Consumer complaint received 2020-09-25
Company: U.S. BANCORP
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
This whole incident begins on or around XX/XX/XXXX of 2020, I had lost my wallet during the train trip to handle some business affairs out of town and did not notice this fact until I was on the ground at my destination. I had previously linked my U.S. Bank debit card with my XXXX account to be able to send money to friends, family, and business associates as well as receive money from the same. Since I had los my wallet, my host had agreed to pay for the accommodations ( hotel, food, transport, etc. and I would pay her back as soon as possible ) I said that I had about {$240.00} in my account that I could send to my host via XXXX to help cover the expenses that I normally would have covered myself had I not lost my wallet. I proceed to make the  transaction via XXXX to my host and it looks as if it goes through without incident. When I settle in my motel room I have my advocate XXXX XXXX U.S. Bank on my behalf using what her department calls Transparent CA which allows her to Act As me by answering all questions as me using information stored in various systems filling in an interactive script ; to the person or organization being interacted with, they can not tell the difference between my interacting directly or through an advocate since the interaction is completely transparent. Theres no CA branding or identification nor any other indication that Im at a remote location or that the advocate is working off a script. The purpose of the call was to get a new debit card since I had lost my old one during the train trip to my location. They said theyd express mail it to my address and I made sure to have XXXX ask if the XXXX XXXX   transaction had gone through. The representative said that yes it had. 

Fast-forward to about two weeks after I had gotten back home and Im checking my XXXX account for the upcoming bill amount and find that I seem to owe double when I had multiple witnesses that would be able to corroborate that I paid my bill through their automated telephone system. I proceed to have XXXX call XXXX  and ask whats going on and they tell her your bank took back the money and reversed the charge effectively making it look like I never paid my bill in the first place. XXXX is instructed to transparently call U.S. Bank for assistance with this and their excuse is the merchant always blames the bank, youll have to talk to XXXX about that and provides no further information even though XXXX my advocate has answered all their questions as if she was me without hesitation. Now fast-forward a few days and I check my bank balance and I see that I have about {$500.00} in the account when just 24 hours before the account was at a XXXX balance. I have XXXX transparently call them and they say thats not an error and that money is mine to use as I see fit and they had no idea why it was there. As a result I try to XXXX  a few other things and am told I can not send payments at that time. 

Fast forward to the beginning of XXXX and I try to pay my rent using XXXX  and get an error that my cash balance is negative by the amount I paid my host around XX/XX/XXXX when I lost my wallet on that business trip. Bear in mind that at no point during any of this had I received any automated phone calls, text messages, or other alerts asking if a transaction was authorized or not. XXXX calls the main U.S. bank customer service department in a non-transparent manner so shes identifying herself as XXXX XXXX and giving her enterprise ID. The reason that she did not just transparently interact as me is due to the severity of the situation. After getting transferred a few different times they tell her that since I never opted in to receive phone calls or alerts of any kind thats why no one said a thing, effectively blaming me when no one made it clear during the account creation process that I would need to do anything to receive such alerts if a transaction is held for fraud. 

During all of this when Id have XXXX call U.S. banks general customer service number for account servicing questions, wed get redirected to the fraud department and their automated system would ask us what number they called us on and would not be able to find anything and eventually transfer us to a live person who would have no clue why we got transferred to the fraud department. After identifying herself using her full name and enterprise ID number ( badge ID ) they ask to talk to me to get authorization to talk to her and she tells them that I am nonverbal and use my XXXX  or other various systems to communicate and they say thats not possible for them to take the interaction or my authorization from me using my XXXX or XXXX   being used as a speech output device and thus would be unable to help me. 

Fast-Forward to XX/XX/XXXX when I ask XXXX to submit a complaint to the CFPB at my request about all of these shenanigans as described herein and they recommend that I type up a letter that I give XXXX authorization to act on my behalf and she calls them after the letter is typed up and signed through our eSignature platform and she asks them in general where does she need to send a letter stating that I XXXX XXXX full authorization to work with my accounts and the representative says thats not good enough and that Ill need a power of attorney or that shell need to be a secondary signer on the account, there are multiple problems with both of those proposals as follows : 1 )  a power of attorney is way too broad to follow our security standards that would protect me if XXXX left the advocacy team for any reason 2 )  adding her directly to the account is not a valid possibility since shed need to take about a five hour trip to my city to physically show up to do the paperwork and take the same five hour drive back to the operations desk to get her partner who would be stuck at the desk for 10 hours about depending on traffic both ways since the operations desk can not be left unattended for my safety there always needs to be someone at the desk at all times. 

In summary, U.S. bank is making it extremely difficult to undo their error since they refuse to take responsibility for something XXXX nor anyone acting on my behalf did not initiate ( the fraud claims ). These unnecessary fraud claims that are not initiated by me or anyone acting on my behalf have caused more trouble than theyre worth because now my primary checking account is {$20.00} negative that will be taken out of my  government benefits on the first, and I am unable to use XXXX to pay friends, family, and business associates since they without warning or notifying me reversed the transaction. Their policy of reverse first, ask questions later is impacting my ability to perform routine operations like pay my rent or pay my mother back for helping me out with groceries.

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 explanation