Consumer complaint received 2016-04-27
Company: PNC Bank N.A.
State: OH
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
I am a joint owner on my college age son 's checking account. Back in XXXX his account had a fraudulent transaction charged to his debit card. We have spent the past 6 months battling with PNC Bank, regarding this obvious fraud. 

The circumstances of the fraud are described as follows. My Ohio son was in Maryland for a fishing tournament and had an accident. A towing company towed his friend 's boat trailer to their lot and verbally agreed to tow the boat for {$220.00} and to store the boat and trailer for {$35.00} dollars a day until his friend 's dad could arrange for the transport of the boat and trailer back to XXXX. They said there would be an additional {$120.00} charge to help get the boat on a trailer once XXXX was arranged. My son at that time gave the owner his debit card number. 

The boat was on the lot for 10 days. When the charge came through my son 's account, it was for {$1100.00}, considerably more than we expected. We tried to call the towing company several times to get a copy of the invoice to no avail. At that time, we felt there was nothing to do but to dispute the charges. 

I figured that my son 's case would surely go in our favor since my son never signed any paperwork or gave the towing company his pin number. We were disappointed to find that the dispute was ruled against us. As such, I requested copies of what the towing company submitted because I was certain they did not have my son 's signature. Between the time we initially submitted the paperwork related to the dispute and the bank 's initial ruling, we were made aware that the towing company had sent an estimated bill to the boat owner that quoted a {$250.00} towing fee, a daily storage rate of {$35.00} per day and also randomly added a {$50.00} " administrative fee ''. 

I compared the invoice that the boat owner forwarded to us and the invoice that PNC supplied us and was shocked to see that the XXXX invoices were the same, but that the daily rate had been whited out and changed from {$35.00} to {$70.00} per day. The date was also altered on the invoice. Armed with what I was convinced was proof that this towing company is owned by dishonest and fraudulent people, I appealed the initial ruling. I also noted that there was, as I suspected, no evidence of any signature at all from my son authorizing any charges at all. 

Despite the fact that PNC had proof that the towing company had doctored their invoice we again lost the dispute. 

I went to my branch to appeal my case to a live person. She could see the obvious fraud and called someone in their bank to appeal. After XXXX more follow up calls to her and no return call from her illusive bank contact, I again went to the branch and spoke to an assistant manager. She sent my info to their retail escalation manager. That person called my son and left a message. He returned her call 3 times getting her voicemail every time. We then got a letter from her stating that our matter was resolved. There was no detail as to how it was resolved. I again tried to call her to find out more information and guess what? I got her voicemail. I pressed XXXX to speak to another agent and she told me too much time had passed and they were n't going to do anything. 

I have attached a lot of documentation regarding the matter. The most important of which is the XXXX copies of the EXACT invoice that obviously shows the fraud this vendor has committed. On top of that, PNC Bank with their ineffective follow up has rewarded this thief with my college age son 's hard earned {$450.00} dollars. 

I have exhausted my efforts with PNC, they will not do anything further to help me. I am appealing to your organization so that better heads will prevail.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation