Consumer complaint received 2022-09-28
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: CA
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/2022, 14 unintended purchases were made from a mobile game downloaded from the XXXX XXXX XXXX and installed on one of our phones. These 14 purchases amounted to a total of {$780.00}, which we would never, intentionally, spend on a mobile game. Our USAA Debit card is setup on the XXXX XXXX XXXX so we can pay for several subscriptions and any other services. Unfortunately, we did not configure the security features in XXXX XXXX XXXX to ask for authorization, typically a fingerprint or password, before any manual purchase is made, since the owner of the phone is an adult. The family member who unintendingly made the purchases, fell asleep with the mobile game running, and part of her arm was touching the screen, which touched the coin package purchase button within the game, which is readily accessible, several times, and since there were now purchase authorization prompts, they went right through. I only noticed once I started receiving notifications on my phone about all the transaction taking place in succession. When I went to ask my family member about it, I noticed she was asleep and what was happening with her phone and mobile game. 

Immediately on that same day, we reached out to XXXX to try and have the transactions cancelled and refunded. We submitted the information they asked for on their XXXX XXXX refunds website while we chatted with a XXXX representative online. I also sent an email to the developer of the mobile game ( XXXX XXXX ), and they told us they can't process refunds and that we would have to do it through XXXX. The same day, XX/XX/2022, we called USAA and explained how these unintentional purchases happened, and they opened a dispute case. A day later, USAA refunded all the 14 purchases, which amounted to {$780.00}. 

Fast forward to XX/XX/2022, we noticed a charge from USAA that was not expected by us. I saw that this charge was a dispute credit reversal, which was for one of the unintentional purchases made back on XX/XX/2022. I called USAA 's customer support number and asked about the unannounced {$99.00} charge they made. When I asked more details about the charge and dispute, I was told that they found no errors in the transactions mentioned in the dispute and therefor, the amount they had refunded to us was going to be removed from my account within a week, which is XX/XX/2022. We asked for the dispute to be reviewed and that we did not agree with the final decision. I also explained what happened again and made sure they added the notes to the dispute in case it was not clear. 

No matter how much I tried and explained what happened, they said that they will still remove {$780.00} from my account. It didn't matter that the final decision is being reviewed, they will still take the money out of our account. I asked if there was anybody in USAA, a manager, director, anybody I could talk to, but I was told there wasn't anybody and that the person reviewing the dispute doesn't take direct calls. I was told a decision on the review will be communicated to us between 5-10 days. 

Interestingly, right after talking to USAA, we talked to a XXXX representative today, XX/XX/2022, and explained what had transpired with USAA. XXXX told us that they see all the 14 transactions as cancelled and that USAA shouldn't have processed any charges to our account. The XXXX representative created a case and set it as high priority so they can investigate and hopefully have an update before XX/XX/2022, which is when USAA is planning to take the money out of our account.

Company public response: Company believes it acted appropriately as authorized by contract or law
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation