Complaint Review: GreenDot - Nationwide

I bought a GreenDot card from WalMart for $300.00. When I called to activate the card I chose not to give GreenDot my Social Security Number and all the other invasive information they wanted. I began using the card at Amazon.com . In about 3 months I'd only spent about $140.00 at Amazon.com with only three less than $5.00 transactions at eBay for little things like a replacement cell phone charger. One day I placed an order for an Amazon gift card. I got the order confirmation page and an email saying my virtual gift card order would arrive at the recepient's email address very soon. Later that day I went to log into my Amazon account and they said my password was incorrect.

I knew that my password was NOT incorrect so I kept trying to login, eventually even using other password like "Well maybe I used THIS one...". I was never able to log in. The next day I checked my email and saw that I had threatening emails from Amazon.com, saying that my order was on hold and I was locked out of my account until I provided CC statements. I replied that I'd placed orders before and never had a problem so what was wrong now? They sent me a generic canned response saying to send CC statements. I said that this was a GreenDot gift card, it was not reloadable therefore there were no statements.

They sent a canned reponse saying to send CC statements. I replied that I couldn't log in but there WERE NO BANK STATEMENTS BECAUSE THIS WAS A NON-RELOADABLE GIFT CARD. They sent me a canned response and said to send CC statements. I then asked for a refund as my card had been charged and I got the same canned response to send in CC statements. Since Amazon.com had charged me and hadn't sent the gift card to the recepient I decided to contact them by chat. Though I was polite, when I would not bend to the customer service guy's canned response to send proof of address and bank statements by saying I just wanted a refund instead because this is a gift card and there are no bank statements, the b*****d Paki rep "hung up" on me!

I had another chat the next day and got the same canned responses and my refund requests were completely not responded to. At this point I decided to contact GreenDot. Because I didn't give my real DOB to activate the card there was literally no way to get through the recording and to a real person. So I sent a form via their website and, to make an even longer story shorter, the reps who responded to me said they would not discuss a private matter like this via email and I had to call them. Thogh I had already explained how and why I could not reach them by phone I was told they would not discuss this in email and I had to call. I explained again that I couldn't get through due to incorrect DOB. They said to call and push (whatever).

I didn't believe this but I tried and no, that did NOT get me to a representative. I was lied to multiple times by multiple reps and then completely ignored with no response to the new form I filled out asking for help. Contact GreenDot by phone? Impossible. Get help via GreenDot support form? Impossible. I had no option left but to call GreenDot corporate office. To my surprise and forboding it turned out that GreenDot uses the same annoying robot voice AT THEIR CORPORATE OFFICE! How unprofessional and foreboding is that! I pushed several options and none of them transferred me to a real person, not even the company directory which then challenged me to type in the last name of the person I was calling for.

After several fails at reaching a real person I pushes 0 and was immediately HUNG UP ON! They programmed their system to hang up when you press 0 for an operator, can you believe it? If you're here at RipOff Report I know you can. I called back and pressed 7 for a card having been opened in my name without my consent and it finally went to a real person. I started off by annoucing that it seemed my only option now was small claims court. From talking to her I found out that - for reasons she would not or could not explain - GreenDot had "put a block" on my card, which is why it was being declined everywhere I tried to use it. After 30 minutes on the phone with that lady I was promised a refund check. That would be "signed off" on by a superior four days from then... and would reach me two weeks from that day. So in the end I did get my refund but it took weeks and if I hadn't persevered I would not have my money because GreenDot has so many things in place to keep them from having to ever provide customer service.

Then when I got to WalMart the black lady behind the counter didn't want to cash the check and had me stand there and wait while she called a manager even though I, expecting further BS, had taken in and already showed her the paper I'd torn the check from which specifically said that I could cash this GreenDot refund check at WalMart. But there's more! Since Amazon wouldn't refund my money I sent a dispute form along with the emails from Amazon showing my order and then the email saying my order was basically on hold and then two of the emails saying my order was on hold until I sent in CC statements. Yesterday I got a letter in the mail from GreenDot about my Merchandise Not Received case against Amazon.com. The letter says:

"Dear __ ___,

Thank you for contacting WalMart MoneyCard regarding your dispute claim for $XXX.XX. We value our customers and take claims of this nature very seriously.

We have concluded out investigation and determined that we are unable to grant your claim due to the reason listed below:

Per the Cardholder Agreement, Green Dot is unable to assist with disputes that are related to delivery, quality, safety, legality, or other aspects of goods and services purchased, Due to the nature of your dispute, any reimbursement would need to be provided by the merchant.

Upon request, we will send you a copy of any supporting documentation we used in making our decision. Thank you for using our financial products and we look forward to serving you again.

Sincerely,

Dispute Resolution Department"

WTF? WTF??? I was charged for an item and the seller never shipped it, I have emails to prove that, and GreenDot says "GreenDot is unable to assist" with basically literally everything someone would have to file a dispiute about? These people are seriously crooked! PLEASE: ANYONE WHO READS THIS, DO NOT EVER EVER EVER BUY A GREENDOT OR WALMART MONEYCARD! And don't trust the BBB! GreenDot has an A rating there even with thousands of complaints against them on the BBB site itself AND multiple consumer complaint websites like this. I usually think it's silly when someone here says we should do a class action lawsuit but... in this case I'm going to say it myself. We need a class action lawsuit against GreenDot!

Edit: BTW after typing all this out, RipOff Reports sent me to a blank page with an error message. Thank god I copy and pasted this into notepad in case of BS despite RipOff Report saying copy and paste is disabled on this page. Ugh.