Apple Card Customer Service Woes Responsible for Goldman Sachs Regulatory Probe

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).

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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.

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Top Rated Comments

d-klumpp Avatar
38 months ago
Wish Apple chose anyone other than the scum at GS to back their card.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
icanhazmac Avatar
38 months ago
So Apple broke the bank? ?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
BootsWalking Avatar
38 months ago
Goldman Sachs acting against its own customers' financial interests? Didn't see that coming :rolleyes:
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
alexandr Avatar
38 months ago

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.
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bladerunner88 Avatar
38 months ago
The Great Vampire Squid.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
sw1tcher Avatar
38 months ago

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? ?‍♂️
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)