Consumer complaint received 2023-09-20
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: GA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
On XX/XX/XXXX, I booked a 2-night reservation with XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX for the dates of XXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I decided to change my reservation to a different weekend for later in the month. The hotel has a cancellation policy that states : " You may cancel your reservation for no charge before XXXX PM local hotel time ( 3 day [ s ] before arrival ). Please note that we will access a fee of x amount if you must cancel after this deadline. '' Per the email I've provided to USAA, the reservation was changed on XX/XX/XXXX local time, which is 3 days before arrival. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was charged {$480.00}. I noticed this on XXXX and submitted a dispute. On XXXX, I was asked to submit information ; however, I thought I would receive something in the mail as I receive quite a few notifications form the app so I missed both times they asked for additional information. Due to the information not being received, the temporary credit was reversed sometime in XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called and asked that my claim be resubmitted for review, as the hotel did in fact charge me unauthorized. The banking rep resubmitted for review ; however, later the same day I received a denial stating, " based on the overall review of the claim, our decision stands as we conclude a billing error did not occur. On XX/XX/XXXX, I called and asked that my dispute we resubmitted for review again as there was indeed a billing error, and I had the documentation to prove this. I was told it would be opened again and to submit the documentation. This call was approximately XXXX minutes. I logged online and submitted my documentation through the " send documentation to USAA '' and selected the banking option. The website stated it takes about XXXX hours for documents to route to the correct location. After a few days, I noticed there was no record of my documents being routed to my dispute, so I spoke to someone on chat, and he advised that he did not see that a dispute was filed but that my call was logged. At this point, I'm frustrated as I called and was told to give it XXXX business days. There were 2 or more calls made at the mark of the XXXX business day and again at the XXXX business day. On XX/XX/XXXX, I spoke to a very knowledgeable person, and she advised me to actually go in my checking account and click on the " view my disputes '' and submit my documentation directly on the dispute claim. WOW! This was the first person to even point me to that option on the website. She actually stayed on the phone until she could see that the documents came through the site. She confirmed she could pull up both attachments and ensured me that it would be reviewed by someone. Interesting enough I received an update on XXXX stating, " we have reviewed all the information and/or documentation received and are unable to determine an error occurred. Who reviewed my documentation because there in fact was a billing error. I tried to dummy my dispute down as elementary as I possible could, but everyone needs to be retrained on how to calculate dates. 

Hotel booked : XX/XX/XXXX Check in Date : XXXX XXXX ( 3 day cancellation policy ) Reservation Change : XX/XX/XXXX ( 3 days prior to check in - policy was followed ) Account Charged : XX/XX/XXXX ( 2 days prior to check ; however, I changed the previous day which was 3 days prior to check - well within the policy ) How does the dispute representative not see that a billing error occurred? I changed my reservation 3 days prior to check in, which according to the hotel I very well can make changes or cancel 3 days before arrival. I was charged the very next day. Why? My hotel confirmation shows I changed it 3 days before arrival. There has been way too much back and forth for something I was well within my timeline to do.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation