I got a bunch of nothing and the issue was escalated to Customer Advocacy. I gave them @Dan5 profile as he requested, but my official complaint was closed (I don’t know if he was actually involved).
Assuming that Monzo did any internal technical analysis (I’m not sure if they did), they haven’t shared anything with me that I could use to get to the right folks at Uber.
I have this option, as well as the option to reopen the case with Customer Advocacy.
I’m considering both options alright (on top of the actions that I have already taken). But overall this is less about my specific case - my money has already been properly refunded - and more about trying to get Mozo and Uber to work as intended one day.
Even if I receive a new Monzo Card and it does work correctly with Uber, the truth, is whatever has happened to me and the other folk around here will keep happening until Monzo / Uber identify and fix the root cause.
The ombudsman wouldn’t even have access to Monzo’s servers. They’d just investigate whether normal banking procedures were followed which they were. And then they’d say ‘normal banking procedures were followed, we cannot uphold your complaint’.
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Yeah. This is indeed a very likely outcome.
When Monzo say they’ll reverse a pending transaction if you provide proof from the merchant showing: the reversal code, the card number, the transaction amount, the date.
Has anyone in history ever managed to get this from a merchant? Or is it a way of Monzo saying: show me a pig that can fly and I’ll give your money back.
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I’ve got it from hotels before. It used to maybe be easier back in the day but I just got an email from hotel saying the bill was settled and Monzo refunded the hold.
We are talking many years back though. Maybe not sustainable now
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I know that you have been to and back with Monzo several times already, but can I ask you a favour?
The next time that you pay for Amazon stuff with Monzo and a refund doesn’t hit your account, can you please do the following:
- Obtain the reversal code from Amazon.
- Open a CS request asking why your money haven’t hit your account.
- Wait for Monzo to blame Amazon.
- Take a print screen and post for the community.
I know that it’s somewhat of a low blow - and I’m not trying to set Monzo up - but the only way that I can think to get Monzo CS to collaborate is bringing in undeniable proof that not every single issue in the world is due to bad merchants / faulty payment processors.
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To be fair to Monzo they did end up reverting Uber auth holds based on £0 receipts. Chargeback and other types of reversals may be different.
This is different to what you think it is.
We don’t ask for the reversal code, but the auth code and confirmation they won’t take the payment so that we can match it to the correct authorisation and make sure we reverse the correct charge.
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Understandable, but still not great if you have to do it frequently.
I’m new to dealing with Monzo CS (yeahp, not a great start), but I doubt that any confusion on their part was due to your opening statement.
When dealing with my complaint, CS immediately went straight to blaming the Merchant (here, on Twitter and in the App’s chat) and quickly dismissed any other possibility.
I can’t say that Monzo haven’t been consistent in blaming Uber, not that they might not ultimately be right (even though this issue has never happened to me when using other payment methods). But the immediate shutdown + placing the onus on me to fill forms / obtain documents that most merchants are not unwilling to share was certainly a bad experience.
The fact that the “Dispute this transaction” option that they were sending me towards wasn’t even enabled for any of the offending transactions was the cherry on top.
I don’t want to be unfair with Monzo. They have ultimately refunded the money. But this whole ordeal made me think of some of my previous experiences with traditional banks from my home country. And trust me, this is not a compliment… Unless Monzo is aiming for the ultimate Kafkaesque experience (then they still have much to learn from Brazilian banks 
).
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I skipped through this earlier. I’m currently a contractor and my company is actually using Monzo as well . It doesn’t have a Credit Card yet, and I obviously can’t use the company’s Monzo Debit Card, but I’ll soon sign for a Credit Card.
I effing love this thread.
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A Solid 217 posts already. 71 of which are mine. I don’t think that I was ever this active in any other Discourse forum before 
.
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Hey again Folks.
My new “holographic” card has arrived, and I can do a few carefully selected experiments (as in, very short trips which are too cheap for most Uber drivers to select and aren’t as expensive if my money does get retained).
What would you advise to try? Adding the card directly to Uber’s app? PayPal? My last accident above was with Google Pay, so I’m not eager abour trying it again.
Well, I’d start here. You’ve got a new BIN and if it works, it adds more weight to the multiple processor angle.
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I can try it for sure. Although Uber doesn’t necessarily have to assign all transactions of a given payment method to the same payment processor (I don’t know about Google Pay specifics, I don’t even know if there’s another third-party in between Uber and Google). E.g., some big e-commerce vendors “load balance” transactions between several payment gateways. The underlying flow on their side can change between two transactions.
But I’ll try it, I agree with you that if I can not reproduce the problem with a new card and Google Pay it gives us some extra information alright.
Hey Folks,
I haven’t forgotten about this thread.
It has just been a slow week. I’ve only called Uber twice, and both times the driver did answer straight away for a change.
Also, there’s now a different issue on Uber side and I can’t no longer enable Google Pay as a payment method in my account (Yeah, great 
).
I’m bothering Uber to fix this one, meanwhile I’ll keep trying to use my Debit Card directly with them and take a printscreen of the reimbursement (or lack of reimbursement) the next time that no drivers accept the trip.
Just to give an update.
Uber still haven’t reenabled Google Play for my account.
I went on several trips were I paid with NatWest (no problem whatsoever with Auth holds). I also had a few tests with PayPal Credit (no problem either).
As Uber has failed to enable Google Pay I really can’t test the flow. So I’m unfortunately giving up.
Dealing with Uber Customer Support is a very draining experience. Even more draining than dealing with Monzo’s denial about the issue. Uber CS keeps looping over the same troubleshooting steps + placing occasional security restrictions on my account for no reason.
I have been trying to sort this for several months without success, and I’m beyond done with this.
My advice would still be the same. Uber + Monzo isn’t a good mix due to how Auth holds are processed.
If you can use anything other than Uber, go for it. If you can’t, then use a Debit or Credit Card from another bank. I never had any issues with NatWest, but other folks around here told me that it may be the case that I was just lucky. YMMV.
A credit card may actually be the best solution. When you pay with a credit card, if for whatever reason a authorisation hold is not cancelled, it only affects your available credit limit. You won’t get a bill for a pending transaction.
I would like to thank everyone in this thread that helped or tried to help.
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So I’m similarly frustrated.
I had an Uber Eats delivery that was meant to be refunded. Time ticked on and it wasn’t. Uber support told me that it had been refunded. I contacted Monzo and they asked me to prove that Uber had promised the refund. I did so and Monzo refunded the transaction and started a dispute (I didn’t ask for that).
Days pass and I open Uber Eats. They’ve invoiced me the whole amount they told me they’d refunded. Again. I contact them. It’s their policy to charge customers again if they raise a dispute.
So now:
- I have a pending dispute in Monzo
- Uber has invoiced me for the whole amount (for which the original refund never properly reached me)
- Uber has suspended my account until I pay the outstanding invoice.
It’s just one big mess.
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