LifeReader Deceiving, false advertisement, and poor customer service!!! Auckland New Zealand

Did you say theyre based in New Zealand?! Well thats strange coz Im from the same country and have used their services multiple times never knowing theyre from the same country. So what does that mean for us? Still a little confused

After many emails back and forth, I finally received my refund from LifeReader. Unfortunately, this post cannot be removed, but I will say this and I quote:

Here is the response I received:

Hi and thank you for your email to LifeReader Support,

Firstly please let me reassure you that there is absolutely nothing to worry about. The $21 you refer to isn't actually a charge, it is a pre-authorisation. Pre-Authorisations are NOT transactions. They are temporary amounts which will automatically disappear from you card statement within a day or two or when an actual transaction happens against that pre-authorisation.

We process pre-authorisations at time of card registration and prior to Readings to ensure that the card which is registered to pay for the Reading is legitimate, not blacklisted, not stolen, and has clear funds available. At time of card registration we process a $5 pre-authorisation amount.

Prior to Readings, for normal credit cards we pre-authorise an amount of $3 prior to each Reading. In your case however we detected that the card type you registered was a prepaid card, therefore we need to pre-authorise for a higher amount, in this case $21. This means that the value of Reading you can do is limited to $21. Unfortunately we need to take these measures with prepaid cards given we charge the card after the services have been provided, in the case of prepaid cards we can not charge more than is available or more than what we have pre-authorised on the card.

What you will find is that when you do a Reading and we charge your card for the Reading amount (whether that be $1.90 / $13, $19.50/ etc), the $21 authorisation you see now will automatically disappear and will be replaced by your actual charge.

If you do not do a Reading the $21 amount will just automatically disappear within a day or two, this part of the process is in fact determined by your banks processes.

Further information on our process in this regard can be found on our Help page: www.lifereader.com/help

If you are still concerned about this authorisation amount I would suggest you speak with your bank who will be able to confirm for you that it is an "authorisation" and not a "transaction". If I can assist further please of course let me know by reply email.

Kind regards,

Thomas
LifeReader Support

I replied asking for a refund, so maybe I will get a response in the next 2-3 days. NEVER AGAIN