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I cancelled Directv. During time of service I had a direct payment set up. At the end of service I had a refund due. It was not returned to my financial account nor was a check issued. Instead Directv set up a Cictibank prepaid card. To do so Directv provided my personal information to Citibank without my authority. When I complained and requested Directv issue a refund check instead, I was informed that a refund check can only be issued for sums under $5.00. Directv further informed me that they had no further involvement and I would have to deal with Citibank directly, an institution which I had never contacted and never authorized to receive any monies from me. This is the worse kind of fraud and "bait and switch" for both of these companies.
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I agree 100% this practice should be outlawed.
1. They are contracting a bank which I have in no way given my information to.
2. The bank is giving them a discount on the refund card in exchange for DirecTV passing my information along. DirecTV is a luxury entertainment product, so most of their customers are high income earners and Citi knows this all too well.
3. The bank is further discounting because there is a historical 15% "breakage rate" on gift cards. This is evidenced by the following. If you buy a $100 Best Buy card at CVS, CVS takes $4.50 off the top. The company who issues the cards, Blackhawk, takes the next $4.50. In the end Best Buy is getting $91. However, with the 15% breakage rate, Best Buy STILL comes out with a 6% bonus on every $100 gift card sold at CVS.
4. If you charge my credit card, then you should be REQUIRED BY LAW to return the funds to the same credit card if the refund transaction is within a 90 day window.
Citibank and directtv. Two of the most corrupt, slimy organization exploiting Americans every second of every day. What a mistake it was for the Government to bail out Citibank after their major role in the real estate collapse at the end of 2007 after years of writing and selling fraudulent mortgages before years of fraudulently foreclosing many of those same loans beginning in 2008. Both of these sleezy corporations share the same corporate motto of "corruption, greed, arrogance and disdain for fair play!"
It's a scam. A company as huge at AT&T/Diretv can't issue a refund check? The burden of having to register this idiotic prepaid card falls to the customer. And good luck trying to deposit the balance into your bank account. I am very computer savvy, but it took forever to register ... and then after all that, they had to text me a code to us before I could continue and of course code never came, despite repeated attempts. Was told to "call customer service." Oh, yeah, that's something to look forward to.
NO DOUBT: They hope people will give up or forget to use their cards and all that money goes right back to AT&T.
I received a refund debit card (mastercard) when I cancelled my DirecTV account. When I tried to check the remaining balance figure in the last month, the customer service rep said the amount was zero and had been used up in "maintenance fee"! When I complained, she restored the card balance and re-activated the amount! People need to watch for this racket.
Had to cancel Directv due to hurricane Ian knocking off satellite dishes and loss of their service. They promised me a check on Nov. 2nd but instead I get one of their MasterCards with a credit on it. How would theylike it if I had been paying my monthly bills with gift cards instead of a check? I doubt they would have liked it so send a damn check already! There was nothing in the contract I originally signed that said they could pay refunds in any manner they chose such as boiled peanuts or girl scout cookies, nor did I ever authorize them to send me a credit through a new credit card which I didn't request nor want. Send me a damn check!
I also received my final bill accounting on one of their “prepaid” Mastercards. 1. Their website is deficient and repeatedly crashed-multiple attempts by 2 persons using multiple devices failed. Got “503” error messages and “session timed out” messages.
Solution: switched from Safari to Google Chrome and was able to activate card and get PIN number. But That’s all. Solution #2-downloaded mobile app from App Store and using that was able to register the card online with a user name and password. But you cannot use the app for anything. Went back to website logged in with username and password and tried to transfer refund to bank account-website crashed (again) Solution #3 went to Amazon bought stuff, the card worked. I believe it’s a built-in fail rate where they hope you abandon the card and balance owed to you especially for small amounts. They are banking on people just giving up. Probably split the proceeds with Directv.