Complaint Review: reloadit.com - Internet

I have been using Reloadit packs to put money on my prepaid card for years.  The procedure has always been to buy the pack at my local store, load it at customer service with the desired funds, then call the 800 number on the back of the pack to transfer the money to my card.  Quick and painless, especially for an older woman who is not so computer-friendly (I still don't have internet, and my computer is over 10 years old).

As of March 15, 2015, the reloadit packs have gone to a new system that requires the user to set up an online "safe" account at reloadit.com.  This online account is now the only way to access and load funds with a reloadit pack.  They gave no warning about the changes, and there was no notice on the product or on the card display.  In other words, if you buy a reloadit pack, but like me you have no internet access, you are just out of luck.  The money is stuck in limbo.

 Now I'm not the most computer-friendly person, but even I know when a website is dysfunctional.  My grandson confirmed my suspicions on this.  When I went to his house to set up this "safe" so I could transfer the money, he came into the room to check on me after an hour.  I still hadn't managed to log in!!!  He took over from that point.  Here is the report he gave me:

***

I started from scratch trying to set up a new account for my grandmother, assuming that perhaps she had done something wrong.  Every time I tried to log onto the website I got an error message.  I cleared cache, rebooted, all the usual tech tricks, still nothing.  I called customer service, but all they could tell me was that they were having "website problems" and that "they are working on it."  I finally told Grandma to go home and that I would keep working on it. 

2 days later I was finally able to log in to create an account.  After entering her reload pack information, the site asked me to enter her card information "so it could be verified."  Knowing how internet ID theft scams work, I was very, very leery of this, especially with the way this site had been set up overnight and how it appeared to be such a shady operation already.  I called Grandma to be sure that she understood the risks, but she said that she had already called them to ask what it would take to get a refund and they told her it would take her original reload card, original receipt, and 30 days+ to process the refund.  Since she needed the money sooner than that, and she was worried they would simply "loose" her paperwork if she mailed it, she told me to continue.

The site said the card would be verified shortly (hours).  Instead it took several days.  Worse yet, every time I logged in I got an error saying I was using an un-verified device to log in (I was using the same computer and router every time).  Thankfully I noticed the FAQ about a limit on the number of registered devices before I re-registered the computer too many times and locked out the account!!  I called customer service again to find out what the problem was, but once again I was simply told that the website was "having issues" and that "they were working on it."  Online research finally revealed that they use an IP tracking system, and since my ISP uses rotating IPs their system was registering my computer as a new device every time I logged on.  I had to bypass my ISP's rotation by creating a static IP to log onto this website, then save the IP info since my ISP does not allow continuous static IPs.  I will need to re-input the same static IP info every time I want to log into this site.  A real pain, to say the least!!

***

Now that I have managed to get my money transferred from that pack to my card, I can say without a doubt, that I will never, EVER, use a reloadit pack again.  I just called to close my "safe" account (which the telephone customer service had no problem doing, of course).