Consumer complaint received 2022-01-10
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: WA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem accessing account

Complaint:
XXXX has repeatedly failed to give myself access to my wifes account, severely restricting my ability to use my familys finances. 

My wife had to call numerous times and speak to multiple different agents in order to get me added digitally To her account, and give me access. Between several different agents, this simple task has now taken over XXXX months, and its still not complete. Throughout the entire course of this issue, USAA has not only failed to notify us of our account status, account changes, but they have failed to perform their basic duties as a financial institution. 

At one point, an agent added myself to my wifes account as a child. This is because the agent did not know the difference between the word spouse and child. This agent, along with several other agents advised that a debit card would be sent to our house and would arrive soon. As of writing, this still has not happened and an agent today confirmed it still has not been sent. 

Almost every single agent has given my wife a different answer as to why this hasnt been completed yet. Every time an agent has tried to contact my wife, who is a teacher, they call her in the middle of the day and leave no message or callback number. This completely eliminates my wifes ability to talk to an agent, due to your business hours. 

This issue has gotten so bad, and again has taken over two months now - So I took it upon myself to email the advertised CEOs email address, XXXX of USAA. I believe this is falsely advertised as the CEOs address, in order to make the business seem more friendly. 

Today and agent called me, Claiming they worked in the CEOs office. When I asked them if the debit card had been sent, they immediately stated that the debit card has still not been sent. This agent claimed that the newest reasoning for not sending the card, is that we didnt give them a pin number for it. This agent falsely claimed that my wife was notified. My wife was never notified about this, which is why we have still been waiting and I had to contact XXXX. 

This agent refused to answer a simple question- why does USAA insist on talking on the phone, in order to do literally anything? 
The reason I ask this, is because USAA refuses to address this issue at all, unless we are currently on the phone. As proven by our dozens of phone calls and numerous interactions across several different agents, they are not capable of resolving this issue even while they have us on the phone in real time. Further, this latest phone call has proven that they will change their answers every single time, instead of resolving the issue. 

At no point did any previous agent ask my wife about a pin number. It is despicable, disgraceful, and downright unprofessional to have withheld a debit card for XXXX months, and claim its because of a lack of pin number. If a pin number was needed, they could have easily just assigned a random number- which is what almost every other bank in the world does. Also, it can easily be updated remotely, making this agents claim absolutely false. I strongly believe this claim about a pin number being the sole cause of this card not being sent, is a direct lie.

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