An AI Agent Almost Stole My $1,650

Lately, it has become nearly impossible to reach the support teams of major online services. AI chatbots occupy the front desk, repeat canned answers, and close the conversation before you ever reach a human. Even on a paid plan, it’s the same story with Facebook, Instagram, and X (Twitter).

This post is a record of one textbook case: what happened to me with the AI agent tool “Manus.”

For the record, I liked Manus

From building the JRRF website to plenty of other projects, I had made Manus a real part of my workflow. As an autonomous, task-completing agent AI it is genuinely well made, and the experience early on was excellent. Which is exactly why this whole episode was so disappointing.

How it started

At the end of May, my Manus subscription was charged ahead of the renewal date. $1,650. I had been meaning to downgrade my plan — I was just a little too slow.

When I raised it in the support chat, an AI agent named “Xiao” replied instantly:

“Your refund has been processed. It will be returned to your card within a few business days.”

The next day, my plan had been dropped to Free. The refund never came.

Timeline

• 5/31 The AI says “refund processed” → my plan gets dropped to Free. No refund arrives
• 6/3–4 Different AIs, “Ruby” and “Raam,” take over. They say “it will arrive in 1–15 business days” and force-close the conversation
• 6/13 (chat) I ask again. An AI named “Riley” flatly insists “you don’t meet the conditions, so no refund is possible.” My request to escalate to a human operator is refused as well
• 6/13 (email) I send a formal written demand by email. A reply arrives the same day, acknowledging in writing: “confirmed on 5/31, re-confirmed on 6/4, refund not yet processed” — the same AI that kept insisting “conditions not met” in chat admitted the facts at the email desk
• 6/19 An email from Manus’s Japan representative: “Apologies for the late reply” — and then things stall again
• 6/21 I send an email laying out the situation
• 6/25 I follow up with the chat logs attached
• 6/30 I set a deadline: “When will this be resolved? Please get back to me by tomorrow”
• 7/1 The representative confirms the refund has been processed. A $1,650 refund receipt from Stripe arrives

It took a month.

The chat desk exists to “leave a record”

What this process taught me is that AI support chat does not exist to solve your problem. It exists to leave a record that says “we responded.”

When I hit a dead end in chat and posted about the situation on X, a friend tagged the account of Manus’s Japan representative. That was the one and only thing that ever connected me to a human.

There should be a system that works without depending on a lucky break.

The two routes that actually work when you’re stuck

Between this experience and others — like getting a wrongful ban on X (Twitter) resolved — I’ve found exactly two routes that actually function.

1. A chargeback through your credit card company

If a service promises a refund and then fails to deliver it, you can file a payment dispute (chargeback) with your card company. It is a formal procedure established for consumer protection, and it creates an obligation for the company to respond.

2. A complaint through the BBB (Better Business Bureau)

A non-profit consumer organization in the US. You can file online even from Japan, and it likewise obligates the company to respond. In my experience it is often more effective than Japan’s National Consumer Affairs Center.

Closing thoughts

I’m not out to condemn Manus wholesale. The JRRF website only exists because of Manus’s agent AI, and my gratitude for that is genuine. It has helped me enormously across all kinds of work.

Lately, though, I’ve largely been switching over to Claude and Codex. It’s a shame to see a team that builds a good product leave its support system as an afterthought.

Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter) included, I expect non-functioning support at major services to remain the norm. Which means that knowing how to fight when you’re stuck has, unfortunately, become the practical countermeasure for us users.

Referral links

Finally, here are referral links for the tools mentioned in this article. Signing up through them gives both you and the person who registers perks such as credits. Feel free to use them if you’d like.

Claude

As mentioned in the closing, I’ve been moving even my agent-type work over here lately. Right now it’s the tool I’ve settled into the most.

https://claude.ai/referral/7qlfc8JEeA

Manus

As an agent AI it is still excellent, and in the right situations it works hard for you. But — as this whole article shows, please be very careful about cancellation and billing timing. The subscription auto-charges right before the renewal date, so if you plan to downgrade, do it with plenty of days to spare.

https://manus.im/invitation/MAXWRWFHTPHLXW

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By the way, this article was written by my secretary Bot, built with reference to https://github.com/GOROman/nullevi03.