UnBanking Ffrees ! :-)

More than a year ago I opened a Debit Card account with Ffrees;  at the time seemed a good idea for transactions on the internet and abroad. I have had Credit and Debit cards probably for 35 years and I never had any issues with stolen identities or unauthorised charges.

Everything went well with FFrees until last week when on my statement I discovered several unauthorised charges. I called the company straight away reporting the issue.

From that very second I felt the guilty one, whatever the woman on the phone was saying was to make me feel insecure, distressed and guilty. In her view after checking their records the card was used giving the CC numbers, Security code and my address.  How was that possible?? Did I leave the card somewhere unattended? Did I pass to someone my details??

I am not an easy guy and started straight away a campaign from my Twitter account mentioning not only the  way Ffrees treated me but as well the companies involved.  The Financial director of one of the Companies calle me more or less 20min after my Twitter…. was Saturday lunchtime, he was very apologetic managed to log into the account, gave me some informations and refunded me straight away.

The other two companies were more difficult. Badoo at today has not responded yet and CGBilling in use sent several emails, so I managed to discover my card was used

Cardholder Name: AJ Garcia
Email:server2ever@gmail.com
IP Address:105.158.138.96

They were helpful until……..I asked a refund at this moment ….they disappeared!

Today I contacted and checked for development with my Debit Card Company  and they sent another unhelpful, unfriendly letter. Once again they made me feel I was  the one causing the problems. Why was I bothering them?? Was I really sure? Was I aware that :  “An investigation normally takes between 3 – 7 weeks but we cannot guarantee this. Please be aware that, should the investigation find that you authorised a disputed transaction, an administration charge will apply for each disputed transaction and the transaction will not be refunded”

Once again Twitter came to my help and I complained about their attitude towards me.

In less than 10 minutes someone from their call centre and this time very apologetic calls and after trying to tell me the same story as before and hearing my arguments decide to call the next level up…..and in 2 min gets back to me advising that I will be refunded in full by the end of the day and if I wanted a new card,

Sorry Ffress but I am Unbanking you!  🙂