Complaints

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.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:11/01/2023

  Type:Service or Repair 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.

  There is vehicle that doesnt pass inspection in **********, ** named ******* located at ****************************************************************. They are trying to sell a red 2009 Chevrolet Silverado that doesnt stay on the lot and doesnt pass inspection. Airbags light is on all windows tinted locks dont work. They are asking ***** and stating that car passes inspection needing repairs.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 11/07/2023

  Hi- we received a complaint not for our business: ********. It's about vehicle inspection Open to the Public.com is a brokerage and social community- we do not have any relation to this complaint.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/19/2023

  Type:Billing 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.

  A deposit I made that shows as completed and is in my account history and was in my balance just disappeared. There is no reversal and there is no credit back to my account fr which I made the deposit. The froze my account for no reason and are refusing any help the submitted documents show it all. As well as my bank statements which clearly show the ************* of the transaction as well as the settled date. Money just dissappeard without any kind of transaction to show it being removed.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/20/2023

  Hi *****, Thank you for reaching out. You initiated an outgoing account transfer on 10/5 which is the same day as a number of large deposits. The standard procedure is to cancel any pending deposits and pending orders and restrict the account so that the transfer can be processed without delay. Also note that when deposits are canceled prior to settlement the funds never make it to the Public account. 

  In this case, securities were purchased with funds from the rejected deposits. The securities were therefore not paid for and then sold to cover the debit balance to make the account whole, which adheres to all industry regulations. 

  Due to the account activity, this account can no longer be supported on the platform and is in the process of being closed. If you have any questions or need any assistance please contact us at ********************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:10/10/2023

  Type:Service or Repair 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 have a little less then 10k in the treasury account. My account is now frozen by apex clearing and public.com has not given any instruction on how to liquidate my funds and have them deposited in my bank account.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/31/2023

  Hi *****, Thank you for reaching out. We apologize for the issues selling your T-Bills and withdrawing your funds. We can confirm your T-Bills were sold on 10/12 and the funds from the sale were withdrawn on 10/13. 

  We greatly appreciate your patience as we resolved this for you. Please contact us in the app or by email at ******************************** if you ever have any questions.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:09/08/2023

  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.

  I opened an account with ********************** when they announced they were open to clients from *******. Biggest mistake ever.After the initial money deposit of ****, they converted the amount into $6339.03. The deposit was showing pending, but i could trade. I purchased ****** shares, and sold them when the price went up.They told me I had to wait to withdraw the funds (which was fine), but suddenly the account status changed and it showed me buying power = 0, and I couldnt buy or sell any more.Ive been trying to talk to their support, who are really slow at responding (2-3 days on average), and they ignore half the things i ask, and only reply to sone things.My deposit is still showing as pending after 3 weeks, with NO EXPLANATION. The bank confirms its left my account and reached **********************, but they deny its been received.Public asked me to provide screenshots from my bank, a bank statement, and also the faster payments id, which I did. 3 weeks later, theyre still investigating.*** emailed support, opened live chats, etc and I always seem to have my messages assigned to ***, who is diabolically slow at responding.Her latest excuse is that she has to wait for ****** team to respond. Then she said to email in a complaint. I did that a week ago, and have yet to receive an acknowledgment.I cant close my account, cant withdraw the funds, cant buy or sell shares, and cant get a straight answer from their support person ********** tried emailing the people who I communicated with during the account opening time and they all seem to have mysteriously disappeared. Is this a one-man band?Their phone number has a pre-recorded message: send email to ********************************* then plays a few seconds of music and disconnects. It feels like a scam.Would strongly advise to find a different brokerage. These guys will be sweet as honey before you deposit, then will hold your money hostage, and ignore you completely.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 09/13/2023

  Hi ******, Thank you for reaching out and letting us know. We apologize for all the issues youre experiencing depositing funds in the app. We are actively working with your bank and our bank partner to resolve this for you as quickly as possible and will keep you actively posted with updates. We sincerely apologize for any delay in our response and your experience as we worked with our banking partner. We want to be clear, transparent, and fast in our response and we know this has taken longer than expected. Thanks for continuing to work with us, and our team will continue to be in touch with you. 

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/22/2023

  Type:Billing 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.

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

  Yesterday, Aug 22, 2023, I emailed my (1) driver's license and (2) official bank statement pdf to Chanler at **********. I did this in compliance with the requirement that the bank statement was not a screen shot.  ********* response stated that my statement was not accepted because my personal transactions and the amount in the account was redacted. Disclosing the amount of money I have, or what my purchasing habits are, are not necessary to verify the account ownership.

  Again, I complied with the account verification requirements that ********** specified.

  Connecting to the bank account is ********************** preferred method of payment. The connection of account went through a 3rd party and there is no specific reason for why the bank connection failed.  ******** stated there was no attempt at connection, at all. (I have a Venmo account that never experienced the same issue)

  Public.com has a second option for payment. Once learning that the "preferred" method didn't work, I could have used the second payment option but ********** completely blocked me from adding funds to the account by any means.

   

   

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

  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************
  
  
  
  
   
  d me:1.That the account type was not a withdrawal *********** cannot close the account until the amount that is owed is paid. This last bit of information (#1), means I should be able to enter a different payment option. I entered a different payment option and received an error message Restricted from depositing more funds. **Proof of error message attached This means I have no way to enter funds comply with their request to pay off the account, if I wanted to.Attachments # 1 is the notification that funds were rejected from the bank.# 2 Is record of my 6-minute call to North Carolina State Employees credit Union at ************. # 3 is the error received when using a different account to enter funds.IMPORTANT: if a user doesnt have the funds ********************** should not create the account because they are apparently holding users responsible for the amount when banking information didnt go through.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/22/2023

  Hi ********, Thank you for reaching out and letting us know. We apologize for the trouble depositing funds into your account. As mentioned in our conversation, your deposits were reversed since the bank account linked is not a transactional account. In situations where a deposit is reversed, the account is restricted from depositing more funds until we are able to verify bank ownership. We are required to verify bank ownership by obtaining a picture of your government-issued ID and a PDF copy of a recent bank statement. We do this to ensure the safety and security of your information and all our members information. At Public, we employ Bank-Grade security with AES 256-bit encryption at rest and TLS 1.2 to secure data in transit.

  Please provide the information requested at your earliest convenience, and we will provide it to our compliance team for an expedited review. Again, we apologize for the inconvenience; if you have any additional questions, please let us know by email at ********************************* Thank you.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 10/17/2023

  Hi ********, Thank you for your response. It looks like you were able to withdraw your funds and close your account on 9/27. If you have any further questions, please reach out to us by email at ********************************* Thank you.

  Customer Answer

  Date: 10/23/2023

   

  Hi,

   

  Regarding my complaint against **********, ID #********, as long as ********** received my last communication on the multiple efforts I had to take to close the account, in order to protect myself from their charges, this BBB complaint can be closed.

   

  Thank you,

   

  ***************************

• Initial Complaint

  Date:08/10/2023

  Type:Billing 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.

  Signed up with Public.com to buy treasury bills. We verified my bank account by putting several small deposits into it. I bought a few thousand dollars of treasury bills to test it out. Everything seemed to work, but when I attempted to purchase some additional treasury bills, my account was locked. It seems to get it unlocked, they expect me to email them a copy of my bank statement. This has never been requested of me by any online service. I don't really think my account balance and what I spend my money on is really any of their business.If they expect people to do this, IT SHOULD BE DISCLOSED WHILE OPENING THE ACCOUNT that they expect people to send them a copy of their bank statement, not after you move money into the account.I don't exactly see how this is even legal, but again, at the least they should inform everyone of this process before they move money into an account.

  

  Business Response

  Date: 08/11/2023

  Hi ***, Thank you for reaching out and letting us know. We apologize for the trouble purchasing more Treasury Bills. Due to the deposit activity in your account, we view that as a high-risk transaction and ask for additional information in the form of a recent bank statement showing you as the account owner and including the account number that corresponds with the account linked to your Public account to verify your information. We do this to ensure the safety and security of you and all our members information. At Public, we employ Bank-Grade security with AES 256-bit encryption at rest and TLS 1.2 to secure data in transit.

  The bank statement can be emailed to us at ********************************* and were on standby if you have any additional questions. Thank you.

• Initial Complaint

  Date:05/12/2023

  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.

  Better Business Bureau:
  
  I have reviewed the response made by the business in reference to complaint ID ********, and find that this resolution is satisfactory to me and the matter has been resolved.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  *************
  
  
  
   
  
  

  

  Business Response

  Date: 05/22/2023

  Hi **, Thank you for reaching out and for detailing your experience. Were sorry to hear about the delay in wiring your funds to your bank account. As mentioned in our conversation, the wire was being held up by a required review at our clearing firms bank. We are unable to expedite their review in any way. 

  We can confirm that your wire has been processed and provided you the federal reference number for tracking. We were able to reverse the recall, reversal, and bank fees for you as well. 

  Again, we apologize for the delay and inconvenience. Please reach out to ** in the app or by email at ******************************** with any questions.