Consumer complaint received 2023-01-04
Company: NAVY FEDERAL CREDIT UNION
State: VA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unauthorized transactions or other transaction problem

Complaint:
Sirs : We wish to advise you of a complaint we have with Navy Federal Credit Union ( NFCU ). The timeline of events is below. As of the date of this letter we still do not have access to the disputed funds, nor do we know where they are held by the 3rd party NFCU uses for its Web Bill Pay service. Nor do we know when these funds will be applied to the intended bill, returned to us, or some other action. This is an intolerable sequence of events, distinguished by NFCUs inability to answer the most basic questions, changing its answers, or just pleading ignorance. 

XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : NFCUs web bill pay was used to pay/direct {$1500.00} to the XXXX account ending in XXXX as we have been doing for years. 

XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : We checked the NFCU web site and noted the {$1500.00} had been withdrawn from our checking account, but no indication that it had been applied to the XXXX bill. 

XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : Later that day we called NFCU and were advised after an awkward call to the Credit Card branch that they could not help us and we would hav e to talk to the Web Bill Pay Branch. It was then we were advised that : - - The actual payments are performed by a third party external to NFCU - That NFCU had no visibility into the status of the funds nor their location - That we could not contact the XXXX party entity - That the XXXX party entity sometimes instead of paying electronically, would send paper checks via XXXX Mail to- * The party to be paid or, * The party that submitted the funds for payment. 
- In either case, there was no communication with the NFCU customer from the XXXX XXXX nor NFCU. 

XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : We went to the local NFCU XXXX XXXX ( XXXX XXXX XXXX, Virginia XXXX ) and to the XXXX  XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. We explained the situation to her which was evidently beyond her capacity to resolve. She then called the NFCU Resolution line and we waited about XXXX minutes for her to be able to talk to an agent. While XXXX XXXX was telling us about the web bill pay price, evidently the resolution agent was correcting her because she had to recant her explanation immediately. The bottom line was NFCU could not determine the status of our funds other than it seemed like the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX had them. There was no way for any question to be communicated to this service and we would just have to wait until Wednesday XX/XX/1923 to see what, if anything, was going to happen. 

XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : The NFCU web site still lacks any indication of where the funds are or when they XXXX arrive wherever they are being sent. 

XXXX XX/XX/XXXX : Called NFCU web bill pay agent and was told NFCU does not think the funds are in NFCU, they also contacted the XXXX party vendor who told them the vendor could not confirm or deny if the funds were in their system. So, after a XXXX minute call, the {$1500.00} is unallocated, unavailable, and there is no estimate of if or when the situation might change. 

We find this entire situation unacceptable starting with the lack of transparency set in place by NFCU. We were unaware that NFCU Web Pay service depended on an external third party who does not answer to NFCU nor the customers they are intended to serve. There was nothing on the NFCU web site to advise us of this arrangement. 

We request the situation be investigated to ensure no regulations were violated in this exercise in abysmal customer non-service. We expect the XXXX be placed back in our checking account or added to the XXXX XXXX rewards credit card as we directed. 

Sincerely, XXXX XXXX and XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX ( XXXX )

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