Consumer complaint received 2024-03-26
Product: Money transfer, virtual currency, or money service — Domestic (US) money transfer
Issue: Fraud or scam — 
Company: ROBINHOOD MARKETS INC. (GA)

My interaction with Robinhood started as I was no longer happy with their service and wanted to move my money from Robinhood to another exchange. I spoke with a representative who sounded empathetic and even offered to look into my account but was told Robinhood would not make any exception that would satisfy my requirements. I decided to move my account. In the lead-up to the planned move, I confirmed with Robinhood the steps necessary and began the move. The plan was to liquidate my position and wire transfer the funds. I checked my settled funds, filled out their paperwork and did their requirements as explained by Robinhood. According to Robinhood, this was not good enough and new requirements were necessary - these requirements were met and confirmed by Robinhood. In following-up over the ensuing week regarding this wire transfer and its process it became clear to me that the money was not leaving Robinhood. It is my belief that a wire transfer was never even attempted. Each agent had no knowledge of the next step in the process but each had different requirements and reasons for delay. Some went as far as to just make things up ( including a wire transfer reference number, of which no one else at Robinhood seemed to have any knowledge ) but all Robinhood agents delayed the process of the transaction in some form. 
This wire transfer process came to a head when my account was restricted with no explanation or recourse. Within that same timeframe, my account credentials were revoked preventing me any access to my account and funds. At approximately XXXX XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX my account was locked and I was blocked from using the website. At this point I have no idea why my wire transfer was not executed, account was restricted and credentials revoked. What follows is a detailed breakdown of my experience in a manner hopefully more salient to a regulatory authority than an individualized complaint form. 

Robinhood fails to establish and supervise standard transaction procedures common within the XXXX relationship. Robinhood is engaging in deceptive trade practices due to their adhering to normal and expected standards when depositing money but their services are broken, confused or non-existent when removing money from the same. This practice is costly and abusive of the customers financial relationship as customers are unable to plan or respond to market conditions as would be expected within a standard and practical XXXX relationship. Robinhood slow-walking or abandoning normal financial transactions when requested by the customer exploits the limitations of small investors in their expectation of Robinhood to respond in a timely manner. Additionally, if uninvested cash or Robinhood taking steps to harvest its customers cash deposits serves as the basis of income for Robinhood, the delay or abandonment in executing customer transactions breaks even the lowest standard of care. Robinhoods lack of processes around the inconsistent implementation of standard financial services within the XXXX relationship puts Robinhood in direct odds with its customers by not providing accurate information or timely execution of transactions. 

Robinhood fails to establish, maintain, and enforce written procedures for prompt execution of core financial services. In conjunction with Robinhoods failure to establish/supervise transactions that are core to the XXXX  relationship and the processes they entail, such processes are not defined in any meaningful way. Having a performatively defined process means the customer can not be made aware of the actual steps that need to be taken or the steps necessary to garner a desired outcome. This blinding of the customer is further accomplished by agents of Robinhood themselves not being familiar with these processes. Is this a training or hiring issue? Not likely as no agent was familiar with the specific process ( wire transfer ) in question or it is the policy of Robinhood to inform customers entangled within their system that their agents are not familiar with the relevant process, do not know who would be familiar with such a process and in any event not able to contact the entity that would be familiar/responsible for performing such process. This is the only consistent refrain from across their customer service agents. By Robinhoods design and/or practice their processes, as experienced by me and if they exist at all, is a black hole. 

Robinhood makes false disclosures to customers enforcing a lack of visibility. There are no avenues to contact a relevant Robinhood agent regarding pressing and time-sensitive financial processes. Per the previous paragraph, there are no customer-facing entities or an entity that could be directly or indirectly contacted by agents at Robinhood who are responsible for the process/procedure being undertaken by Robinhood. While unacceptable, Robinhood goes further in enforcing a lack of visibility through the use of false statements. On numerous occasions the customer is told false information such as no transfer is possible to another representative via chat or no transfer to another agent is possible via phone. These statements are designed to and quite effectively block inquiry regarding the state of the customers ' financial process. If pressed, Robinhood will disconnect the line or end the chat prematurely. Over the course of dealing with Robinhood regarding this currently unresolved wire transfer issue, there have been several transfers within chat and via phone establishing that Robinhood has the capability of transfer. Inaccurate disclosure to customers around Robinhoods agent capabilities is used as an intentional mask to prevent visibility into the financial transaction. These actions break Robinhoods duty as a XXXX  in providing accurate and timely information. 

Robinhood fails to maintain and implement adequate supervisory systems over its customer support. It is a kindness to say Robinhood has a supervisory element, adequate or otherwise, regarding their support as none was experienced. What was experienced consistently across Robinhood agents is the deceptive practice of stating that a supervisor will be in contact within the next 24 hours as a means of ending the support chat or call. Or as previously discussed that they are unable to transfer the call or chat to a supervisor. On at least one occasion I was put on hold for 1:11 minutes to wait for a supervisor and then abruptly disconnected. Over the course of a week and possibly >20 interactions with Robinhood and after several requests absolutely no supervisor was ever engaged. This consistent failure of the promised escalation path through the use of deception is intentional. 

Robinhood is coercive and retaliatory, representing a heightened security risk for customers. My objective with Robinhood is to remove my funds from their service and close the account. To undertake that activity Robinhood requires the customer to enroll in additional services that they do not want or will use. The requirement of adding services in order to close an account is concerning but if you want to close your account and move your funds you will overlook the concern and do as Robinhood demands. It quickly becomes apparent when as stated earlier that no one at Robinhood knows what is required to complete basic transactions common to the financial services industry, therefore you are linking and giving access to external accounts with no end in sight. The customer does not know what is required but their personal, invasive and vulnerable data is needed for just the very next step. Which coincidentally has never been the last step. Robinhood has not delivered on a single step on their part - not one. But you can be assured that there will always be something that occurs with the account that Robinhood is not able to tell you. After sending Robinhood the information and access they requested, all without any visibility from them, nothing has been done. Every attempt to move funds efficiently away from Robinhood has failed for some obscure reason on their part with no explanation, that is the definition of XXXXXXXX 

As a retaliatory step Robinhood has removed my access to the account with no explanation. As of the evening of XX/XX/XXXX the account is completely out of my control and under the control of Robinhood. Effectively seizing my funds. The complete lack of process, explanation, management escalation, visibility coupled with the blatant false statements boggles the mind that Robinhood is an SEC and FINRA sanctioned organization. Their affiliation with the SEC and FINRA gave me the confidence to use them as a XXXX