Consumer complaint received 2020-07-20
Company: Comerica
State: OH
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose prepaid card
Issue: Problem with a purchase or transfer
Sub-issue: Charged for a purchase or transfer you did not make with the card

Complaint:
I'm going to do this talk-to-text, and it doesn't prove to be short. This is a compendium of several disputes wrongfully denied by Direct Express Mastercard, which issues cards stamped Comerica Bank and handles my veterans pension benefits. I will try to include dates as this is several different incidents. 
Most recent dispute from XX/XX/XXXX. My card was shut off. Canceled by the company without any notice given to me. I found this out when I when to use it in a restaurant, and it would not work. This caused quite an embarrassment, and after the requisite few hours on hold that always occurs when I call Direct Express, that is if I can get through at all, as nine times out of 10 there is a message saying that they're too busy and to call back at another time, I finally speak with an operator who tells me that my card has been shut off because Direct Express notice that they were charges being made that they thought were erroneous. Upon my notification and inspection of this, I agreed that I had not made those charges I was made to order another card, and wait out the process of it being sent with my account Frozen. It should be said that while the account is Frozen that there is no navigable way through their switchboard. If you don't have a card number, or a social security number that corresponds to an account, the switchboard will simply say that you don't have an account, and hang up. So no questions can be asked, and no progress can be made unless you have another card. So, I was tasked with paying for this card out-of-pocket, actually out of the funds that they had sole control over and I at that point had no access, and wait for the card in the mail. When the card arrived, I activated it, and then spoke to numerous people that I kept getting pass between, and I do know this routine, in my quest to file a dispute. Now the charge was pending when the card was frozen, and I first spoke with them. Even upon my verification of the fact that these were erroneous they went ahead took the money out of my account necessitating I go through the dispute process. As you'll see, this is not the first time that they have routed me that way. First of all, it must be said that I truly believe that this company has designed integrated ultimate moving parts so that its users are left with a deliberate runaround that encompasses everything from their execution of policy, to the scarcity of Representatives, to the manner in which everything is addressed if you are lucky enough to contact one. It is clearly designed to discourage. I'm a retired military, and and this company has some sort of agreement with the federal government to handle our benefits as well as Social Security. I would be hard-pressed to see their manner of doing so is anything less than probably criminal. we are required to have direct deposit, and the systems are set up in a way that it is near impossible to transfer to another account without a lapse in benefits. Also, as disputes linger and are denied, and new ones created on their heels, and appeals attempted, but we're told there is no appeal process available, all decisions are final, 1 month drags into another, and it becomes apparent that there is going to be no resolution without loss, and you're not going to be able to switch your direct deposit information within the window that is available to us as veterans without further benefit delay. So Direct Express Express made payments on the charges that they had suspected were erroneous, and I had verified, hence issuance of a new card. I filed the dispute, and was told that if I faxed in the paperwork within the next 10 days, ending on XX/XX/XXXX, that there would be a provisional credit put back on my account. They will only receive the paperwork via fax machine. At the time, the country on quarantine, and myself a XXXX veteran oh, cut off from any resources to the covid-19 outbreak, finding a fax machine was not very simple. I filled out the papers and faxed them to the number Direct Express provided on XX/XX/XXXX. No word of there arrival, or any contact at all was made to me. No provisional credit placed back on my account. I went through a couple of weeks of trying to navigate their as always overtaxed phone system oh, and finally got a hold of someone at XXXX in the morning near the end of XXXX. Let it be said that approximately 60 % of the time that I have actually gotten to speak to a person, there is some sort of issue that results in the call being dropped.I am convinced that often they are blatant hang ups. They seem to always occur when they have difficulty with a question. There is also no possible way to do anyting over email or even through XXXX XXXX. I've been given addresses, and taking the time to hand write things that are repeatedly ignored, and there's no follow-up can be made to verify whether they have ever been seen. Near the end of XXXX, I navigated my way to a supervisor in their fraud department who is the first and only person that has ever spoken to me like a human in all the years I've dealt with this company. she said that the first, and the second she said that the first, and the she said that there was no fax on record, even though I had the now XXXX receipts verifying that they had been sent. She took down my number, and gave me her name, and said that she would address her supervisors, as this was taking far too long, and she thought it should have been resolved easily by then. No provisional credit made still. She never called back. More weeks of trying to navigate their phone system, brings me to the receipt of a letter that says that they refused to honor my dispute. Through my investigation of the recipient of these charges, the only thing that I could find under the designation was a realty company in northern XXXX. I've been on quarantine in Ohio for months. I finally skip through their system again, to ask about refusal of the skip through their system again, to ask about refusal of the skip through their system again, to ask about refusal of the dispute, which skip through their system again, to ask about refusal of the dispute, which they had caused them to freeze my account before I even knew that there were charges being made oh, I was told that I had to request a statement of the reasons why it was refused, and that all decisions are final, I have no recourse. As of today, months later, I'm waiting for this explanation, which could say anyting in theory. what I do know is that they claim that their investigation and my statements don't matchup. The statement, that we had played so much fax football with, and as far as I still know, no one has ever verified receiving said simply, I did not make or approve these charges. I don't know what the company is, and I verified that upon my initial contact back of the card was frozen, and I filed dispute. I had no evidence. there's no reason why I could have or should have. I have never been able to find out what raised their suspicions, but it was Direct Express had brought the charges to my attention in the first place. Currently, I wait for an explanation, but as they say, all decisions are final. I need help Working toward a satisfactory resolution of this. 
And, since this time ... On the XXXX of XX/XX/XXXX, I housebound, and was feeling unwell, much of it having to do with the stress of this situation and resultant of months of quarantine. A young woman that I had helping me with housework, stole my wallet and computers, and phones. I filed a report, but she still managed to drain my account of about {$1200.00}. Apparently, this can be done done without my PIN number, by telling the retailers to run the card as credit. It is my from the FTC that doing so pushes its use on to a different system which circumvents the stated use and ideological purpose of having the pin protected card. Essentially, this makes little difference in security than carrying my entire net worth in cash on my person I believe that 15 charges were made about 10 to 12 different retailers, over a few days. I filed dispute with Direct Express on XXXX XXXX upon returning from a hospital stay, and discovering that the charges had been made. The hospital stay was necessitated due to the stresses of this entire situation. I have until XX/XX/XXXX to fax in the dispute paperwork within the mandated 10 days to qualify for the provisional credit. today is the XXXX of XXXX, and I haven't yet received the paperwork, nor have I received my replacement card. I did get the paperwork from their dispute Dept, notifying me of the aforementioned denial of dispute, and it did have a different phone number at Direct Express, but I was told that I have to wait for explanation on the previous dispute, and fill out the paperwork on the new one, it was mailed 10 days ago. Call the other number. The one that I can't get through until I get the card. All decisions are final. 
I don't want to be thought of as naive here, but you will notice I don't want to be thought of as naive here, but you will notice I don't want to be thought of as naive. Yes I have noticed the repeated pattern of events. 
I asked if there was anything else I I asked if there was anything else I should I asked if there was anything else I should or could do he I asked if there was anything else I should or could do he said fill I asked if there was anything else I should or could do, as every dispute I have ever filed with them denied for the most specious reasons. I have found that I am hardly the only person with this issue with Direct Express. 
XX/XX/XXXX. Wallet and card was taken, XXXX charges totaling less than {$100.00} were made at gas stations and fast food restaurants in just a few hours. Dispute filed. Denied. All decisions final. 
XX/XX/XXXX. I was arrested and incarcerated for something I did not do. I was in jail until XX/XX/XXXX, when all charges were dropped and I was released. I was unable to use my card for a ride home even. Unbeknownst to me, Direct Express had been contacted and somehow convinced to issue replacement cards, at least two times, and someone had been spending my income for about 9 months. it took me about 2 weeks to figure this out. The culprit died during this time. The police could not figure out how to report it. Direct Express told me to provide documentation of my incarceration. I was told that the VA could do this, as they had even been visiting me at the jail. I provided documentation from the VA, as well as the XXXX XXXX XXXX. A veterans representative from the VA also sent a letter Verifying the dates of my incarceration. Although I was told that this was a very simple correction to make, nothing has ever transpired, and any attempts to inquire have been met with diversion, subterfuge, or ignorance. 
Given the manner in which every interaction I've interaction I've had with Direct Express has been handled, I'm certain that I'm hardly the first person with complaints about Direct Express. Amongst my fellow veterans there are countless horror stories similar to mine. I'm appealing to you, Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, to please both help me toward proper acknowledgement and resolution of the cases I recounted here, as well as hopefully admonishment of Direct Express for the callous, careless, and possibly illegal and predatory manner in which they treat their card users, most of us veterans and/or XXXX, and already enduring the hardships of surviving on a fixed-income. Due to the events of the last 2 years, especially the loss of nearly a Year 's worth of income, and compounded by the ongoing stressors incurred trying to recover it, I have lost everything. By the end of this week, I will be entirely homeless. I have XXXX XXXX XXXX paratrooper legs, and no car since my release from being jailed unjustly. Hospitals and shelters are my only options, if those are even options. Please feel free to post any and all of the sweater anywhere that it any and all of any and all of this writing anywhere that it might be seen by someone who might benefit from it. I will forward it to any further organization that you might suggest could help also. I think you for your Indulgence in reading all of this.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief