Consumer complaint received 2023-02-07
Company: Conduent Incorporated
State: FL
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: Government benefit card
Issue: Unexpected or other fees

Complaint:
In XXXX, I received payments from the Florida unemployment program through the Way2Go program through XXXX. I registered the card they sent to their online app. After logging in a few times, my username and password stopped working, despite using the exact same username and password. I called the customer service number on the back of the card. I was told the agents could not reset the password, and I would have to wait for someone to call me back. They could not tell me when I would get a call back so I gave them a time frame I could be available. I received a call back that was at a time I said I would not be available. I called back several more times and I would get the subsequent call backs at times I said I would not be available. When I called the customer service number, no matter what option I pressed, it would not allow me to connect with an agent, so I had to call many times before I learnt the exact sequence of numbers to actually get an agent. I gave up trying to get back into my online account. At that point, I called back to inquire how I could get money out of my account and was told I could go to an ATM. I was given directions to set a pin, but the directions given were not accurate. I had to call back several more times to get accurate directions. I set a pin and went to the ATM to take out money as a test, and it worked. I then tried to take the exact amount of money I needed and despite using the exact same pin, the second time the machine said my PIN didnt work. I had to call several times to customer service, and each time I was given different directions to reset it, which did not work. After many phone calls, I was connected to a manager named XXXX who gave me the option to receive a new card in the mail. This call took hours as I could hear XXXX typing each letter for the form very slowly. The new card arrived and not wanting to have the same issue as last time, I elected to withdraw money on the card at a bank. I called customer service to inquire about fees associated with this and was given completely different answers depending on the agent. After withdrawing the money, I called to see if I had been given fees because gaining access to my online account had never been resolved and I couldnt view the account. I was told I had been given fees for the bank withdrawal. This is despite the fact that according to the fee schedule I had had to look up because agents could not give me a straight accurate answer, I should not have because they had been done in the same month as a deposit and at a XXXX member bank. I called to put in a ticket to be refunded. I had to call several times because I could either not connect to an agent, hung up on, told a ticket was put through when it was not, and even had one agent inexplicably get angry that I had asked for a refund of the fees. He screamed at me about how dare I ask for a refund for a few dollars. When I said that banks must have a dispute process for erroneously charged fees, he interrupted me and told me there was no option to do that and hung up. I finally was connected to a manager named XXXX who like XXXX took over hours to type up a simple refund ticket. I also asked for all available statements up to that date to be sent to me. I was told they would be mailed. However, I received incomplete email statements. I called back to inquire on the ticket and was told it was not put through properly and it had to be put through again. I also asked for paper statements for all months the account had been opened to be mailed to me. I then received several statements in the mail for the exact same month. I then called again to inquire about the statements and refund ticket. I was told the proper statements would be sent to me again, but they were not. I was also told the refund escalation was still pending. I then inquired about other any fees, and was told I was given fees for calling customer service despite the fact that phone fees are not listed on the fee schedule for Way2Go Florida and are shown as {$0.00}, and the only reason I had had to call so many times was because of the customer services staggering and unreal incompetency. I put in another ticket for a refund of the phone fees, but when I asked if I would incur more fees for calling to follow up, I was told yes. I asked how I could avoid those fees when the simplest issues took so many calls to resolve and I had to keep calling back to follow up, I was told they didnt know. At that point ( beginning of XXXX ) I gave up with their customer service. I had called many times and spent many hours dealing with their impossible phone system that made it almost impossible to reach an agent ( while also being charged for those phone call despite that being listed as {$0.00} on the fee schedule ), dealing with their grossly incompetent, dishonest, and rude agents who couldnt resolve a simple issue requiring me to call multiple times and charging me for those calls. At that point, I found a number for Conduent corporate and called. I reached their security desk who said they take calls of complaints from Way2Go cardholders. The security agents I spoke with said they get constant complaints from card holders over the horrific Way2Go customer service. They said that someone from Conduent would reach out to me, but was not given an actual day or time. I then received a phone call that I missed. I called several more times initiating callbacks that I missed because I wasnt available when they called and I didnt know when Conduent would call. I then escalated my complaint with the security desk several times before I finally received another number for Way2Go escalations customer service tier. I called this number and spoke to a manager about my account. I was told the tickets and escalations I had put through previously for the refunds of erroneously charged bank teller and phone call fees were just never answered and would have to be resubmitted. I was told the amount of fees I had been charged were even higher than I was originally told by their horrible first tier customer service. I was finally given access to my online account and saw the fees I had been charged were even higher than the manager on this phone call had told me. I called back to follow up on the escalations for the fees to be refunded that I had submitted on the previous phone call and was told they would not be refunded. This is despite the fact that the bank teller fees were erroneously charged and the phone call fees are not even listed on the fee schedule. That was in XXXX. I gave up at that point and am submitting the complaint here. To this day, I have never gotten a refund of those fees or proper statements, despite spending dozens and dozens of hours trying. The resolution I am seeking is a refund of all charged fees, the balance on the account to be mailed to me as a check, the account to be closed, and all statements from first to last month the account was open to be mailed to me free of charge. 

There are a plethora of negative reviews for Way2Go/Conduent expressing the same or similar experiences to mine in regards to the erroneously charged fees and impossibility of getting them refunded, online accounts suddenly not working and the impossibility of getting them fixed, being given inconsistent and inaccurate information on fees and rights of cardholders by customer service, impossibility in getting statements and accurate information on account balances and fees charged, impossibility in reaching or difficulty in communicating with customer service, PIN numbers not working at ATMs requiring new cards to be sent in the mail at a fee ( although my second card was sent free after I demanded it ), and horribly rude and inept customer service that cant solve even the most basic of issues and require many follow ups that not only go nowhere, but charge for phone call even if not listed as a fee listed in the fee schedule. It becomes an impossible cycle that one can never get out of unless you give up, because there are no options for getting anything resolved internally, even if escalated to a corporate tier. Even finding the numbers to try with corporate takes many hours. I have seen in many online complaints even more serious issues like theft of funds that Conduent makes impossible to get back and refuses to refund. My opinion is that Conduent is very aware of all this given what their security agents have said about the number of complaints they get via phone from cardholders, the amount of complaints online, and lawsuits that have been filed against them. My opinion is that Conduent has purposely set up a system where they create problems with cardholders accounts only they can solve, but wont so they can make a profit on the erroneously charged fees and the many necessary follow up phone call, and then charge fees for those phone calls. In my and many others experiences, they make it extremely difficult to reach customer service and impossible to get issues actually solved, but still charge for these phone calls. Their first tier customer service is abysmally incompetent, dishonest, and belligerent. Their second tier customer service is nicer and more competent, but powerless to actually resolve anything. They contract with government agencies whereby people who are on government programs need their cards, and in many cases, have no other choice. Even if each customer is charged a few dollars in fees, in my experience, they have proven impossible to actually get back even when erroneously charged, and all those fees together are a profit that is unimaginable. In my opinion, they are preying on vulnerable people.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation