Consumer complaint received 2023-05-24
Company: Chime Financial Inc
State: MD
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
On Thursday, XX/XX/XXXX at around XXXX I was charged {$630.00} by XXXX  to my Chime checking account. This was clearly a fraudulent charge that wiped out my checking account and put me into the red at- {$21.00}. I immediately contacted my bank, Chime, and my husband contacted the vendor, XXXX at the same time on a different phone. My card was shut off immediately and I filed a dispute through the app, then followed this dispute with a call. I was told that they would try and stop the charge from being settled so I would receive my money back as soon as possible. Due to the nature of XXXX I was technically refunded an amount around {$48.00} or so. They overcharge a certain percentage of your order to cover any changes that are made before delivery. This money was given back to me, which is normal and not part of the dispute, at around XXXX the morning of Friday, XX/XX/XXXX. At this time a bill of {$25.00} from XXXXXXXX XXXX was charged to my account because I gave them my routing and checking numbers. This bill was approved and was not an issue, but I bring it up to show what happened. After the return of this cover charge I was left with {$580.00} missing from my account. 

On the evening of Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from Chime updating me about my situation. I believe this email was sent to me prior to XXXX. The email says, as followed : " An Update about your pending transaction inquiry XXXX XXXX, We're checking in about the unauthorized transactions request you made on XX/XX/2023. As a reminder, transactions with merchants begin with authorizations. Merchants must " settle '' transactions before collecting funds. When a transaction is settled, the funds have been successfully transferred from your account to the merchant. Unless a merchant settles a transaction, the transaction will expire. As a result, your money remains in your account. 

Because the transaction ( s ) expired, your money will stay in your account and we won't file a dispute. '' The rest of the email is links to the FAQ and contact sections. At this point I went ahead and checked my bank account and my money was not in my account. The purchase was also no longer pending. I went ahead and called Chime and spent over an hour talking to up to six different people. This interaction with Chime customer service was very alarming. 

Several individuals looked at my account and tried to tell me that the money was returned to my account due to the transaction expiring. Multiple times I had to tell them that, no, the money was no longer in my account and the transaction was settled in my account. At this point, about three different people told me that the money had been returned to me and I was charged a second time by XXXX I tried to ask them how that would be possible considering my card was closed and I was told that I must have had my routing and checking numbers on XXXX, which was not true, and I'm not even sure if you can do such a thing on XXXX Regardless, my account statement would reflect multiple charges and I was told that no, I would not see this, etc. I asked multiple times when the money had been returned to my account and I was told XXXX. I had to ask, XXXX or XXXX? I was told they did not have this information, nor could they tell me the time zone. I was transferred to another person who told me that money was returned to my account at XXXX, which is the already guaranteed to return to your account amount I explained before. This amount will always be returned by XXXX and was not apart of the dispute. Additionally, I was no longer able to see my dispute in the dispute center on the app, nor was I able to file another dispute with this transaction of over {$500.00} because I had already filed a dispute for this. 

After talking to a couple more people I was transferred to the final individual who told me that the transaction was expired, it was up to XXXX  to give me back my money. When I pointed out that it was no longer pending it took over XXXX minutes for them to admit that XXXX was no longer responsible for the charge and that Chime was responsible for it instead. I had to repeatedly point out that the charge was no longer pending while they tried over and over again to say that it was still pending. After this exchange I was told that the return or the credit of my money would come my way within 7 days/5 business days. No one could explain to me why I had been lied to previously, what happened to my money, etc. At this time I send my meager savings over to my husband 's account just to avoid any further theft. 

I would also like to note that XXXX did reach out about the issue, but I believe that due to the actions of Chime, they didn't even know they had to still refund me, if that makes sense. I received two emails from XXXX  about the dispute on their end and I filled out two different forms. It seems that due to the wording in their emails they were under the assumption this would be handled by my bank. 

Today, Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX, I had a very bad feeling in regards to the return of my money due to my lack of confidence with Chime. Initially I talked to a live agent through their chat system, as I am currently at work and unable to talk on the phone as I work the front desk of a museum. I wanted to see if they could tell me when my money would be returned to me, considering tomorrow it would be a week since it was stolen. At this point I was told by this person that I already had my money returned to my account, which clearly was not true. I was told " XXXX, We looked into your account and can see that the debit reported transaction ( s ) have expired and the funds have been returned. '' Of course I pointed out that no, the money was not in my account and was never returned. I asked when I would see the money, assuming they meant it was still processing. I was told " Amount has already credited in your account. '' After saying multiple times that I did not receive my money, etc the agent then said that the transaction didn't actually expire, it was fully settled. 

I then asked for them to explain what they meant by settled. I was told, " Means, it was not refunded. It was charged to your account. '' At this point I had to ask multiple times why this was allowed to happen, why I got an email saying it expired, etc. I was told multiple times that they had to file a new dispute, or that my original dispute had to be reopened. I asked multiple times why this had to happen when I already filed a dispute, had it canceled by Chime, and told that the transaction expired, etc. At this point the agent just kept saying the same thing over and over again, so I was able to get some coverage at the front desk and I called someone. 

