Consumer complaint received 2021-05-18
Company: ROBINHOOD MARKETS INC.
State: NY
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
I use the Robinhood mobile application to manage traditional stocks and some limited Crypto  currencies. On XX/XX/2021, during what Robinhood has called in an email to me, " a historic demand for Robinhood Crypto services '' the application malfunctioned in a massive way. 

On XX/XX/2021 I was trying to sell a small amount of my XXXX holdings that I held in Robinhood. When the app malfunctioned I was trying to sell about XXXX XXXX for {$100.00}. The process to sell a crypto holding on XXXX is multi-layered. First you select " sell. '' Then you enter the amount that you are looking to sell in USD or the crypto coin. Next you hit " review '' where the transaction is detailed. If you want to complete the transaction you " swipe up to submit '' and the order completes. Unfortunately, when I swiped to submit my order, I received an error message on the app saying that the order could not be completed due to an error. I subsequently tried to place the order again and received the same error message. I tried multiple times to place the order and was repeatedly informed that due to an app error the order was not completed. 

There was absolutely no indication that these orders were being " logged '' or put into a queue to complete later. The error message was abundantly clear that the order did not execute in any way shape or form. 

Around 30 minutes later I started receiving notifications on my phone that Robinhood was completing multiple sell orders - orders that the app said did not complete and because of that I sold way more than I was intending ( and frankly even the amount i was intending to sell should not have sold since everything came through with an error message ). Further, when I went to my transaction history on the app there were more orders in a log that were queued to sell because of this error. When I went to cancel those orders that were queued in complete error the app gave me another error message saying that the " Error : Order can not be canceled at this time. '' So an order I was told didn't place because of an app error subsequently couldn't be cancelled because of an app error. 

All told, I had initially set out to sell around XXXX XXXX and was told 100 % of the time that my order was not completed due to an error from the Robinhood App. I tried multiple times and was met with the same error message every time. By the time the erroneously queued orders stopped selling XXXX XXXX were sold from my account. There were massive errors on the app functionality and according to the app interface not a single sell order went through, however, when I look at the history logged on the app today from the time period in question - about XXXX - XXXX XX/XX/2021 : 2 Failed Market sells 1 Cancelled Market sell 5 " successful '' market sells While I am frustrated that the app malfunctioned and I could not complete the single order I was trying to it's the fact that the app malfunctioned in a way that while telling me no transactions were being completed, logged, queued or anything 5 orders sold. 

I have been corresponding with Robinhood for a month now trying to resolve this to laughingly horrible customer service ( setting aside the fact that this surely multi-billion dollar company does not have a customer service phone number ). I have been informed multiple times in email correspondence from Robinhood, " We took a look at recent service interruptions and found that some customers may have experienced issues when submitting certain Robinhood Crypto orders on XX/XX/XXXX and XXXXXXXX XXXX. '' Unfortunately, their attempt to rectify my situation fundamentally ( and who knows possibly intentionally since I have made my issue clear multiple times in emails ) does not address the app errors or my grievance. 

To date, Robinhood has offered me a {$5.00} account credit with this explanation, " The trade credit amount was calculated by taking the difference between the price you received for the relevant order and the average max bid price available when the error was recorded. '' Again, the app told me that not a single order I placed was completed due to an error. My issue is not the price at which the orders were sold it's that the orders were sold at all. The app malfunctioned multiple times and now Robinhood is trying to fix the downstream errors that their app malfunction created - If the app error had been just that and no order was logged, queued, or anything then the price at which orders sold wouldn't even be up for discussion. Their response has been infuriating, slow, and completely unacceptable. 

I know there are many people that were affected by this error.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation