| โ ๏ธ Update |
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A Grab customer service manager reached out to clarify that going forward, Grab will not be requiring the submission of merchant correspondence in the case of fraudulent transactions. The help form will also be updated to better distinguish between disputes (fraudulent transaction) and chargebacks (not fraudulent but contested), with a different process for each. |
If youโve been using your GrabPay Card on a fairly regular basis, itโs probably only a matter of time before you get hit by a fraudulent transaction.
This is likely to be a mild annoyance more than anything else, particularly since the GrabPay Card is a debit card, and unless youโre keeping a sizeable balance in your GrabPay wallet (why?), the quantum of damage canโt be very high.
But even so, money is money, and youโll want to file a chargeback to get reimbursed. And hereโs where things start to go awryโฆ
My experience disputing a fraudulent GrabPay transaction
On 11 May, I received a transaction alert that a charge of S$5.96 had been made on my GrabPay Card (I had a small balance in my GrabPay wallet because of a refunded transaction).
This was made to a merchant called CUBED FIT, which Iโve never heard of (do you even lift bro). So naturally I blocked my card immediately and initiated the chargeback process.
Now, the very first question asked when filing a chargeback is whether youโve reached out to the merchant to resolve the issue.
That obviously makes no sense in the case of a fraudulent transaction, but itโs impossible to continue unless you tap โyesโ.
So I just put โyesโ and carried on. I filled out the usual details like the merchant name, transaction date and amount (youโd think the app would be smart enough to auto-populate these fields), and hit submit.
On 15 May I received a call from a Grab CSO, who cancelled my existing GrabPay Card and waived the application fee for a new one. I asked about the chargeback status, and was told that they were unable to open a chargeback claim until I showed them proof that I had already contacted the merchant to try and resolve the matter first.
She pointed me to this term on Grabโs chargeback page.
Please note that youโll need to provide supporting documents (i.e. screenshots) indicating youโve reached out to the merchant regarding the refund. This will allow us to proceed with the chargeback process.
Letโs just pause to think about this.
Asking the customer to contact the merchant makes sense in certain chargeback situations. For example:
- The goods you received were different from the ones advertised
- The goods you received were defective
- The merchant charged your card for the wrong amount
- The merchant charged your card twice for a given transaction
- The merchant said theyโd issue a refund but have yet to do so
In those cases, sure. There is a pre-existing relationship between the customer and the merchant, and the customer should at least make an attempt to resolve the matter with the merchant before bringing in the card issuer.
But in the case of a fraudulent transaction? I have no idea who the merchant is in the first place (a cursory Google search shows no hits for a company called Cubed Fit), so how am I supposed to even contact them?
And supposing I could, what am I expected to say? โHi, I donโt know who you are, but someone used my card for a fraudulent transaction with you.โ To which theyโll replyโฆ.what exactly?
It sounds silly spelling it out, but thatโs exactly what Grab is asking customers to do. If you have a fraudulent transaction on your GrabPay Card, youโre expected to somehow contact the merchant and ask them to reverse it (good luck when you donโt even know what you supposedly bought!) before Grab will consider helping you out.
Iโve had to dispute fraudulent charges on my bank-issued credit cards before, and not once was I asked to contact the merchant. Iโm wondering why itโs different with Grab.
So back to my call: I told the Grab CSO that what they were asking for didnโt make any sense since this was a fraudulent transaction not made by me in the first place. She kept insisting it was โpolicyโ, but eventually agreed to โescalateโ the matter to the disputes team again.
Now, thereโs always the possibility the CSO was misinformed, and this isnโt Grabโs actual policy. But given the way the chargeback filing process is set up in the app, how thereโs no separate flow for fraudulent vs non-fraudulent-but-disputed transactions, and how you canโt actually submit a claim unless you state that youโve reached out to the merchant already, I wouldnโt be surprised if it is.
| โ ๏ธ Chargeback vs Dispute |
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Someoneโs pointed out that a chargeback (legitimate transaction where somethingโs gone wrong) is different from a dispute (illegitimate transaction), and technically what weโre dealing with here is a dispute. Thatโs true, but Grab doesnโt distinguish between the two in its Help Centre page, and includes fraudulent transactions under the chargeback category. |
Conclusion
Mark this as unresolved for now, but if Grab continues to insist on this requirement, Iโm just going to have to eat the S$5.96. Thereโs simply no way to do what theyโre asking for.
Itโs hard not to be cynical about the reasons behind Grabโs blanket application of the โcontact merchant first before raising chargebackโ rule. Yes, it makes sense in certain scenarios, but certainly not when dealing with a fraudulent transaction. If anything, it feels like a case of trying to tai chi the responsibility to the customer.
Long story short: keep as small a balance as possible in your GrabPay wallet, and lock your card whenever itโs not in use. And if you do get hit by a fraudulent transaction, be prepared for some surreal correspondence with customer service.
Have you had a fraudulent transaction on your GrabPay Card? How was it resolved?
grab team is basically unrealiable, took two days to reply with an email. i had the same encouter.
Long way to go before they can be a digital bank or displace credit cards, and then perhaps they will start an equiv transaction fee or else how to fund fraud management work
surreal (and illogical)
Many merchants use a different name instead of their brand name to process transactions. Asking customers to contact the merchant to resolve fraudulent transactions sounds absurd.
Probably best to limit grab wallet usage to QR code transactions and not anything else locally. No good reason to use their cards overseas as there are multi currency cards like revolut with good rates.
grabpay card can come in useful for making AXS transactions, though. Klook sometimes offers promo codes for paying with grabpay card, so thatโs another use case.
maybe better to get MAS involved ?
Grab is a shady company and things have changed since they became unchallenged in the market. They are no longer as customer-centric. Complaints hotline for customers is removed. Even if you did call in to a CSO for complaints theyโll tell you they donโt take complaints and you just gotta e-mail in. Bad ratings from customers are removed. Do you notice almost all drivers are 5 Stars now? Itโs because drivers can challenge poor ratings, except for safety issues, most poor ratings are removed. Also in my experience this is the risk of using cards from Fintech, non-traditional FIs. Customerโฆ Read more ยป
Iโve had the same situation when they issued the grab card first time. I bought a pair of Adidas shorts but I bought the wrong size so went back to then but Adidas couldnโt refund because it was a purely digital card. Grab kept making me go back to Adidas store and Cso for an explanation as they believe their digital card accepts refunds. In the end Grab ate their own nonsense and refunded me their points equivalent to the shorts price after admitting their card had problems.
Escalate this to MAS, they are quite happy to step in when it comes to things like this.
How to do that?
I too had a hard time and it was when I was in Dubai booking a partner transport which in the end I did not end up taking. Their solution was to simply delete the evidence and remove all records in my wallet. Lucky I had screenshots of my grab wallet which is now missing. Iโm taking this to MAS. From an accounts and audit point of view itโs most concerning. How can one trust a company whoโs solution is to delete records and then says it never happened. While I dislike classic financial institutions for their dinosaur methods modernโฆ Read more ยป
Suggest you share the screenshots of convos and evidence etc with MAS. You would be doing everyone a public service. Grab is nowhere near a bank and they should not be issuing cards with such poor service. Previously they blocked my account with no sympathy (stupidly logged in to mumโs account on own phone to help with Points redemptions) and there was no way to contact them either, i.e. they stole all my remaining money and points. Had to use family memberโs account to send a message to them, still ongoing. MAS needs to at least be aware of theโฆ Read more ยป
Iโve said it before and Iโll say it again: donโt use these newfangled payment services companies, whether Grab or Amaze or whatever. Everything looks fine until these kinds of problems happen. One single fraudulent transaction means the cost of your miles suddenly becomes a lot more expensive, or you lost your cashback, defeating the point of using these services in the first place. This means you have no choice but to go through these companiesโ garbage recovery processes. But is it worth your time and mental load? If you value your time at say, $100 an hour, there is noโฆ Read more ยป
Most of the people who take advantage of grab card arenโt capable of generating 100sgd an hour i think
For those who could, they wont even pay any attention to grab.
