Automatic billing/charges from ePassporte

[DrewOnTilt]

Fair warning to everyone who is jumping over to ePassporte:

I opened an account with ePassporte several years ago, back in the days of the Party Poker EPASS deposit bonus. I have not used it since.

Today I re-activated the account. I later received the following message:

[ QUOTE ]

Dear XXXXXXXX,

Your ePassporte Visa Virtual account has automatically renewed, and you have been billed the renewal. Your Visa Virtual number will remain the same. However, your expiration date has moved up 2 years and your CVV2 number has changed.

Your NEW Visa Virtual account information is as follows:
Account Number: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Expiration Date: XXXXXX
CVV2: XXX

IMPORTANT:
You will need to use this new expiration date and CVV2 number when you make purchases online with your ePassporte Visa Virtual.

Please note that your ePassporte UserID and Password remain the same.

Sincerely,
The ePassporte team


[/ QUOTE ]

Nowhere did I see any notice that I would be charged $35 for "renewing" my virtual visa/account. This was billed to me without my consent.

ePassporte has some big fees, and they appear to not be up-front about all of them. Be careful.

[jtollison78]

[ QUOTE ]
Fair warning to everyone who is jumping over to ePassporte:

I opened an account with ePassporte several years ago, back in the days of the Party Poker EPASS deposit bonus. I have not used it since.

Today I re-activated the account. I later received the following message:

[ QUOTE ]

Dear XXXXXXXX,

Your ePassporte Visa Virtual account has automatically renewed, and you have been billed the renewal. Your Visa Virtual number will remain the same. However, your expiration date has moved up 2 years and your CVV2 number has changed.

Your NEW Visa Virtual account information is as follows:
Account Number: XXXXXXXXXXXX
Expiration Date: XXXXXX
CVV2: XXX

IMPORTANT:
You will need to use this new expiration date and CVV2 number when you make purchases online with your ePassporte Visa Virtual.

Please note that your ePassporte UserID and Password remain the same.

Sincerely,
The ePassporte team


[/ QUOTE ]

Nowhere did I see any notice that I would be charged $35 for "renewing" my virtual visa/account. This was billed to me without my consent.

ePassporte has some big fees, and they appear to not be up-front about all of them. Be careful.

[/ QUOTE ]


One year they actually charged me twice. I don't think I ever got it corrected. Mostly for other reasons, I don't trust epassporte, and I never leave any more in the account than what I can simply walk away from.

John

[BluffTHIS!]

That auto renew is covered in their T&C that they mail to you if not on the website. And these days beggers can't be as choosey. Not unless they're willing to get a 9-5 job of course (oooo that hurt to mention that!).

[jtollison78]

[ QUOTE ]
That auto renew is covered in their T&C that they mail to you if not on the website. And these days beggers can't be as choosey. Not unless they're willing to get a 9-5 job of course (oooo that hurt to mention that!).

[/ QUOTE ]

But is getting hit twice with auto renew for the same card in their TOC?? Or how about shutting down an account just because you put in too much money?? Unless they've changed things 5k filps a switch in their system. It took me several attempts accross a month to get them sufficient ID to unflip the switch.

So, yes, there aren't a lot of options, and if you are careful epassporte is a reasonable choice. I'm only suggesting you be care.

John

[bigtummy]

The renewal fee for virtual (not plastic) visa is 5$/year. I have been using Epass for more that 4 years, and have NOT been billed for a 35$ renewal fee.

[cardcounter0]

Everytime I have pointed out that epassporte is a fee-hungry semi-scam operation, I immediately got some posts of "I have used epassporte just fine la-de-la-la".

So try running some real money thru it, pay a lot of fees, and when you get screwed -- ENJOY!

[5thStreetHog]

[ QUOTE ]
Everytime I have pointed out that epassporte is a fee-hungry semi-scam operation, I immediately got some posts of "I have used epassporte just fine la-de-la-la".

So try running some real money thru it, pay a lot of fees, and when you get screwed -- ENJOY!

[/ QUOTE ]The reason is that you make this "Epass is a scam" statement without ever stating why you believe this.When i was inquiring a few months back about Epass,you interjecting this into the thread i was involved in.I then asked you to expand and you said nothing.So once and for all,how did Epass scam you??? I wouldve rather you answer this before i signed up,but id still like to hear your experience.

[cardcounter0]

I think I must have hit some volume dollar amount or something, but this is just guessing, because I never got an actual answer from epassporte.

I was in business buying furniture from Europe. Since both I and the seller had epassporte it seemed like a good way to move the money, cheaper than western union (it is hard to send bank wires to 3rd world type countries, when the average citizen does not have a bank account).

So I paid a lot of fees. I loaded epassporte from my bank account, waited for it to clear, transfered the funds to my partner's epassporte account, and then he withdrew.

Everything went along fine for about 2 months. Then one day I went to access my account and it was locked. Calls to customer service produced various stories. That I had requested the account be locked, blah, blah, blah, blah.

Finally, customer service said the account had been locked due to high risk of fraud. Whatever. I was loading the account from my bank account, the money was always there, you can't access it in epassporte until it clears, so I have no idea what the risk is, or where fraud comes into play.

I didn't care, I could go back to using western union and other methods anyways. The only problem I had was there was a small balance in the account which was my money, having recently being deposited from my bank account. epassporte refused to discuss the balance with me, due to "security reasons". I even had one clown of a customer service rep suggest I call my local police dept. since they had ripped me off.

You cannot directly speak with the epassporte fraud dept. All communication is done by email, and it usually takes 2 days to get a response. Of course, the responses were much like Party Poker customer support email -- avoiding, missing, or saying nothing about the issues or questions -- and then another 2 day wait for another round of non-communication.

So I finally said screw it, it was less than $100 in the account, and I was giving them twice that much in fees every month. I went about my business, epassporte has never made another $1 from me, and hopefully other people are smart enough to avoid the problems.

If epassporte screws up or freezes your account or seizes your money, what recourse do you think you have? I only do business with sites that have a good reputation or that I can trust. epassporte has a bad reputation, and you can not trust them.

Search some of the posts about people having problems with epassporte customer support idiots and smart asses. Or epassporte screwing up their fees and telling the customer, tough.

Yeah, jump right in there and send these crooks your money.

[cardcounter0]

heliosj
Newbie Amateur Join Date: Oct 2005
Posts: 1

Re: Anyone with any experince with epassporte.com-Virtual Visa

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ePassporte.com sucks!

A few days ago, I signed up for a ePassporte.com Virtual Visa. Virtual Visa’s are used for online shopping. It brings an added level of security to the process and you can use it for more unsavory purchases that normal banks may disallow. When I signed up, there is a box that says “Add an ePassporte Electron Card for $35″. I did not click that button.

The went on with the application and added $55 to my account. Epassporte.com charges a $5 load fee for adding money to your virtual Visa. As I added the $55, it showed that it would deduct $5 from my $55 leaving me with a total of $50. It made no mention of any further deductions. When I clicked submit, it showed that I now had a $15 balance. They added a $35 charge for the Electron Card, which I did not agree to!

I immediately called their obviously out sourced support line. I was told they do not issue refunds. I was then told they’d refer the matter to an activation department and I’d hear back within 48 hours. 57 hours later, I called them. I spoke with Charlie Nquyen, “Operations Manager”. He told me that I must have clicked the button. I told him that I’m as sure as the sky is blue that I didn’t.

He did not budge. He continued to repeat “you must have clicked the button”. Anyhow, I didn’t click the ****ing button. And if I had, they made no further mention of the $35 deduction until after the fact.

Be wary, they live up the ass in ePassporte.

[5thStreetHog]

Thanks for the responce card,i was curious to hear the reasoning behind your take.