Consumer complaint received 2023-02-07
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem making or receiving payments
Company: TransferWise Ltd (TX)

Hello, I am a Wise customer with a company account. I will like to file a complaint against Wise who has decided to make my life extremely frustrating and caused me a lot of damage due to their business practices and lack of communication. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, a client sent me a wire transaction of {$32000.00} for a XXXX XXXX XXXX sold to him. As soon as Wise got this fund, they restricted it and asked for more details ( nature of business ) which I replied that XXXX XXXX XXXX  They had this information prior to this transaction but chose to block it when this huge fund came in. 

You can imagine how frustrated we were when we ( a small business ) found out that we have $ XXXX restricted by the bank and that we are not going to be able to pay for cars we have purchased with the anticipation of these funds. We quickly sent an email to wise to explain to them the urgency of why we need this money. We explained to them that we need access to our funds so we can pay the XXXXXXXX XXXX and avoid incurring late fees and possible penalties ( closure of my XXXX account, XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX 

Wise 's decision to withhold the money till XX/XX/XXXX was very harmful to us but all the same, we were patient with them with the promises that the money would be released to us on XX/XX/XXXX. XX/XX/XXXX came and Wise did not release the funds to us. I contacted customer service to let them know how important it is for Wise to release the funds back to us ASAP or do a wire back to the original sender if they do not trust the source of the money. Rather, I was met with my account being deactivated with no form of communication or notice about this. I quickly sent out an email to ask what was going on with my funds and they replied to my email with the notice that they have deactivated my account. 

I quickly replied back, which can be seen in this email thread, that I am very fine with their decision and would like to ensure that the money is sent back to the client as this is causing us a lot of problems at this point. Our customer is feeling very uncomfortable with the entire experience as we can't release a car that has not been fully paid for and money received by us. And we are unable to buy cars from the auctions, incurred late fees, and stand a chance of XXXX auctioning off these cars we have with them for pennies until they get their full money. 

You can imagine my frustration at this point, I called but the person I spoke with said he can't communicate any further on deactivated accounts when I asked him of what would happen with my money. He made no mention of sending my money back to my client or issuing me a check for my money. We called wise all day and sent a few emails that were unreturned. 

I believe it is very highly irresponsible of a financial institution to withhold a customer 's money and not offer any reason why they are withholding it or what process they are taking to return the money to the client. 

This is why I am writing this email to ask WISE to RETURN MY CLIENT 'S MONEY BACK TO HIM tomorrow XX/XX/XXXX! I will not stand a watch Wise trade with my money while I suffer and stand the chance of losing my dealer auction account! This is extremely painful to everyone involved. I called again this evening and the lady I spoke with said the money was returned but the receiving bank said it's not true as they do not see any sign of incoming wire for that amount to them. 

I will like to know how to escalate this and also see how I can be duly compensated for the damages this has caused me! Wise has been very irresponsible with their communication. Their customer service says they don't have information to help anyone whose account is closed. This means that Wise can wake up one morning, deactivate someone's account and leave the person in the dark. It's enough to make someone lose trust in the U.S. financial system and I will want efforts to be made to change this. Not just for me but for other customers who may be experiencing this and feeling alone. I can not believe I am the only one who has to go through this with Wise. 

I literally just paused to check on XXXX to see if I'm the only one going through this and a simple " Wise deactivated account '' search on XXXX, will show that this is a common practice with Wise! This is very fraudulent. It is almost as if Wise would turn out to be another XXXX! It's a ticking time bomb and only a matter of time. I just attached some screenshots on XXXX with complaints. It's a lot of them! 

I want my customer to receive his money back and proof that Wise has returned back the money and for Wise to be investigated as this is unfair to people who are affected.