Wonder how reliable would their digital banking be ?
I had a fraud transaction on 8 May too. I went through the โreport issueโ route and selected unrecognised transaction. Grab needed answers to the following questions: 1)Did you get a chance to speak to contact the merchant โ Letting them know about the unauthorised charges on your GrabPay MasterCard? 2)Did you use your card to make this transaction? 3)Did you get notified when the transaction was posted in your account / card e.g 4 digit one time passcode (OTP) from Grab? 4)If yes, did you share the 4 digit one time code with anyone else? 5)Was the card andโฆ Read more ยป
Same encounter on 14th May with grab card. 100+ sgd at stake
Grab is increasingly unreliable and desperate to milk their users. Any customer service, if thereโs any, is impersonal, templated and absolutely frustrating. MAS should know about this, before they they go full fledged digital bank. Would be utter chaos, seeing how they are so rubbish now.
You should make a police report against grabpay and cubefit for making unauthorised transaction.
Grab as a whole has zero customer service. 2 recent issues- I ordered a grab express delivery which took 90 minutes from pick up to drop off- I could see the driver on my screen stopped at a location (housing block) with my item. When he arrived he wouldnโt explain any reason (lunch? Nap?) I complained to grab that I had paid $30 for an express item and asked for a refund- they gave me $3. Another time had a beach pick up, over one week later had a call from grab asking me to pay $20 to vacuum theโฆ Read more ยป
The number match, i have the same amount charge to my card then after few day, the same merchant charge to my card again.
Guys, be alert !!
Seem like Grab account been havked
Tell me about it..I lost my physical Grabpay card in Apr,called the number for them to help me block n cancel the card(as I was overseas and no Wi-Fi) sounded easy right?horror of horror.. Itโs been 1mth and I canโt use Grabpay for anything else other than the occasional online purchase thru my linked account. They still can cancel the lost card nor can they send me a new card. Am Iโm perplexed as the rest of my other bank cards have been resolved within 3-5days, This is the longest worst encounter Iโve ever faced with a pre paid debitโฆ Read more ยป
same goes to me as well but different story i use grabpay for my travel card e.g. buses mrt when the point of that i top up $25 after 2 days its says that [ Pay Off this outstanding card ammout to unlock your GrabPay Card Buses/MRT 144577108\9 MA SGD 16.29 Late Deduction ] I donโt understand why they donโt want to cut when I use it where I have $25
Delete all the garbage fintech la
Grab standard has really dropped significantly ever since they went IPO. Booked a ride booking with Grab but the ride got cancelled by the driver and Grab still charged me cancellation fees. Raised a ticket to Grab support and they just replied me with a standard template saying that Grab will not charge any fees and the driver under monitoring blablabla. It has been months now and there is still no resolution despite multiple correspondence.
Grab need to hire the correct person who have handle chargeback/dispute before to design the correct process.
In this case, there is no transaction information for the card holder, how would he/she approach the merchant which the merchant will obviously ask for this information?
Pardon me but I came from this industry and I am sure this process is totally wrong.
me too.. got 2x unauthorised transaction from primefilmshop.com & 2x from jumpermedia.net .. been 4 days since I called the grab helpline & no reply yet
Hey me too! I have 4 transactions, 3 weeks after contacting and still no reply from GRAB. They said escalated to finance department to investigate, no updates at all and even closed my case on their own. Iโm trying to email them to reopen the case again.
did u get back the money from chargeback in the end?
I have an ongoing dispute with Grab over fraudulent transactions which they kept denying that there is a glitch in their Indonesia arm. The Grab team are very unprofessionally trained with zero customer service skills. I also blasted my credit card company for not disclosing any details to me n siding the merchant yesterday.