Neteller - very poor service

[RiverstarsVictim]

I know most on here are American so not really relevant to you but I'd be interested if any other nationalities using Neteller have had any recent problems regarding the prepaid card. I'd also be interested to know if you Americans who did previously use Neteller received all your money eventually?

Last year I was issued a prepaid card from Altair-Financial which was good until September this year (expiry date). Little did I know that Neteller and Altair are no longer in partnership so when my new card never arrived I felt a little silly e-mailing Altair only to discover this news. Altair also advised me any funds on my old card would be transferred to Neteller's new prepaid card.

With that I logged into my Neteller account to see if there was any hint about my new card, nothing. When I clicked prepaid card it just said active. I've heard nothing through e-mail except endless ads telling me I can earn if I transfer lots of money to merchants. So I contact live support. After much discussion they've finally reset my prepaid card status to where I need to make a new application which would take up to 14 days. Ok I can live with this inconvenience.

Today, 15 days later, I log in to find the prepaid card button has vanished so it's back to live support again.

Oscar: Hi, my name is Oscar. How may I help you?

xxxxxxxx: Hi Oscar...can you please tell me a) what is happening to my prepaid card application and b) why all links to the prepaid card have disappeared from my account, almost as if the prepaid card doesnt exist and is not an option?, thanks

Oscar: I do apologize for the inconvenience, please note we are currently experiencing technical difficulties in this matter.

xxxxxxxx: ok, can you please tell me what is happening with my application?, i'm long overdue with a renewal card as it is and i really need access to my funds soon

Oscar: Please note we are experiencing difficulties, we are working to resolve these as soon as possible, everything should be fine on the 20th.
Oscar: I do apologize for the inconvenience.

xxxxxxxx: can you please tell me what is happening with my applicatiion?

Oscar: It did not go thorugh.

xxxxxxxx: the last time i checked it said it was being processed, so how can you tell me it didnt go through?

Oscar: Because of the unfortunate problems we are experiencing.
Oscar: We will let you know via email, how did everything go.

xxxxxxxx: so you are telling me i need to wait until the 20th and then restart the whole process?

Oscar: I do not know th exact details, however by such date everything should be working again.

xxxxxxxx: i'm seriously losing faith in neteller
xxxxxxxx: it's my money and i expect better, i shouldn't have even needed to make a new application, now you tell me "dontknow", not good enough

Oscar: I do apologize for the inconvenience this is just a temporary technical problem, we are working to resolve this.
Oscar: You money is secure and safe with us.
Oscar: Please be sure to check out our current customer referral promotion!
The Refer-a-friend program gives you cash for referring your friends. When they open a NETELLER account and make a first deposit, you will get 20% (up to €16) of their deposit amount.
Is there anything else I can assist you with?

xxxxxxxx: it's not temporary that i'm still waiting for a new card because old card expired, it's not temporary you dont tell me anything
xxxxxxxx: unbelievable, you're advertising refer a friend?, is there any technical problems with bank withdrawals at the moment?

Oscar: No, everything is working fine except this minor incident, I do apologize for this, please be aware we are working to resolve this, until then is there something else I can do for you today?

xxxxxxxx: please dont tell me it's a minor incident, you made a complete hash of issuing me a replacement/renewal prepaid card, a huge error, so please dont insult your customer by calling it minor
xxxxxxxx: why cant you tell me manually what is happening with my application?

Oscar: Due to security reasons I do not have access to such information.

xxxxxxxx: so I'm wasting my time?
xxxxxxxx: neteller is seriously inept

Oscar: We will contact you via email when we have resolve this issue.
Oscar: NETELLER does not tolerate abusive language. Please keep all contact with NETELLER professional.

xxxxxxxx: i wish, you didnt even contact me when your partnership with altair financial finished, it was altair-financial who informed me they wouldn't be issuing me with a new prepaid card, why didnt neteller inform me?
xxxxxxxx: can you quote where I've been abusive please?

Oscar: I do understand you, and again I do apologize for this problems. Please wait for our response.
Oscar: Thank you for using NETELLER Live Chat. We appreciate your business and look forward to assisting you again. Bye for now.
Oscar has disconnected.

As you can see, I got nowhere. It's ok for them to call this "minor" and to send me "refer-a-friend" ads whilst I'm clearly not a happy customer but the minute I suggest Neteller are inept I'm now being abusive. If he's my employee he'd be lucky to get a final warning.

I guess my only option now is to withdraw to my bank which defeats the whole reason for using Neteller in the 1st place. I didn't want poker or any online activity on my bank statements.

Anybody currently experiencing problems, especially with the new prepaid card?. Maybe you had the same problem but it is now resolved?

[irishpkr]

Funnily enough I use Neteller myself for all my poker related transactions (from the UK). So far the service has been very good, everything working as I hoped. Only had one small issue, in that it took 4days for my ID to be processed to upgrade my account, but apart from that its all gravy

[RiverstarsVictim]

I guess they have their favourites When I google 'Neteller problems' there seems to be those that are totally pissed off with Neteller or those who are very happy. At least I still can withdraw to my bank for now but I still cant access funds on my expired card which are supposed to be transferred to the supposedly new card

[Charibert]

Hi!

I have exactly the same problem!
Neteller has been OK previously - played poker in Vegas in June and used the card extensively.
Neteller support is extremely unprofessional - we should try to join forces, if we have to press charges.
Let me speculate.... Could Altair be affected by the financial crisis ?! This was probably the last time I used Neteller - I don't expect to get back the $430 that were left on my old card; i suspect that there must be serious problems behind this strange activity....

[RiverstarsVictim]

Hi!

I have exactly the same problem!
Neteller has been OK previously - played poker in Vegas in June and used the card extensively.
Neteller support is extremely unprofessional - we should try to join forces, if we have to press charges.
Let me speculate.... Could Altair be affected by the financial crisis ?! This was probably the last time I used Neteller - I don't expect to get back the $430 that were left on my old card; i suspect that there must be serious problems behind this strange activity....

I think your problem might actually be with Altair regarding the outstanding balance on your old card. Have you tried contacting Altair?. If not, try contacting them on their contact page of their website at https://www.altair-financial.com/(S(...)/contact.aspx

They did tell me they could send my outstanding balance by cheque but I go away next month and I'd prefer they transferred the remaining balance to my new card (if Neteller ever issue it)

[RiverstarsVictim]

So I log in to Neteller today and it appears Oscar was telling me porkies. They weren't "currently experiencing technical difficulties " at all, they were making changes. Oscar told me with regards to my application for a new card "It did not go thorugh", of course it didn't Oscar, it got cancelled. Thanks for the BS and the waste of 1 and a half hours waiting and talking to you Oscar but a simple e-mail beforehand from Neteller would have been suffice. It might have even prompted me to use all my funds on my old card before it expired FFS instead of believing they would simply be transferred (as I had been previously informed)

To cut a long story short, their new card/s are not appealing to me. There's the choice of the "virtual" prepaid card which appears to be only good for online activity and is excluded from gaming sites (as far as I understand from the very lengthy EULA) or the more expensive replacement for my expired card. The new replacement card would charge me £3 per ATM transaction (a 50% increase) and a monthly "dormancy fee" (£1.50) for every month I dont use it. Time for a change methinks.

[Mika Ollila]

I used Neteller for online poker transfers for 3 years, but finally was so upset and frustrated by the lack of service that I closed down the account. And that alone took them months to accomplish, and get the leftover money wired back to my bank.

For any non-US person looking for an online wallet to be used with poker rooms, I warmly recommend Moneybookers. The difference to Neteller is like night and day.