Consumer complaint received 2020-12-07
Company: PNC Bank N.A.
State: NJ
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Trouble using your card
Sub-issue: Can't use card to make purchases

Complaint:
PNC closed my account 3 months ago without looking into the issue at hand marking their reason as, " too many returned payments '' ... Yeah, too many returned payments caused by a bank error -- Their error!! It wasn't until I tried to make a payment with them ( my only credit card ) where the payment was declined that I found this out. Then I called and told them I had nothing to do with the returned payments, and XXXX XXXX  confirmed with me that it was PNC 's error because the agents we made the payments with over the phone were putting in the wrong error code. They were putting in the system that the payment was from a savings account, not a checking account. It wasn't until I told them this that they decided to look into it. After two months of them lagging around with the investigation while I still couldn't use my card, they discovered that it was in fact their error, each and every time ... They could and should have done this before closing my account. 
PNC 's negligence cost me and my fiance lots of hardship, including financially -- Hours and hours of time over the phone, ongoing aggravation for 3 months, the inconvenience of not being able to use a credit card for 3 months ( also to date ), not being able to pay off bills, and my credit being affected. 

PNC has monitored and recorded on XX/XX/XXXX, Ms. XXXX XXXX from the Escalations department, telling my fiance, who's authorized on my account, that it would take about 7 days from that day for the account to be re-opened. That was 26 days ago and the account STILL has not been re-opened!! 
Now she's telling us she needs to mail out paperwork to me before the account gets re-opened. Did she have that done on XX/XX/XXXX after she took payment from my fiance?? NO ... It is also monitored and recorded that we spoke to someone who works with Ms. XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX, who confirmed that she didn't even send out a request for the account to be re-opened until two days prior, which was the XXXX ... So what happened to the request on the XXXX?? So nearly two weeks went by where nothing was done! Clearly she dropped the ball at least a couple times that we know about. 

She blamed others being out for the last 3 weeks. Of course! It's never anything but pass the buck pass the buck with PNC. She's been in the office this entire time. If what she said was true, why couldn't she have simply picked up the phone to let us know what was going on?? Never returned a single voice message, and we left quite a few. Her partner even told her 9 days ago to please call us immediately and she never did. It was never an issue picking up the phone when PNC wanted their payment though, that's for sure ... Every day that goes by is another precious day where I can't pay my bills, use a credit card, and have bad credit. 

All that my fiance and I have requested up until this point was for PNC to just wipe off the measly XXXX maybe XXXX XXXX dollars worth of late fees and interest charges that weren't associated with this whole rigmarole. But that wasn't good enough. Somehow they do not feel the need to make good even somewhat on what they've put us through over the last three months.And it's not even over yet. More of Ms. XXXX not returning my calls and dropping the ball, we're looking at another possible month or two of my account not being reinstated. Already again she's not responding to my fiance confirming the address both through voice message and email ( TWICE ) since Ms. XXXX called and left a message last Wednesday requesting confirmation of my address before she mails out paperwork that now all of a sudden is needed in order to re-open my account ... 

We understand people make mistakes. That is understandable and acceptable. What isn't, is not communicating with your customers and investigating an issue before just going and closing their account, and then dropping the ball left and right making the situation even more drawn-out than it has to be. That is completely un-called for and unjust. And PNC needs to pay for what they did, and are still doing ( Hence why after 2 months my account is still closed ) -- for something that was at no fault of my own!! Based on previous complaints with the CFPB that have been filed in the past by my fiance, I know that your agency doesn't take the action they need to against financial institutions even after they've clearly violated consumer protection laws, and your agency is just about as useless as the XXXX ... Worthless and hardly worth even a XXXX that is taken out of my tax money just to keep you in business. It's a joke. Which is why I am filing a lawsuit against PNC. I only filed this complaint to have what PNC did on record with what appears to be the only government agency regarding complaints about financial institutions.. and just in case one day you start doing your job and actually do something to help resolve an issue where clearly the business wronged the consumer ... Fat chance I know Additionally, I have not been able to access the account online in months. An agent told me she could not give me access over the phone and had to mail something out. Of course I never got it, and I brought this up to Ms. XXXX several times and she never took any steps to help me regain access ... Will need access so I can see all my transaction history to ensure that the fees and interest charges Ms. XXXX actually did agree to take care of were accounted for and refunded. As far as the other very minor amount of fees and interest charges that happened over this past year that were not related to the incident but she refused to credit my account for after everything her and her colleagues have put us through over the past 3 months ( a whole measly {$200.00} maybe {$300.00} worth ), I will no longer be requesting to be credited for those, and I will be suing PNC for the amount we really feel we're owed -- {$1000.00} ... This is to compensate for hours and hours of time over the phone, ongoing aggravation for 3 months to date, the inconvenience of not being able to use a credit card for 3 months ( also to date ), not being able to pay off bills, and my credit being affected ... All of which could have been avoided if PNC conducted their investigation prior to making the very hasty and inequitable decision to close his account. And then take over 3 months to re-open it.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation