Consumer complaint received 2023-11-14
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: OR
Product: Credit card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2023 I received a fraudulent request for a money payment via my account on XXXX. I thought it was someone that I knew so I mistakenly accepted the payment request and paid it thinking it was intended for someone else. When I realized that it was the wrong person and that there appeared to be a fee for foreign funds transfer which alarmed me as the name on the request appeared to not be a foreign request and in fact used an American name. I immediately contacted XXXX via their electronic immediate dispute process ( not speaking to a customer service rep directly but using an AI model ) to advise them of the error and requested them to reverse the charge before it went through as It was still showing as " pending '' via their. XXXX instantly denied my request and stated that the charge was " valid '' due to the fact that the transaction went through with no deviation from their process. I then contacted XXXX customer service directly and told them about the situation and they and advised me to attempt to contact the person directly and request them to reverse the charge and/or refund me the monies I sent in error. I attempted to contact the person on Sunday XX/XX/2023 with the contact number they had listed on the XXXX transaction information listed within the transaction information. After several attempts, they finally responded to me via text message and informed me that they would not reverse the charge and/or refund me, and told me they wanted me to file a dispute with XXXX. I told them I had attempted to file a dispute with XXXX and they had denied my request, and that I would be filing a dispute with my bank USAA and their response was " that would be best ma'am ''. I contacted XXXX again on Monday XX/XX/2023 hoping to resolve the matter XXXX more time before I filed a dispute with my bank USAA, and spoke to someone in customer service who said they would attempt to contact the person directly via telephone. They placed me on hold and attempted to call them. After several minutes the agent got back on the phone and said the person did not answer the phone so they committed to send them an email and would continue to try to contact them via telephone. The agent also advised me to file a dispute with my bank USAA and that they would " cooperate and help as much as possible. They also told me they would be back in touch with me regarding this matter. Since I had no other communication from XXXX at that time, I took their advice and filed a dispute with USAA on Tuesday, XX/XX/2023. USAA followed up with me for additional information by sending me a request for " additional information '' which consisted of them asking me for " a detailed description of the service ''. In my response I told them it " was not a service, but rather a payment I sent in error ''. I also sent them multiple screen shots of the fraudster telling me to file a dispute with my bank. I uploaded the information via their online portal which is used to submit documents to the bank. On XX/XX/2023 I received a notice from USAA via my online " inbox '' on my USAA account advising me that they had determined the transaction to be valid and stated the following " A review of our records indicates that the requested information necessary to continue our investigation into the disputed transaction ( s ) was not received. Based on the existing information in our records, there is insufficient evidence to support your claim ''. There was no further explanation other than I had not given them the information they had requested. This is false. To this day, I have not been able to contact the person whom the funds were sent to and no monies have been refunded back to my XXXX account or USAA credit card. The person has failed to respond to any additional request attempts and has blocked my number and will not respond to any further communication from me. I filed a previous compliant for this matter with USAA and was contacted by USAA on XX/XX/2023 and was told they did not have the " authority '' to reverse the charge as it would be PayPals responsibility and that I would need to contact XXXX. On XX/XX/2023 I spoke to XXXX who informed me that USAA never attempted to notify them that I was filing a dispute in order for them to initiate a charge back from the fraudster. They also informed me that if USAA would have followed the proper procedure and sent them the charge back request they would have reversed the charge as the money was still sitting in the fraudsters account at the time I contacted them. They also advised me that as a result of USAAs failure to file a charge back initiation the fraudster has since taken the money out of their XXXX account and closed it. XXXX asserts that at no time did USAA ever contact XXXX or request a charge back. Therefore, USAA failed to follow the proper charge back process and made a denial decision without even attempting to protect my rights as a consumer. USAA had every ability to start the charge off process and XXXX by their own admission would have returned the funds. Thereby, I have been harmed financially due to their lack of attention and/or action in this process. XXXX is unable to recapture the funds as the fraudster has closed the account and taken all funds in the account.

Company public response: Company believes complaint represents an opportunity for improvement to better serve consumers
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation