Firepay - Dishonest, Fishy Business

[bayleesprings]

I do not even know where to begin with what I have just experienced with Firepay. I have been using them now for almost 6 months with no problems. Last week I received an email from one of my favorite casinos (Fortune Group) and was alerted that some of my Firepay deposits had been returned. I logged into my Firepay account to find that the balance was negative.

I emailed Firepay to find out what was going on and was told that my bank returned several deposits. These deposits were well over a week old. I had even already received my bank statement and reviewed it after I read their email. I went ahead and paid the $400+ to Firepay to bring my balance back to $0, as I was very very confindent that this would be resolved in my favor and I would get my money back. Don't get me wrong, I am an honest player and would have paid the money either way. I contacted my bank several times to ensure that the funds were not returned and were processed fine on their end. My bank even offered to write a letter of verification, if needed.

INITIAL DEPOSITS TO FIREPAY : APRIL 24TH
DATE DEPOSITS CLEARED MY BANK : APRIL 28TH

DATE FP CLAIMS DEPOSITS WERE RETURNED : APRIL 27TH
DATE FP CLAIMS DEPOSITS FINALLY CLEARED : MAY 3RD

Firepay requested that I fax a copy of my bank statement to them to verify the date the deposits cleared. As reluctant as I was, I blacked out any info not pertaining to Firepay and sent it to them (from April 24th - end of month). They claim that they were returned on the 27th, but I PROVED to them (via my bank statement) that they cleared on the 28th. I'm sorry, but it doesn't take a course in rocket science to figure out that that's waaay too little "turnaround time" for them to claim they were returned the very day before they cleared.

I was contacted a day later saying that I needed to provide them with a full view of my bank statement and IT HAD TO HAVE A RUNNING TOTAL. I was FURIOUS. First of all, my bank had NO KNOWLEDGE of funds being returned. Second of all, if I was trying to be crooked, I wouldn't have paid them the money I owed them prior to even contacting my bank. I emailed them back and told them that my bank statement does not list a running balance, it never has. Nor is it anyone's business what my bank balance is. I explained that I found it disturbing for them to request such info.

After several rediculous emails back and forth, I finally demanded that they refund my fees immediately! I was tired of the snail mail going around and around in circles with every rep Firepay has. I also requested that if I couldn't get any better service than the last email I received, for them to forward my concern to a member of management. I noticed that on his reply, the previous emails from them were omitted. SNEAKY!!

I did receive an email from a manager (but how would I know any different?) and he simply stated that there was nothing he could do, end of story.

Whew....although it got more rediculous by the minute, those are the highlights.

I've read the other horror stories posted here....just wanted some feedback. Anyone else had this happen?

[The Watchdog]

Let me tell you at this moment that the worst is being experienced by the Casino.

Ok, this is way normal with firepay... The week old charges is more than normal. There is a 6 day clearing period to make sure that the funds are good.

Ok... what you should do is contact them right away. I remember some years ago they didn't even have a customer service phone number which I hate from them. Since they have moved from company to company, I dunno if they have a phone number now days. If you have prove that the funds where pulled from your bank account and they are telling you that they never received it and in adittion you already paythem this is %@%#@ up.

First of all... send them the papers...See if your bank can contact them in order to acknowledge that the transactions were collected, what they need are the merchant codes and stuff like that. Your bank must have all this info if those funds were sent to firepay.

Something similar happened to me with neteller. I deposited $50 with my debit card.. they went out of my account but never reached Neteller. 2 days later they put them in after sending several docs. However they were very nice and contacted me through phone and email...

Also make sure to inform your casino about this... If the story is as you stated, this is 100% guilt of Firepay. Right now your account might be blocked since this situations are treated just like credit card charge backs...

In my opinion... LEARN ABOUT INSTADEBIT.. THEY ARE THE BEST METHOD AVAILABLE..

Or Neteller.. their cs is amazing...

[bayleesprings]

Thanks WatchDog! I can't believe that I haven't gotten more responses than this. But I guess it means that this hasn't happened to anyone else, which is a good thing.