Consumer complaint received 2023-11-21
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: MA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
On the evening of XX/XX/XXXX, I deposited a check in the amount of {$12000.00} issued to me by the United States Treasury at the XXXX, MA Chase Bank ATM, inside the lobby, into my personal checking account. The check was unendorsed as there was no signature line on the back of the check, thus I did not sign it. By the end of the next business day XXXX, my checking account was frozen by XXXX. I was contacted via text message by the bank on Saturday XXXX that my account would be closed for fraud if I did not contact them immediately. As it was a weekend, this was impossible. On Monday XXXX, I contacted XXXX XXXX and was given no information- only that the check was " on hold '' and therefore there's a waiting period until XX/XX/XXXX at a minimum. For the next several days, I continued to try to get answers from customer service or the fraud dept as to what was happening to my account, why, and what was happening with the check as well because all I was told was that there was a waiting period and nothing could be done until the following week. At this point, I went down to the branch to seek assistance. I presented a letter to XXXX from the IRS indicating the reason I was issued the check, which included an amount ( {$12000.00} ) that was near to the amount on the check, but did not match by a difference of {$87.00} because the check had included additional interest that was owed to me. Over the course of the next week, I was told contradictory information by bank employees about where the check funds were, why my account was frozen, and some explanation about XXXX XXXX back-end systems where XXXX system said the funds were available/settled in my account and another that said they were unavailable/frozen but that the systems couldn't be reconciled and no one could help. No answers were ever reached that week or the following- XXXX XXXX claimed that they contacted the IRS and couldn't verify the check amount. Upon speaking with the IRS, I was told that the IRS would not tell the bank such information. On XX/XX/XXXX, I was informed by XXXX that my account would be closed the following day ( due to " fraud '' ). On XX/XX/XXXX, I went down to the XXXX, MA XXXX and spoke with a Regional XXXX who was able to work with a backend team to release the funds I had previously in my account ( prior to XXXX ) by transferring those to my savings account, in addition to other payroll funds that had been received during this time period. XXXX then manually removed the check funds in the amount of {$12000.00} from my checking account via " Debit DDA - Check Charge '' on XX/XX/XXXX. Where these funds were transferred to? I was never told, but in order to transfer them out, they needed to have been received in the first place ( aka real funds ) and settled at XXXX ( which also happened ). I was contacted the next day by XXXX to say that they were not closing my account after all and I was free to continue to use it. I contacted the IRS multiple times over the next few months in order to open a claim with them to be reissued a check based on the funds that XXXX should've returned to the them. These removed funds were never returned to the IRS. So far, all I've been told to date by the IRS is that the bank has the money because the check did settle at XXXX. XXXX has now held these funds for months without conclusion, nor have they returned the money back to the government for reissue to me. If the check was truly fraudulent, the IRS would've denied the cashing of the check. As they did not do that and the funds are sitting at XXXX as they have been since XX/XX/XXXX ( or earlier ), the check was indeed valid. Lastly, because I don't have a definitive answer from the bank on this, if it wasn't labeled as " fraud '' by XXXX and simply following the process for the deposit of an unendorsed check, the funds would've been returned to the IRS many months ago. This has still not happened.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief