Consumer complaint received 2021-12-14
Company: CITIZENS FINANCIAL GROUP, INC.
State: MI
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021 I made an after hours cash deposit at the Citizens Bank ATM located at XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX MI XXXX in the amount of {$600.00} cash. Upon submitting my request to deposit said cash, the ATM informed me that it was out of receipt paper and asked me if I wished to proceed with the transaction. As I have made innumerable cash deposits with this institution in my many years of banking with them, I did decide to go ahead and make the deposit. I proceeded to complete the transaction, verify that I had no more transactions to complete and retrieved my debit card from the machine. The cash was successfully inserted into the machine before my card was returned, and after I retrieved my card I drove away. Before I even left the bank parking lot, I logged onto my online Citizens banking app to verify that the funds were successfully added to my account, at which time I realized that they were not. There was another car at the machine at this time, so I immediately called to report the discrepancy via the telephone number listed on the back of my debit card ( XXXX ). I spoke with a representative from Citizens bank to and reported that my cash deposit had not shown up in my account, wherein they did confirm that it should have been immediately available. Additionally, a claim was filed for the matter to be looked into ( Claim # XXXX ). 

Having not heard back from them, nor having seen the funds returned to my account, I followed up with an additional phone call the following week. The bank did initially credit my account for the {$600.00}, while the investigation was pending. Fast forward to last week when I received a notice that the investigation was complete and the bank found no discrepancy and proceeded to withdraw the {$600.00} from my account on XX/XX/2021. 

Since that time, I have made 4 separate phone calls to the customer service number on the back of my bank card to dispute the findings of their investigation and to request a phone call from a representative from their claims department. Every time I have called, I have been promised a call back within 3-4 business days, and have yet to hear back from anyone in the claims department. I was told on Saturday XX/XX/2021 that my request was being escalated after speaking to a manager and that I would receive a call asap. Yesterday, a call was made to my phone at XXXX XXXX and there was no one on the other line, the call was dead air for exactly 8 seconds as I said hello and then it was disconnected from the other end. When I called the customer service line again this morning, I did inquire as to whether or not their records indicated that someone had attempted to call me at which point they did confirm that the dead air call was logged from someone in their claims department, saying that no one picked up on the attempted call and another call would be attempted in the future. I also disputed this claim and asked that it be put in writing to describe what actually occurred. In addition to all of this, I have called the actual branch location where this occurred twice and been told both times that there is nothing they can do and that they also have no phone number or way of contacting their bank institutions claims department. I did also confirm with them that the claim is still open and has been filed as a dispute as well as confirming the claim number which I listed above. 

At this point in time, I am filing this complaint as I do not have any confidence at all in the ability or willingness for Citizens Bank to follow through and help me with this matter. I want to know exactly what their investigation entailed and how they came to determine that I did not, in fact, deposit my hard earned money into their ATM as I do not see how any actual investigation could have accurately made this determination based on what happened. 

Thank you in advance for any help you can provide me in resolving this matter and hopefully helping to improve this process for anyone in the future who finds themselves in this situation.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief