Complaint Review: Xerox State & Local Solutions Inc. - Austin Texas

My eppicard that is used for the deposit of Georgia child support payments was declined for a sale and when I checked the online portal I found that "my card" was swiped in another state and emptied of funds. I contacted eppicard customer service via telephone and it took several attempts to navigate the IVR system and reach a live representative. This is important as Georgia customers can only call the toll free number 5 times in a month before incurring a .35 fee for each attempt, so mutlitple IVR fees round 1. 

The representative was extremely courteous and helped me identify through the transaction history that my card was swiped legitimately by me in my home state and almost simultaneously was swiped in a state over a thousand miles away. She also discovered there were mutliple relatively small transaction amounts across several cities in California that continued until the funds were completely depleted. The representative indicated this scheme is known as "card cloning" where the cloned fraudulent card is run as a credit transaction which appears legitimate to the merchant. The representative also provided me with all the transactional information I would need to complete a fraud affidavit she was mailing to my home. I was required to fill out, sign and return the form within 10 days to begin an investigation. 

I mailed the affidavit to the physical Austin Texas address via FedEx so I would have delivery confirmation for the case. Apparently the offices had moved, and when both FedEx and I attempted to reach the company for an updated address to complete delivery, we were told by extremely rude reps they no longer provided a physical address and that I would have to re-send the affidavit to their PO box. This was extremely frustrating as I now had to pay to return the shipping document to my home then pay again to ship to their PO Box. In addition this extended the time for getting the investigation started. BTW IVR fees round 2.

Eppicard did not call or email me to verify receipt of my affidavit and when I called the company to confirm receipt of the affidavit I once again was unable to immediately reach a live representative, resulting in multiple calls to the IVR. IVR fees round 3. I was finally able to confirm that my affidavit was received. I then asked for information on what to expect from the investigation...how long investigations typically took, anything they might require from me going forward, and how I would be informed of progress. I was told, by another rude rep, that the company has 90 days to make a determination on the case and they would inform me via postal mail of their decision sometime prior to the 90 day time limit.

FYI I contacted my JP Morgan Chase Bank and their process in this scenario is to A) freeze the card and inform the user proactively via telephone immediately when fraud is suspected. B) identify fraudulent charges and immediately make those funds available to the account holder while the case is being investigated. C) provice the account holder with a replacement card free of charge within 3-5 business days. D) Keep in contact with the account holder via telephone as the case progresses.

More than 30 days after the fraudulent charges occured I am still out the monies stolen by the card cloners as well as FedEx shipping charges and several dollars in fees from using the IVR to reach a live representative. Based on complaints I have read here and other sites, I am not even hopeful of having the investigation concluded in my favor and having the monies returned. Redundant of me to say this again, but there was a single card issued on the account and a cloned card was swiped almost simultaneously along with a legitimate transaction over 1,000 miles apart. Seems open and shut to me.

In the interest of protecting my child's support payments, I opened a traditional bank account that has limited fees and local bankers and am having the monies direct deposited into that from the state. Once the investigation is complete I will empty any remainging funds, if there are any which seems unlikely. And I plan to incur one more IVR fee when I call to inform this company that their services are no longer required and to close my account immediately.

This has been extremely frustrating, time consuming and rude representatives have made it emotionally exhausting.