Consumer complaint received 2021-05-14
Company: Wave Financial USA Inc.
State: GA
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Managing, opening, or closing your mobile wallet account

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX I opened up a WAVE merchant account with Wave Financial Inc. The account would be used to send invoices to my consumes and receive online payments. The first issue came when I started receiving multiple payments with some being over {$1000.00} ( XXXX XXXX Dollars ) Wave placed a hold on my account and sent the following email XXXX ( Wave ) XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX XXXX EDT Hello XXXX, We had to hold your pending payout in order to verify some information. We recognize that cash flow is extremely important, especially during the current pandemic, and we are committed to working together to resolve this as quickly as possible. 

To get your account up and running again, we require some additional information about your business. In the meantime, your clients are still able to pay any existing or new Wave invoices but no funds will be paid out to your bank account until this is resolved.

Steps to resolve this are detailed below What caused this?

Payment processing comes with various risks that expose both your business and Wave to financial losses from uncollected refunds and payment disputes with customers. For these reasons we conduct account reviews and occasionally reach out to customers like you to make sure that you are protected by maintaining appropriate documentation and policies with your customers.

What do I need to do next?

We noticed a large bank payments from your client <XXXX XXXX XXXX>. Given the volume of the total payments, we are requesting the following documents from you to review : The contract or service agreement between you and your client Email or text confirmation from your client acknowledging payment.

Please be advised that all documents shared with us will remain private and confidential.

How long will this take?

Over 90 % of our reviews are completed the same day. Your cooperation is required to resolve this as soon as possible and the best way to do that is through email. If you have any questions, please reply to this email and well get back to you. Our operating hours are Monday to Friday 9am-5pm EST. 

Thank you, Wave Payments Risk Team After a lengthy email chain Wave released funds 10 days later. 
Wave informed me that they would down grade my account to only receiving ACH 's So I perused it no further. 

After a conversation on the phone with a representative of WAVE on XX/XX/XXXX, it has become clear that they are not at all concerned with US financial laws, rules and regulations set by the US Government. 

It is XX/XX/XXXX and wave has decided to hold {$4200.00} invoiced a fully paid via ACH from my consumers. I have reached out to all of my customers and told them I can no longer provide service to them because of the situation with WAVE. This action ADVERSELY Affects my business and hinders my growth. Not to mention that it puts my employees at risk because I can not make my payroll. 

I understand that a XXXX company has no appreciation for my situation as a XXXX owned small business. BUT they should be held to the same standards as US financial institutions. 

As I looked at all the complaints on XXXX website about WAVE Financial Inc, I have noticed that most of the complaints are from Minority owned business. 
https : XXXX I will write to my congressman about this situation as well.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation