Major Drama: ePassporte Locked My Account and I am Just About to Sue (pic)
 

So I was talking to my sig sponsor who used to have my siggy booked before the deal we had expired and he was offline (connectivity problems, apparently), he wanted to renew but they locked his ePassporte account so he is trying to get that straightened out so he can renew.

So just for the hell of it, I decided to sign into my ePassporte account and see if it was open, and son of a bitch, it was locked too.

Here is what I see:

http://i5.tinypic.com/23htykz.jpg

The reason given is for "suspicious activity". Well guess what? Thats pretty fucking hard, since there hasnt been any activity on it for quite some time. It has been "open" for at least a month since the last activity on the account.

This has gone on for long enough. If my account is not unlocked within the next three working days, I am going to file a lawsuit. Not for missing funds, because there was nothing in there (thank god) but for unfair and deceptive trade practices. I paid for an Electron card with the reasonable expectation that I would be able to use it so long as I kept my account open and funds therein. I cant do that without the account being open. I will argue that this pattern that ePassporte seems to be developing of opening accounts, waiting for people to sign up and buy an electron card and then closing the accounts amounts to a scheme to defraud.

This case is winable and I am so not kidding. Get your fucking heads out of your asses and fix this. Now.

No you're not going to sue, you're just going to cry on GFY about it instead.

Agreed. :thumbsup

whats KK Post?

That would be an incorrect assumption. Out of the thousands of legal threats that are made on here in the course of a year, mine are the ones that result in summons. Trust me on this one.

Like WarChild said...

Anyway just looking at your signature shows how serious you must be about starting a lawsuit agaisn't ePass...

I have a hard time beleiving that you'll suel ol

Did you carefully read the Terms of Service when you created your epassporte account? Did you agree to them? I'd bet there's something in there that covers them being able to suspend your account while they investigate fraud. Kind of hard to sue after agreeing.

They aren't a US company, so you couldn't sue even if you wanted to :-/

They claim to maintain marketing offices in the United States and Canada. They are a US company even if they are not incorporated here if thats true. Regardless, they have a presence here. Anywhere a business has a precense and conducts business, they can be sued. And I can always go to Visa and garnish thier income.

I have sued spammers from Mexico and won (by default, of course). Never could collect because I couldnt find any assets of thiers here here. But that wont be a problem for ePassporte, I know right where thier assets are.

I'm sure there is too. In order to claim protection under thier terms of service, they would have to:

1). Establish that there was actually an investigation taking place that involved my account (because I'd argue that there was no such investigation) and:

2). Establish that they closed/locked the account for that reason and not the desire to retain my fees while depriving me the services I have paid for.

A company's terms of service does not override consumer protection laws. There is gobs of caselaw on the books to this end. Many people seem to take the stance that if you agree to a TOS, then everything in it is applicable. Not so. The only thing that matters is what holds up in Court.

stick it to em

Have you taken any steps to mitigate damages? Emailed or called epassporte? If you do, they will unlock your account, and release your funds. You even admitted you decided to check your account, so you weren't even put out by having your card denied. :2 cents:

epass sucks! bottom line, I have never opened an account with them and I never will!

They are worse then fucking Paypal!

Its due to the country the funds originated from. That country is on the ban list.

You can't have an ePass drama thread without this guy:

http://dunamai.com/Humor/BagdadBob/i..._bob_large.gif

When are you going to sue? Lets set a date here

more epass crap.

these guys are the next ibill. mark my words.

As soon as they dont fix it and I have the time to do the papers up and file them.

What funds? There has been no deposits to my account for some time.

I'm arguing that allowing me to open an account and soliciating me to do so, then taking the money and closing the account under the guise of some fictional "fraud investigation" is a unfair and deceptive trade practice under Michigan and/or federal law. There are no funds in the acct at the moment and havent been for a month or so. I'm not arguing that they stole funds from the account or caused me a loss by not allowing me to use the card.

There is no risk to mitigate. But thats a good arguement from the defense standpoint to try. Every insurance adjust has always given it a try or three.

But it sounds like your account is suspended, not closed. A phonecall to epassporte will most likely right the situation.

When an account is suspended a phone call or a email to [email protected] or myself will normally solve the situation.

Since you have threatened with legal action I have been told I can't get involved.

why can't you guys not simple contact epassporte and have it resolved instead creating fake drama threads

Keyser, you are an outstanding rep.. why don't you take advantage of the great reputation you've built at ePassporte and go work for another company? One whom won't put you in the line of fire with their shady practices?

Where can I find a copy of the ePassporte Terms/Conditions/Agreement that I agreed to upon signing up?

The writting was on the table the minute epassport seperated from Epoch. I wouldn't touch them with a ten foot poll.

Good luck getting this resolved. I hope you are actually serious about suing.

Wouldn't it be easier just to not suspend accouts that do nothing wrong in the first place?

I would sue them.

What exactly are you going to sue for? $39.95 or whatever those virtual cards cost. Come on, even if it went to court they could come up with any number of reasons why the account was suspended. If they felt fraud was involved, they have every right to protect themselves against it. Regardless of whether there was money in the account or not, there could be a number of reasons why an account would get suspended (prior transactions, banned countries, lack of activity, etc). This case might get you some threads on GFY, but it wouldn't even make it to a trial.

That's a good one... :error

And deprive us of all this fun? :)

Show me a BANK that does this. Epassporte may not be a bank, but to its customers it sure wants to come across as one. Bottom line, they're keeping and transacting money, banking license or not.

:1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh :1orglaugh

fuckin joker

even if you had a case (you dont btw) it is a bad idea to spill the beans and give the details of your impending lawsuit.

what a clown

They weren't keeping any of his money though. He had zero funds in his account. Essentially he is suing for breach of contract for not fufilling his service of the Virtual card. It would be like me suing American Express because they temporarily suspended my card because they thought there might be some fraudulent activity on it (which they will do almost anytime you charge shit outside of the norm).

i just did quite a bit of digging and cant even find a single physical address for epassporte in the US anyways.. good luck serving them

And in a civil suit, you have to prove damages. What damages did you actually incur by not being able to login to your ePassporte account for a day?

I'm not a lawyer:

If he had a balance in the account, they have committed the tort of conversion. He said he didn't, so I doubt he has a case. They don't have a legal requirement to provide him with a certain level of service, so if the service is unavailable to him for whatever reason, he doesn't have any recourse.

Proving that they committed fraud (as he alleged) would require him proving that they intended to get him to sign up for the card, then they would suspend his account. That's a joke, how much does a card cost - like $30?

As much as I enjoy flaming ePassporte because they are a shitbox of a company, there is nothing to see here. If he sued them, he'd be asking for a countersuit. And if I were them, I'd deliver.

as far as i know it takes quite some time for epass to open an account again. it is not like you make it sound. You can or email and your account is open yet. They just tell you that they are looking into the matter, so that doesn't help.

Big bullshit to write something like what you write.

one question:
is your account verified? did you send them id, cc statements ect.

Ofcourse he hasnt :)