Consumer complaint received 2017-05-26
Company: UNITED SERVICES AUTOMOBILE ASSOCIATION
State: AL
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service
Sub-product: Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Other transaction problem

Complaint:
I have been defrauded out of {$280.00} from a   X/XX/2017  se nd money person to person payment from my  USAA  checking account to a business which did not have a  USAA  account. I am not satisfied with the guidance I received from  USAA  customer service and USAAs vendor,  XXXX , regarding the issue and would not have lost my money if customer service would have provided better guidance and/or  USAA  had better controls and transparency regarding the risk of the transaction. I request a refund of the {$280.00} fraudulently taken and ask that USAA implement training and controls to prevent the same thing happening to other customers.     The below summary provides details of my complaint ( please note that there were likely additional contacts with USAA and  XXXX  not referenced below regarding the matter ).     Transaction Date :   X/XX/2017  Typ e : Send Money via  USAA  App via  XXXX  To :  XXXX  XXXX  XXXX  ( should have gone to  XXXX  XXXX  XXXX  For : Car Towing Transaction Id :  XXXX  I conducted the transaction o n  X/XX/2017  ut ilizing the USAA App on my   XXXX  ph one. During the transaction, I entered the email address of the intended recipient and was notified that the payment would be facilitated through  XXXX  since the business I was sending money to did not have a  USAA  account. I was redirected to another screen with which the email address of the recipient I had previously entered automatically populated into the recipient field ; however, the full email address was not displayed due to space limitations. I was then directed to another screen to enter the amount of the transaction. Please note that the final screen did not display the email address of the  XXXX  recipient and I was never prompted to confirm the email address of the recipient by entering the address twice. Please also note that the only warning displayed on the transaction screen was payments to individuals are processed immediately and can not be reversed. Since I was transmitting the money to a business, I did not think that the warning applied to my transaction.      USAA  Customer Service Call Prior to Confirming Money was Sent to Wrong Recipient : After several hours from submitting the transaction, I was notified by the intended recipient that they had not received payment. I immediately contacted USAA customer service to confirm that the transaction went to the appropriate email address. The customer service representative was unable to confirm the  XXXX  email address and was unable to direct me to an online report confirming the email address. After requesting that the transaction be cancelled, the representative advised that USAA could cancel the transaction after it was submitted to  XXXX  and I would have to contact  XXXX  regarding the transaction. The rep advised that  XXXX  would be able to identify the transaction based on ID  XXXX .     On    X/XX/2017  , af ter being notified by the intended recipient that they still had not received payment, I contacted USAA again to confirm the payment went to the correct email address and to obtain a transaction ID which  XXXX  would recognize. The representative was unable to confirm the  XXXX  email address and was unable to direct me to an online report confirming the email address. The representative provided a new ID number  XXXX . I expressed my frustration at the lack of information available to confirm the transaction went to intended recipient and  USAA  is responsible for their vendors activity and requested that  USAA  contact the USAA relationship owner at  XXXX  to rectify my transaction. After speaking to their  manager, the USAA  representative advised that they did not have a contact for a relationship owner at USAA and asked me for the  XXXX  phone number so she could call to try to rectify situation. The rep thereafter inadvertantly hung up on me while attempting to place me on hold while they contacted  XXXX .     I again called Customer service and spoke to a new rep. The rep advised that  XXXX  service was horrible and they were difficult to work with. The rep advised that there was nothing USAA could do and  XXXX  was at fault. The representative was unable to confirm the  XXXX  email address and was unable to direct me to an online report confirming the email address.     Initial  XXXX  Customer Service Calls Prior to Confirming Money was Sent to Wrong Recipient : I contacted  XXXX  that same day and provided them a transaction ID  XXXX  the USAA representative provided me.  XXXX  did not recognize the ID and was unable to locate or confirm the transaction. The  XXXX  rep advised to wait a day and the intended recipient to be notified of the transaction. The  XXXX  rep did not appear to understand bank to  XXXX  transactions and continued to assume the transaction originated from my personal  XXXX  account.     I contacted  XXXX  again after obtaining the ID  XXXX  from USAA. The rep was not able to locate the transaction and advised that the transaction would be automatically refunded after 30 days if no one claimed it. I asked for the transaction to be cancelled ; however, the rep advised that he could not locate the transaction and it was up to my bank to cancel the transaction. The  XXXX  rep did not appear to understand bank to  XXXX  transactions and continued to assume the transaction originated from my personal  XXXX  account.     Validation that Money was Sent to Wrong Recipient : On   X/XX/2017 , a fter numerous calls with USAA and  XXXX , I again looked at the USAA website and phone app for confirmation that transaction went to the correct email. I located a pay to transaction history on the phone app ( I have not been able to locate history on website ) which provided details of the transaction not provided by the USAA customer service reps including the intended recipients email address. I confirmed that the email address the transaction went to was incorrect. The history also provided a  XXXX  transaction ID of  XXXX  which was not provided on the transaction detail screen accessed from my checking account transaction view as well as a transaction ID of  XXXX  ( please note the checking account transaction view reflected  XXXX  ).      XXXX  Customer Service Call After Confirming Money was Sent to Wrong Recipient : On      X/XX/2017 ,   I contacted  XXXX  to advise that the  USAA  transaction was sent to the incorrect email address.  XXXX  advised that there was no  XXXX  account associated with the email address where I sent the transaction. This time, the rep was able to identify the transaction utilizing ID  XXXX . The rep advised that the money had not been claimed and instructed me to advise the intended recipient to contact  XXXX  to temporarily set up an account associated with email address the transaction went to so they could claim the money.     On    X/XX/2017 ,  I c ontacted  XXXX  again after the intended recipient advised that he was unable to claim money and conferenced the intended recipient on the call. The  XXXX  rep advised the intended recipient to create an email account with the address the transaction went to in order to claim the payment. I advised that the intended recipients email address was likely already taken since it involved a common name and common carrier. The rep further researched the transaction and determined that the transaction had actually been claimed. I requested that the transaction be reversed since the person had fraudulently obtained the funds. The  XXXX  rep advised that they could not reverse transaction because the recipient closed there  XXXX  account after receiving the funds. The rep advised that they would send a courtesy email to the recipient and advise them to return money ( Please note I determined that the email address was where the money was remitted was no longer valid ). The rep refused to provide contact information of the individual who claimed the money and advised that I would have to contact police.     Complaint : USAA was deceptive regarding the risk associated with the transaction I received unfair treatment from  USAA  due to : o   USAA did not provide adequate controls to ensure the correct email address was entered for the recipient.
o USAA cust  omer service reps were not trained to respond to issues involving send money transactions involving  XXXX  o  USAA  did not take ownership of their third party relationship with  XXXX  and did not have a mechanism to contact  XXXX  to resolve issues o I was provided bad advice from  USAA  which led to the theft of {$280.00}  USAA  not taking responsibility for incorrect information, bad advice and third party vendor behavior has been abusive.   According to  XXXX  the transaction ID provided by  USAA  does not reference the identity of the person who remitted funds so there is no information for them to verify I was the one who sent money

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