manager and putting us on a 3 way conversation. The manger from the customer service dept. told the manager at the gas station the same thing he told me, that the transactions were never canceled and that they would have to release the money to me since they were supposedly paid for it. He at that point even gave approval numbers to search by.Well the manager at the gas station looked through all her paperwork for the weekend again and still found nothing. While she was looking through the paperwork somehow the supervisor from customer service some how either hung up or was disconnected. The manger and I at the gas station didn't even know he had hung up. We waited for a few moments thinking he had place us on hold. After a few minutes when he never came back on I had the manager at the gas station hang up and a few moments later a message came on my end to leave a comment for customer service. So its like he just ended the call. When I tried to call back to speak to the same supervisor I was told that he was no longer available and that they would patch me through to some one else. So I was placed on hold for a few minutes and then I was redirected to living another comment. I called the manger back at the gas station to let her know what was going on. She ended up having to call the district manager. Later that day I received a call from the district manager who also looked through everything and she as well was not able to find anything regarding my transactions or where they had been paid for them. At this point I did not know what to do. On Tuesday I called customer service back and was told at this point that I would have to dispute it. I was furious that they could not do anything to help me out. I was also not aware that to dispute a transaction I would have to write a letter stating what had happened and then I would have to fax it to them or mail it. So I wrote up a letter real quick and faxed it to them the same day. Well here it is January 5th and I am still waiting for my money to be returned to me. I also found out that when they told me 10 days they really meant 10 business days before I would even here back from them. So in other words I may not get this money back in 10 business days. I have been getting the run around since the beginning of all this and I am furious. Every time I call them I get the same story, that I'm either sorry or ,better yet, that I understand your frustration. Well this is all BS and I'm tired of there stories. To make matters worse it seems like every time I call I am speaking to the same person, or at least they sound the same, but I get a different name every time which I can never understand by the way. They also are not able to even give me information on who they actually paid. They keep telling me it was the gas station where I made the transaction at, but they give no bank info or even a store number. So how do I know if they even paid the right people. I have never had this problem with a prepaid card before. I am not a person who has money to just throw around. If it was like $5 or $10 it wouldn't be as big of a deal, but this was for over $100. I work pay check to pay check like most and now because of this I literally have no gas in my car to get to work now. At least until I get paid this Friday. I also recently found out that they are not even located in the US. Apparently they are located in the Philippines and when I ask for a corporate number to call they switch the subject, so I have not been able to get information on anyone higher up as far as someone to complain to. This is ridiculous. Once this money is back in my account I am closing the account immediately. All those who have this card be aware.