Consumer complaint received 2017-02-07
Product: Bank account or service — Checking account
Issue: Using a debit or ATM card — 
Company: ALLY FINANCIAL INC. (VA)

My wife 's debit card had been hacked and used via XXXX. As soon as I was aware of the fraud ( which was the next day ), I contacted Ally to freeze the card and follow on with the dispute of the claims for a total of {$400.00}. The following day I received a call from Ally stating that because it was a XXXX transaction they wanted me to handle to issue with XXXX. Although I thought it was their job to follow up with XXXX, I did as told and followed up with XXXX immediately. It took them a couple day to verify that it was indeed fraudulent and attempted to do a charge back to the card that was frozen. Ally blocked the transaction. Although aware the card was frozen XXXX had stated that banks immediately get notified about the block and review and charge the amount back to XXXX. I called Ally once I was notified that a return charge back was attempted by XXXX, they stated that they do n't see anything on the account and that maybe it will take a day for that to go through. a couple days later I check my checking account and noticed that the funds were n't transferred back to the account. I called Ally they stated that no transaction were made nor notifications given. I called XXXX they stated they have a log that shows it was denied by Ally, but will attempt it again. Few days later nothing changed I called Ally they said the same things. I complained to them that they needed to do a charge back and what they needed to put my funds back into my account. The customer service rep as well as their supervisor 's excuse was that because it was under my wife 's debit card they can not do anything until they speak with my wife. The next day I called Ally with my wife present, they looked at the account and said that it was n't my wifes debit card that was affected it was mine. but still could n't do anything because their resolution department was closed. I called the next day with the XXXX representative present on the line. Ally gave the same excuses, until the XXXX fraud department representative chimed in and stated that they could potentially be in violation of Regulation E, which got the Ally representative serious and brought in a resolution expert on the phone. That supervisor/resolution expert immediately told me that the issue was because my wife needs to submit the claim ( although it was a joint account ) in order to resolve the issue. Shockingly after 2 weeks of no help whatsoever they had stated that the issue was because my dispute was not valid and that it was because my wife needed to file a claim instead of me, despite numerous attempts to resolve the issue on my own. Begrudgingly my wife filed the claim requesting a quick resolution because Ally was the cause for the holdup. shortly after my call with XXXX who explained their potential violation and that they were the cause of the hold, I all of a sudden get an executive resolution center representative that emails me giving all the excuses in the world as to why this has n't been handle properly. After several days later I get a letter in the mail from Ally stating that " the disputed transaction was processed through a third party payment processor, XXXX, the transaction is considered a merchant credit and that because it is not covered under the regulatory dispute resolution process, they would like to " assist '' me which will take up to 90 days from the time they receive my complete form. It 's been 3 weeks since the original dispute was filed, with absolutely no effort on Ally 's end to look into the matter or provide guidance as to what could be the delay or cause of it. The end result is endless new excuses as to what I need to further do to get {$400.00} that paypal has already attempted to do on multiple occasions.