I purchased a Mastercard from Cakepay using Monero. They accepted my Monero from my private wallet and forwarded me to an outside organization to complete the transaction. The purchased card failed everywhere I’ve tried it, engaged in numerous correspondence to both Cakepay and the second organization that issued card in order to solve issue, all of which were unsuccessful. I requested a refund, DENIED by both vendors. I requested they switch out card balance for Amazon Gift Card, DENIED. I don’t know where else to go but far and wide on social media. If someone from Cakepay can help resolve this problem, I can provide more details on transaction details and correspondence thus far.
There is another post saying they lost money trying to get Mastarcard: https://monero.town/post/872283 Sometimes something bad just happens…
I have found the prepaid cards to not be reliable. Not just from cake but other services as well. There are just too many variables with those that can go wrong and their default position is to always deny the transaction. As we all know, the legacy financial system is broken. I only use them for one or two services that I know they work with. It is not worth the risk and hassle to chance it on random purchases.
It if much better to just buy gift cards for a specific merchant.
This is a good take. The legacy system is extremely broken, and your approach sounds better than trial and error with more failure than success using prepaids.
Not just from cake but other services as well
I think they all use the same card providers such as MyPrepaidCenter, etc. So I guess it would be the same with cake and others as well
There are just too many variables with those that can go wrong and their default position is to always deny the transaction
Yes. Sometimes transactions are accepted, sometimes aren’t.
Update: Thankfully, after appearing on MoneroTalk and sharing my frustrating experience on the podcast, another member of CakePay reached out to me directly via email, gathering pertinent details about the order, and has promised to contact the card issuer in an attempt at a resolution. I will provide further updates here as to whether or not Cakepay will do the right thing here and make me whole. Encouraging news, but not yet resolved.
Today, I received a message notification in my email of a Discord message waiting. I may have gone to Discord in an attempt to get a refund, which was resolved by Vik/Daniel described in previous thread msg. I don’t use Discord because it ties accounts to email or phone number. While there’s great alternatives that don’t require that, unless there is something I need from that community, I won’t use those centralized systems so that most recent message from CakeWallet support forum will go unread. The link in the email activates my trace blocker.
Final Update: Daniel from Cakepay contacted me on the 20th of Jan, asked only enough questions to identify my order. Five days later my refunded Monero was in my wallet. I’m not sure if I would have received that level of service without the exposure in social media, but I am grateful for a satisfactory outcome and although I probably will never buy those VISA cards again, I do not hold an open objection to dealing with them on say a gift card. Thanks Vik and Daniel for building trust in an industry where trust is hard earned. Happy New Year!