Consumer complaint received 2018-05-19 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Cashing a check
Company: TD BANK US HOLDING COMPANY
State: NY

Complaint narrative:
In earlyXX/XX/XXXX, I made a car insurance payment of {$520.00} by check. I mailed the check from a blue postal box on the street. Approximately two weeks later, on XX/XX/XXXX, I got a notice from the insurance company saying I hadn't paid yet and they were mailing a cancellation notice. At first I assumed the problem was with the insurance company, because I checked my account and saw that the check had been cashed. But then, on XX/XX/XXXX, I clicked on the check image and saw that that, apart from my signature, which had been left intact, the check had someone else 's handwriting on it. The check had been made out to XXXX, but it was now made out to XXXX XXXX. The amount was the same as the original check -- {$520.00}.

I went immediately to the local TD Bank office and explained the problem. The clerk who I spoke with looked at the image and shared my reaction -- the handwriting on the check was clearly not mine, and she pointed out that you could see where the check lines had been inadvertently whited out. She didn't know how to deal with check fraud except by calling the bank 's fraud department, which she only knew how to reach through the same XXXX number that customers dial. The wait time was very long -- 45 minutes. She finally found out that she'd have to prepare some paperwork and I would have to sign an affidavit. She asked me to come back the next morning to complete my part of the paperwork, which I did. She also put my existing checking account on some sort of dormant status out of a concern for its security and opened a new checking account for me. I went through the process of turning off all of my direct deposits and payments and setting them up on the new account.

When I went back to sign the affidavit, I asked how long it generally takes for a problem like this to get resolved. She said she thought it should be sorted out within a few weeks at which point they could close the dormant account, which sounded reasonable to me.

A month or so later I checked my accounts online and saw that several thousand dollars had been transferred from my dormant checking account to the new checking account. I was concerned because I hadn't authorized that, so I called TD Bank 's customer service line. They explained that the transfer had been initiated by the local branch, for some reason. While I was on the line I asked whether they could give me an update on the check fraud issue, as I'd heard nothing more about it and was still missing {$520.00} from my account. They put me through to the fraud department where I waited on hold for somewhere between 40 minutes and an hour. When I finally spoke to someone, they told me that the incident of fraud could take as long as 3 months to be resolved. That seemed like a long time to me, so I asked why and I was told something to the effect of " that's just how long it takes. '' I explained that the bank branch had told me to expect it to be resolved more quickly, and the response was, basically, " well, they're wrong. '' A couple of months later, nearing the outside limit of when the fraud department told me the issue would be resolved, I called again for an update. I was again on hold for a very long time ( as I have been every time I've called their customer line. ) This time the fraud specialist couldn't tell me much of anything or explain what might be going on, so I asked to talk to a manager, hoping to get more information. The manager was unpleasant and seemed to think that my request for an update after nearly three months was unreasonable. After more than an hour on the phone, I'd gotten nowhere.

For the next two months after that I called every couple of weeks, hoping to find someone who could tell me what was going on. It began to be really frustrating. No one was ever able to give me a good time estimate, or tell me where my case was in the fraud resolution process, or explain why things were taking so long. At some point, after several calls like that, a fraud specialist told me that I shouldn't be trying to handle this problem through the fraud department at all, but would have to deal with it through my local branch office. That made me lose my mind a little, because I knew from experience that the local branch office would just call the same number that I had dialed. So I got discouraged and dropped it for a while, hoping it would just get resolved.

Last month, onXX/XX/XXXX, I realized that it had been a full six months since I first reported the fraud problem and that I still didn't know whether it was any closer to being addressed. So I went to the local branch office and waited to talk to the manager, XXXX XXXX. I explained the situation to him. He looked me up in the system and could see when I'd made the initial complaint and that I'd checked on it a number of times, but he couldn't tell me anything more. He said it might be taking a long time because TD Bank might be waiting for the institution where the fraudulent check was cashed -- XXXX XXXX XXXX -- to reimburse them before reimbursing me, an explanation I'd never heard before. He said that to get an update, he'd have to call the fraud department, the same department I'd already spent hours calling with zero results except for a lot of wasted time and conflicting information. I told him that didn't make sense to me, because the last I'd heard from them, they couldn't resolve it and told me I would have to handle it through the local office. He said he was sorry but he had to call them and asked me to stay with him at his desk while he made that call. When the wait time was estimated at more than 30 minutes I said I had to get to work. He said that if I left he might not stay on hold, essentially threatening to not deal with the problem unless I stayed. I explained again that I'd already been through this process a lot and just didn't have time to be on hold for ages. He said okay, and that he would follow up with me. I gave him my number and he gave me his card.

A week later, after hearing nothing from him, I sent an email reminding him of the issue. I didn't hear back. I went back to the bank in person, but he wasn't there. A week after my first email, I emailed again. It's now been a month since that XX/XX/XXXXvisit where I first met the bank manager, and I've still gotten no response.

Today I decided to try to deal with the problem once and for all. I was on hold for more than 50 minutes before getting through to a fraud specialist named XXXX. I explained the situation and that it's now been seven months since the fraud was discovered and asked her if she could give me some kind of update. She said that the fraud department only create cases. She said there's no estimate as to when any investigation will be completed. She said she couldn't check on the status of the case, or even confirm that they'd received the signed affidavit I filled out 7 months ago, the document that was supposed to kickstart the fraud investigation in the first place. She said that instead of calling her, I should call the security department ( a department I've never heard of before ) and they should be able to tell me the status of things. She said she couldn't connect me, but she could give me a number. After so much time on hold, I was reluctant to get pushed off to someone else quickly, so I asked if I could speak to a manager. She went to find one but came back on the line saying that no one was available. I asked if she could have a manager call me back. She verified my phone number and said that she would escalate the issue to a manager given the amount of time that's passed since I reported the fraud. But she couldn't promise that anyone would call me.

I called the security department at the number XXXX provided. The wait time was comparatively short. A sympathetic banking specialist named XXXX   answered. I told her the story -- and also explained that I'm getting kind of desperate to get this sorted out because I'm XXXX and scheduled to XXXX XXXX  on Monday, and I really don't want to have this problem hanging out there unresolved. She told me to hold while she reached out to a manager who might be able to give me more information. A few minutes later she got back on the line and told me that the manager said I should reach out to the fraud resolution department -- the exact department that I've been calling for months, and that had just told me to call the security department instead. I explained all of that, and XXXX was very nice but said she really didn't know what to tell me. She said she wished she could help, but she isn't the person who has the information to help me. She said she knows from experience how hard it is to get in touch with the fraud department, because she's had to go through the process of getting in touch with them herself. But she said calling them back was the only thing she could tell me to do, because that's what her manager told her.

Basically, I have been in stuck in a dysfunctional bureaucratic loop for seven months now. I have spent probably 20 hours of my time trying to get this resolved and as far as I can tell, I am no closer to having it sorted out than I was in XX/XX/XXXX of last year. I feel like a hostage, which sounds crazy and melodramatic, I know, but I have spent so much time trying to work this out, and all I get is a run-around. It's the worst customer service I've ever experienced anywhere. All I want to do is cancel my accounts and get as far away from TD Bank as I can. But I don't want to let them walk away with my {$520.00}.

Sticking with my resolution to try to get this worked out today, I followed XXXX XXXX instructions and called the fraud resolution department again. After another hour on hold, the same fraud resolution specialist that I'd spoken to earlier, XXXX, picked up again. I explained to her what had just happened. That I'd called the number she referred me to. That they'd referred me back to her. That I'd spent another hour on hold after already spending an hour waiting to talk to her the first time. I asked her to please put all of that in writing for her manager, because it's emblematic of what I've experience for the last seven months. I told her how frustrated I am to have spent two and a half precious hours of the little time I have remaining before I become XXXX XXXX trying to get answers from TD Bank, and I asked her to please convey that to her supervisor. She said she would. I have no faith that a resolution is coming any time soon.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation