Hey guys, so a little over a month ago I *finally* got a debit card so I can buy from GOG and other online sites. This question doesn't pertain to GOG, but rather how I'd get my money back from a scam. On 2/25, I bought a T-shirt from the site Alt-Tshirts.com. I found out shortly after ordering that the site is essentially a fraud (As evidenced here by their Facebook page..I'm Hunter who just left a bad review, fellow GOGers feel free to add me on facebook if you wish)

https://www.facebook.com/altshirts

So anyway, they charged me $25 for a T-Shirt, and said it'd be here by now. I've called there twice, the first time (3 days ago) I said email or call me if my order has shipped. Got nothing back. So I just called and said that I was gonna file a fraud report with my debit card company if I didn't get a call back by the end of the afternoon. Question being, does anyone have any tips on how to go about doing that? I have Green Dot as my card carrier. They have nothing about it on their website, and every time I call I usually can't understand the person on the other end of the phone. :/ Basically all I want is my money back, cause I know there's no way I'm getting that shirt. Thanks guys!

**EDIT**: Also, the company never posted the charges. Usually when I buy from Amazon, GOG, other sites, the charges are pending for 2-3 days then get posted. This charge has been pending since 2/25. Don't know if that helps at all

Green Dot itself from what I have heard is/was used to commit a lot of fraud.

These issues can take a while to sort out, if you cant understand the person you are speaking to you can try to politely say that you are having difficulty understanding their accent and seeing if there is another advisor that you can talk to who perhaps has a less defined accent.

Alternatively try to contact them either by email or in writing.


Green Dot Corporation
P.O. Box 1187
Monrovia, CA 91017

Also see their FAQ type section on transaction disputes https://www.greendot.com/greendot/help#dispute

How about researching a company before buying from it ? :/

Well I'm just up sh- creek in fraudulent companies here huh. I'll get on that T-Shirt place a few more times, if no reply I'll have to fill out that form. Didn't even see that on their site, thanks man! Anybody else got any other tips on the quickest way I can get my money back?

I've learned my lesson :p

If you google the address of the "store".

You can find this.

http://www.realtor.com/realestateandhomes-detail/15-N-Arlington-St_Manville_NJ_08835_M56154-27297?source=web

I highly doubt that is a store that sells t-shirts...

Maybe this can help you get your $25 back.
https://www.greendot.com/greendot/cmsviews/GreenDot/assets/en-us/DisputeForm-en.pdf

From what I could understand before the call just randomly ended with Green Dot, is it sounds like that if the seller doesn't post the transaction by tonight, the funds will be back on my card tomorrow. At least that's what it sounded like. May have to call back later but hey if that's the case, happy day and lesson learned!

Debit cards aren't as good as credit cards in terms of fraud protection. I think typically the card holder is responsible for the first $50 on a fraudulent debit card charge and $0 for a fraudulent credit card charge.

Also some credit card companies offer disposable credit card numbers and I don't believe that this is an option with debit cards, or at least I don't know of any debit card issuers in the US that offer it.

Obviously it's best to avoid companies with a shady reputation, but if you need to do so anyways, then you're best doing it with a credit card or prepaid charge card.

Well I can't provide you any more measures than your doing, however in the future i recommend this idea for online purchasing. Visa and Mastercard are easier in recovering or blocking a charge.

Capital One tends to be downright hostile towards potential weird charges, they're by far the most aggressive issuer I've ever dealt with. But, their process of verifying the charges is quite efficient, so most of the time the charges I want go through quite quickly.

There are probably other issuers that are quite aggressive as well, but I've found them to be quite on top of things like this.

Who...buys clothes online? o.O

Also, misleading title. Prepaid card issues are a completely different than having debit/credit issues. You'd have to sort it out with GreenDot, unless you loaded it up through Paypal or some other middle-transactor.

In general, you don't get charged until the product ships. I'm not sure if that's by law or simply how businesses generally do things; charge-backs are fairly expensive compared to a cleared transaction and are thus best avoided. If it's back-ordered then that may explain why it's still pending. However, one would expect an email telling you that it's on back-order.

And use credit card for online purchases. Debit cards are fine for face-to-face transactions, especially established businesses local to you, but they are limited in fraud protection compared to credit cards.

I do, for band shirts I can't find in stores :p and it's not a misleading title, they do have debit cards that you can hook up to your bank account. It's not one of those vanilla visa or the other cards Green Dot sells, it's an actual debit card that I could hook up to my bank account if I wish. I can also access ATMs with it.


Yeah, I haven't been particularly satisfied with Green Dot. I have to pay a $5 fee every time I want to put more money onto my card, and they charge me monthly fees. I'll look into getting a credit card!

Proper credit and debit card issuers provide equal terms of protection (zero liability, deferral until dispute is settled) against unauthorized use. Green Dot, being nothing but a ripoff that preys on people who have been excluded from the banking system, may not.

The problem with the protection on debit cards is that the money (plus holds, if any) comes immediately off your account. If this results in bank minimum balance or overdraft fees, or even bounced checks, this can create a huge mess that takes months to clean up.

With credit cards, the money comes off your line of credit, and you don't have to settle until the next bill after the dispute is resolved.