While the detailed account of my experiences are below, you are likely interested simply in my summary evaluation of the 3V Visa pre-paid voucher product.
Here it is.
Thumbs down.
Why?
In summary:
- Three on-line purchases I attempted over a 3 week period with very well known international retailers failed
- Customer support only replied to my situations during the week; there was no evidence of any weekend support
- 3V Visa pre-paid vouchers can only be used (as I am told) for on-line purchases.
- There are fees associated with this product in voucher amounts in excess of $20 ($2.95 for $30, $50 and $100 vouchers; $4.95 for $150, $250 and $500 vouchers). I am told these are ‘comparable to Interact fees for debit purchases or interest fees for traditional credit cards and there is no credit check (true, which can be useful for ome folks); however, the largest Interact fees I personally have received was $1 or $1.50 when I used an Interact outside of my bank’s own Interact system.
Now for the details of my experience.
And yes, while this might discourage other product and service providers from wanting us to evaluate their products in the future because of the bad review I am giving here, as a consumer you need to know about this.
I was invited (along with several others so I was told) to blog or Tweet about my experiences using a $20 3V Visa voucher. They were interested not in what I purchased but in my experience using the voucher.
Well, I don’t have an iPod and I refuse to pay for ring tones for my mobile phone, so $20 is not going to get me too far, especially when most on-line retailers charge shipping costs for low cost on-line purchases.
I have an upcoming project to tile the floor in one of our bathrooms, a DIY home renovation project which will surely see me go to my neighbourhood Home Depot outlet for some supplies.
So, I thought why not purchase a $20 Home Depot gift card with the $20 3V Visa voucher, especially since Home Depot does not charge shipping for these … at least that is what their web site stated.
So, I went on line to Home Depot Canada’s web site and made the purchase. Every thing went fine. I even Tweeted about how simple the experience was. It was a purchase just like using any credit card.
Then about 3 days later I received two automated emails from Home Depot indicating that my purchase of their gift card had been rejected.
Why?
The long and the short of it, as it was explained to me by the 3V Visa representative upon her subsequent research, was that Home Depot actually charges a $1 authorization fee on new credit or pre-paid cards which is reversed by them immediately after the transaction goes through. So, even though I could not find this practice on Home Depot Canada’s web site, it caused the transaction to subsequently fail.
Disappointingly, it should have failed at the time I was on their checkout web page and not indicate that that transaction had been accepted. As well, I should not have received a confirmation email from Home Depot a few seconds after I successful made the purchase using the 3V Visa voucher on their web site saying ‘all good’.
So, lesson to self. Never use the full amount of any prepaid card on Home Depot’s web site (or, for that matter why tempt fate on any other vendor’s web site as I am sure Home Depot is not alone in this practice). Shame on Home Depot for not making this clear.
Was this the fault of the 3V Visa prepaid voucher product? No. Was the customer support I received satisfactory? Yes. Rachel, on behalf of 3V Visa, was able to obtain me the above details on what happened within a few minutes of my email to her. That was great. However, one does have to keep in mind that she was not part of 3V Visa organization itself; rather, Rachel is part of a public relations type of firm. Would I receive the same service if I encountered an issue the next time I tried to use it?
Return tomorrow when I attempt to use this financial product at as Canadian a retailer as there is……twice.





