Paxum and stolen cards policy
 

I heard here and there about Paxum?s awful services, but i never felt it on my skin until yesterday. This post might be long, but i think i MUST share my story with you guys. Even if you still choose stay/join with Paxum after this (we don?t really have alternative don?t we?), at least you might be more careful.

So my card information was stolen. Not sure how and where, and you can blame me for that - but it?s not the point. Yesterday around 5AM EDT time, Paxum - MasterCard Security contact me about suspicious transaction on my card. It?s took me seven minutes to reply them to thank them for noticing and inform them that i checked the card, and indeed this transaction wasn?t made by me with other 12 (5 transactions and 7 Declined Transaction Fees). At 10AM, after 5 hours with no reply from them i tried to call them to be sure my card was canceled and the thief will not spent the few last bucks left on the card. Did anyone of you called Paxum? If you live in the US or Canada i guess you lucky, but if you live outside of them - you have zero chance to get phone support. Basically after 2 minutes wait you always get the voicemail telling that they are busy and you should leave them message and call you back (even if you press 5 to inform them that you lost your card). The problem is, they can?t call to other countries beside US and Canada? Maybe they can, but with my experience with them they always email me that the can?t get a connection. So i left a message and sent them another reply to the tickets, and at the same time i can see that someone still using my card! I was lost at this point but i was sure that Paxum got my back? i mean, they know that someone stole my card and this is Mastercard damn - they got me covered. I was so wrong?

After 30 minutes i received a ticket reply, first they said that they tried calling me back but a connection could not be established. Later they told me that they forwarded a block request to the bank. Then they told me how much i would need to pay for a new card and shipping and they i understood that something really messed up with Paxum? They wrote me the following:

?Regarding your unrecognized transactions, we suggest that you first try to contact the merchants and ask them to make a refund.

If after contacting the merchants the situation isn't solved, we can initiate a chargeback procedure, procedure that has a nonrefundable $40 fee for each dispute (regardless of the bank's decision, which is final).?

Wait, what? 40 fee for each dispute? But the thief made bunch purchases that the amount of each one of them is less than 40$... So basicly what they asking from me is to pay 800$ to MAYBE get my stolen 500$ back. Make no sense, at least for me?

So i wrote them few question, and i think any Paxum user must know Paxum?s policy about lost\stolen cards.

Q: What about all the "Declined Transaction Fees" that wasn?t made by me? should i open chargebacks for that also?
A: The fees for declined transactions cannot be returned.

Q: There are multiple transactions for the same place, about 10$ each... do i really need to pay 40$ for each one of them?! Basically what you saying that people can steal Paxum cards and buy bunch of stuff, as when the owner finds out his card was stolen - he will need to pay over 800$ to get his stolen 500$ back.
A: The bank charges $40 to dispute each transaction and the fee is not reversible, regardless of the bank's decision so we suggest you only dispute transactions over $40.

At the same point i informed them that i can?t see my Card history at all, as they canceled it and removed it. The agent just told me how to find it (i?m Paxum user for few years now, i know how to find it), and didn?t even check if it?s really there. Basicly i was left alone by paxum. The stolen money is really not the issue here, the issue for me it?s how Paxum handle cases like that.

They won?t even return you a "Declined Transaction Fees"! I mean, someone lost few hundreds dollar and you will argue about 0.50$! At least try to help your customers! Anyway i guess i told you the perfect crime? Just steal Paxum card and buy think that costs 39.99$! Then the owner will never get his money back...

Would happy to hear what you think guys and what should i do. I contacted the companies that the thief bought from, but they all ask for a local police report (the thing is, the companies not in my country). Also i ask from Paxum to return me the money that was left on the card at the point i told them that indeed the card was stolen (as some purchases made after that - while i trying to get Paxum?s support to answer me). I asked them document saying that my card was reported as stolen and it's canceled or something like that? So i can at least send this to the companies.

I asked Ruth?s help on skype and i really was thinking if should post this case on GFY as it?s might hurt me and hurt the services i would get from Paxum. But i really think that you guys must know about that. I really hope that this will be solved, and i will be able to update you with good news. Anyway i will update you with any news :)

Waiting to hear what should i do next in your opinion, Cheers!

Well now i'm really can't understand if Paxum are serious or not, or even know what they offering. One of the purchase was made from a big company in europe. I sent them message explaining what happened as suggest by Paxum, and ask them to refund the money.

The answer they gave me was long, but in short they said: "We are not able to refund the charge for you, because the transaction was verified with a 3DS authorisation, which shifts the liability to your bank for this charge."

So i send Paxum this message and asked what should i do next, should i just open chargeback? the answer they gave me was: "Regarding the merchant's reply, the bank does not offer 3D Secure for the Paxum MasterCard."

So i immediately emailed the company to ask them to check again, they must check the wrong transaction, and the last email from them was: "The 3D Secure process was required by our systems for certain transactions, and was definitely completed for your charge. Our payments team have confirmed which transaction this was, matching the last digits of your card number with the date and amount of the charge, and have confirmed that the 3D Secure process was completed before the booking was made."

Sent it to Paxum and still waiting for a reply from anyone there...

I would do anything in my power to never ever have to use them.

What will you guys do when Ruth picks up and leaves?

cliffnotes:

Dudes card got compromised, gets banged, paxum delays blocking the card and wants $40 for each chargeback request, cardholder can't pay $40 chargeback request fee for every $10 banged transaction.


try talking to ruth if not your are out of luck...the cost of doing business.

Try cardholder shouldn't have to pay $40 chargeback

Paxum WAS great until THIS kind of shit happened.

They are very good at make their client PAY FEE'S but will never take any responsability.

BAD Costumer service........ Nuff said.

The only good thing Paxum haved is 2 rep. on GFY.... at least active.

But you will realise really fast they are just the messenger and got their hands tied with decision coming from above them.

One way to cash out with them is WIRED ....... all other option just Failled :1orglaugh ( IMO )

You might be able to recover some $$ by getting a police report like the companies you contacted suggested. It shouldn't matter that you are in a different country, the only catch might be you would likely have to get the police report translated to English, which shouldn't be too expensive.

Other than that option, you are probably shit out of luck, chalk it up to experience, and move on. What happened to you is a known risk with these companies, be happy that you got fucked out of only few hundred bucks, it could have been way worse.

Yap, indeed... lucky i didn't moved all the money to the card. anyway i asked them to chrageback two transaction that was charge more then 40$, so basically it's better for me to pay the fee. they told me they will get back to me with additional instructions... would be funny if they won't charge back the money and only take the fee :1orglaugh.

and @xXXtesy10, damn you ruined the post :Oh crap

So now we know thieves will target Paxum users because there's a HUGE insentive for Paxum users not to report theft as long as the transactions are less than $40.

The thief makes money, and Paxum makes money on declined fees and charge back fees, and the consumer fills both their pockets. Wow!

i mostly read bad things about paxum , but when its comes to prepaid cards acquired online you cant trust the chargeback because they are not strong like based banks .

i was scammed before and scammer take the money and run.

your best bet to use credit card if you shopping a lot .

How is it legal for the consumer to be charged a $40 chargeback fee and the business to be charged a $35 chargeback fee for the same transaction?

All it takes is one thief and your whole account is wiped out in fees with no recourse and Paxum profits on the criminal activity. Wow

The card provider charges a Chargeback fee of $40 USD for any chargebacks relating to the Paxum Payroll card. This fee is charged by the bank/card provider, NOT by Paxum. It is erroneous to allege that Paxum makes a profit from chargeback fees.

Paxum middle man = GETTING the heat :winkwink:

Ruth it's time you ask a raise to your boss :)

Thanks for the quick reply.

I have a lot of questions, there's also a lot I don't know about your service, I also know nothing about the OP, he could be in a high risk country, have a bad history with you, etc. Here is not the time or place to ask. But clearly the consumer loses out in this circumstance, no matter the outcome of the chargeback, for charges under $40. Decline fees, chargeback fees, and fraudulent charges can completely empty a person's account and in some cases, through no fault of their own.

Is there a daily cap on decline fees & chargeback fees?

:2 cents::2 cents::2 cents:

Pretty sure Mastercard does not allow banks to charge a fee for doing chargebacks.
The merchant is always the one that gets charged the chargeback fee.
So I would report this to Mastercard. A customer is never supposed to pay for the any dispute fees. The customers should be fully protected and reimbursed in case of fraud.

I would really report this to Mastercard, it is illegal what they do

It's natural for any business to have suppliers, hardly any business do everything in house.

However, like in this case, the customer and consumer, have a realtion with Paxum and not with the bank.

What fees the supplier charges the company, in this case Paxum, is irrelevant to me as a customer. Of course any company must make sure to get enough fees from its customers to cover any and all cost of operations.

But to say "ohh, we need to charge this and that, because our supplier is charging us" is like saying there will now be a $5 extra fee just to keep the lights on at the office, because the electrical company charges this.

What costs you have as a company, is not of direct interest for the consumer. A Paxum account holder or even card holder, have an agreement with Paxum and the pricelist that has been determined and accepted for that relationship.

The main problem here is that Paxum is not a bank. So, for anything related to chargebacks or any kind of card abuse, you will have to contact the bank directly. But the problem is that the bank that issued the card would not do much to help you, since they will probably expect Paxum to contact them. So, Paxum is kind of "Man in the Middle" (sounds familiar? :) ). But as you know, Paxum support is very slow and usually not very helpful (except Ruth!), and I have a feeling that their support department is made of only 2-3 guys in total.

Paxum is a great service for getting your payments fast, but why would you bother using Paxum card, when you can do wire/EFT/whatever to move the money out to a real bank account? Taxation reasons? Go get a company in a country with low taxes.

I had similar problem couple of years ago. Somebody stole my card details and have spent some $120 or so in Moldova. I found out that the ordered some groceries onlinefrom some kind of store where you can order and pay online and they can deliver to your home and he ordered some pizzas...

I was mad at start but then I realized that if somebody stole money from me to buy food - then he must be very poor...

The reply from Paxum was the same as you got ($40 to pay for each transaction). I have just ordered a new card and moved on... It would be a different story if the amount was bigger.

you missed the 3D Secure stuff which paxum cards don't have but the merchant claims had been used.

that's because you're a glorified merchant account, and not a real Bank

:1orglaugh

people, take note where you keep your money at. :2 cents:

https://funkymunkyluvn.files.wordpre...icking-dog.jpg

you stupid ass eating fat fuck :1orglaugh

http://i.imgur.com/dG2l2JS.jpg

Paxum is the merchant, LOL

Sounds reasonable, but I wonder if the paxum card is a debit card and not credit, therefore the rules might be different.
.

Just quick update about the situation with them. so as you can see almost 6 months ago i ordered new card. guess what? still didn't got it. It's take years until they ship one, and then they saying it lost. well i order around 100 parcels to my place per month - only the parcels from Paxum lost... Anyway i said fuck it and paid some extra to have Express shipping ($95), after one month that i'm waiting for my express shipping they asked me for new address prove as the one i gave them 5 months ago is no longer good (well, it's takes them 6 month to ship card....). so i shipped them another document and it's seems i will be at least another month without card.

Great job Paxum!

about the Chragebacks, i paid the fee and seems i will get the money sometime... right now can't get it back as i don't have card.

they dont make the cards! if you do not get what you paid for you better start raising sand. they dont have banks where u are? it's 5 bucks to a bank

Well they don't make the cards, but they the ones who forward the request.
10 business days "submitted" status
10 business days "reviewing" status
10 business days "printing" status
10 business days "shipping" status
...

FirstChoisePay use the same bank Paxum use, it's took two week for the card to arrive without not extra fees for shipping from FirstChoicePayment... so i dont think this is a Bank issue.

yeah i would call the bank :2 cents::2 cents:

Holy FUCK!

$40 for a chargeback is way too much. I've had my regular Visa get compromised and wind up with a ton of small transactions. It would cost more to charge back.