NetSpend review: Prepaid netspend card ( 1 comment)

I got laid off late last year in Florida and then moved to VA. I had been struggling with odd jobs for some time before finally finding something that worked for me. A great job with great people and trainning in Las Vegas. So I fly out to Vegas and Im given some petty cash for the start of my trainning and I decide "Hey why not put some of this money into a prepaid card so I can get around with uber easier and pay a few friends back". That was the worst decision I could have made by far.

After loading 200 dollars onto my netspend card I proceded to send money to a friend who had helped me out in the past. The payment was sent and I was feeling fine.
About ten minutes later or so I thought about another friend who had helped me out and I then attempted to send money to them. Paypal would not let the charge go through saying the card issuer denied the charge (NetSpend).
Thinking its some minor fluke I called Net Spend Customer Service and TRIED to ask a few questions. I say TRIED because they would frequently cut me off while I was in the middle of explaining something. Net Spend explains basically nothing to me about the lock and then asks for a plethora of documents.
Mind you Im in Las Vegas for work trainning and I dont have half of these documents. So Basically Im screwed while on my work trip and thats even with me calling every day from Wednesday to Friday (Flew out Friday) to try and sort this out.
When I landed in DC Friday night I went straight to bed with the goal of sorting this insanity out.

I sent Net Spend a photo of my SSN, my Photo ID, my Florida Unemployment document listing my previous address and my new address. I sent them all of this plus a photo of the reciept and they told me they couldnt verify I was who I say I am.
For almost a week I have been unable to buy food or send money to the people I owe money too, let alone pay bills.
NetSpend customer support has lied twice on the phone to me.
At one point the rep said she would "prioritize my case" and yet when I called in again I was told that they do not prioritize ANY cases (pretty incredible).
Another call I was told a Supervisor would call me back within ten minutes. I waited for 30 minutes before calling them back, and when I got a human on the other end they told me that Supervisors dont talk to the customers. It was only after repeating over and over that I was TOLD I would get a call from a supervisor without requesting it, did I finally get to speak with one.

Then we get to the supervisor. His name was Chris Employee ID 218269. Chris was far better than anyone I spoke too but still bound by the absolutely fraudulent rules of the company, or company policy. After asking Chris why I was getting my claims rejected and why my account is still locked he finally admitted it was because my unemployment letter was not within 30 days.
I reminded Chris that it was unemployment, it doesnt happen every month. I reminded him that just because its from some months ago doesnt matter because the main issue he told me was my address being different. On my unemployment document both the address NetSpend expected, and my current address are listed. Essentially complete proof of my change of residence post being laid off. Chris admitted that this made sense but then stuck to the rule requiring the document to be 30 days old. Forgive any grammar or spelling errors as I write this but I have not been able to eat a full meal since before this ordeal. My bills are hitting the red and my friends are losing patience all because Net Spend has such stupid rules that they cant admit what they already know.

This experience has taught me to not allow any one, friend, family, and enemies to use Netspend products. They got taken to task in 2016 by the FTC for a similar issue regarding peoples money and its not a surprise that they didnt fix a damn thing since then.