One of the world’s largest credit card brands is apologizing to a Richmond Hill, Ont. man whose pre-paid credit card didn’t work when he tried to make a purchase.
Marcelo Garzon received a $100 prepaid MasterCard as a birthday gift last fall. When he went to use the card in a store he said it failed to work.
“The clerk politely told me it might be something with the (card) machine,” said Garzon, who added his attempts to get answers from MasterCard’s representatives were unsuccessful despite lengthy periods on-hold over the telephone.
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“They told me my card should have had 16 digits, it only had 12,” he said after finally reaching an agent in regards to the numbers on the Vanilla prepaid MasterCard given to him by a friend.
Garzon said MasterCard declined to offer him financial compensation initially because company advertises “zero liability” for consumers using conventional credit card products targeted by fraud.
Global News has received several complaints about prepaid Vanilla-branded MasterCard and Visa products.
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Consumers have reported the same issues: when they tried to redeem the cards at stores, the cards had no value.
Prepaid credit cards, also known as “open loop” cards, are one of the fastest-growing segments of the credit card industry — designed to be given as gifts or used by consumers who cannot obtain conventional credit cards.
According to the Canadian Prepaid Providers Organization, the association representing the open loop prepaid payments industry in Canada, it was estimated Canadians spent almost $5 billion on prepaid MasterCard products in 2015.
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Originally, MasterCard Canada’s public relations company told Global News the failure in Garzon’s case may have been related to “in-store fraud.”
But late Monday, MasterCard Canada apologized for what happened to Garzon and accepted responsibility.
“We’re very sorry to hear what happened to Mr. Garzon. I can only imagine how frustrated he was with the whole situation, ” said Lauren Mostowyk, director of communications and philanthropy at MasterCard Canada.
“We would like to reach out to him directly and offer our apologies and to reimburse him the $100 from the prepaid card.”
Garzon said he was frustrated that no one from MasterCard would take his concern seriously, leading him to contact Global News.
He added he wanted to warn other consumers about the possibility their cards would not work. Mostowyk said the case is under review.
“We are currently looking into what happened with his card and working with our issuer partners to identify and fix the issue,” she said.
“We are committed to resolving this.”
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