Compiled from Public Data by FairShake
The US government’s Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) collects complaints against financial companies.
In 2017, the CFPB received 1093 complaints against USAA. USAA ranked Number 31 among all financial companies for the most complaints.
Date of Complaint: May 26, 2017
Company Official Name: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: AL
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-Product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem
Full Complaint:
I have been defrauded out of {0.00} from a X/XX/2017 se nd money person to person payment from my USAA checking account to a business which did not have a USAA account. I am not satisfied with the guidance I received from USAA customer service and USAAs vendor, XXXX , regarding the issue and would not have lost my money if customer service would have provided better guidance and/or USAA had better controls and transparency regarding the risk of the transaction. I request a refund of the {0.00} fraudulently taken and ask that USAA implement training and controls to prevent the same thing happening to other customers. The below summary provides details of my complaint ( please note that there were likely additional contacts with USAA and XXXX not referenced below regarding the matter ). Transaction Date : X/XX/2017 Typ e : Send Money via USAA App via XXXX To : XXXX XXXX XXXX ( should have gone to XXXX XXXX XXXX For : Car Towing Transaction Id : XXXX I conducted the transaction o n X/XX/2017 ut ilizing the USAA App on my XXXX ph one. During the transaction, I entered the email address of the intended recipient and was notified that the payment would be facilitated through XXXX since the business I was sending money to did not have a USAA account. I was redirected to another screen with which the email address of the recipient I had previously entered automatically populated into the recipient field ; however, the full email address was not displayed due to space limitations. I was then directed to another screen to enter the amount of the transaction. Please note that the final screen did not display the email address of the XXXX recipient and I was never prompted to confirm the email address of the recipient by entering the address twice. Please also note that the only warning displayed on the transaction screen was payments to individuals are processed immediately and can not be reversed. Since I was transmitting the money to a business, I did not think that the warning applied to my transaction. USAA Customer Service Call Prior to Confirming Money was Sent to Wrong Recipient : After several hours from submitting the transaction, I was notified by the intended recipient that they had not received payment. I immediately contacted USAA customer service to confirm that the transaction went to the appropriate email address. The customer service representative was unable to confirm the XXXX email address and was unable to direct me to an online report confirming the email address. After requesting that the transaction be cancelled, the representative advised that USAA could cancel the transaction after it was submitted to XXXX and I would have to contact XXXX regarding the transaction. The rep advised that XXXX would be able to identify the transaction based on ID XXXX . On X/XX/2017 , af ter being notified by the intended recipient that they still had not received payment, I contacted USAA again to confirm the payment went to the correct email address and to obtain a transaction ID which XXXX would recognize. The representative was unable to confirm the XXXX email address and was unable to direct me to an online report confirming the email address. The representative provided a new ID number XXXX . I expressed my frustration at the lack of information available to confirm the transaction went to intended recipient and USAA is responsible for their vendors activity and requested that USAA contact the USAA relationship owner at XXXX to rectify my transaction. After speaking to their manager, the USAA representative advised that they did not have a contact for a relationship owner at USAA and asked me for the XXXX phone number so she could call to try to rectify situation. The rep thereafter inadvertantly hung up on me while attempting to place me on hold while they contacted XXXX . I again called Customer service and spoke to a new rep. The rep advised that XXXX service was horrible and they were difficult to work with. The rep advised that there was nothing USAA could do and XXXX was at fault. The representative was unable to confirm the XXXX email address and was unable to direct me to an online report confirming the email address. Initial XXXX Customer Service Calls Prior to Confirming Money was Sent to Wrong Recipient : I contacted XXXX that same day and provided them a transaction ID XXXX the USAA representative provided me. XXXX did not recognize the ID and was unable to locate or confirm the transaction. The XXXX rep advised to wait a day and the intended recipient to be notified of the transaction. The XXXX rep did not appear to understand bank to XXXX transactions and continued to assume the transaction originated from my personal XXXX account. I contacted XXXX again after obtaining the ID XXXX from USAA. The rep was not able to locate the transaction and advised that the transaction would be automatically refunded after 30 days if no one claimed it. I asked for the transaction to be cancelled ; however, the rep advised that he could not locate the transaction and it was up to my bank to cancel the transaction. The XXXX rep did not appear to understand bank to XXXX transactions and continued to assume the transaction originated from my personal XXXX account. Validation that Money was Sent to Wrong Recipient : On X/XX/2017 , a fter numerous calls with USAA and XXXX , I again looked at the USAA website and phone app for confirmation that transaction went to the correct email. I located a pay to transaction history on the phone app ( I have not been able to locate history on website ) which provided details of the transaction not provided by the USAA customer service reps including the intended recipients email address. I confirmed that the email address the transaction went to was incorrect. The history also provided a XXXX transaction ID of XXXX which was not provided on the transaction detail screen accessed from my checking account transaction view as well as a transaction ID of XXXX ( please note the checking account transaction view reflected XXXX ). XXXX Customer Service Call After Confirming Money was Sent to Wrong Recipient : On X/XX/2017 , I contacted XXXX to advise that the USAA transaction was sent to the incorrect email address. XXXX advised that there was no XXXX account associated with the email address where I sent the transaction. This time, the rep was able to identify the transaction utilizing ID XXXX . The rep advised that the money had not been claimed and instructed me to advise the intended recipient to contact XXXX to temporarily set up an account associated with email address the transaction went to so they could claim the money. On X/XX/2017 , I c ontacted XXXX again after the intended recipient advised that he was unable to claim money and conferenced the intended recipient on the call. The XXXX rep advised the intended recipient to create an email account with the address the transaction went to in order to claim the payment. I advised that the intended recipients email address was likely already taken since it involved a common name and common carrier. The rep further researched the transaction and determined that the transaction had actually been claimed. I requested that the transaction be reversed since the person had fraudulently obtained the funds. The XXXX rep advised that they could not reverse transaction because the recipient closed there XXXX account after receiving the funds. The rep advised that they would send a courtesy email to the recipient and advise them to return money ( Please note I determined that the email address was where the money was remitted was no longer valid ). The rep refused to provide contact information of the individual who claimed the money and advised that I would have to contact police. Complaint : USAA was deceptive regarding the risk associated with the transaction I received unfair treatment from USAA due to : o USAA did not provide adequate controls to ensure the correct email address was entered for the recipient.
o USAA cust omer service reps were not trained to respond to issues involving send money transactions involving XXXX o USAA did not take ownership of their third party relationship with XXXX and did not have a mechanism to contact XXXX to resolve issues o I was provided bad advice from USAA which led to the theft of {0.00} USAA not taking responsibility for incorrect information, bad advice and third party vendor behavior has been abusive. According to XXXX the transaction ID provided by USAA does not reference the identity of the person who remitted funds so there is no information for them to verify I was the one who sent money
Response Type: Closed with explanation
Public Response:
Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
FairShake accessed this complaint from the public archives of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB). You can file your own complaint with the CFPB here.