Consumer complaint received 2022-10-20
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: MA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
At the end of XX/XX/XXXX my current roommate and I were finding solutions to pay for our monthly rental agreements. Since I am the main person in charge of paying our landlord, I had my roommate send me money via XXXX  money transfer to my banking account at Citizens bank. I came to realize that my online banking account was deactivated because it was not used or deposits into that account were not met to maintain access to the account. Both my roommate and I called both our respected banks. I called cizitens bank to understand the situation to find out what happened. A citizens bank representative told me over the phone on XX/XX/XXXX that the account was inactive and closed due to inactivity, so no money could be sent or received to the account. My roommate talked with her bank and notified them that the money would not be transferred. On XX/XX/XXXX an email was sent to me that this money was sent to me which it should have been. ( confirmation number XXXX ) from that email. I then called citizens bank online department to understand the situation and to transfer that money back to my roommate the original owner. I opened a claim with citizens calling this fraud on their part as I was told one thing on the phone, yet received this money. I had asked them to send this back. I also went to the main branch located in XXXX to follow up on this, Citizens bank on XX/XX/XXXX debited the money out of the account the funds were in case # ( XXXX ). This money was taken out of my account they claimed was closed but reactive as it was in their fine print that they didn't close the account but its just in a period of deactivation which they reactivated to deposit these funds. I made it very clear to the bank, this is not my money. It was mistakenly put there under the previous understanding that this XXXX  transfer would not happen and that it would " bounce back '' to the original account. I felt lied to and put into a position where I have to defend these terrible business practices and prove to my roommate I'm being honest with what happened. Months go by and nothing has got resolved, my roommate claims that she did not receive the money back, I spoke with citizens and they only show me the document of this being taken out of my account but never the paper trail of where it is located and a confirmation that it was delivered back to my roommate. Every time I call citizens they can never documents this properly and I have to record multiple issuances to get transparency. So I go to the XXXX branch to work it out with them, and they can not get a straight answer. No one at Citizens bank is providing me any information to prove that they have successfully transferred the money back into my roommates account. Its been more than two months of complaining and wasting everyone 's time to get confirmation as they will not follow up with the documentation im asking for. Now my roommate is making it very difficult on me and she is withholding all information i need from her side to understand from her banks perspective. Im in the middle of all this and it really goes back to Citizens banks poor management and structure to assist in their initial problem they started when they wrongfully sent this money into my deactivate account by reactivating it without even telling me this before hand. I just left the main branch again today XXXX with no help other than giving me a statement that this was debited out of my account as of XX/XX/XXXX with no real follow up on this and its been stuck in limbo. My current roommate can provide documentation from her back upon request, however I am at a standstill and need assistance.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation