Consumer complaint received 2015-03-21
Company: HUNTINGTON NATIONAL BANK, THE
State: OH
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Using a debit or ATM card

Complaint:
Over {$850.00} was stolen from my Huntington National Bank checking account. I have been far too patient in waiting for the matter to be resolved. Unauthorized purchases were made starting on XXXX XXXX. I realized this on XXXX XXXX, 2015 and informed them that my card had been stolen. I had not needed my card for a few days since I was at home with my 3 month old and had not realized it was stolen. I went over all of the transactions with a customer service representative to determine which had been made on my card and which had been made with my husbands debit card since this is a joint account. The customer representative informed me that the total amount stolen from me was {$870.00}. I was told that a form would be sent to me that I needed to sign for them to start an investigation. I had the option of signing XXXX in person at a local branch of the bank, but between my work hours and taking care of a baby at home, I was unable to make it in to a bank during their hours of operation. I waited patiently for this form to arrive in the mail, but it never did. A few days after I made the original claim, my husband found my debit card in our house. I called to inform Huntington of this odd update in the case. The customer service representative informed me that this information would help them in the investigation and that someone could have made a duplicate card. 

On XXXX XXXX, I received a letter stating, " We have completed our research into your error notification regarding the transaction ( s ) and have determined that no error has occurred. Please see below the information that was found during our research : +Debit card not reported lost/stolen prior to XXXX XXXX, 2015 +Debit card present at the time of transactions +Frequent history at merchant location ( s ) +Debit card used after transactions in dispute +Transactions made within vicinity of your residence, place of business, normal shopping locations, or you were in the merchant 's vicinity at the time the transactions took place. '' This letter also states the amount of money totaled {$850.00}, which is not the amount the customer service representative had originally totaled. These statements prove to me that their research into this theft was not thorough. Many of the transactions were made at businesses that I have never shopped at or even heard of. There were transactions made both near my residence and in other surrounding towns that I had not visited. Although some of the transactions were made locally, this should n't matter. A thief most definitely has the ability to purchase goods near my place of residence. 

Some of the other reasons for the decision are just do n't make sense. 
I am not sure what " Debit card present at time of transaction ( s ) '' is supposed to mean. " debit card used after transaction ( s ) in dispute '' could mean that I used the debit card that was still in my possession since it was never actually stolen or I may have overlooked a transaction in reporting the unauthorized transactions. 
With a little more thorough of an investigation, they would have likely found that the signature on the receipts would n't match my signature and that security cameras at the places of business where these transactions took place would show someone else making those purchases, not me. 
I have contacted Huntington every day since receiving the letter denying my claim with little help in resolving the situation and I my bank account is still short the funds that were stolen from me. I have been waiting for over 2 weeks! There have been times when I have only had {$800.00} or so in the bank and I would have been in extreme financial hardship due to the bank 's inability to fix this problem quickly. Every time I contact Huntington, I have been told an investigator would call or email me by the next day at latest, but have yet to talk to an investigator.

Company public response: Company chooses not to provide a public response
Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation