Consumer complaint received 2021-02-26
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: TX
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
XX/XX/XXXX Consumer Financial Protection Board Via online web form ( 855 ) 411-2372 To Whom it May Concern Subject : Complaint related to Chase Card Services Summary : Over the course of the past year dealing with Chase, I have had the misfortune of trying to work with their customer service at a time in which they suffered from very severely limited customer service capabilities and were either unable or unwilling to address my requests. I asked for a simple charge reversal within a month and a half of it being charged, and they have been unable to complete this process. 

Complaint Details : Approximately a year and a half ago, I was looking for a business account for my XXXX and settled on the Chase Ink card. One of the first transactions I made was to purchase insurance for my properties from XXXX XXXX. 

On approximately XX/XX/XXXX, I attempted to make payment to XXXX XXXX XXXX for insurance policies, via 3 independent transactions in the amounts of {$1200.00}, {$5700.00} and, {$2300.00} via a web portal provided by XXXX, a clearing agent for XXXX. The payment had seemingly been approved and processed and showed up on my bill. To my surprise, XXXX risk department took issue with the transactions and contacted XXXX XXXX. XXXX Risk Department immediately put a hold on the XXXX  XXXX merchant account ( MID : available if necessary ), which was subsequently closed due to these transactions. XXXX informed XXXX XXXX that they would neither process a refund on my charges nor settle the batch appropriately to fund the merchant. XXXX stated that the transaction amounts would be held, by XXXX, for a period of no less than 180 days and notified XXXX XXXX that, after this time the transaction amounts may or may not be sent to me. XXXX XXXX also stated, in no uncertain terms, that they would not be funding XXXX XXXX to complete the transaction. XXXX XXXX, to their credit, kept me abreast of these issues as they progressed. 

I worked with XXXX XXXX to appeal to XXXX so that they would either refund me or complete the transaction with them.. XXXX ignored our requests. After several conversations between XXXX XXXX and me, it seemed the only course of action left was for for me to dispute the transactions with the my card issuer, Chase, in order to recover the funds, and the vendor ( XXXX XXXX ) in fact recommended this. Although the transactions were valid, to the extent that I intended to make a payment, the fact of the matter is that the merchant, never received the funding and every attempt to void, reverse or refund, the transaction was blocked by XXXX. 

Thereafter, having confirmed that the merchant was ready and willing for me to dispute those transactions, I first raised this via secure email ( Chase has a secure messaging platform which ensures safety an reliability, and so can therefore be used to contact them safely ) on or about XX/XX/XXXX, notifying the Chase team of the issue, challenging the charge, and including in the message the email from XXXX XXXX agreeing that the charge was invalid. Chase asked for additional detail ( which transactions and which vendor ), which I confirmed via secure email on or about XX/XX/XXXX based upon my records. Having done what I needed to do, I then returned to my business. 

In XXXX of XXXX I was surprised and dismayed to see that I received a late fee and an interest charge. I contacted the Chase team initially via secure messaging, which failed to receive a reply, and then by telephone. After explaining the situation, I was informed that Chase had spoken with the vendor, who did not agree to reverse the charge ( I believe this was the XX/XX/XXXX call, though I am not 100 % certain ). Shocked, I spoke to him on the phone later that day and confirmed that, in fact, Chase has never contacted him successfully, nor left a voicemail. 
I then contacted the Chase team again, contesting the fact ( or not ) regarding the vendor, and was informed that I would need to send a written response. ( see separate attachment ). Having sent this letter, I received a were sorry we didnt do well letter ( also attached ), but no action. 

On XX/XX/XXXX, after spending an hour on the phone with the Chase call center team, I learned several new items : Apparently no contact with the merchant was ever made ( contrary to at least one of the assertions from a call center agent ) There were several requests for additional information sent to my electronic account. Had any of your customer service people mentioned these missing documents over the last nine months, I could have acted to resolve in more detail, should it be required. 

I have asked Chase to please review and retain the call center recordings with me, as I believe business process failure is clearly evident, along with the miscommunication. Had any of the Chase representatives mentioned the statements available in my online message center ( or if I had ever received a secure message reply ), I could have easily addressed any outstanding issues-at this point I suspect Ive spent more than 50 and perhaps 100 hours trying to resolve issues with Chase. 

Three additional items happened since my last communication with Chase : The first is the complete list of contacts that I had with Chase, dates and times, and rough description of conversations follows this document.It is worth noting that Chase has this information but refused to look when I requested it, so I had to spend hours digging through phone records to find it. 
I would like to confirm that the insurance broker, XXXX XXXX, has provided good service and claims resolution for me over the past three or four years, with no issues. ( The Chase agent claimed he was a fraud based on one message board complaint, and therefore they were not responsible ).

The third issue is that the last time I spoke with XXXX XXXX he informed me that he had caught Covid, and I have not been able to effectively contact him since that point ( end of XXXX ). 

Fundamentally, I view this as a clear-cut case of business process failure on Chases side, failing to check with the merchant after I provided additional information via secure messaging as well as providing misinformation to me during a phone conversation. 

I would consider this issue resolved if Chase : Removes the charges from my account, as I requested nine months ago, along with any late fees and other charges they wish to impose. 

Restores the other credit cards that I have with Chase to their full limits. 

Removes the false claims of non/late payment atthe credit agencies that Chase has made. 

Apologizes via email for the gross negligence in handling my account. 

Thank you, CFPB for helping me to resolve this. I have been a conscientious bill payer for my entire life, and I am quite dismayed to see how Chase has treated me. 


Appendix A : Secure Message and call history XX/XX/XXXX Secure Message Notification of dispute XX/XX/XXXX Secure Message Confirmation of dispute-additional information request, provided XX/XX/XXXX Secure Message Additional information request, and provided XX/XX/XXXX Secure Message Inquiry as to why the charges have returned to the account XX/XX/XXXX Secure Message Further inquiry as to when the charges would be on the account XX/XX/XXXX Voice call XXXX XXXX Follow up on dispute/confirmation XX/XX/XXXX Voice call XXXX XXXX Follow up on secure message of that day. No additional information requested by Chase. 

XX/XX/XXXX Voice call XXXX XXXX Closed/not available. 

XX/XX/XXXX Voice call XXXX XXXX Raised issue XX/XX/XXXX Voice call XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX Finally talked to someone about possible resolution routes. 

XX/XX/XXXX Voice call XXXX Long discussion. Predominant feature of conversation was well perhaps XXXX XXXX is a fraud. Were not responsible for that. I requested they check their voice recordings, and they claimed they could not and I had to identify the time. Received well, youre probably too late but we can try as a response from the Chase team.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation