Apple Card Customer Service Woes Responsible for Goldman Sachs Regulatory Probe

[MacRumors]

The popularity of the Apple Card caused Apple partner Goldman Sachs to struggle to deal with customer service issues, according to a new report from CNBC. The problems have in part led to a Goldman Sachs investigation by the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB).

Goldman Sachs was subject to more disputed transactions than it had anticipated, with customers seeking chargebacks for products and services. When a customer asks for a chargeback, Goldman Sachs must follow regulations to reach a resolution within an acceptable timeline, and apparently failed at doing that. A source that spoke to CNBC said that customers were provided with conflicting information or were subject to long wait times.

Apple Card business created long queues that needed to be cleared out, and Goldman Sachs was unprepared. There was no streamlined process in place for resolving customer complaints.

The bank hadn't initially accounted for what insiders deemed "edge cases," or situations that break from the norm among the vast majority of transactions, they said.

"We were making the case that we have a seamless way to dispute transactions," the source said. "But we got no credit for the front end, and we had some failures on the back end."

The CFPB is now examining how Goldman Sachs handled customer refunds, billing error resolution, refunds, reporting to credit bureaus, and more. Regulators are looking into customer complaints from the past several years, many related to attempted chargebacks. Goldman Sachs has now devoted more resources to automating additional parts of the chargeback process, and it is cooperating with the CFPB inquiry.

Article Link: Apple Card Customer Service Woes Responsible for Goldman Sachs Regulatory Probe

 

[icanhazmac]

So Apple broke the bank? 😂

 

[BarrettF77]

Apple Card cust service is really pretty terrible.

 

[VolceOntra]

My personal experience with a charge back has been great and timely.

 

[d-klumpp]

Wish Apple chose anyone other than the scum at GS to back their card.

 

[BootsWalking]

Goldman Sachs acting against its own customers' financial interests? Didn't see that coming

 

[bladerunner88]

The Great Vampire Squid.

 

[sw1tcher]

Goldman Sachs was subject to more disputed transactions than it had anticipated, with customers seeking chargebacks for products and services.

I'm curious why there were so many disputed transactions. I'd imagine most transactions were done using ApplePay so that should be secure and not see too many fraudulent charges. Cardholders disputing auto billing charges for services like AppleTV+, Netflix, etc that they forgot to cancel (like after a trial period) maybe? 🤷‍♂️

 

[visualseed]

No sympathy for them. They are still making money hand over fist. What happened is they gave customers an easier way to actually dispute charges and mistakes and customers are actually using the system that was historically made difficult to to access on purpose. In the past they relied on it being a time consuming burden on customers to do this and most people who valued their time let small dollar mistakes and chargebacks slide and only reserved the effort for calling in big ticket mistakes and chargebacks.

 

[webkit]

Goldman Sachs (and therefore Apple Card) is a fairly small player in the credit card business and needs to get their act together here if they want to see decent growth. Chase, for example, has about 20 times more card holders than GS.

 

[Ethosik]

Apple Card is my favorite of my cards. I buy so much from Apple that the 3% is very nice.

 

[alexandr]

I'm curious why there were so many disputed transactions. I'd imagine most transactions were done using ApplePay so that should be secure and not see too many fraudulent charges. Cardholders disputing auto billing charges for services like AppleTV+, Netflix, etc that they forgot to cancel (like after a trial period) maybe? 🤷‍♂️

I think that's just the normal state of today's consumerism. I had an extensive conversation with an AMEX rep regarding this, and she told me that the amount of people who are trying to abuse the protection that AMEX grants them is absolutely insane.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

I'm curious why there were so many disputed transactions. I'd imagine most transactions were done using ApplePay so that should be secure and not see too many fraudulent charges. Cardholders disputing auto billing charges for services like AppleTV+, Netflix, etc that they forgot to cancel (like after a trial period) maybe? 🤷‍♂️

That was my thought too. If it's due to ease of filing a dispute, that's one thing, but if it's due to the demographic of the apple card, that'll be bad for Apple, overall.

 

[Ethosik]

I have only done 1 dispute in 20 years and it was for the Indiegogo Dune Case fiasco. I didn’t win the dispute unfortunately.

 

[visualseed]

I'm curious why there were so many disputed transactions. I'd imagine most transactions were done using ApplePay so that should be secure and not see too many fraudulent charges. Cardholders disputing auto billing charges for services like AppleTV+, Netflix, etc that they forgot to cancel (like after a trial period) maybe? 🤷‍♂️

There is still a physical card that can be used without someone's authorization. POS errors. Human Errors. Billing errors, Fraud. All of that stuff still goes on despite most of the transactions being electronic and the card number being obfuscated. Even if the Apple Card reduces the overall number of incidences, the new dispute reporting system may encourage more actual disputes because it makes it easier to dispute charges that may not have been disputed under more cumbersome and time consuming methods.

 

[8CoreWhore]

A merchant still hasn't refunded $400 5 weeks after I returned a product. They claimed it was refunded. But the balance is still on my Apple Card. It is a well known company with a great reputation. They sent me documentation that they did issue the refund. I thibk Gold Man is a rip off and whoever at Apple chose them should be fired.

I spent 2 hours going around in circles with chat support as this psycho tried to gaslight me and make me go away. They refused to answer a single question. Finally after 2 hours of this nonsense they put the dispute through so the charge can be contested. They credited my account, but told me to not do anything with the account, etc. and that this credit could be reversed yet again at any moment.

The prior time, I got a refund awhile back and instead of just removing the charge from my balance, they apllied to it my MBP installment plan. Which meant I would not see thart money again until the end of the plan pay off... I had to fight like hell and talk to Apple to get Goldman Sachs to give give me an ordinary refund. BURN ME TWICE!! I will never use that ripoff institution again. Goldman Sacks.. why TF did Apple go with Goldman Sachs? They are the worst! I am cancelling this card the second this issue is resolved. I may have to go tothe U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) with my issue. In fact.. I will...

My guess is the merchant did issue a refund and Gold Man just isn't showing it and trying to keep it. I'm willing to believe that because of how horrible their service is, and how good the reputation is of the merchant.

 

[steevn]

I had two separate times where I was unable to make a purchase and found out Apple Card was having issues processing charges.

I have multiple cards better for my spend than Apple Card, but I didn’t mind the integration with iPhone(other than the cash back requiring an Apple Cash card that could not be hidden or automatically transferred monthly).

After the second time realizing their system was down I lost all confidence and canceled the card. One year later and it still shows as open and monthly balances of zero…. So I know for a fact Goldman Sachs has no idea what they’re doing.

 

[BF1M]

My Apple Card experience has been less then perfect. I have a 1 dollar authorization charge from Hulu pending since 2019 and a rather substantial charge from 3 months ago just disappeared off my card and was never fixed. It’s been months and I guess I got it for free.

 

[bitpuddle]

I had to dispute a charge yesterday and the process was fine. All over iMessage, the person on the other end communicated well.

 

[Silencio]

GS's back-end incompetence really takes the shine off the Apple Card experience for me. We haven't had to request any chargebacks, but they constantly get transaction records wrong, or fail to post transactions in a remotely timely basis. On top of that, their customer service is confounding. Apple made a very bad choice.

 

[GMShadow]

I think that's just the normal state of today's consumerism. I had an extensive conversation with an AMEX rep regarding this, and she told me that the amount of people who are trying to abuse the protection that AMEX grants them is absolutely insane.

You see it a lot in other places - eBay especially has gotten bad on this angle. Buyers think they can dispute anything hoping to get stuff for free.

 

[stiligFox]

I have only done 1 dispute in 20 years and it was for the Indiegogo Dune Case fiasco. I didn’t win the dispute unfortunately.

Right there with you friend... what a waste of a cool premise and money. Got a Black Mac case and haven't looked back!

 

[BoboBobo2]

I recently had the pleasure of using the chat support when my physical card stopped working (the card was just messed up, the account was fine). The person was just weird and had no idea what they were doing. They were asking me questions like "are you sure the store supports Apple Card?" Do you mean Mastercard? Yes, they take Mastercard. Then they tried to tell me what I was wrong, and the card was working fine because they saw transactions a week ago.

I didn't realize there was an automated "request new card" button, but eventually I found that and got a new card.

 

[BF1M]

it’ll be 3 years in December. Each blames the other and it’s just become a part of my life now; like a mole.

 

[alexandr]

You see it a lot in other places - eBay especially has gotten bad on this angle. Buyers think they can dispute anything hoping to get stuff for free.

Exactly. I think amazon is largely to blame for this. Everyone now expects free 2 day delivery and instant reimbursement in case they aren't 120% happy with their purchase. I'm all for being protected as a customer, but I hate when people abuse it — we end up with what we've ended up with.