Consumer complaint received 2019-02-07
Company: PENTAGON FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
Pentagon Federal Credit ( Pen Fed ) mistakenly and carelessly wire transferred my money to a wrong account. I instructed Pen Fed to transfer {$650.00} to my sister, XXXX 's account via ACH XXXX XXXX in New York on XX/XX/XXXX. The following events took place : - XX/XX/XXXX I called Pen Fed and asked the status of that wire transfer, I was told to wait after XXXX XXXX because everyone have gone for the holidays. 
- XX/XX/XXXX I sent an inquiry to Pen Fed asking about my money, but no one bothered to reply my message. 
- XX/XX/XXXX I sent another message. 
- XX/XX/XXXX Received an email from Pen Fed stated that {$650.00} was transferred to XXXX, account ending with XXXX ( XXXX XXXX   ) by mistake. When I contacted XXXX and she checked her account, but there was no {$650.00} transfer into her account at all. 
- Later on that day another email from Pen Fed arrived apologizing for the miscommunication of recipient 's name. It also stated that the wire for {$650.00} was sent to XXXX to an account ending with XXXX with routing number of XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
( My sister, XXXX had never opened an account with XXXX XXXX XXXX. She is a XXXX citizen who spent a year in Florida as an exchange students back in XXXX. The only bank account she opened while living in the States was with XXXX XXXX. She discarded her saving book and everything about XXXX XXXX shortly after she returned back to XXXX because she has no plan of visiting the U.S.A. any time soon. 
- XX/XX/XXXX Pen Fed representative stated that they listened to the recorded conversation of my XX/XX/XXXX wire transfer instruction and that I told the representative to use the routing number, bank account number and recipient 's name under the remarks section ( when I transferred money in XXXX I have asked the representative to save those information for future use ). Yes, I said that, however, I also went over those routing number and account number with the representative, she even said XXXX XXXX   name after she input the routing number on her computer. 
- XX/XX/XXXX I sent a message to Pen Fed asking about my money. 
- XX/XX/XXXX Pen Fed email stated that my sister needs to contact XXXX XXXX XXXX to have them return the fund, Pen Fed also provided me with XXXX XXXX XXXX routing number, the account number Pen Fed sent the money to at XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
- XX/XX/XXXX, My sister sent an email to XXXX XXXX XXXX explaining what happened and asked XXXX XXXX XXXX to return the fund back to Pen Fed. As of today, XX/XX/XXXX, we still have not heard from XXXX XXXX XXXX. 
- XX/XX/XXXX I sent a complaint letter to Pen Fed Board Chairman. No reponse from anyone yet. 
- XX/XX/XXXX my sister called XXXX XXXX XXXX, explained what happened and gave them the account number Pen Fed provided us that was supossedly the {$650.00} has been transferred to. The representative can not find such account nor any such transfer and recommended we try to reach the branch my sister had an account with. ( How are we supposed to do that, once again my sister never opened an account with XXXX XXXX XXXX? ) - XX/XX/XXXX another complaint letter was sent to Board Chairman. Still waiting for a reply. 
- XX/XX/XXXX my call to Pen Fed led to no where. They are saying they transferred the fund based on the information I gave them. First of all I didn't even know my sister ever had an account with XXXX XXXX XXXX, so how could I provide Pen Fed with such account number and the routing number. 
- Pen Fed recorded my wire transfer instruction on XX/XX/XXXX and in there I instructed the representative to transfer the money to XXXX XXXX   in New York and to use the same recipient 's name and account number same as the one I had transferred in XXXX and XXXX. Those two transfers went to my sister 's account as I instructed.

- Last year similar mistakes were made by Pen Fed dealing with my transfers and one of them caused Pen Fed {$65.00} for returning fee imposed by XXXX XXXX  when Pen Fed first put my name as both sender and receiver, and when they try to correct, they spelled both first and last of recipient 's name wrong, therefore, bank can not release the fund and has to be returned back to Pen Fed.

Company public response: Company has responded to the consumer and the CFPB and chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief