Consumer complaint received 2023-01-24
Company: Block, Inc.
State: PA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Fraud or scam

Complaint:
This complaint is less about being scammed out a {$500.00} payment for goods that were never even shipped, not to mention never received ; and much more about Cash App 's gross negligence, willful misconduct, and unrelenting determination to fail at meeting the terms of our agreement. That agreement being otherwise known as the Cash App Terms of Service. 

Before we go any further, I would just like to state, and assure the CFPB, that I, XXXX XXXX XXXX, am indeed the one and only author of this complaint. I say this only because the first complaint I ever submitted was closed because ( as the letter in the mail would explain to me ) it appeared that someone else had written and submitted the claim on my behalf. Which, as frustrating as it was to get that response to a very legitimate complaint I have yet to resolve to this day, I took to be a long-winded way of complimenting the professional precision and lazer-focused detailing contained within the body of that particular complaint. This also subsequently lead to me dumbing down future complaints I submitted at later dates in order to hopefully avoid getting that same non-response response again. 

Moving on, I believe the following conditions contained within the Cash App Terms of Service clearly demonstrate Cash App having the power to easily reverse, return, or void the {$500.00} payment made for ( what turned out to be ) absolutely nothing, because any payment made for goods or services is a business transaction ( which is just one way to say it was a payment made for commercial purposes ) and under the terms of our agreement, the peer-to-peer payment services are for sending and receiving funds for personal, non-commercial purposes. Therefore, the terms render any payment made for commercial purposes either prohibited, invalid, or simply a payment that should not have been made in accordance with the terms. In conclusion, under the terms governing my use of the payment services, Cash App has a legal liability and the power to reverse or return the {$500.00} payment back to my account. Just take a look for yourself. 

VII. Peer-to-Peer Service 1. Description Of Service The peer-to-peer Service ( Peer-to-Peer Service ) allows you to send funds or receive funds for peer-to-peer personal, non-commercial purposes.

8. Payment Cancellation, Stop Payment Requests and Refused Payments We will attempt to return any unclaimed, refused, refunded, prohibited, or denied P2P Payment to your Eligible Transaction Account or Eligible Credit Account, as applicable. If we are not able to do so, we may use other reasonable means to return the P2P Payment to you, as permitted by applicable law. 

9. Invalid P2P Payments If you receive a P2P Payment and we later determine in our sole discretion that the P2P Payment was invalid for any reason, you hereby authorize us to move funds from the applicable Eligible Transaction Account or Eligible Credit Account in an amount equal to the P2P Payment.

You acknowledge and agree that we will not be liable in any way for any P2P Payments that you may receive, regardless of whether you authorized the Sender to send them to you. 

Something else to consider is the fact that I am a XXXX XXXX cardholder. Any funds kept in my Cash App balance in-app are, according to the terms, FDIC insured funds. Cash App likes to say that making a peer-to-peer payment using their service is the equivalent of physically handing that money to the recipient. Which is a statement that is only accurate for Cash App users who do not have a Cash Card prepaid VISA debit card associated with their account. I explained to Cash App that the funds in my wallet or pocket are not FDIC insured funds when I hand them to someone IRL. The funds in my Cash App balance, such as the {$500.00} used to make the payment at the heart of this dispute, they are FDIC insured. So, in my case, it is not the same at all. I think it's much more accurate to say any payment I initiate using the peer-to-peer payment services is the equivalent of paying with my prepaid VISA debit Cash Card. This should also give me an avenue to dispute this transaction and file a chargeback of the payment. Cash App refuses to allow me to file a dispute for this transaction and that sounds like another thing they aren't allowed to do, except it would be Regulation E or Z that would grant me the right to dispute the payment, as opposed to the Cash App Terms of Service.

Bottom line, Cash App violates, ignores, and completely disrespects the sanctity of our legally binding contractual agreement AKA the Cash App Terms of Service. Something I see as an ever present go-to procedural practice amongst big companies when it comes to customer service these days. Most large majorly recognizable companies do not care one bit about their customers. All they want is to maximize their profit margins at the expense of anyone that isn't them. Cash App Support exists to make the ones already suffering just keep on suffering as much as possible.

I have email correspondence with them in which their ignorance and lack of empathy lead them to admitting they willfully violated the terms of our agreement and acknowledging they had a legal obligation to reverse the payment. All I wanted was an explanation that used the terms of service to show the conditions that countered my argument and allowed them to operate in the manner they had been operating. You know, just to make sure they had a legitimate right to actually be able to do what they were doing. They have yet to even acknowledge I have asked them to do such a thing and I have asked many times. I would like to ask the Bureau to consider the sound logic used to reach the conclusions I have used to make my argument and how I kept everything within the scope of the Cash App Terms and the laws of the United States. Additionally, I ask the Bureau to please make an example of this company and punish them to the full extent the law will allow you to for the years of abuse their customers have suffered at their unapologetic hands.

*NOTE* I have about a million screenshots of the chat between Cash App Support and myself from the last month. I would suggest asking Cash App for a transcript of our chat beginning with XX/XX/2022 thru present day. It would be much easier to get the information from them than to have me upload all these screenshots. Thank you.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation