Consumer complaint received 2024-07-06
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Mobile or digital wallet
Issue: Unexpected or other fees — 
Company: Block, Inc. (UT)

I will preface this by stating that I have a XXXX XXXX, but I am not an attorney, and I can not understand how this is legal. It seems to violate the XXXX in several ways. 

For the past few years when I was using my cashapp account, which is over XXXX XXXX XXXX, I was paying a fee that got automatically removed from each transaction ( every time my family would send me money ). I never knew what was going on or why I had this fee and my family members did not have a fee. I assumed that it was for some feature because my cashapp never worked like their cashapp and I was unable to load money onto it at the store if I took cash in, but my husband could. The app seemed to have different features but not significant enough ones for me to mess with trying to learn why. The customer service is basically nonexistent. 

I could never figure it out at all from looking at their platform, and I recently learned it was because Cashapp automatically signed me up for a business account without my knowledge. There was nothing on the app to indicate I was in a business plan anywhere from within the app or on their website. I was just charged these fees. They sent me a request to confirm my business information by a certain date or lose access to certain features so I realized something was off and I clicked through their menu and I was able to let them know I don't use cashapp for any business transactions ( I don't even have a business that would accept a cashapp as payment and have never used it like that. The only business I have is a paralegal business on XXXX ). 

At this time I realized I have been paying 2.75 % on each transaction for years any time my husband, mom, friends, or sons would send money to me. I asked for a refund and they refused to give me one. I asked for them to demonstrate that I was the one who signed up for a business account and they claim that they have no further information for me. They also refused to provide the date that I supposedly signed up for a business account. They continuously sent me messages from the chatbot with contractual language saying that I am accepting their resolution of this issue because they can't provide me with information and if I have no other information that means I accept their resolution. I let them know I did not accept their resolution of the issue and still expected an answer on whether I was the one who signed up for a business account and agreed to pay these fees. Someone on the chat claimed that I had to have done it as there is no way for them to do it on their end. That is why I wanted them to show me the date this happened at the very least. I don't believe that I did this and I think I would remember having done it. 

For a long time I used cashapp exclusively because I was homeless and lost my debit card from XXXX and had no other debit card and no address to receive another. This amounted to thousands of dollars that they were charging fees on because I would have to send money around through XXXX and to friends or family to have them send it to me on Cashapp to get it from XXXX to Cashapp so I could buy things. 

I have never known what to do with Cashapp customer support being abysmal because I have been scammed out of hundreds of dollars from businesses in the past but I was never allowed to dispute the charges with Cashapp. I do not see what benefit there is to using this app at all besides receiving money from friends. I tried over XXXX times to dispute a {$750.00} charge for an AirBnB that kicked me out fraudulently, as well as a {$140.00} deposit payment to a landlord who kicked me out the same day that I arrived, and Cashapp simply puts its AI robots on there to pretend to be reading your questions and then ignores you. I would like a refund of everything they took from me over the years. 

If Cashapp provided a way to dispute charges, I would have been able to book another place to stay at a time when the {$750.00} fraud caused me to become homeless on the streets at a time when we were trying to make it in hotels and XXXX until I could find a place to rent to us long term. We ended up in this situation because of my having to flee from my abusive ex husband. This resulted in me having to seek shelter and the only ones with space were XXXX shelters. This also resulted in my having to kick my husband out of the car and leave him stranded so I could go to a XXXX shelter with my kids. Ultimately while I was homeless I found out I was pregnant, and when I had my baby I was still homeless and living in shelters, and I ended up having health problems related to homelessness and the diet of shelter living that nearly killed me and my child. 

I could somewhat understand their lack of customer service over a single disputed transaction that they refuse to allow me to dispute, but I can't understand how they can get away with never providing any customer service ever, if they are going to claim something that isn't true in order to steal money to benefit only themselves... It seems like this could have been resolved with clear information on the app whenever you make a transaction, disclosing to the customer on the other end why a fee was taken out, or with me on my end, why a fee was taken out, or what it was for, so that I could have rectified the situation in the beginning. 

My cashapp handle is XXXX XXXX