epassporte fraud DRAMA!!!
 

I would highly suggest that ALL webmasters outside of the U.S. pay very close attention to their epassporte accounts and look for "double dipping".

7 days ago I go into a local Canadian Tire store and make a purchase for $106.04 Canadian using the Visa Electron card. Canadian Tire requests authorization for the charge, they are given the authorization code of 012823. Epassporte deems that charge to be $98.96 U.S. and they remove that amount from my account. When the actual charge is processed the exchange rate has changed, and it is now only $98.49.

In the past, epassporte would put through the second charge, using the same authorization code as the first. You could call them, and they would see, the exact same original currency amount, on the exact same day, with the same authorization number and they would clear the duplicate charge.

Now, epassporte should automatically remove that double charge, but they never have...I have waited over 30 days in the past and they never removed it. I have always had to call and tell them to remove it which is a big hassle. They always removed it though (but I wonder if there are a lot of accounts where they just never removed it because the account holder didn't notice).

Here is the good part though. Epassporte has now changed things. As I said, they used to put the *duplicate* charge under the same authorization code which made for easy removal of the duplicate charge. Now they put it through with an authorization code of 000000.

Speaking with their supervisor of Customer Service today, Rene, she tells me that they can NOT remove charges because the authorization codes are different. Rene insists they are SEPERATE charges and that they will not return the money without Canadian Tire removing the charge.

I phoned the Canadian Tire company who looked up ALL transactions under my card number and say there is only ONE charge and it was under the authorization code of 012823 and they NEVER put through a second charge and are extremely pissed off that epassporte is claiming they put through a second charge because as Canadian Tire told me, it is basically accusing them of double charging/fraud on their customers and they said that if epassporte did not remove the charges and cease this activity they will have thier legal department contact Epassporte and make a formal complaint with Visa.

I called Rene back and told her what Canadian Tire said and that Canadian Tire can NOT request removal of a charge they never placed and that the 000000 is not a VALID authorization code and it is not a code they would ever get. Rene basically said, we aren't giving you the money back, let Candian Tire's legal department do whatever they want.

So folks, check your epassporte accounts. I'm out $98.96 U.S. You know, I love epassporte, it has a lot of good things going for it, and it is great for those of us in adult....but man.....you just can't do things like this to customers.

this has happened to me many times and was automatically fixed within 30days

Yes, the same here.
ePassporte rocks for me!!! :thumbsup :thumbsup

Call epass and tell them you want to speak with Chris.... if he's not off in europe, he can help you....

by the way..... Keyser... i love epass but your companies customer support sucks donkey balls.......

epass customer support is seriously lacking, in several errors, common sense being one ot them. Get in touch with Keyser, he'll take care of it. Come to think of it, they need to clone him for customer service, he's like the only one around there with a clue.

People should not even have to wait 30 days to have a duplicate charge removed. It is an error in the epassporte system to even have the duplicate charge. Credit card companies will automatically remove the duplicate without anyone have to call or wait 30 days.

Epassporte doesn't, if you want it removed, you had to call...but now...they are giving them different authorization numbers which prevents removal...which means there is NO WAY to have a duplicate charge removed...and epassporte gets your money for 30 days whether you like it or not. That folks is purposely withholding funds that belong to you. That is going out of thier way to insure that they can keep your money for longer. That is going to piss off MANY merchants because merchants will not tolerate epassporte claiming they are requesting duplicate charges..but that is what epass is doing

Damn boring comments... bleh.

Well that stinks, wyldbyss.. I hope they get it straightened out for you.
Also, dont mess with Canadian Tire evidently!

epassporte are good people

Then how about if they keep YOUR money instead of mine? Works for me :)

This is why I NEVER use my epass card over the counter, far to many blunders. I take the cash out of the ATM seeing as they are plastered everywhere and use it that way. I only ever use the ATM with epass it's muchsafer.

Epass has never given me any problems and I still recommend them over the cunts at paypal..

I had this happen a couple of months back with Google Adwords. After many e-mails to Google then talking on the phone with epassporte I was told by epassporte to get Google to fax them some info they requested and the charge would be immediately removed. Google did this and it was not. Google said that epass told them that my account would be credited within 48 hours. I still eneded up waiting the 30 days. So basically I wasted my time going back and forth between epass and Google. I normally don't bad mouth epass, but that fuck up was totally on them. Both I and Google did as they requested and in the end I still waited 30 days. And were talking about just under $550 of MY money I didn't have access too like I should have.

After this I will never use them at a merchant again. Epass has a lot of good qualities, do not get me wrong...but what they are doing now is plain dirty. People should be able to use the card for things other than just banking machines...but because of the way they do things....banking machines appear to be the only safe method.

The problem now though is that they don't use the same authorization codes. Epass is requesting that Canadian Tire cancel the charge with the authorization 000000 and Canadian Tire is saying they never placed the charge. Canadian Tire is claiming that epassporte placed that charge under their name and it NOT happy about it. They said they can not request removal of a charge they never placed.

we all know why we use epass.....come on don't be silly and hide it. If you don't like it and it troubles........look elswhere (which is nowhere)...

We play in an arena that has issues........deal with them. Or, go Off Shore...

I admit Epass does a lot of nasty things (not to me albeit) but this sounds pretty evil. I wish you the best of luck in getting this sorted out mate!

Im sure Keyser will be here soon to save the day!!

WTF are you talking about? Hide what? Go offshore for what?

she lost $$$ - every right to complain. They need to sort several issues out.

Hide what, the fact that epassporte, as a concept, is brilliant, and saves people (most of the time) lots of hassle with tracing wires, setting up merchant acounts and whatever other crap that you have to deal with, in order to accept payments from sponsors and fellow webmasters? Clean your ears, whoever shit in your head forgot to flush and it's running over now. Just because YOU use it for tax evasion doesn't mean everyone does.

Exactly the reason why epassporte is still getting away with so much shit, because we have zero equivalent alternatives at this point.

Since you did mention it, care to explain how going offshore will make it easier to accept sponsor payments and/or cash transactions from fellow webmasters? Just for shits and giggles, since you seem to be so in-the-know about this. :)

wyldblyss, sorry to hear about your misshap. Thank God my Electron card almost never gets accepted over the counter, so I have to resort to withdrawing funds via an ATM. I hope you get this situation resolved, sure sounds like a mess... If not, oh well, don't fear, find comfort in the fact that Epassporte hired Tassy in the sales/marketing department. I'm sure she'll make up for your loss. Worst-case scenario, you can always fantasize about her giving you a blowjob. :)

happened to me before but it was fixed though atleast a week before duplicate transaction was cleared. now, im kinda anxious using epass buying stuff online. its like using a car that doesn't have break fluids. you're not 100% sure if the transaction will be fine. dunno what the hell they have on their system.

after all these millions of threads about epass support and stuff im kinda worried about using them again although almost all payments to us was made through epass but im not too happy about it. if my money on epass could go through my bank acct that would be awesome but i live in the south so mainly it sucks. actually i've told the old clients that i wouldn't use epass in some transaction especially payments like i won't use epass as the first option. i just hate going to the atm and getting pesos instead of dollars. take note the exchange rates are insane.. i hope they could fix these problems. goodluck bro.

keyser will notice this thread for sure. i sent him icq but i didn't get a reply.

man i haven't seen you for ages :) :thumbsup

watching people complain about epassporte at this point, is like watching people complain that water is wet.

:1orglaugh

Hehe, DamageX...I couldn't figure out what that guy was talking about..making it sound like I was using it for illegal purposes.

As for Tassy giving me a blowjob, she is very hot...but uhm..I don't have a penis...I'm all girl (at least last time I checked)

The EXACT same thing has happened to me from a purchase made at Canadian Tire, with me getting double billed for $37.65. The original charge is still marked as pending.

I almost missed it because when I checked my account after making the purchase, the amount was correct and marked pending. This was May 26. A few days later a "new" charge showed up in my Epass account for the same amount, marked as cleared. Although the second charge showed up a few days later, it was still dated for May 26.

Canadian Tire also told me they can't do anything about it.

So much for them splashing the cash on Tassy for competent services. :)

I had a double charge showing from a restaurant bill once. I was never able to receive a satisfactory explanation as to why it happened, but the notable thing is that it was removed by epass WITHOUT having to ask the merchant to notify them.

Since that incident I have ceased using my epass card as a CC. It's now purely cash only.

Happens all the time for me
and that is not because of us / canadian funds as I am in the US

i have had two charges from the SAMPLE place apear and the merchant has shown me they have only charged ONE TIME


I used to just hit up Rand when we was runnin the show but now that he is left i hit up keyser and it takes about a week :)

damn girl.. i am sorry to hear that.. good luck getting your money back :-(

a bump for you :)

They used to remove it in the past for me too...but that was because the authorization codes were the same. Apparently epassporte is now giving them different authorization codes for the second charge so they are refusing to remove duplicate charges.

There is NO REASON why they should make all of these duplicate charges and customers have to run around and ask to have thier money back. Now, you can't even ask because they are just saying "nope". They even go a step further and tell you it is not THEM doing it, but it is the actual places you shopped that are double dipping and merchants do NOT take too kindly to being accused of double charging peoples credit cards.

Why don't they atleast let you dispute the charge in writing?

holy fuck, i don't even check my epass to make sure there aren't double charges. does this only apply when you buy things with the electron card or does it apply to just loading funds online as well?

exactly, i never paid in shops with the card either, because ive read their TOS about it when i first joined them and it was more complicated then just using it at ATMs. So i never even tried it to spare me this hassle.

The question is, why should you have to contact someone to remove charges which SHOULD NOT OCCUR TO BEGIN WITH? How ridiculous is that?!? "Please, pretty please, with sugar on top, can I have back MY MONEY? If you don't give it back to me in a timely manner, I'm gonna cry!" You know, kind of nothing else to do...

for me epassporte is good for now:)

They must be making some good cash with the 30 day float.

I tried to use my card online and it was rejected, something about your bank isn't recognized. So, I used another card.

But, there is a pending charge on my account from May 22nd. How they managed to charge something to my card when they said my card was not accepted is beyond me.

wow shady to foreigners...

Well it sounds like anytime a merchant authorizes the card for X amount epass takes it out, and when the merchant batch processes the trasaction a few days later epass takes that out also, while the authorization stands.

I learned a long time ago to only use my Epassporte card at the ATM. End of story.

I have had it happen loading funds and I have only used it a few times. oh well

No, does not do it with every transaction you make with the card, that is why a lot of times it goes completely unnoticed.

I want to thank Keyser Soze for taking care of this issue. I believe what they are doing is wrong and they need to work on this problem, and their customer service is NOT up to the standards it should be...BUT

Keyser Soze is an asset to Epassporte and he seems to manage to get things done when no one else can and for that I am grateful. Now if only epass would put Keyser in a cloning machine and just keep replicating him..epass would be perfect.

As I said before, I do love epass, but this issue is something they need to work on :)

At least it worked over the counter. I have tried in 2 different states at several merchants and been declined every time. In almost 3 years you would think more people would accept them. I am talking large chain stores too... still nothing.

Called support and they put in a ticket. Of course they had no clue why or wtf.

it happens in the US too, but its just an oddity with the way epass works. I'm guessing one of those charges still shows as "Pending". if it stays pending for 30 days, they dont put it through... yeah, it ties up money, and is essentially a free 30 day loan to epass, but you'll get the money back....

I've never had it happen on something like that, but I have it happen all the time at resturaunts and fedex. when I would pay for fedex shippoing with epass they would put a $10 hold charge on the account for any extra charges that might arise, and when none did, they left the hold on until it was removed after 30 days... it happens.

If epass could come up with a solution for that, it would rock, but I work around it for now...

are you talking about the 30 cents you lost?

:helpme :helpme :helpme

The above scenerio happens when merchants do a pre-authorization but do not use that pre-auth to close the sale ...

Crappy Tire is one of the worst offenders for this practise. Pay-at-the-pump gas stations are another to avoid, as they too will authorize your card for $50 or $75 and then not close out that pre-auth.

Because ePass is basically a Visa card in Canadian Tire's eyes, it is much easier to just open a new POS to close out the sales then to have to look for the pre-auth and close it properly. Since Visa bills usually come out at least 30 days after the charges are incured, they have 99% of the time dropped off the bill by the time it is to be sent out. This practise is quite common in retail where there are multiple POS terminals.

After having this happen to me several times and having to go thru the hassles of getting Cdn. Tire to fax the needed receipts to ePass, along with a note on company letterhead stating that they (Cdn. Tire) did not plan on taking those funds from my account, I now withdraw the money from an ABM machine before going to Canadian tire and paying for fuel, or I will take my card inside the store to the cashier rather than paying at the pump.

I had this happen to me 3-4 times before I learnt my lesson, so I do feel your pain.

FF

OK kids I am going to show you how to NOT ever go through this type of shit again. And it is shitty shit as far as shit goes.

Ready?

Find an ATM, withdrawl $200 and pay for the tires in cash.

There you go!

Got video?


Seriously, got any?