Consumer complaint received 2021-05-12
Company: BBVA FINANCIAL CORPORATION
State: TN
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem accessing account

Complaint:
I am part of the Simple to BBVA transition. For XXXX  days I have been unable to access my bank account. BBVA USA 's servers were overwhelmed by the number of people trying to transition to BBVA from Simple, and in the process of registering for my account, my account was locked due to system errors. When I call the phone number to go through the automated process to unlock my account, it tells me that my action can not be completed. 

BBVA 's solution is for customers to call the customer service call center. The center, which seems to be outsourced to multiple locations where people get all sorts of different answers, is overwhelmed, resulting in unreasonable wait times, people getting disconnected, and general mayhem. BBVA 's response to this? Adding two hours to customer service call center operating times. That's it. I have been patient, yet BBVA has been completely mute about the issue. 

No emails. No phone calls, and there's barely even any communication on social media. What little we've heard from the company is that " Accounts are fine. Debit cards and checks still work. '' This is horrendously misleading and is at its core an outright lie. The vast majority of Simple users are LOCKED OUT of their accounts, which means that our cards are unusable, as are automatic payments and deposits and anything associated with our accounts. We can't get through to customer service on the phones, and this entire situation is due to gross negligence on the part of BBVA, which knew about this transfer for months. 

I found out through XXXX that people are calling random local BBVA USA branches to find anyone willing to help them do a password reset to unlock their accounts, but for most of these users, they were soon locked out of their accounts again. And frankly, finding work around like this is NOT our responsibility. The company has a responsibility to be communicative about these issues and come up with solutions or at least communicate what solutions they are working on. 

And, although I am not impacted by this next point, we Simple users were assured before the transition occurred that our routing numbers wouldn't change. They have. BBVA decieved users by making it seem as if this transition would be seamless. 

I am utterly shocked and outraged that this company continues operation and that no regulatory agencies have made statements about this. There's already talk of class action lawsuits floating around on XXXX, particularly from those most affected by BBVA 's negligence. 

Fortunately, the majority of my money is in another bank, but my experience with BBVA makes me question whether the banking system is even solvent anymore. It's ridiculous, and I really hope that BBVA begins working on actual solutions, or at the very least hire a PR firm to help them communciate with customers and additional technology employees to work on the backlog of issues they're dealing with, which have already cascaded into a national news worthy disaster.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation