Consumer complaint received 2021-08-19
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: PA
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: Card was charged for something you did not purchase with the card

Complaint:
I am writing a complaint against Chase Bank for an unauthorized transaction. The item XXXX for {$1000.00} on XX/XX/XXXX, is inaccurate and fraudulent because I did not authorize this transaction. I have reached out to the vendor XXXX  and have also made 3 separate dispute claims with Chase ( spanning 2 months ) that have all been rejected without adequate explanation or reasoning. 

To provide background, I had initially ordered 2 plane tickets ( for myself and my husband ) for a flight through a 3rd party travel vendor, XXXX. The 2 tickets totaled out to {$1000.00}. When I placed the order, I received a text directly from Chase Fraud stating that the charge was declined and that I should reply Yes or No if the charge was made on our end. If the answer was Yes, the text clearly stated, If yes, you will not be charged unless you try again. And if the answer was no, the text stated, If no, we will close your current card and send you a new one. I answered yes and assumed that the flight would not be charged due to what the Chase Fraud text clearly stated.

However, being concerned with the potential for fraud, I then decided to purchase the tickets directly through the airline and not a third-party vendor. I ended up purchasing 2 separate tickets for the same exact flight with the actual airline.

However, regardless of the initial charge not going through, it appears that the 3rd party vendor took it on their own prerogative to again charge the {$1000.00} without my explicit authorization, as I never went back to reorder through the XXXX site after the initial decline from Chase. I believe this is clearly a case of a fraudulent charge or an unauthorized double charge, as I never placed this second order on my end, and the first charge was denied by Chase. 

I reached out to XXXX  to ask what happened and also requested a refund as I did not make the purchase. Their response was that it was a valid purchase and they would not be giving me a refund since Chase bank approved the transaction. 

I then placed an initial dispute complaint with the Chase dispute department on XX/XX/XXXX. After waiting a week without a response, I called Chase on XX/XX/XXXX. The first person I spoke to sympathized with me and repeatedly said it wasnt my fault. He then escalated it to his supervisor who rejected my dispute over the phone and redirected us to the fraud department. After reading the rejection letter, I realized she didnt understand the situation properly and kept saying Chase had to follow XXXX  return policy. Her documentation & assessment of the incident was completely mischaracterized and not reflective of the actual events as I summarized above. Regardless, their stance ultimately does not make any sense as that transaction was not authorized by myself, the cardholder. Additionally, it does not seem logical why would I or Chase have to adhere to the policy of a vendor that charged us fraudulently. 

After filing a second complaint now with the Chase fraud department on XX/XX/XXXX, the charge was initially credited back. However, on XX/XX/XXXX, the charge was added back on. I again called Chase to dispute and was told by XXXX from the Chase recovery team that this in fact wasnt fraud as I placed the initial transaction with the vendor. After explaining the situation again to him, he also sympathized with my situation. He then redirected me to the merchant dispute department which appears to be the dispute department that I originally spoke to and was advised to place another dispute claim which was placed on XX/XX/XXXX. This last investigation took a month to conclude ( on XX/XX/XXXX ) which they stated was valid again without providing any written proof or justification. 

The dates of the flights have passed and I would like to emphasize that I did not receive services from the company ( XXXX  ). The services I received were from the actual airline company ( XXXX  XXXX ) from which I directly bought tickets after I received the fraud alert. This charge is fraudulent and inaccurate as the charge I authorized was declined by Chase and the charge that appears on my statement was not authorized by me. Additionally, as Chase has reopened the charge for this amount, I continue to accrue interest ( 15.99 % APR ) and my credit score is being affected for this outstanding amount of {$1000.00} that ultimately is fraudulent and erroneous until this situation is resolved. Im also concerned that Chase continues to take such a long time to review the case as the interest from the erroneous balance continues to accumulate and the time from the erroneous purchase continues to stretch out. 

I am requesting your help in having this fraudulent charge removed from my statement and balance immediately, and that I am absolved from the associated interest from this fraudulent charge. 

I am extremely grateful for your help in disputing & resolving this matter, as this is a very upsetting situation where my rights as a consumer are not being protected by Chase. 

Thank you for your help in this matter.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation