Consumer complaint received 2024-02-10 00:00:00
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Problem using a debit or ATM card
Company: FIRST CITIZENS BANCSHARES, INC.
State: TX

Complaint narrative:
Issues with First Citizens Bank : A brief synopsis : Background : On XX/XX/XXXX, My debit card was skimmed at a gas station pump, resulting in scammers spending ~ {$3900.00} on my bank card before the account was frozen. The scammers cashed out my account using XXXX gift cards, a common practice to move stolen funds into a more tangible asset. The charges took place in the state of California, while I reside in the state of Texas. There were a total of 38 individual fraudulent charges charged to the account, all within the same day, at the same place, within the same two hour window. Around 28 of the 38 charges were for the same amount ( {$88.00} ) while the other 10 or so were for {$0.00} - {$100.00} each. 

First Citizens did not send a fraud alert text to my phone, something I specifically set up with my account after past issues of similar nature. The account was also overdrawn by over ~ {$1200.00}, despite my account being specifically configured to deny charges for insufficient funds. I first called the First Citizens fraud department on XX/XX/XXXX to manually report the charges as fraudulent. I informed them that all 38 charges from XXXX were fraudulent and needed to be reported as such. The representative on the phone was not helpful, and kept me on the phone for over two hours before she " managed to flag each transaction manually ''. I was told I would be issued a credit for the total amount of the stolen funds within 48-72hrs of reporting the fraud. As of XX/XX/XXXX, I was only refunded for about 12 charges, or approximately ~ {$1000.00} to the account. 

I called back to ask for additional information, where the representative on the phone informed me that the fraud department had only flagged around 12 of the 38 transactions. Again, I sat on the phone for over an hour to manually read out each transaction so that nothing would be missed this time. This doesn't include each individual 45+ minute wait time to be connected with a human operator on the phone. The representative also informed me I'd need to have my debit card replaced, and she would have one sent ( and delivered ) within 3-7 business days. By XX/XX/XXXX, only an additional 8 charges were refunded, resulting in a third call to First Citizens fraud department to AGAIN manually flag the remaining ~18 transactions. After an additional hour and thirty minutes on the phone, the representative assured me all charges were accounted for and a new debit card ( with new card number ) would be mailed to my address. 

Almost two weeks later, my debit card arrived in the mail. Upon unboxing, I noticed that the card number and CVV were the exact same as my stolen card. This card could not be activated and required that I had to call First Citizens for a fourth time to be issued another debit card, because these people hadn't thought to generate a new card for an ongoing fraud case. After another 45 minutes on the phone, I was told I would be sent another card within 3-7 business days. This in reality took an additional two weeks, totaling over a month without access to these cards. Sure enough, I couldn't activate this card either, resulting in a fifth call to First Citizens to manually activate it over the phone with customer support. After speaking with a supervisor, they informed me I couldn't activate the card because they had locked my account from registering any new cards. This was finally fixed and it seemed my problems were over. 

On XX/XX/XXXX I was issued a credit for ~ {$1200.00}. This would be the final credit issued to my account since this whole ordeal at the time of writing ( XX/XX/XXXX ). My account is still missing almost XXXX dollars. I called for a sixth time to check for a timeline on the remaining funds, and I was informed it could take up to 90 days for their " investigation '' to complete. I was out of energy to argue with these people anymore and decided to let the process play out as there wasn't much further I could do. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, First Citizens removed {$1100.00} from my account. I called them immediately and they informed me that they had revoked the credit following their investigation. They said that the credit was only provisionary, and their investigation had shown that these charges were not fraudulent in nature. I pointed out that these charges occurred at the same time, on the same days, at the same vendor, for the same amounts, at the same location, in the same state during the same timeframe. They basically told me they couldn't further assist me. Another 2-3 phone calls with different agents yielded similar results. 

I reached out to my Dad, XXXX XXXX for help and he put me in contact with XXXX XXXX, who is Vice President of the XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX First Citizens Branch. My father is personally familiar with XXXX XXXX because he does his corporate banking there. This was done after feeling that all normal avenues of contact were exhausted. I explained the fraud issue to him, among my experience with First Citizens support and he promised to provide assistance and solutions. I'll spare you the details but the summary is this : My dad and I have called and/or texted XXXX over a dozen times since this date with no progress made. His response has always been the same " We're looking into the matter and will reach out soon '' but nothing has progressed. He passed me off to his employee " XXXX XXXX '', who " would be handling this problem '' after a few initial phone calls. I have also texted her perhaps 6 times and called her 6 times, and her responses can be summarized as unhelpful. Around the third or fourth time I called her phone, she informed me that " You'll receive a refund of {$1900.00} within two weeks ''. At the time of writing It has been almost two months without any refund or significant contact. XXXX made comments on the phone that " there's many charges and we're doing our best to report each one ''. This language, to my understanding, communicates that the totality of charges were AGAIN not reported correctly. 

My father has reached out on my behalf several times past this point, and as recently as two weeks ago, was confident that I'd hear something from XXXX within just a few days. Neither has reached out within two weeks of this conversation, and seldom answers their phone when I call now. As of XX/XX/XXXX, XXXX no longer answers my or my fathers phone calls. 

The last contact I've had with XXXX was XX/XX/XXXX XXXX CST, informing me a " supervisor would reach out to discuss both cases ''. I have no idea what " both cases '' even means at this point and I'm confident that they're attempting to stretch this process out beyond the timeframe necessary to dispute transactions. She finished her email with " Let me know if you have any questions ''. As of XX/XX/XXXX ( XXXX CST ) there has been no further contact or response to the email I sent with questions regarding the case. I have called the number she provided over a dozen+ times over three months during normal business hours and she has not picked up or called back once. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, I went to the First Citizen Branch on XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX, Texas XXXX and spoke directly with the Assistant Vice President XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. was very helpful and spent around XXXX hours speaking with me, reviewing me case and confirmed to me that " someone has dropped the ball here at First Citizens ''. He provided to me information regarding my case that had never been told to me, such as that some of the charges in question were duplicated, and that not all charges were accounted for to name two specific examples. He informed me that he was very sorry on behalf of First Citizens, and someone would speak with me within a few days. No contact with ever made or reached. I sent an email to XXXX XXXX hoping to garner a reply. 

On XX/XX/XXXX at approximate XXXX, I revisted XXXX XXXX XXXX at the same branch to discuss my options. He informed me he was out of the office until recently but would be happy to followup with my case. My XXXX and I spent about two hours doing a deep dive into the transactions of the bank account, highlighting specific examples of the fraudulent charges and their subsequent credits back to my account. The charges for XX/XX/XXXX totaled to {$1100.00} and the charges for XX/XX/XXXX totaled to {$1900.00}, together totalling to {$3100.00} of fraudulent charges. Refunds for those fraudulent charges were applied through various dates until concluding on XX/XX/XXXX. Only {$1900.00} has been refunded of the {$3100.00} amount, remaining {$1200.00} dollars on the balance. XXXX XXXX XXXX on the phone and spoke with the internal fraud department, who verified details of the charges. The person on the phone said that there were two open fraud cases encompassing the fraudulent charges, and that one of the cases was dismissed because of overlap with the other dispute case for the same charges. Not all fraudulent charges were adequately flagged either. The fraud representative on the phone also clarified that the XXXX taken from my account was First Citizens retracting a temporary credit to my account, which was to be taken away when the vendor ( XXXX ) refunded the disputed amounts. XXXX XXXX. informed me to speak with XXXX Fraud directly, and explain to them circumstances. XXXX fraud department was less than helpful and told me these resolutions could only be sorted by my bank. I got on the phone with First Citizens fraud the day after, on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX CST. The person on the phone told me that First Citizens had decided the remaining charges were not fraudulent and had indicated this by letter. When I asked which address this supposed letter had been sent to, she provided me with an address I have not lived at for XXXX years. Not only have I not lived there in XXXX years, it is also not the last address I changed my information from. I have no idea why they sent this to this address. 

This is not the first time I've had significant problems using First Citizens Bank. This is not the first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, or tenth time they've significantly impacted my finances or ability to operate my business in the last 365 days. Outside of the scope of this discussion, First Citizens has denied other obviously fraudulent activities in the past and locked my accounts for " suspected fraudulent activity '' for days at a time via their automated system. It's crazy to me how their system can automatically " detect '' fraud in my day-to-day legitimate purchases, but can't do the same when my account fraudulently charges $ XXXX ( more than it's total balance amount ) on XXXX gift cards from another state. 

I'm truthfully speechless regarding this matter. There are lesser details in this case of merit that I will update with additional emails as they become available / pertinent. I'm confident I've missed smaller details in writing this synopsis but please understand that this has been an extremely involved 9+ month ordeal. 

These people have not assisted me in any significant way. I have traveled to multiple branches in two different states trying to get help. I have spoken with Presidents and Vice Presidents of two branches to try and resolve this issue. In every situation it feels that nobody is liable to assist me and passes me off to someone else. I have spoken with everyone I can reasonably reach to help me with this situation. Nobody have provided clear answers or information.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief