It appears as though the $6,000,000 fine JPay recently received for consumer abuse wasn’t enough to inspire better treatment of their customers. Below are three complaints I filed which I suspect have affected many. If you feel you have been deceived or taken advantage of by JPay, please consider informing the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. As JPay services are used by people across the world, one must not worry of their location if they wish to lodge a grievance.
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Consumer Financial Protection Bureau
PO Box 27170
Washington, DC 20038
02-08-22
Dear Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,
I would like to file three complaints against the prison service provider JPay. Each have been presented to the company’s customer service department and failed to find a formal solution. They are as follows:
1) Over the holidays, JPay informed those of us in the Idaho Department of Correction’s custody that certain purchases would be awarded for a limited period of time. Among them, the purchase of electronic stamps that act as currency for JPay’s messaging service. The many who converted their inmate trust funds into JPay currency to take advantage of the upcoming offer were later informed an error was made: the award was meant to apply only to those JPay consumers not currently incarcerated. As one of the many who converted their funds into JPay media credits, I requested from Customer Service that the advertisement be honored or my money refunded. I was denied of both. By not honoring the deal originally offered, and by not refunding the purchase that resulted from the offer, it is my position that JPay advertised in a way both deceptive and false. (Ref.: JPay Support Ticket #CCI-IMSI1342870.)
2) Known as “free replies,” prepaid replies are often purchased by our JPay messaging contacts. They arrive attached to their messages sent and provide the means to respond without incurring an expense. Following up on a complaint separate from that above, I was informed by Customer Service that a glitch in their system has been rendering prepaid replies void after 30 days. Not only are refunds or credits not being given, but JPay has yet to inform their consumers of this glitch, leaving them to believe that “free replies” never expire. (Ref.: JPay Support Ticket #CCI-IMSI339627.)
3) JPay provides a video service that connects prisoners to their contacts. While it can be useful, the fees for this service quickly add up and it comes with an incredible fail rate. Though JPay is aware of the technical issues within their system that frequently interrupt and disable this service, a practice has been made out of disregarding complaints lodged over service failures and ignoring requests from those who seek to be refunded. (Ref.: JPay Support Ticket #CCI-IMSI354637.)
Enclosed is a copy of our Idaho Department of Correction newsletter, which recently printed an article containing one of the support tickets referenced above.
Should I need to fill out any forms to proceed with my complaints, please see them sent to the address below.
Thank you,
Patrick Irving 82431
IMSI
PO Box 51
Boise, ID 83707
bookofirving82431.com
See also:
Jpay is a scam company. They let me buy stamps, and signed me out of my account and my password suddenly wont work. I cant log in. I try the 24 hour customer service number and listen to a long recording and it hangs up on me. 4 times. I finally used a different number not associated to my account and what do you know, i’m still on hold but hold isnt even an option from the account thats locked out that they just took money from!! Dirty dirty dirty
I put money on my son’s media account for a tablet. He is at a facility in Virginia. This was almost two years ago. I have asked JPay to refund the money since the tablet has not been delivered. Today a rep for JPay said that they couldn’t give me any information. Said my son would have to request a refund and the money would go back to his media account. This has been on hold for almost two years.
How can I get refund for unused money that I put there or have it put on my son’s money account ( commissary.)
Hi Lynda. Sorry to hear about your troubles. After JPay ignored me for months, I had success presenting my complaints to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. You can file online and they keep you posted on the progress of your claim. The April ’22 “First Amend This!” newsletter has some helpful info on how to file. It’s rather easy. I’d recommend that you go that route.
Please note: Before asking for the money to be placed into your son’s account (and not refunded directly to you), you’ll want to be sure your son can purchase commissary through his JPay account. In Idaho, we can’t: our JPay funds can only be used for media.
I to have the same problem in FL. I live out of state, haven’t seen him in almost 3 years, I am disabled, no ride, now if I send him $, pay the card fees, pay global TEL, he is in lock down, and the faculty that took is tablet, never has SENT IT T, on to different places mo be ed to. I sit home 3 weeks, no TV, radio, etc, cut my lights off at dark, wash clothes try to hangout using a 5 gallon bucket, this is my life style stole from fdoc,, no one answers at JPay. Someone getting a big back pocket from JPay to give families punishment..
Are you also having funds charged twice? My brother is in a MN correctional facility and it cost me money to place money on his account and then it cost him money to take from his account, why the heck can they charge twice for the same money. Once it’s in his account he certainly shouldn’t be charged to remove it I’ve already paid for the transaction
Is it possible your brother is transferring funds from his inmate trust account to fund his JPay use? In Idaho, our funds are kept in two accounts; one for commissary and miscellaneous expenses, and one specifically for JPay media services. Our loved ones are generally charged to transfer funds to both, and there is also a charge for transferring funds from our prisoner trusts over to our JPay accounts. If he’s moving funds from his general account over to JPay, that may explain it.
I am uncertain, however, if MN uses the same system of accounting as Idaho. It may be that JPay is managing all MN prisoner funds, and if that is the case, I would certainly recommend forwarding the CFPB a list of all the transfers you believe have been taxed twice.
Aloha Patrick,
It seems that connection with loved ones, or just calls that are needed to be made, should be given priority while incarcerated. Everyone should be working together to make sure that each resident is keeping or building a strong support to be a better human and to have no gap in support between first day in and first day out. Perpetuating disconnect, perpetuating punishment over everything else, is harmful to the returning citizens and the communities they will be embraced (or not) by.
I just watched the Law Symposium video. I had to stop along the way to hold it together and I am not inside those walls. Thank you for being vulnerable enough to share your experience and strong enough to continue furthering the dialogue for reformative measures.
I am a criminal justice intern currently working under Mark Renick with St Vincent De Paul Reentry Program in Ada County. Mark Pearson is also on our team- in fact, everyone here is fantastic. We just participated in the Convicted Conference (Pretty sure I saw Chris from your Symposium there). Incredible energy was in the air- a room full of people formerly incarcerated and currently putting back in to support others, to make the system progress into humanity, or others who want to support in any way they can. We will do it again in December, maybe you can offer insight (or maybe you are already a part of it). We will also be hosting Just Leadership USA training in September- and I am looking forward to be joining the team as we live stream the training opportunity from Idaho.
Either way, I have been diving into seg, the history, the modern version(s), the ways it works, asking for/looking for its purpose. If you would not mind, I would love to hear back from you.
Again, thank you for sharing, thank you for this website.
Hi Stacey. Thank you very much for your feedback. Every little bit helps me to understand how my project is received and where I have room for improvement. Today, your feedback comes as very special treat, as I listened to your interview last week on Victory Over Sin and was inspired by your sincerity and the perspective that you offer. I also appreciated hearing that I may offer value to future endeavors. For reasons unknown, my requests to present my work at the conference were dismissed by the organizer without an explanation. In the future, I would sincerely enjoy being able to contribute to the wonderful work being done in our Idaho community. (The organization you’re now involved with is especially amazing!) Any way I can assist, I’ll be happy to do so: You’re welcome to collect/include my experiences for your research, tap into my network, follow up with questions and even write a little something for my newsy if you want to.
Btw — any chance Mark’s put out a new resource guide since covid? I found the last one helpful and wouldn’t mind a new one.
Thank you, Stacey. Nice to meet you!
Ello.. I was just informed about this lawsuit with JPay. I had a friend that was trying to help an inmate out and needed a few bucks for stamps. I kindly help her pay for those stamps so she could keep in contact with said inmate and immediately deleted my information off the account of the inmates. Well a few months had went by and I didn’t really notice any suspicious activity until I had received a paycheck that Friday and my bank account was empty. I proceeded to go to the bank to find out what was going on and JPay had continuously every few weeks for about 3 or 4 months was taking money out of my account. I had tried to file a police report but I didn’t really get anywhere. Question… How do I go about talking to someone about getting said money back from them or can I even still do that. I do have copies of bank statements proving monies being taken but was also from 2020.. I’d greatly appreciate any response or suggestions.
Hi Ang,
1-800-574-5729 should get you to JPay’s customer service department. Be sure to record the day and time, the person you talk to and what was said during the call. You might even want to record the amount of time you are on hold, if that becomes an issue. Putting it into an email and sending it to yourself is a good way to get a third-party timestamp on your notes.
If you don’t get a satisfactory response from their customer service, contact your state attorney general and the CFPB and include the notes you’ve made about your interactions with JPay.
Anyone else have a recommendation?
Good luck!
Jpay is a scam company, do NOT send money to a inmate though Jpay. Twice now they claim I sent money to a loved one and I didn’t. Then they changed me a extra $6.95 to send the money. They take your money without your knowledge. I deleted my account.