ComplaintsforAlto Solutions, Inc

• Initial Complaint

  10/09/2023

  Complaint Type:

  Billing Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I was recently looking into ******* as a custodian for my *** account. I contacted their customer support and was told that I could set up an account but didn't have to pay anything until I signed up for one of their payment plans. If I decided not to use their services then as long as I never signed up for a payment plan then I would never be charged. So I set up an account, which included inputting a lot of personal information. Ultimately I decided not to use their services and wanted to delete the account I set up. When I called customer support they said that in order to delete my account I would have to pay a $50 fee. I told them that this was never disclosed and I was encouraged to sign up as it was free as long as I never chose a payment plan.I feel like this is unethical and a way for a business to gain sensitive customer information and hold it hostage unless they pay a fee. I am requesting as a resolution for my account information to be deleted. Here is the company's website: ************************

  Business response

  11/01/2023

  Alto Solutions, Inc. (Alto) is in receipt of customers complaint and has reviewed the matter. Complainant claims that an Alto customer support representative said that he could set up an account but didnt have to pay anything until [he] signed up for one of [our] payment plans. Complainant created an account on the Alto platform but did not fund his account nor select a payment plan.
  
  Upon review of Altos client relationship management tool, it does not appear that Complainant called, emailed, or otherwise contacted an Alto customer support representative prior to opening an account or after establishing an account on Altos platform. **** concedes that Complainant may have contacted an Alto representative from a phone number or email address other than the one used to register an account. If Complainant wishes Alto to explore the matter further, he is welcome to provide us with the phone number or email he originally used to contact a customer representative in the course of the communication in question. However, it does not appear at this time that our team had direct communications with the Complainant, nor has it received a request to close Complainants account.
  
  Importantly, customers agree to Altos Terms of Service upon registering an email address wherein Alto provides customers a link to its fee schedule and they acknowledge they have reviewed Altos fees. At the time Complainant opened an account, Altos fee schedule clearly disclosed that it will charge $50 to close a customers account. However, Alto charges customers its account closure fee if and only if a customer has funded an account. Because Complainant never funded his account, the account closure fee will not apply to his account unless he funds his account hereafter.
  
  Alto considers this matter resolved but welcomes the opportunity to provide Complainant with further clarification if he wishes.

  Customer response

  11/09/2023

   
  Complaint: 20706633
  
  I am rejecting this response because:

  Upon receiving Alto's response through the BBB, I reached out to Alto to have them delete my account.  The only action they took was to change the status of the account to "closed".  The account is still there, I can still log into it and all of my personal information is still there.  I have been emailing with *******************, Senior Client Operations Associate, and he is stating that per *** regulations they can't delete my account.  I asked for the *** regulations he is referring to and he will not provide it.  I can provide copies of the email exchange if requested.  I have asked again for Alto to delete my account and all of my personal information.
  

  Also, to clarify Alto's question regarding my phone number in their email to BBB I used a different phone number to call their customer service.  That phone number is ************.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  ***************************

  Business response

  11/09/2023

  Complainant requests the statutory citation that requires Alto to retain a record of his personal data. Alto finds it unusual to expect customer service representatives to provide legal citations, or the interpretation thereof that are memorialized in its business practices and internal policies. It is common practice for financial institutions, among other non-highly regulated organizations, to interpret guidance from government agencies in order to satisfy the underlying policy concerns of an agency in relation to its business practices. To that end, **** has reviewed IRS publications and determined an appropriate record retention schedule for *** records upon an accounts closure.
  
  We further understand that complainant does not believe that an interpretation of IRS guidance applies to his account because his account remained unfunded prior to closing. Seemingly, client expects that an account closure should result in no longer being able to access his account. Alto has an interest in providing its customers continued access to their accounts upon account closure, and standardizing the processes related to that access. It is often the case where tax forms are not delivered to a customer until some time after an account is closed. Under those circumstances, a customer must retain access to their account. In an effort to streamline user experience, we allow this access to continue for all customers who have closed an account.
  
  Moreover, financial institutions must retain customer financial data in order to respond to regulatory requests, even after a customers request to close an account. We are mindful of complainants concerns over the use of his personal data, and we take the security of all of our customers data seriously. However, to ensure that we can prove to various regulators that accounts were opened and maintained correctly, we must retain each customers data after account closure.

• Initial Complaint

  12/05/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Service or Repair Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  This BBB case is entered to document the lack of progress on my transfer request since it is demonstrating the exact behavior of my last transfer situation with them. The excuse that it will take 3-4 weeks to 'process a check' is convenient for them but suggests an ongoing behavior that they view *********** as their own and create barriers for me to move my own funds.11/30/2022 - You asked if they had printed and mailed your check for this transfer yet and **************** acknowledged they had not but I could follow-up in a few weeks.11/23/2022 - Notified **************** at Alto that they had the transfer request. He said "because you requested a check, processing times are higher than usual and it will be processed in 3-4 weeks" I acknowledge this claim, but dismiss it based upon previous experience with Alto - I do not share this displeasure with them.11/22/2022 - My other custodian notified me that they had faxed Alto the transfer request at 17:27 Eastern.11/21/2022 - I submitted the Alto "Transfer out of Alto" request via their web site.

  Business response

  12/12/2022

  For sake of clarity to the Better Business Bureau and its agents reviewing this matter, portions of the response will reaffirm various statements made in the Companys response to Complaint Case # ********.
  
  Alto Solutions, Inc. (Alto) is an administrator of *** services and maintains retirement accounts on behalf of *** account holders so they may invest assets in private placement investments and digital assets. Complainant is a customer of Alto who attempted to transfer $19,320.96, via check, to another provider of *** services. While Alto has made every attempt to provide timely responses to its customers emails, delivery of the check has unfortunately taken longer than the customer or Alto would wish.
  
  Alto maintains bank accounts holding customer funds with a third-party banking partner: ****************** Customer requests for fund transfers via check must first be processed by Alto, and then separately processed by ****************** After processing, checks are distributed directly from ****************** Typically, the entire check request process takes **** days. However, upon requesting the current transfer via complainants other *** providers paperwork on November 23, 2022, an Alto customer service representative informed complainant that the check request would be delivered in 3-4 weeks.
  
  Unfortunately, processing times are currently longer than usual and our standard processing time has been delayed. We have notified our customers of these delays as they have requested checks and are attempting to facilitate the process as best that we can. Based on our third-party banks delivery schedule, the complainants check is scheduled to arrive on or about December 19, 2022.
  
  We want our customer to be heard and assure him that we value his relationship with our company. One of our Directors will be in touch with him shortly to further explain the situation.      

• Initial Complaint

  10/03/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  On 9/12/22, I filled out a transfer form with Alto to transfer ********* of my *** cash to ***** *************. On 9/13, Alto contacted me and said I was required to have ***** initiate the transfer and so I immediately contacted them to do so and they confirmed they did so via fax. On 9/21/22, I checked the status of my transfer and within my Alto account, the funds still had NOT been sent via USPS as I had requested. I called to find out what was going on and Alto confirmed they received the fax request on 9/13 and it was on oversight so the check would be going out ASAP. On 10/3/22, I contacted ***** to confirm they received the check and they had not. They said they followed-up with ******** at Alto today to check on status and was told to expect the check by 10/13/22. If they actually sent the check on 9/21, the check should have arrived with ***** by now so I'm not confident they are properly handling my transfer request at this point.

  Business response

  10/14/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 9, 2022/10/12) */ Alto Solutions, Inc. (Alto) is an administrator of IRA services and maintains retirement accounts on behalf of IRA account holders so they may invest assets in private placement investments and digital securities. Complainant is a customer of Alto who attempted to transfer $********* to another provider of IRA services. While Alto has made every attempt to provide timely responses to its customer's phone calls and emails, delivery of the check was delayed due to processing errors. Alto maintains bank accounts holding customer funds with a third-party banking partner: *****************. Customer requests for fund transfers via check must first be processed by Alto, and then separately processed by *****************. After processing, checks are distributed directly from *****************. Typically, the entire check request process takes 7-10 days. On September 21, 2022, Alto initiated its process to deliver a check to customer's successor custodian. However, due to a processing error the check was not sent to the customer's receiving IRA account. Then, on October 3, Alto reinitiated its process. According to our records, the check had an estimated delivery date of October 12, 2022. Typically, when a customer requests a transfer of funds on Alto's platform she receives an automated email explaining the estimated processing timeline for each transfer method (e.g. check, ACH, or wire). According to our Client Relationship Management tool, Customer did not receive such email when she initiated her transfer. We hope that our customer understands that the content of this email would have provided greater clarity over her particular situation and that we will attempt to understand why she did not receive this communication. Consumer Response /* (2000, 11, 2022/10/13) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) The issue is resolved because today the check was received by *****. I received a call this morning from **************, who is a front-line money transfer rep for Alto and I appreciate he was pushed in front of his management to represent the company; he did a good job and I appreciated the position he was put into because that call was above his pay grade, in my estimation, and leadership should have owned that. The explanation that Alto put into this *** case is standard corporate fare and does little to build confidence that they actually take accountability for the failed processes. To restate the issue clearly, it took a total of 30 days for the check to arrive from my original request, and that includes me being required to bird-dog Alto the entire time. So no, I reject their explanation but I'm not asking for anything different or better.

• Initial Complaint

  07/11/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Alto*** received a five figure *** transfer from my institution and communicated they voided and shredded the check, supposedly due to envelope damage, upon receipt. For the last month (June 9th) my institution has tried to get them to fill out an affidavit so they can cancel the check and get my assets back to my account. My institution is getting the run around with transferred calls, dropped calls, ignored emails, and no call backs. The stress involved with having five figures of your retirement in limbo is extreme.

  Business response

  07/28/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2022/07/22) */ Alto Solutions, Inc. dba AltoIRA is in receipt of the customer's*********************** complaint, *** Case#: ********. AltoIRA confirms the accuracy of the consumer's case description insofar as AltoIRA 1) received a check to be deposited into the consumer's IRA account; 2) received the check in a damaged state; 3) destroyed the check due to concerns with check tampering; and 4) received an affidavit from the consumer's sending bank to confirm the check was destroyed and that the bank should reissue a check to the payee. Delays in completing the Affidavit, as provided by consumer's bank, were due to issues of control over the sending institution account. AltoIRA contends that the consumer's bank should have relied on its customer to place a stop payment on the check. Once the check payable to the customer's account with AltoIRA was cancelled, the client should have been able to request a new check, or reissue the same check, to complete a transfer to his IRA. Being mindful of the delays the customer experienced, AltoIRA completed the provided affidavit on July 12, 2022. The consumer's desired resolution states: "Communicate with my institution and provide the affidavit needed to have my funds restored." Since the affidavit has been provided to the consumer's bank, AltoIRA considers the customer's complaint to be resolved. We understand the frustration experienced by the customer and he has our sympathies. Inefficiencies in the financial industry are problems that we, as a FinTech company, hope to solve for all of customers. Especially in circumstances like these when multiple institutions are attempting to communicate with each other.

• Initial Complaint

  04/13/2022

  Complaint Type:

  Customer Service Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  I have an IRA account with ************. I initiated 2 withdrawals from it: 1 last year and another one 2 weeks ago. The funds were then transferred to Alto IRA, which in turn was supposed to deposit them into my personal bank account. For over 2 weeks now, I have been fighting with them to find out were those funds are so I can access them. I have called countless times, and in each occurrence, there has been one excuse on top of another: system is down (for a whole week); then, we don't have your funds; we have your funds but you need to activate your account; a supervisor will call you within an hour; we will send you a link to reset your password. Two weeks later, I still don't have any clue where those funds are.

  Business response

  05/09/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2022/04/26) */ Alto Solutions, Inc. dba AltoIRA (AltoIRA) is in receipt of the consumer's BBB complaint dated April 14, 2022. Consumer, ****** ****** (Mr. ******), has complained that AltoIRA failed to complete a transfer of funds to his personal bank account due to issues with the AltoIRA platform. Mr. ******'s Alto IRA holds consumer promissory loans through ******* ****** "Notes" platform. Mr. ****** used his IRA funds to issue a note, and in return receives interest payments on his investment which are deposited to his ******* **** account. In early 2021, AltoIRA became ******* ****** preferred custodian of Notes for customers that funded loans with IRA assets. ******* ****** IRA customers were notified of the potential change from their prior custodian to AltoIRA in the first quarter of 2021. In Mr. ******'s case, ******* **** captured his consent to the transition from his prior custodian to AltoIRA through an email that required him to opt-out of the change, should he wish to keep his account with his prior custodian. Because Mr. ****** did not respond to that email, AltoIRA became the custodian of record of his ******* **** Note on April 23, 2021. Beginning on April 23, 2021, AltoIRA emailed Mr. ****** instructing him to activate his new AltoIRA account. Activation is an important step toward a customer accessing and transacting in their account. In other words, a customer cannot request a distribution from their Alto IRA until the account is activated. The activation process for ******* **** customers enabled the client to verify their account information and agree to Alto's account opening documents. Below is a list of emails, including the delivery date and subject line, AltoIRA sent to Mr. ****** at ******************** in an attempt to activate his account: 04/23/2021 - Update: Activate your New *********** IRA at Alto 04/26/2021 - Activate your New *********** IRA at Alto 04/29/2021 - Action Required: Activate your *********** IRA 05/02/2021 - Activate your *********** IRA 05/14/2021 - Update: Activate your New *********** IRA at Alto 05/17/2021 - Activate your New *********** IRA at Alto 05/18/2021 - Action Required: Activate your *********** IRA 05/19/2021 - Activate your ******* **** IRA 06/14/2021 - Log in to Your New Account at Alto 06/17/2021 - Update: Your account is waiting 06/28/2021 - Important Update: Activate your *********** IRA at Alto 07/06/2021 - Important Update: Activate you *********** IRA at Alto 12/23/2021 - Immediate action required on your account 12/27/2021 - Hey ***, there's something that you need to do for us... 12/29/2021 - URGENT: Action needed on your account by 12/31/21 12/30/2021 - Your account activation is required before 2022 According to AltoIRA's Client Relationship Management tool, Mr. ****** never interacted with AltoIRA's website over the year since ******* **** announced our partnership. Due to infrastructure updates, AltoIRA deprecated the automated account activation process for its ******* **** customers - a process facilitated by the emails Mr. ****** received. Instead, customers would need to activate their account through a manual process. In fact, the emails Mr. ****** received in December provided a disclaimer expressing the importance of completing the activation process, and that he would need to activate his "account to access and use his *********** IRA funds at Alto. He may not be able to access, transact, or view his account holdings until his account is activated on the Alto platform. If he doesn't activate his account, he may experience a delay in accessing those assets. emphasis added. On March 30, 2022, Mr. ****** called AltoIRA for the first time, and his call was answered by one of our account representatives. Mr. ****** spoke directly with an Alto representative explaining the situation on the following dates: twice on April 4, April 5, April 6, April 11, twice on April 12, three time on April 13, three times on April 20, and three times on April 22. This excludes the many emails exchanged between Mr. ****** and AltoIRA's customer service representatives between March 30 and April 22 to address his request. It is true that Mr. ******'s desired outcome, receiving a distribution from his AltoIRA, was delayed due to technological issues. However, AltoIRA made numerous attempts to prevent this issue before the time that Mr. ****** began his request. Over the first half of April, the Alto team continued to address Mr. ******'s questions as we worked through manual processes to activate his account. However, once that account was activated, his distribution request was processed within two business days. Mr. ****** completed a distribution form on April 20, 2022, and funds were sent via ACH to his bank account on April 22, 2022. This timeframe conforms with the expectations we set for our customers and includes time for our Compliance Department to review the transaction and our Financial Operations Department to send funds according to the provided delivery instructions. AltoIRA diligently worked to provide Mr. ****** his desired outcome. His requested distribution is complete, and the basis of his complaint is resolved.

• Initial Complaint

  12/31/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Answered

  More info

  Don't ever leave your money in an AltoIRA. It will take forever for you to transfer the money out. I tried to transfer the money to another custodian. It has been 2 months without success. All the red tapes to create frictions to make it difficult for customers to move money out.

  Business response

  02/02/2022

  Business Response /* (4000, 10, 2022/01/26) */ According to our records the customer initiated a transfer of funds from their AltoIRA account to a successor custodian on October 27, 2021. To complete a transfer of funds on our platform a customer is required to initiate the transaction on our platform, then complete a Transfer of Assets form with the successor custodian. Upon requesting a transfer request on our platform, customers receive an automated email with instructions on next steps - namely, that the receiving institution must deliver a completed transfer of assets form before we will transfer funds. On December 16, 2021, customer sent our Transfers team an email stating that their successor custodian sent Alto a transfer of assets form at the beginning of November. Customer received an email the same day informing them that we had not received the form and provided the correct contact information so the successor custodian could provide us with the form. Customer informed Alto that the successor custodian would fax the form the next day. As of December 31, 2021, when customer reached out to Alto again, we had still yet to receive the faxed form. On January 4, 2022, when our team returned from holiday, we informed the customer that we still had not received the fax and also provided further instructions on how to transfer funds if they wanted to attempt to restart the process. On January 11, 2022, customer informed Alto that the successor custodian overnighted the form on January 5. At this point Alto was in receipt of the form it needed to complete the requested transfer, however, we did not receive the form until January 11. Because the form did not indicate a delivery method, we asked the customer what method of delivery they wanted: wire or check. The customer chose a check and understood that it would take two to three weeks to process. While we have sent the requested check to the customer's successor custodian, we are still waiting for the custodian to deposit the check in the customer's account.

• Initial Complaint

  11/30/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Altoira.com is the company website. They provide crypto currency investment IRA accounts. I opened an account and transferred money in from my checking. Then on 03 November I tried to initiate another transfer and had website related issues that looked like the transfer would come from my credit card rather than my checking account. I did not complete this transaction and cancelled it. I tried 2 more times with the same result, and never completed any of these transactions. However the following day there were three withdrawals from my checking account in the amount of $482.51. This is when I started called the support phone number. It is nearly impossible to get anyone to answer the phone. 95% of the time you get an answering machine and no one calls back. I was unable to get Alto to assist in reversing these charges, so I filed a fraud complaint with my bank. The website has a chat function for help, but this is only useful if you want to open an account. After about two weeks of failed communications I decided to close the account and withdraw all my money. Now it is 30 November and I have tried multiple times to transfer my money out. I have tried multiple time to get support to help. If you can get anyone on the phone, the only thing they can do is send an email to another department, whom never calls back or follows through. There was an additional $1,546.93 contribution that I made and decided to withdraw and was unable to. I also filed a fraud complaint with my bank. They still owe me $501.15 and they are refusing to help complete the refund and transfer. I feel like I am getting ripped off, and I am extremely frustrated with their total lack of customer support. Avoid, avoid, avoid!

  Business response

  01/05/2022

  Business Response /* (1000, 8, 2021/12/13) */ Upon reviewing the customer's account history as well as our CRM, it appears that all funds have been transferred at the customer's direction as of 11/30/21. The initial three transfers in the amount of $482.51 each, were returned to the customer's account within two business days. The additional $1,546.93 was a chargeback initiated by the customer's bank. From 11/03/21 through 11/20/21 Alto contacted customer by phone eleven times. In almost every instance, Alto returned a missed call within one business day. The final $501.15 the customer referenced was transferred on 11/30/21 and we have no record of refusing to transfer his funds as directed. Consumer Response /* (3000, 10, 2021/12/14) */ (The consumer indicated he/she DID NOT accept the response from the business.) The companies response is not a truthful response. The problems began on Nov 3 when website malfunctions generated multiple unwanted withdrawals from my bank account. I made multiple calls, and sent queries to Alto Solutions via the website for multiple days, and it was not possible to get someone to answer the phone or reply to an email. 99% of my calls go to voicemail, with no call back. This is why I decided to close the account. It was not until Nov 30 that all of my funds were finally returned to my checking account. So there was 27 days of me making dozens of calls, and all except 2 went to voice mail. The 2 calls that were answered were answered by a person that was unable to address my problem, and could only send an email to the "concerned department". My mobile phone retains a record of all the calls Alto made to me, and there are not 11 missed calls from them. Yesterday on 14 December I called because I want my credit card information removed from my account, then I want the account closed. They did answer the phone, but the person who answered could not do what I wanted and promised a call back. No call back yet nearly 24 hours later. I also sent an email with the same request and still no response nearly 24 hours later. It is true they never refused to return my funds, but it took 27 days to get them returned because of their inability or refusal to respond to my requests and complaints. It is obvious to me this company either doesn't care, or is understaffed, overwhelmed and unable to address customer concerns. In spite of getting all my money back, I will not be satisfied until my credit card information is removed from their database, and then the account closed. I am still waiting for this to happen. Consumer Response /* (2010, 14, 2022/01/04) */ Alto has refunded all of the money that I deposited into my account. I have closed to account. I am satisfied with the resolution which was refunding all my money, but I extremely unsatisfied with how long it took. In summary, my issues with Alto occurred because of technical issues with the website, followed by the inability of Alto Technical support to respond and resolve my issues in a timely fashion. Funny how they became a little more responsive after I filed a complaint.

• Initial Complaint

  11/26/2021

  Complaint Type:

  Order Issues

  Status:

  Resolved

  More info

  Alto Solutions, Inc has set up a self directed IRA account. The first deposit was $300 and transferred smoothly into my account. The second deposit of $200 was taken from my bank account, but, never deposited. The third deposit from my current IRA was taken from my Fidelity Account, but, never deposited. I cannot get anyone on the phone nor are they returning emails. The markets are very time sensitive and need to get my monies into the market before I miss an opportunity.

  Business response

  12/06/2021

  Business Response /* (1000, 5, 2021/11/29) */ Customer created an account and immediately initiated the referenced transfer of $300.00 to his account. Thereafter, customer initiated two more transfers: one on November 22, 2021 the other on November 23, 2021. Each of these subsequent transfers were completed on November 24, 2021. The customer's account provides the ability to invest retirement assets through a third-party investing platform. Whenever a transfer of funds is "complete" we manually wire funds to the third party within the next business day, and customers can then initiate investments. When we received each of these transfers we were past our wire cutoff for the day. Our office was closed in observance of Thanksgiving on November 25 and 26. Our website, upon logging into an account, notified customers that our company was closed on these days. Given the holiday, our client experience team was not able to respond to customer's calls. As of November 29, our client experience team has reached out to customer (leaving a voicemail), and our operations team has wired customer's funds to the aforementioned third party. Consumer Response /* (2000, 7, 2021/11/30) */ (The consumer indicated he/she ACCEPTED the response from the business.) Alto has since wired monies to my account, however, their response is false. Clients were not informed, there is/was nothing on their website about when they were closing, and, they never returned calls Tuesday or Wednesday of that week. They were closed a lot longer than Thursday and Friday.

*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. ↩