Consumer complaint received 2019-12-16
Company: ROBINHOOD MARKETS INC.
State: NC
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Confusing or misleading advertising or marketing

Complaint:
OK so I opened up a Robinhood account on my mobile phone to trade stocks as I saw it on a XXXX video. I attached my bank account and move {$10.00} over and also became a Robinhood gold member. I was given a free stock for signing up and one for a referral. Being a Robinhood gold member has certain benefits that they sell and one of which being margin credit which allowed me a higher instant deposit limit. Well I added my XXXX XXXX account second. And I went to initiate a {$4800.00} transfer. 
I then used this margin to buy bitcoin when it was low and quickly selling it to make a profit of well over {$300.00} in a matter of days. After I initiated a deposit with Robinhood which was supposed to have taken five business days to transfer from my bank I was unable to cancel this transaction and I ended up in advertently doing {$5000.00} more which I couldnt cancel as well. This did me no good financially because I could not access it my max margin availability was {$5000.00}. Now when I cashed out and sold all the stock because RobinHood was not going to let me withdraw my winnings due to unexpected circumstances which did not enable me to fulfill the transfer. I was left with {$5300.00} in my account {$5000.00} of it was RobinHoods and they had already charged me for the returned deposits. Just as my bank did. I was charged two {$30.00} insufficient funds charges from my bank as well as two smaller charges from RobinHood for failed reversed transfers. They had locked my account to where I could not buy sell or transfer out any of my winnings. And now they have not only taken my winnings including the three stocks that I had to start with and the {$10.00} I transferred from my XXXX XXXX XXXX   account. They have put my account into negative! I made money with the margin credit that I was given because I became a RobinHood gold member. Its my understanding RobinHood has allowed people with no trading background like myself to basically trade like it was a game on the phone which is exactly how it feels. Im going to include the account statements. I have tried numerous times to get RobinHood to explain to me how they have now put my account into - {$76.00}! They are now threatening to take legal action to collect {$76.00} unless I deposit {$4800.00} and some dollars. These people are making up rules as they go along. When I knew that I was not going be able to make the deposit of {$4800.00} I looked under there frequently asked questions in the help section. That was the only place I was able to find any terms or conditions. I then XXXX searched and was unable to come up with anything other than I would be charged an insufficient funds fee. Now if I would have lost their money then I was under the understanding that I would have to pay it back. I understood it would then be my responsibility. But I didnt lose any of their money I actually made money. Im not a professional in market trading. I really didnt think of this anything more than a phone app. Since then I have actually got on to other trading platform mobile applications and I can not even work them because I have no trading experience. I pushed some buttons I luckily made some good decisions and I won now they are trying to penalize me even further than what they did initially because they say that they can. Ive tried to talk to them. Ive explained to them that I am a poor person who needs to pay their bills and that little bit of money was my only hope to get those bills paid Im living on nothing. They dont care they want to put my account further into the negative. So now they are threatening me with legal action to collect the XXXX the have yet to show me how they assed my account. I dont even understand how. Ive asked then numerous times to show me how they came up with this negative balance. The last time I had this email war with them they kept telling me I need to deposit {$5000.00}. well today they keep telling me I need to deposit XXXX. They keep avoiding my question on how they come up with this negative balance for me when I was positive {$300.00} plus I had made a successful deposit and I was given free stock without ever having to make any deposit. im gon na show my statement for this account. The account statement it in fact shows me as a positive balance! This is Contradictory to what they have done to my account they are trying to punish me for being argumentative with them and standing up for myself. none of it makes sense they are doing what they please and they need to be reprimanded contradictory to what they have done to my account they are trying to punish me for being argumentative with them and standing up for myself.! I believe something should happen to them over this. People should not be able to play with thousands of dollars with the click of a button when they have no verified funds in their account they have no knowledge and they could not trade on another platform if they tried. All they have to do is click some buttons make Robin Hood happy and then Robin Hood robs them its not right.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation