WiredPlastic Company holds funds without reason Ripoff Utah Internet
I have been using this card for about 18 months and have had one problem after another with them holding funds for no reason, even after receiving verification from merchants that the funds had indeed been refunded.
True Examples(just over last 2 months):
Used PNC ATM in Wawa to withdrawal 500.00 (car was in shop, needed to pay them to get car out of shop)...ATM failed to dispense funds, but deduction was processed from my account. When I called Wiredplastic, they informed me that it would take 30 days for funds to be released and that I had to contact PNC. PNC refused to help stating that it is WiredPlastics responsibility to rectify the situation. This went on all day back and forth. They would not release my money back nor file a complaint with PNC until I threatened to contact a lawyer and pursue not only the 500.00 but money I would lose for shop storage fees and lost wages if I was not able to get to work while they held funds. They suddenly became agreeable and released the funds after a fax from myself with the ATM receipt which showed transaction had not been processed.
Used card at Lukoil for gas purchase of 30.00. Lukoil states card declined but 30.00 was deducted from my acct. WiredPlastic states that it is Lukoil's fault and even with verbal verification from Lukoil to date will still not release funds back to account.
On November 16,2006 a representative with Virgin Mobile accidently processed my payment twice for 42.80. The mistake was refunded the same day and rectified on Virgin Mobile's end. To date, Wired Plastic with verbal and written confirmation will not release my funds back to my acct. Have had several three-way calls with both companies and have escalated situation to suporvisors on both ends and they still will not release funds. (never mind the sarcasm and poor customer service recieved from some of the reps spoken with at Wired plastic).
These are just 3 incidents within the past 2 months. They continue to explain to me that the terms and conditions state that it is possible for funds to be held for UP TO 30 DAYS.The following are excerpts from their actual "HOLD" rules from terms and conditions listed on their website:
*** If you authorize a transaction and then fail to make a purchase of that item as planned, the approval may result in a hold for that amount of funds for up to thirty (30) days on normal transactions and up to ninety (90) days on car rental transactions.
*** When you present your Card to a merchant, the merchant may obtain a preauthorization for the transaction. Examples of merchants that perform this preauthorization are hotels, car rental companies, restaurants, etc. A thirty (30) day hold will be placed on the value on the Card in the amount of the preauthorization request made by the merchant.
*** If the merchant's preauthorization request varies from the amount of the transaction the merchant subsequently submits to the Visa system, settlement of the transaction may not remove the hold, which may remain on the Card until the hold days have expired. If your Card is subject to a hold, the value on the Card that is subject to a hold will not be available to you for withdrawal or other purposes, apart from the transaction that was the reason for the preauthorization hold.
None of the incidents I have listed would fall under these rules. These were not pre-auths nor were they "at the pump" or returns of merchandise at any retailer. They were all due to merchant or wiredplastic system failure of some sort or due to operator mistake. The terms are also written as "may be" or "if" or "possibly subject to" all referring to a "hold" status. I would like to know why this company really puts a "hold" on funds and why if due to no fault or doing of card holder do they still insist on holding these funds even after verbal and written confirmation from merchants involved?
Jacquelin
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
U.S.A.
1 Updates & Rebuttals
Heidi
Tampa,Florida,
U.S.A.
Withheld Funds
#2Consumer Suggestion
Fri, March 16, 2007
Credit card process:
When a card is swiped or a CC number processed, the exact actions are as follows (and this will explain why your money is held and what you can do).
1. Authorization for the amount requested is sent to the card company first. Wired Plastic does NOT do an address/zip verification, but if the money is available will put a hold on the funds and supply an authorization code and customers billing address to the requesting Merchant account computer verification system.
2. The Merchant account (the person the store uses to process all credit cards) will, 95% of the time, do an address/zip verification or PIN code verification depending on how you enetered the information at the store. The Merchant account can then place a decline on your card if your address doesn't match OR the PIN is incorrect.
3. Acceptance or Denial is sent to the store/vendor.
As you can see, Wired Plastic doesn't always issue the denail, as a matter of fact they rarely do, its the merchant account verification process that does.
I have been a customer of Wired Plastic for more than 4 years, and have had the same problem many times. I've faxed an email, this month actually, requested they reconsider their current approval process to include address/zip verification. This might cause more declines if your address doesn't match, but it WILL keep them from holding as much of your funds as they do!
How to fix the holds: Wired Plastic requires the vendor to supply their Merchant number AND the authorization number they received from their Merchant Account supplier. If the amount is less than $100, a phone call will do. If, however, it is more than $100, you will need a letter on company letterhead stating the Merchant #, Authorization #, and that the authorization will not be used or you owe nothing, whichever is the case.
Just FYI, may companies will say they processed a cancellation of the authorization, but they DO NOT. They are under the mistaken assumption that the authorization will expire in 3 to 5 days. While this is true on a credit card, it is NOT true on a Debit/Prepaid card. It has taken me many phone calls to many vendors to get this thru their heads. Most of the time I simply end up waiting the 30 days for the funds to be returned.
My suggestion would be to fax them a letter, as I did, requesting they require an address/zip verification be added to their authorization process! If we can get enough members to do this, we stand a chance of it happening :)
I hope some of this information helps!