In August of 2009, ARCO Optipay claims that my bank was unable to process a deduction for my purchase, and they are claiming that I owe them $23.00. I went to my bank to check about this as I have overdraft on my bank account and at the time when they said that my bank did not pay them, there was plenty of money in my account. The first time they told me this story, they claimed it happened on August 13, but a charge for the same amount they claimed did not go through was put through on August 17 for the exact same amount.

I have not been able to use my card since that time, and I have made more than 20 calls to them to try to get this straightened out. I was told first that I just needed to send them a copy of my bank statement for that time, which I did, and even attached the name of the bank lady I know who helped me. Even she said there is no such claim that was rejected ever in the whole month, and that because I have had adequate money in my account all the time and also because I have overdraft protection.

Today I finally got through to someone after all these tries, and I was on the phone for more than 30 minutes arguing with them about this. I never did get them to stop saying that I owe them money even though my bank says there is no such charge. I am beside myself. Could this be a fraud being carried out by this company? The company I have been calling is back east, and they are already sending me a statement saying that I owe them $23.00, but I am not boing to pay it because my bank says that nothing has been rejected on their end.

The only thing I could possibly think of was that there was a person working at the counter in the store back around that time, and when I filled my car one time (which I always did by going inside, paying for $20 of gas and getting coffee and a couple of lotto tickets), when I didn't use the whole $20 and asked for change, the man seemed unable to figure it out and he put me aside while he waited on 7 other people. When he finally did wait on me again, I never did know what he did for I was on my way to work, and he was making me late, so I just thought he put it back into my account but he might have caused the purchase to be cancelled instead of paying it. But still, something is amiss here. It would still have shown up in my account because it would have to be put through before it could be rejected.

I am now really convinced that this is a fraud. I have given these people my SS #, etc. because they are telling me they need that information to identify me. I think I will file this with consumer complaints too as I am getting very suspicious that something is really wrong here. I am going to contact every organization I can to get this looked into. I can't believe that HSBC, which is supposedly the company that managed the Optipay card, is doing this, but since I saw another complaint about them, perhaps they ARE doing something illegal.