Consumer complaint received 2022-12-08
Product: Credit card or prepaid card — General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Trouble using the card — Trouble using the card to spend money in a store or online
Company: U.S. BANCORP

Complaint:
On XX/XX/22 we purchased 5 - {$100.00} Prepaid Visa cards taken from the back of the stack like we always do at the XXXXXXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX, WY. On XX/XX/22 we tried to register those cards on the prepaid visa website. For 2 of the cards, it worked but for 3 an error message popped up that there was a problem and we needed to contact customer service. The card numbers are XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX & XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. We called Prepaid visa, XXXX, and discovered that the cards had already been compromised, someone hacked into their system and tried to activate the cards this caused the cards to be considered compromised, we found out later that this happened on XX/XX/22, which made the cards useless. We asked what we needed to do to get our money back. We were hung up on many times and it was a very long process that took hours to get any information/help from them. We talked to multiple agents the first one is unknown he would not give his name and when we kept asking, he hung up on us. We did talk to XXXX, XXXX, XXXX and XXXX, to this date ( XX/XX/22 ). 
When asked about getting our money back all of the agents were not very forth coming in with information. They would not give us a straight answer by changing the details and kept changing what we should/shouldnt do. One agent said we were to do nothing but to wait and see if things cleared up on their own, one said to take the cards back to XXXX and get a refund, a few said to request another card. The ones that mentioned about getting another card were not very clear on the procedure nor were they helpful. It was said that the process could take at least 7 14 business days and that there was a fee to get another card. I asked why so long to get any resolution and that their system had been hacked and there was fraud going on but they refused to comment on that. 
Earlier this year we had the same kind of problem with Prepaid Visa and it took them over 6 months, numerous phone calls, multiple letters being send and faxed to rectify it. We had to report them to Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ( Complaint number XXXX ) and with U S Bank National Association ( case # XXXX ) and have a separate physical check sent to get that issue finalized. The letters we send with the information Prepaid Visa requested kept getting lost by them or they said they couldnt read them ( which is interesting since they quoted information that was only in those letters ) and the faxes we send they kept denying they received even though we had a Transmission Verification Report that said the fax was sent and received. We were also assured that the issues with Prepaid Visa had been taken care of. 
This past Friday ( XX/XX/22 ), XXXX was having a deal where if you purchase certain gift cards you would receive XXXX the fuel points. Since we are wanting to visit our daughter, granddaughter and new granddaughter we took the chance to purchase the Prepaid Visa cards to use for the trip, to give as a gift and to use the fuel points to help with the cost of gas. We purchased the Prepaid Visa cards hoping that their issues had been resolved. We were VERY wrong. Nothing has changed in fact it has gotten worse. Last time we were able to talk to supervisors and the fraud department to try and resolve this issue. This time the agents refuses to let us talk to a supervisor and says there is no longer any access to the fraud department. They also refuse to give us any type of verification that anything is being done. They say there is no reference numbers, no case numbers, no email or any other tangible documentation for us to verify their story on what they say is being done or will be done. We are being left without proof or backup to support whats happening on their end. 
In our defense I do have the receipt from XXXX with the Activation Receipt, the physical cards and the original packaging that they came in. 
We are asking for Prepaid Visa/U S Bank to send us a physical check in the full purchase amount of the Prepaid Visa Cards which comes to {$310.00} ( ( {$100.00} x XXXX ) the amount for each card + ( {$5.00} x XXXX ) for the processing fee charged to us for each card ). We would prefer more due to all the trouble we are having to go through to get all of our money back. Plus now with all the issues of having to go through to protect our identities and Prepaid Visa computer system being hacked has now compromised our personal information our time should be compensated for. 
We are filing complaints with Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, Federal Trade Commission and the Wyoming Attorney General. If you have any questions or need any more information, please free to contact us. 
Thank you, XXXX and XXXX XXXX

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief