Consumer complaint received 2016-12-06
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: MD
Product: Credit card
Issue: Customer service / Customer relations

Complaint:
Dear CFPB, This letter is a complaint against USAA. In this complaint, you will see that I was mislead by advertising that failed to clearly expose fees and that I was misinformed by multiple USAA representatives on the phone. Additionally, I was avoided by USAA customer service on multiple occasions and a Senior Representative lied to me. My complaint explains how I was charged {$290.00} in fees that USAA refused to refund when unsuccessfully attempted to resolve my complaint with USAA 's customer service. 

My complaint starts when I received an advertisement in the mail regarding a USAA credit card with no interest until XX/XX/2018. At the time, I needed cash to cover a debt and the card advertised no fees on convenience. To verify that I had not missed anything in the letter, I called USAA and spoke with a representative who stated that there were no fees on the USAA credit card convenience checks that I received an advertisement for. I had an additional question about a week later and posed the same question to another representative who verified that there would not be any fees and this representative offered to send me additional convenience checks. Upon receiving the convince checks that arrived shortly after I received the card, I wrote XXXX checks and, to my dismay, I found that my account had been charged {$290.00} in additional fees due to the checks. After seeing the fees, I called USAA and spoke with XXXX people, the last of whom stated that she was a Senior Resolution Specialist. The Senior Resolution Specialist stated that a manager would look into the issue and would pull the voice recordings of my phone conversations as part of his or her analysis ; she stated that I would be called back in two to three business days. A week later, I had not received a phone call from USAA, so I called USAA again. This time, I spoke with another Senor Resolution Specialist named XXXX who informed me that there was no record of my issue being escalated to a manager and that no one had done any analysis nor was there any inclination of calling me back. XXXX informed me that a manager would call me. After my conversation with XXXX, the Senior Resolution Specialist, a manger named XXXX called me and left a voicemail. I called XXXX back XXXX times and left him multiple voicemails ; XXXX called me back more than a week after leaving my first voicemail. XXXX stated that my {$290.00} in fees would not be refunded even though I had been misinformed by XXXX USAA representatives ; he reasoned that, somewhere in the letter I received, the fees were explained. I asked XXXX about the voice recordings and what review he had done of my case because I had been informed that my case would be reviewed thoroughly including a review of the recorded phone calls ; XXXX stated that USAA was not going to review my case any further and that no assessment of my previous conversations would be made. 

As can be seen above, I have been unjustly charged {$290.00} in fees that I was told I would not be charged and USAA has refused to take responsibility for misinforming me. I have spent multiple hours explaining my case to USAA and my efforts appear to have been in vain which is how come I am sending this letter to you as a last resort. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX

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