Consumer complaint received 2021-04-30
Company: ROBINHOOD MARKETS INC.
State: WA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
This is regarding Robinhood Case ID : XXXX I signed up for a Robinhood XXXX account in XX/XX/XXXX & after linking my bank account & setting it up they sent me debit card that is attached to my brokerage account. After they sent me the debit card I decided to switch my social security benefits to deposit to it every month. So I started receiving my social security direct deposits on Robinhood since XX/XX/XXXX just fine and I used their debit card to withdraw the money every month since it allowed me to withdraw {$1000.00} in one day. Everything was working fine and I even got my 2nd stimulus payment auto deposited onto the account when they sent them out. Then out of nowhere on XX/XX/XXXX I received an email stating that withdrawals of any kind had been restricted on my account ( see attached email screenshot ). I emailed them to ask why & was told that I needed to provide documentation to verify my identity. I did my due diligence immediately & uploaded a front & back pic of my drivers license, my social security card, & even a picture of me holding up my ID so that they could see that its really indeed my face on the ID. I thought after doing all that that my account/debit withdrawals would be re-enabled, alas thats not the case and my account remains restricted with over {$1500.00} of MY social security funds in it that I am urgently & direly in need of being able to use for food, medication, bills, & other necessary essentials. The most they have told me about why my withdrawals are restricted was that it was related to a suspicious debit card transaction. This makes no sense to me though because I carefully reviewed every transaction on my account since opening it and there isnt anything suspicious or unauthorized on it. I also have never filed any dispute or overdrawn anything. It has been almost 2 months & Ive repeatedly emailed Robinhood about removing the restriction & I made sure it was known to them how important it is that Im able to access my social security money as it is one of my only sources of income & I literally go hungry & cant survive without it. Even after explaining this to them I still havent received any response explaining why MY money is frozen, how long it will be until I can access it, an apology, or even an inkling of sympathy. Recently they are just started ignoring all of my emails when I attempt to get an update or timeframe which means now I have no way to get in contact with them as they have no working customer service phone number. Im at my wits end and because of their illegal hold on MY money I havent been able to buy any food, the medication I need, or pay for anything I need for that matter all month. I have literally been eating canned XXXX food the last 2 days because I ran out of the last bit of my oatmeal ( which was part of my emergency food store XXXX & my health is XXXX due to a lack of XXXX food & lack of my medication ( which I cant pay for because of them )!! Im so stressed out about all this lately that I cant even sleep soundly at night!! I cant believe they would treat someone with such indifference & lack of professionalism, especially considering its already hard enough with a full blown pandemic going on. How is it a XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX veteran who is at risk of XXXX from XXXX is now having to worry about starving & not having proper medical care??! I WAS going to get my COVID vaccine but ended up missing my appointment because I couldnt pay for the XXXX which was going to take me to it so if I get infected with COVID from that day on & XXXX  from it make sure they know that its my XXXX  on their hands for allowing this to happen!! This is the XXXX I risked my life & fought a war for yet it feels like XXXX XXXX or XXXX XXXX XXXX right now. Robinhood is an XXXX company & does the complete opposite of what their name represents. Please do something about this if you can because Im XXXX sure Im not the only one suffering as a result of their despicable customer practices. Im in desperate need of your help. Please if you can get in contact with Robinhood ASAP & get my account re-enabled or at least just my money back I would be so grateful. Thank you in advance.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation