GCash-AMEX Reversal Experience

I purchased a US brand item online using GCash AmEx or American Express virtual card. But the vendor canceled my purchase because they don’t ship to a freight forwarder address or non-residential address. There’s no immediate notification from the vendor when they canceled it; good thing I look at my purchase history in my account on their website.

As soon as I found it out I immediately informed GCash about it so they can be aware, though I know that they will and should be aware but knowing Globe and GCash, it may take the time or they might not bother, it’s also my first to try and use this service (I also don’t trust them). I informed them through their FB messenger chat portal GCash Care and the agent on the other side asked me to fill out a dispute form. I filled it out but informed them that I don’t think it was a dispute.

GCash Poor Customer Service

I think the agent who picked my concern during that time was less experienced. I gave them time since I know that bank to bank transactions especially reversal may take some time to reflect plus my account is like a “sub-account” under Globe. After a few days I follow up again, the agent on the other end did not respond, he or she just “seen” it and you know the feeling when someone does it, it was unrespectful! The agent never acknowledged the customer’s chat.

I just informed them that going to a dispute channel is not a good idea when there’s no valid dispute case yet. Then I specifically use the term reversal (good thing I know this word but for some, they might use refund and that will be the cause of the delays) in my instruction or my concern so they will know what to do. Maybe if I did not mention it, I was probably still in the spiral with them and it would take many forms to fill-out and many days to wait before I will get back my money. I said this because I had experiences with them before and most often that’s the case, circling in their spiral of a confusing workflow.

GCash cannot be reached through a phone call so it’s really a hassle when you have a concern because most of the time they respond the next day or you’ll receive a robot response.

Globe should train well their agents to properly use their common sense because that is what separates us from Artificial Intelligence which is now threatening our livelihood.

Epilogue

Globe GCash Care never responded but the afternoon of that day I received a text notification about the reversal. I think for GCash or to any entity whose business is to handle money or in the financial industry that they should still need a customer service portal via phone. It’s important that we as users and customers feel and talk to a real person on the other end listening and understanding us. It’s difficult to transact in a messenger bot because we don’t know if the concern is properly addressed plus it takes days to resolve the problem.

Anyway, what I learned from this experience is to check first the vendor abroad if they allow delivering to a freight forwarder address before buying from them otherwise better check Amazon or other online malls for that item. Then as much as possible be specific when conversing to a chatbot or customer service chat portal, provide to them the keyword or term (they assume that all of us customers are aware of their jargon) because their customer service agents are not using common sense or maybe not properly trained, or maybe all this time it was a robot; if it was, they need to upgrade it to an intelligent human!