Consumer complaint received 2021-02-04
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem accessing account
Company: EVERBANK, NATIONAL ASSOCIATION (TX)

TIAA Bank makes use of the Social Security number ( SSN ) for identification purposes and refuses service to customers tying to access their account information or seek help from the bank over the telephone that do not provide this number for purposes entirely unrelated to tax reporting purposes. The bank has a legitimate right to request the SSN from its customers for tax reporting purposes, but not for identification purposes every time one makes a telephone call to the bank. On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I wrote to XXXX XXXX XXXX, XXXX, President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA, and requested that he put an end to the policy of using the SSN for identification purposes, in part or in full, because this policy contributes to the perpetration of financial fraud in this country, and because the bank denies me service when I do not assent to the banks use of the SSN for purposes not related to the administration of the Social Security system. Having received no response to my letter of XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I wrote again to XXXX XXXX XXXX, requesting a reply to my letter of XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. The Banks response was to make no change in its use of the SSN for identification purposes, and to provide no explanation as to why I did not receive service from the bank on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. However, subsequent to these communications with the bank, the situation did improve. I was able, with some insistence, as well as with repeated telephone calls, to receive service by providing my TIAA verbal password. This situation drastically changed in XX/XX/XXXX. Every time I initiated telephone contact with the bank I was required to provide my SSN as an identifier. This practice is clearly an abuse of the SSN. The SSN should not be used for initiating communications with the bank. I informed my TIAA Wealth Management Advisor, XXXX XXXX, of my inability to engage in communications with the bank due to its policy of requiring the SSN as an identifier every time I initiated a telephone call. I told him that I had previously raised this matter with the President and Chief Executive Officer of TIAA, XXXX XXXX, and he asked me to send him my letter to Mr. XXXX, which he said he would forward to the executive team of the bank, along with my current complaint, for a response. On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I received an email from Mr. XXXX XXXX, Senior Customer Resolution Manager, Customer Care Team, at TIAA Bank, which acknowledged receiving my XXXX XX/XX/XXXX letter to Mr. XXXX and my complaint regarding the banks use of the SSN as an identifier, and said that a representative from TIAA Bank will be reaching out to address [ my ] concerns. In XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter, dated the XXXX of the month, from Ms. XXXX XXXX at TIAA Bank Customer Care. In it she said she was responding to my XX/XX/XXXX letter to Mr. XXXX, not to my recent complaint about the ubiquitous use by the bank of the SSN as an identifier and about the bank 's refusing service to me because I object to the banks use of the SSN as a form of identification. She made no reference to the banks use of the SSN as a form of identification in her letter, construing my complaint as being psychological in naturethe product of my perception of [ the banks ] customer authentication protocols, which I may have felt inconvenient or cumbersome. '' The bank only wants to deal with this issue as a perceptual phenomenon, not as real, objective phenomenon : a refusal to provide service because one objects to the banks use of the SSN as a form of identification. The bank has refused me service on too many occasions to recount. On Saturday, XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I received a letter from TIAA Bank but signed, not by a person from TIAA Bank, but by a fictive entity, XXXX XXXX. The letter was dated XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, but postmarked XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, and required a response by XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, warning that failure to respond by that date would result in the termination of our investigation [ of a charge placed on my account for an item fraudulently misrepresented by the seller ] and make a decision on [ my ] claim based on the information that we currently have available [ from the seller seeking to defraud me ]. By imposing an impossible deadline on me, and restricting the means by which to replyin writing by mail or faxwith documentation that supports [ my ] claim, the bank is purposely trying to throw out my case and undermine my rights as a consumer. On Monday, XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I called TIAA Bank trying to get the contact information ( telephone and email ) of MrXXXX XXXX XXXX, the Chief Executive Officer and President of TIAA Bank, in order to respond to the banks impossible deadline for a reply to TIAA Banks letter of XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. A XXXX at TIAA would not provide this information, but said that she would have her supervisor call me ( her supervisor never did call me ). A XXXX at TIAA refused to help me and hung up on me. A Reneshia did not provide me with any help and transferred me to a XXXX, who provided no help either, but, upon my request, transferred me to her supervisor, XXXX XXXX, who declined to provide me with Mr. XXXX contact information, but did give me an email address ( XXXX ). I asked Ms. XXXX to put me in contact with XXXX supervisor, but she did not know of any XXXX or any supervisor of XXXX. Later, during the afternoon of XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I continued my quest to obtain the contact information of Mr. XXXX so that I might respond to TIAA Banks impossible deadline. I spoke to a XXXX, a XXXX, and XXXX XXXX, all of whom provided me with no help. I located a telephone number for MrXXXX XXXX on the internet, XXXX, and called this number, but was immediately transferred to voicemail. I left a message, but I never received a return call. During the afternoon, I spoke to Mr. XXXX XXXX of TIAA Bank and informed him of my problem in responding to the impossible deadline set by the bank. He provided me with another email address, XXXX, to send my reply and accompanying documentation to in order to meet the banks impossible deadline. Because I did not have a Fax machine and had spent all day unsuccessfully trying to obtain XXXX XXXX contact information, and because I could obtain no written extension of the banks impossible deadline from any of the TIAA agents that I had dealt with, my only recourse was to send a response to Mr. XXXX using all of the known email addresses I had for TIAA ( XXXX, XXXX, XXXX, and XXXX ), in the hope that my response would reach him. The following day, I sent the hardcopy of what was emailed to Mr. XXXX using the return address on TIAAs letter to me of XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. No one at TIAA has confirmed the receipt by Mr. XXXX of my letter with accompanying documentation. On XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I called Mr. XXXX, but was immediately transferred to his voicemail. I left a message for him to call me back. At XXXX XXXX, I received a call from XXXX from TIAAs Dispute Team. She had not received the materials sent to Mr. XXXX, and could only inform me of the process of how the bank handles a disputed transaction, not any information pertaining to my case. Mr. XXXX returned my telephone call at XXXX XXXX. and acknowledged receiving my email requesting him to kindly forward the following letter and attached documentation to Mr. XXXX XXXX, Chief Executive Officer and President of TIAA Bank regarding Correspondence from TIAA Bank, dated XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, referencing Claim Number XXXX. He said that he had done so. At XXXX XXXX on XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I called Ms. XXXX, responding to her invitation to contact [ her ] directly at XXXX, regarding her letter to me of XXXX XX/XX/XXXX. My call was immediately transferred to voicemail. I left a message for her to telephone me. She did not telephone me. The next day, I again telephoned Ms. XXXX and again was transferred to her voicemail. I left a message for her to telephone me. She did not telephone me. At XXXX XXXX., on the same day, I spoke to Mr. XXXX, and told him that I had been unable to contact Ms. XXXX, and that my requests for a return call had gone unanswered. For the very first time, Mr. XXXX informed me of his position at TIAAManager of TIAA Bank Customer Careand that Ms. XXXX was under him and wrote to me under his direction. This is the very first time that anyone at TIAA Bank or in Customer Care at the bank acknowledged the existence of XXXX XXXX. I asked Mr. XXXX to please have Ms. XXXX return my telephone calls. Today, XXXX XX/XX/XXXX, I received a call from a woman who introduced herself only by her first name, " XXXX. '' With some insistence I pried from her her last name, " XXXX. '' She did not tell me that she was recording the conversation. Only when I heard an echo on the line did I ask her if the telephone call was being recorded. When she said that it was, I terminated the telephone call. I believe by law in the state of Florida, where Ms. XXXX telephoned from, everyone involved in a telephone conversation must agree to be recorded. MsXXXX XXXX did not follow the law and did not even have the courtesy to tell me at the beginning of the call that the conversation was being recorded. I had to pry that information out of her, just as I had to pry her last name out of her. There have been many other problematic contacts with TIAA Bank : refusals of service by TIAA representatives, telephone calls not being returned by TIAA representatives, TIAA representatives hanging up on me, etc. Much of this behavior stems from my refusal to allow the bank to use the SSN as an identifier in order to initiate communications with the bank. This practice must stop.