I was told over the phone by an agent that actually the transaction that expired was the {$48.00} which was returned to my account. I will point out that because this was not a real return and was simply apart of the normal transaction process by XXXX, there is no deposit of a return visible in my account statement. Additionally, it makes no sense for this amount to be the expired amount due to the nature of how XXXX  works. I had to explain this multiple times to the XXXX different agents I talked to when I first called. They also attempted to tell me that the amount was returned to me, and I went through the same as described above. Thankfully they did, finally, transfer me to someone else. This is when I was told that they really do not know where my money is and why it is not in my account. They looked into the original dispute, my account, their system, etc and saw that there was this overall notification about the transaction expiring and that they can't figure out as to why the transaction would have been settled and the money not returned to me. At this time it gets really confusing and I hope that I am coming across clearly as much as I possibly can? The person I was speaking to on the phone at this time then asked me if I filed a dispute already because they see that I did, to which I agreed and I explained that I got this email from Chime which canceled my dispute as they stated the expiration of the transaction means they do not have to continue with the dispute. The dispute disappeared from the active dispute section on my app, but did not appear in the cancel section of that. The agent at this time does not understand why my dispute was canceled if the transaction actually didn't expire, while also saying it did expire, but was settled, etc. It was honestly very confusing as to what he was saying possibly because he was also confused, I'm really not sure of this particular situation. 

During this conversation with this agent I was told that XXXX should have reached out to me about returning my money. The emails I received from XXXX did not specifically mention a refund, and I'm very confused as to why they would now be the responsible ones when I have been told over and over again by employees of Chime that the transaction expired and the money was not returned, etc. I was also told that since it's no longer pending, that it no longer their responsibility, etc. At this point I do not know who is responsible for returning my money. My issue, however, is that Chime has had this issues. 
I was transferred to someone from disputes who also tried to say all the same things I have already said here so many times. The disputes agent told me that the only option is to file another dispute, not even open my previous one, in order to have the investigations department look into where my money went and why it was not actually returned to me. I continually asked why this had to occur when I had already submitted a dispute. I also continually asked how long this would take, any aspect of it, because I have already waited on them and I no longer trust anything said to me by this company. I was told that he had to submit this dispute and would supposedly escalate it, though he could not tell me how long this would take. I was told that he could only submit the dispute when he got off the phone with me, but I do not trust anything anyone says so I had to request over and over and over again for around XXXX minutes to please stay on the phone with me so that I can know exactly when the dispute was supposedly filed so that I can have a definite time. I am not being dramatic when I said this took XXXX mins. I asked multiple times, why can't you file this dispute while I'm on the phone with you, to which they did not have an answer for. Instead they would sit there in silence. Finally, they said they could place me on a quick hold to file the dispute and would get back to me. This dispute was supposedly filed at XXXX ( est ) on Wednesday, XX/XX/XXXX. 

During the end of yet another hour long call with Chime, I was told that the investigations dept is the only department that can send me an email about my dispute, despite the agent I was speaking to supposedly being a supervisor in the dispute department. I was told there is no timeline and I would not immediately receive an email about this new dispute. Currently, as I have spent the last thirty or so minutes typing this, I have tried to check and see through the Chime live agent chat if this dispute was actually filed. It seems that the only dispute coming up is still my original dispute, which again, I can't see on my side of the app. I was supposedly transferred to another person in the chat section. This is a different screen that says " Support Request '' and " Escalation from live agent to D-DIN ... '' with a yellow button saying " working on it ''. As of now it has been XXXX minutes since being transferred to this new chat box and I have yet to have a response and there is no way for me to re-enter this chat, meaning I have to go through the main chat all over again. I will also point out that actually, it was over XXXX minutes. The chat does not automatically refresh and would not refresh manually either. I would also like to point out that within the normal chat it says you can chat with a live agent in less than XXXX minutes. 

At the time of writing this particular sentence I have still not received an email about this new dispute, and I had to once again contact an agent for information. It has been almost an hour since I got off the phone with that last agent, and I still have XXXX confirmation that the dispute was actually filed. After talking to yet another agent, I was told there was no evidence of this new dispute and I would have to go through everything all over again. I am once again on the phone with Chime trying to figure out what is going on. At this time I was transferred to yet another agent in the dispute department who told me that I was charged a second time my XXXXXXXX and that the dispute I filed didn't cover that, which by now we all know that isn't true. He also confirmed that the other individual I talked to did not in fact file the dispute like he said he did. I am currently on the phone with this agent after repeatedly pointing out that the missing money is still a part of the first transaction, the percentage that XXXX  overcharges, the fact my card was closed, etc. After about XXXX mins of having to go through this nonsense yet again, he finally said he was going to file the dispute for me while on the phone with him and that he had never heard of needing to hang up the call to be able to file this dispute on their end. It looks like a dispute was actually filed this time, as I received an automatic response at XXXX ( est ) on today, Wednesday XX/XX/XXXX. 


I have attached to this complaint as many screenshots that I could take. this includes the multiple emails from XXXX, the email from Chime about the transaction expiring, the chats with the agent, and multiple screenshots of my bank account since the money was stolen from me. I also just, once again, emphasize that my issue is not with XXXX, it's with the way that Chime has handled everything that is the issue. It makes me incredibly suspicious simply because of the initial email I got saying that the money would stay in my account, and everything that happened afterwards.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation