Cash Plus / Advanced Payment Solutions froze my account and refuse to speak to me

[ActiveJustice]

I received an email from cash plus asking to contact them. I did as requested, and spoke to a gentleman called 'Zwelli' who proceeded to ask an uncomfortable line of questioning.

 

I was asked where my money was coming from, and I explained I have a business PayPal account and that all the payments made into the account are electronic payments which can be accounted for. Every single penny has documentation to show how it was earned and where it came from.

 

This gentleman insinuated it could be money laundering - impossible as 99% of all money deposited was electronic payments made by BACS transfer from PayPal, and each PayPal transaction can be accounted for. I emailed a piece of information to them that they asked for, a url link to an advert posted online. Although I asked for confirmation that this was received, the email was not acknowledged.

 

The following day, I suffered further humiliation when I found my card had been declined and I could not withdraw money from the ATM. I phoned the following day, but head office were not available as it was a weekend. I phoned the following Monday at 9am, only to be told by all staff that head office refuse to speak to me and will contact me in due course, with no set time frame or any information or reason to why my account was frozen. Them simply cite 'technical difficulties'.

 

This has lead to literally hundreds of phone calls from myself in an attempt to pressure them into giving me answers but they refuse. They refuse to reply to my emails, and they refuse to talk to me. I obtained the head offices number and when I attempt to speak to them they divert me back to customer services who then tell me the same thing "head office are citing technical difficulties and won't speak to you". Either that or they are rude to me, tell me not to call them anymore and hang up the phone. The department dealing with my case refuse to talk to me at all and when I get put through to them they immediately put down the phone on me.

 

Apparently they held a meeting to discuss the fact I won't stop calling them. This piece of information slipped out of one of the staff I spoke to on an unrelated department, the finance department. Yet still they will not call me and will not reply to my emails.

 

I have now obtained the CEO Rich Wagners email address, and emailed him directly, he also will not reply to my emails. I have tweeted him on twitter, he doesn't reply. I tweeted the company and they blocked me. They currently have £1500 of my money, I can't use my card or log into my account, and they won't even speak to me to resolve this issue. I have offered to provide all documentation for every penny that went into the account - no reply. I don't feel I need to provide any information as I am entitled to my privacy, but I am willing to do it if needed.

 

It is only a prepaid master card for people with bad credit history, not like I should have to jump through hoops when it's an account with no benefits. They will not let me close the account either. I only had this account as I had a poor credit history and my financial situation improved dramatically. Once I resolve this and have it closed I'm going to try and open a proper account again. However this does not help with the situation I'm currently in.

 

In conclusion I am a sole trader, and without access to this money I am now sitting at home unable to work. I need the money to purchase stock and run the day to day operations of my business. I have explained this to the department handling my case and to the CEO Mr Wagner, but they do not care, I get no reply.

 

It is bad enough they blocked my card and account and are withholding my money, but the fact that they refuse to even speak to me is the most frustrating thing. I have never, ever dealt with customer service as poor as this, and have told them I will be contacting media outlets and the financial obudsman.

 

I do hope if anyone can help me that they please get in touch. I have found that they did the same thing to an 82 year old woman, froze her account and wouldn't let her close it until a journalist Tom Hazell contacted their CEO.

 

I'm sure others must be having problems with this company and I would like to unite with those people to have Advanced Payment Solutions practices scrutinised. What they are doing to me is just plain wrong.

[citizenB]

You should stop telephoning them. Send a formal complaint to their head/registered office. This wont be a swift resolution - they will have 8 weeks to resolve your issue or provide you with a deadlock letter - you will then need to escalate your complaint to the Financial Ombudsman.

 

In the grand scheme of things, this doesn't appear to be a huge sum, so it does seem quite bizarre they have taken this action!

 

Have you stopped having payments from PayPal going into the account ?

 

Sadly, those with mainstream accounts also find themselves with this problem where their accounts are frozen - and then have the door slammed in their faces when they try to find out why !1