Consumer complaint received 2021-10-23
Company: Social Finance, Inc.
State: NY
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
I am a banking customer with this financial institution, and this is a complaint and report of improper and insufficient handling of a fraudulent transaction dispute. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I used my SoFi debit card to purchase a product online ( a bed frame, ) from a vendor " XXXX XXXX ''. The transaction was successful and my account was charged in the amount of {$140.00}. Unfortunately, in the weeks that followed, it appeared quite obvious that I had become a victim of a scam. After not receiving a production on the expected time-frame, I reviewed my order and noticed several red flags : besides NOT receiving my product, the vendor 's website was offline, their " customer support '' address was a private email address and, lastly, they had provided a fake tracking link. All of the above remains the case as of the date of this report. Anyone can verify this information as follows : The website address provided by the vendor : XXXX The XXXX  ( XXXX ) tracking number provided by the vendor : XXXX Therefore, I reported the fraudulent transaction to SoFi and opened a dispute via their customer service. On XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from the SoFi dispute department asking me to provide documentation of the above, and I did, and they claimed they would investigate. 

Nearly two months later, on XX/XX/XXXX, I received a followup email from SoFi, claiming that " XXXX XXXX '' responded to them with a rebuttal to my claim, but SoFi refused to share the material that was supposedly supplied to them by the vendor. They said they they sent me an attachment, which I was unable to access. I called them the same day to complain about my inability to access the documentation, and they verbally explained that the vendor 's rebuttal consisted of them sending " pictures of the product they sent '' ( as if that constituted a believable proof that the product was shipped???? ) and the customer support specialist admitted that this was a diversion tactic on the part of the vendor, but continued to refuse to give me access to this " evidence ''. Instead, the support person vehemently insisted I reply to the email I received from SoFi and to state that I " reject the rebuttal '' and when I continued to explain that I would - understandably - like to see WHAT evidence I am disagreeing with, they insisted I just reject. Even though I was visibly unhappy about the lack of proper customer support and I voiced my concern with my banking institution, I realized that they were giving me no choice, and that I had to disagree without seeing the evidence, if I wanted the investigation to continue. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, SoFi responded that they concluded nothing was wrong with the transaction and that they closed the investigation, in spite of it being obvious that they had not done their due diligence. They communicated that the investigation was closed, and offered no further assistance, including a possibility of an appeal. 

I immediately called them again, and I requested what was the extent of their research, and how could they credibly claim that this had been a legitimate transaction when they clearly had not conducted their research properly. Even just by accessing the information I provided above, it is clear that this vendor 's site continues to be offline, and that the tracking information indicates that the order has never been shipped, and therefore not delivered to my address either. As a matter of fact, SoFi customer support refused to substantiate their investigation in any way, only offering to send me a letter electronically, and I told them that this did not function in the past, and that I was owed an explanation. 

Only after insisting and asking several times did the support specialist agree to escalate my complaint to a supervisor, by the name of XXXX XXXX. I revisited the details of the case with Mr XXXX, and he had promised that he would file an internal report and complaint about how this case had been handled by the bank, and also offered to send me the aforementioned evidence that ( supposedly ) had been sent to them by the fraudulent vendor. When I finally received that attachment later that day, it was simply a copy of my transaction that was provided by a third-party processor. Needless to say, it is evident and clearly verifiable from my bank account that I indeed paid for this item and that these funds were deducted from my account. That document was not only NOT the evidence SoFi had previously referred to verbally, it also did not it any way constitute a proof that this order had been fulfilled. 

I immediately complained about this by responded to Mr XXXX but have not received any communication from the bank since. 

In closing, I am completely mortified by this banking institution utter lack of concern towards protecting their customer from fraudulent vendors. It was evident from all of my communication with the bank that they failed to conduct a proper investigation, and/or to supply any evidence of communication with the vendor as well as any proof of any research / investigation that they completed independently to determine that this was a legitimate transaction and that it had indeed been fulfilled as promised. 

To this date, I have not been able to have any response from the vendor, as their website remains offline ( and, I suspect, will remain so indefinitely ) and the tracking information they provided in early XXXX, still appears inaccurate/ false on the shipper 's tracking website. 

In doing so, SoFi is failing their customers. They are throwing us under the bus, while at the same time enabling bad actors to get away with fraud by failing to do their due diligence in properly investigating fraudulent transactions.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation