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Business Profile

Financial Technology

Privacy.com

Complaints

This profile includes complaints for Privacy.com's headquarters and its corporate-owned locations. To view all corporate locations, see

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    Customer Complaints Summary

    • 37 total complaints in the last 3 years.
    • 12 complaints closed in the last 12 months.

    If you've experienced an issue

    Submit a Complaint

    The complaint text that is displayed might not represent all complaints filed with BBB. Some consumers may elect to not publish the details of their complaints, some complaints may not meet BBB's standards for publication, or BBB may display a portion of complaints when a high volume is received for a particular business.

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    Complaint status

    Complaint type

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:07/17/2023

      Type:Customer Service Issues
      Status:
      AnsweredMore info

      Complaint statuses

      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      I informed REMOVEDsupport staff on 6/17/23 that I wished to close my account. After contacting them 10 times through email chains they refused to cancel my account. The company acted as an intermediary for me to pay credit card transactions. After my banking information was potentially compromised in early May 2023, I obtained a new bank checking account which is not connected to REMOVED. and paid off all charges that were originally mediated through REMOVEDwith my own personal finance sources. REMOVEDis claiming that I have transactions that need to be resolved before they can close my account with them, despite the fact that all transactions have already been paid by me and no up to date banking information has been available with the business since my checking account update. REMOVEDhas stated that they need new backing information from me to process transactions which don't exist before they will cancel my account? I refuse to give REMOVEDmy banking information to pay for transactions which have already been paid.

      Business Response

      Date: 07/27/2023

      REMOVED

      REMOVED
      REMOVED
      REMOVED  REMOVED

      REMOVED

      Dear Bureau Representative,

      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED) is in receipt of the appeal filed by REMOVEDon July 17, 2023, with the Better Business Bureau. REMOVEDappreciates the opportunity to respond to REMOVEDappeal, in which he claims to have been requesting for the closure of his Privacy account since June 17, 2023, alleging REMOVEDhas been refusing to do so. REMOVEDclaims that his prior checking account was compromised in May 2023, and has switched to a new checking account and settled all transactions. Although, REMOVEDclaims there are unresolved transactions and is requesting new banking details to process the transactions before closing account.

      REMOVEDhas reviewed REMOVEDaccount history and correspondence during the relevant time period.

      Key findings are summarized below.

      On June 17, 2023, REMOVEDrequested for his account to be closed and asked for instructions. Then on June 21st he followed up stating that he would like his account closed before the next billing period. REMOVEDresponded to the request informing the user to resolve their unsettled transactions before proceeding with account closure. REMOVEDalleges that the transactions have been paid off through their own personal payment method.

      REMOVEDresponded informing the user that if they had used another payment method other than Privacy for this transaction, the merchant was paid twice for the same transaction, and they should be contacted and asked for a refund. Privacy has already covered the cost of this transaction when the bank returned with notice of 'bank account frozen' as we credit users with the funds for the purchases before going to their banks to pull back the funds owed. To clear the outstanding balance and close your Privacy Account, we will need to retry these transactions. REMOVEDstated that getting refunded for the failed transactions is not likely, and they do not wish to be charged twice asking us to clear the charges and close the account. REMOVEDreplied that the merchant has already been paid on behalf of Privacy and we have attempted to collect the funds from REMOVEDfunding source, which did not go through. To close the account, we will need to rerun the transactions on our end. REMOVEDwas not satisfied with our response and informed us that he will not be utilizing Privacy and will open a case with the BBB.

      On July 13, 2023, REMOVEDwrote in stating that his account has yet to be deactivated, reiterating that he will no longer be using this service and to inform him when this is completed. REMOVEDreplied that we would process the request once the unsettled transactions have been resolved. REMOVEDresponded that he was not responsible for the charges and alleges that we are harassing him for the charges, making more claims of filing with BBB. Privacy continued to reiterate that we paid for the transactions on behalf of the customer, and we are unable to close accounts with unsettled transactions. We also recommended filing a dispute for the transactions if they are not recognized.

      REMOVEDinquired on what cards were used to pay for the transactions, to which we provided both card numbers that were used. REMOVEDasked whether he would be able to use a prepaid debit card to settle the transactions; REMOVED, responded that unfortunately we're unable to accept prepaid debit cards as a form of payment and suggested the user attach a funding source such as bank login or debit card. The user was uncomfortable their bank details and debit card information and asked if there is any other payment method and asked how much the owed balance was. REMOVEDprovided the owed balance and shared a repayment link for REMOVEDto utilize and to let us know once the balance is paid for us to proceed with account closure.


      REMOVEDreserves the right to provision service at its sole discretion. The account remains active.

      REMOVEDtrusts the information provided satisfies the inquiry and demonstrates that REMOVEDthoroughly investigated REMOVEDcomplaint. Should you or REMOVEDrequire any additional information, feel free to contact me at the email below.

      Sincerely,
      REMOVED
      REMOVED
      REMOVED
    • Initial Complaint

      Date:05/04/2023

      Type:Customer Service Issues
      Status:
      AnsweredMore info

      Complaint statuses

      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      I went through a lengthy process to create an account, which included entering my full social security number. For no apparent reason my account was frozen and I was prompted to contact customer service. I was given the vague explanation that "we were unable to verify your sign-up information." Everything I entered was truthful and accurate. The service representative had me enter my information a second time. Same result. I was told the same thing. The representative then told me "we aren't able to go into further detail about this decision." A few days had gone by at this point. I asked to speak to a supervisor and was ignored.Best case: they are rude. Worst case: this is cause for concern. I gave them very sensitive information, only for them to immediately tell me that their company works in mysterious ways and they weren't going to help me. I see this as very suspicious conduct, and worry my information is in bad hands. Also, I found it very disrespectful of them to waste my time and give me non-answer as to why I was denied service.At first I was hesitant to create an account with REMOVED, but it was actually the fact that they are - or claim to be - endorsed by the Better Business Bureau that convinced me. Does the conduct I've described sound acceptable for a BBB endorsed business?

      Business Response

      Date: 05/11/2023

      REMOVED

      REMOVED
      REMOVED
      REMOVED  REMOVED

      REMOVED

      Dear Bureau Representative,

      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED) is in receipt of the appeal filed by REMOVEDon May 04, 2023, with the Better Business Bureau. REMOVEDappreciates the opportunity to respond to REMOVEDappeal, in which they claim to have had their Privacy account frozen after creating an account, with being prompted to contact customer service. They were unsatisfied with Privacys response of being unable to verify sign-up information.

      REMOVEDhas reviewed REMOVEDaccount history and correspondence during the relevant time period.

      Key findings are summarized below.

      On April 22, 2023, REMOVEDreached out to REMOVEDstating their account was paused due to their information being unable to be verified. Privacy requested that REMOVEDprovide his email associated with the Privacy account to locate it, to which he then provided. REMOVEDfollowed up stating that we were unable to verify their sign-up information, instructing REMOVEDto reenter their account information with the signup link provided and once completed the account will be reviewed.

      After an additional review, Privacy was unable to verify REMOVEDidentity and is unable to provide their account. Due to the security-conscious nature of our business, we were unable to provide any additional information for this decision. REMOVEDaccount has been suspended and their connected funding source has been removed. Lastly, REMOVEDwas unsatisfied with our response and alleges discrimination as we are unable to disclose the reason behind our decision making. REMOVEDdecided that they will go to a competing service and leave a negative review. REMOVEDdoes not discriminate on any basis, including race or national origin, and is committed to fostering an environment of both inclusion and mutual respect for all persons.

      REMOVEDreserves the right to provision service at its sole discretion. The account remains banned.

      REMOVEDtrusts the information provided satisfies the inquiry and demonstrates that REMOVEDthoroughly investigated REMOVEDcomplaint. Should you or REMOVEDrequire any additional information, feel free to contact me at the email below.

      Sincerely,
      REMOVED, Compliance Operations Analyst
      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED)
      REMOVED

      Customer Answer

      Date: 05/15/2023

      Better Business Bureau:

      I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID# REMOVED, and have determined that my complaint has NOT been resolved because:

      In the response the representative repeated what I was told in my initial communications with the company almost verbatim. The point of my complaint was that I received evasive corporate-speak in place of an explanation, and Privacy has responded with more of the same corporate-speak.

       

       

       

       

      In order for the BBB to appropriately process your response, you MUST answer the question above.


      Sincerely,

      REMOVED




       
    • Initial Complaint

      Date:05/01/2023

      Type:Product Issues
      Status:
      AnsweredMore info

      Complaint statuses

      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      During my previous conversation with one of your representatives (via email dated April 25, 2023), I was informed that I supposedly had another account, which was causing issues with my current account. Despite my protests that I did not have another account, the only resolution offered to me was a password reset to an email address that I did not even recognize.I must say that I find this resolution to be completely inadequate and frustrating. Not only did I not receive any clear explanation as to why I supposedly had another account, but the password reset was done to an email address that was not associated with me. This has caused me a great deal of inconvenience and frustration.Furthermore, I find it completely unacceptable that I was not given any alternative solutions or options to resolve this issue. The fact that the only solution offered was a password reset to an unrecognized email address shows a lack of effort on your part to properly investigate and address my issue.

      Business Response

      Date: 05/05/2023

      REMOVED

      REMOVED
      REMOVED
      REMOVED

      REMOVED

      Dear Bureau Representative,

      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED) is in receipt of the appeal filed by REMOVEDon May 01, 2023, with the Better Business Bureau. REMOVEDappreciates the opportunity to respond to REMOVEDappeal, in which they were unsatisfied with Privacys response to the matter involving their account being paused due to an associated account that they did not recognize.

      REMOVEDhas reviewed REMOVEDMangilins account history and correspondence during the relevant time period.

      Key findings are summarized below.

      On April 24, 2023, REMOVEDsupport notified REMOVEDthat their account had been paused as our system detected an existing account with matching signup information that has one or more unsettled transactions, which is not permitted as Privacy users are only allowed one active account.

      On April 25, 2023, REMOVEDresponded with claims of not recognizing any other account for REMOVED. REMOVEDresponded that the additional account has matching signup information including the same address listed on their account, and we are unable to activate either account until the transaction is settled. We also asked if they would like their password to reset for the original account. REMOVEDprovided an email for password reset.


      On May 01, 2023, REMOVEDfollowed up for any updated regarding their account. REMOVEDreiterated that the account was paused due to an additional Privacy Account matching their information that has an unsettled transaction. We are unable to reactivate the account associated with the email being written from until the unsettled transaction on the other account is retried and settled. REMOVEDclaimed to not recognize the account and email associated. REMOVEDinformed him that we will need to complete an ID verification to proceed with reactivation.

      REMOVEDreserves the right to provision service at its sole discretion. The account is currently paused.

      REMOVEDtrusts the information provided satisfies the inquiry and demonstrates that REMOVEDthoroughly investigated Mr. REMOVEDcomplaint. Should you or REMOVEDrequire any additional information, feel free to contact me at the email below.

      Sincerely,
      REMOVED, Compliance Operations Analyst
      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED)
      REMOVED
    • Initial Complaint

      Date:04/24/2023

      Type:Billing Issues
      Status:
      ResolvedMore info

      Complaint statuses

      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      My REMOVEDaccount was suspended in 2021. I reached out to support and was told that for privacy reasons I was not allowed to know why my account was suspended. I abided by all the rules and didn't use my account for illegal purposes. I would like to talk to a representative to know why my account was banned and to have it reinstated. It took me awhile to make this complaint because I got logged down with paperwork over a couple legal cases I took on during this time.

      Business Response

      Date: 05/01/2023

      REMOVED

      REMOVED
      REMOVED
      REMOVED  REMOVED

      REMOVED

      Dear Bureau Representative,

      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED) is in receipt of the appeal filed by REMOVEDon April 24, 2023, with the Better Business Bureau. REMOVEDappreciates the opportunity to respond to REMOVEDappeal, in which they were not satisfied with having their account suspended in 2021, alleging to have abided by all the rules. They would like to know why their account was banned and to have it reinstated.

      REMOVEDhas reviewed REMOVEDaccount history and correspondence during the relevant time period.

      Key findings are summarized below.

      On July 27, 2021, REMOVEDwrote in stating that his account was not active. REMOVEDresponded that we were unable to support their account at this time and we are unable to share any details due to the nature of the business. The account was suspended with the attached funding source being removed, and any additional accounts created with matching information they will also be suspended.

      After a review of their Privacy account, we identified the account(s) to have been banned since November of 2020 and July 2021 for violation of our Terms of Service. We are unable to disclose the reason our abuse prevention system or human review team decided that we are unable to support their account at this time or discuss the decision any further.

      REMOVEDreserves the right to provision service at its sole discretion. The account(s) are no longer active and will not be reactivated.

      REMOVEDtrusts the information provided satisfies the inquiry and demonstrates that REMOVEDthoroughly investigated REMOVEDcomplaint. Should you or REMOVEDrequire any additional information, feel free to contact me at the email below.

      Sincerely,
      REMOVED, Compliance Operations Analyst
      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED)
      REMOVED

      Customer Answer

      Date: 05/02/2023

      Better Business Bureau:

      I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID REMOVED, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

      Sincerely,

      REMOVED



       

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:04/10/2023

      Type:Product Issues
      Status:
      ResolvedMore info

      Complaint statuses

      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      I have been sending multiple emails and left messages and have no one has responded. My privacy account has been paused for 3 days because of this settle transaction and no response at all from REMOVEDI am running into trouble when trying to settle this transaction for $5.30. I keep pushing settle transaction but nothing is happening. Im unsure as to why the transaction declined. The transaction was supposed to be settled on April 8, however, I have had money in the account on March 28 and beyond.

      Business Response

      Date: 04/17/2023

      REMOVED

      REMOVED
      REMOVED
      REMOVED  REMOVED

      REMOVED

      Dear Bureau Representative,

      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED) is in receipt of the appeal filed by REMOVEDon April 10, 2023, with the Better Business Bureau. REMOVEDappreciates the opportunity to respond to REMOVEDappeal, in which they claim Privacy has been unresponsive as they sent multiple emails and messages. Their Privacy account has been paused for 3 days due to a transaction being unable to settle. They are unsure why the transaction declined, as it was expected to settle on April 8th, as they claimed to have had enough funds in their account.

      REMOVEDhas reviewed REMOVEDaccount history and correspondence during the relevant time period.

      Key findings are summarized below.

      On April 08, 2023, REMOVEDreached out about their transaction in the amount of $5.30 failing to settle, as they have received an email from REMOVEDregarding the transaction being unable to settle due to insufficient funds in their checking account. They claimed to have continued pushing for the transaction to settle and is unsure why the transaction declined, as they claimed to have funds in their account from March 28, 2023, and forward.

      On April 11, 2023, REMOVEDresponded that weve rerun any unsettled transactions to their connected funding card, and it should be reflected on their bank statement in the next 1-2 business days. In addition, the account has been reactivated.

      REMOVEDreserves the right to provision service at its sole discretion. The account has been reactivated.

      REMOVEDtrusts the information provided satisfies the inquiry and demonstrates that REMOVEDthoroughly investigated REMOVEDcomplaint. Should you or REMOVEDrequire any additional information, feel free to contact me at the email below.

      Sincerely,
      REMOVED, Compliance Operations Analyst
      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED)
      REMOVED

      Customer Answer

      Date: 04/19/2023

      Better Business Bureau:

      I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID REMOVED, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

      Sincerely,

      REMOVED



       

    • Initial Complaint

      Date:04/06/2023

      Type:Billing Issues
      Status:
      ResolvedMore info

      Complaint statuses

      Resolved:
      The complainant verified the issue was resolved to their satisfaction.
      Unresolved:
      The business responded to the dispute but failed to make a good faith effort to resolve it.
      Answered:
      The business addressed the issues within the complaint, but the consumer either a) did not accept the response, OR b) did not notify BBB as to their satisfaction.
      Unanswered:
      The business failed to respond to the dispute.
      Unpursuable:
      BBB is unable to locate the business.
      I really liked REMOVEDfor a long time, Then a Hacker got into my account, actually changed my password and then set up two unauthorized credit cards (Without nicknames or spending limits ) And then begun making charges on the phony cards that would empty my real bank account. If you're going to REMOVEDfor security forget it. I'm afraid this hack may have been from within REMOVED. If their application can't stop this kind of fraud what good is it ?

      Business Response

      Date: 04/14/2023

      REMOVED

      REMOVED
      REMOVED
      REMOVED  REMOVED

      REMOVED

      Dear Bureau Representative,

      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED) is in receipt of the appeal filed by REMOVEDon April 06, 2023, with the Better Business Bureau. REMOVEDappreciates the opportunity to respond to REMOVEDappeal, in which they determined that their account was hacked, password was changed, cards were created, and transactions occurred.

      REMOVEDhas reviewed REMOVEDaccount history and correspondence during the relevant time period.

      Key findings are summarized below.

      On April 05, 2023, REMOVEDreached out alleging someone hacked their account setting up cards with no names and proceeding to make purchases. They claimed to have closed the cards but are not sure if the charges had gone through. REMOVEDresponded, with acknowledgement of an unknown party authorizing a transaction using a Privacy card associated with their account and advised the user to contact their bank about the unrecognized transaction(s) and to open a dispute on their Privacy dashboard and we would be able to issue a refund. In addition, we have paused the Privacy account, closed all open cards, forced a password reset, and expired all existing sessions. We notified the user to reach out once their password is reset so we can reactivate their account and encouraged them to enable 2FA.

      On April 07, 2023, REMOVEDfollowed up to inquire on what we were doing to keep this from happening again? And whether we allow cards to be created without nicknames and spending limits and why we were trying to resettle the fraudulent charges. Privacy apologized for being unable to resolve the issue more promptly and that we had failed to meet our own expectations. We informed REMOVED, that we will help with recouping funds for the disputed transaction(s) and to ensure there are no additional transactions being authorized moving forward, we have paused the Privacy account, closed all open cards, forced a password reset, and expired all existing sessions. We also noticed that the transactions have failed to settle because the connected bank account was recently frozen, which we believe is related to the unrecognized transactions. Regarding the questions concerning cards without nicknames and spending limit; we allow for the spending limit to be none when creating a card with no nickname, by allowing the option to not set a custom limit when going through the card creation flow. And to clarify, our system is not automatically making attempts to retry the transactions but will notify in an email stating the transaction has failed to settle.

      On April 10, 2023, Privacy informed REMOVEDthat we were engaging with our Disputes Team on issuing the refunds and that all Privacy cards have been closed. We told REMOVEDto reset their password and encouraged him to enable 2FA and once these steps are taken, we would reactivate the account unless account closure is preferred. Privacy reached out the following day confirming the password reset, reactivating the account.

      REMOVEDreserves the right to provision service at its sole discretion. The account has been reactivated.

      REMOVEDtrusts the information provided satisfies the inquiry and demonstrates that REMOVEDthoroughly investigated REMOVEDcomplaint. Should you or REMOVEDrequire any additional information, feel free to contact me at the email below.

      Sincerely,
      REMOVED, Compliance Operations Analyst
      Lithic, Inc. (REMOVED)
      REMOVED

      Customer Answer

      Date: 04/14/2023

      Better Business Bureau:

      I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID REMOVED, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.

      Sincerely,

      REMOVED



       

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