Consumer complaint received 2018-11-22
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: HI
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Advertising and marketing, including promotional offers
Sub-issue: Didn't receive advertised or promotional terms

Complaint:
I have a regular CHASE XXXX Rewards credit card ( {$49.00} annual fee ) with CHASE now for many years and have received promotional offers from CHASE to upgrade my card to the higher level CHASE XXXX  Premier credit card ( higher {$89.00} annual fee ). Usually their upgrade promotional offers did not interest me so I ignored them. On XX/XX/2018 I saw a promotional upgrade offer to the XXXX Rewards Premier Card when I logged into my secure CHASE and XXXX accounts. It offered a {$150.00} statement credit upon first use of the card plus XXXX points if I make {$2000.00} worth of purchases within 3 months of receiving the card. Up to this point, their usual promotional upgrade offers were only XXXX points upon spending {$2000.00} within 3 months ( NO {$150.00} STATEMENT CREDIT ). 

Their current {$150.00} statement credit plus XXXX points promotional offer appealed to me so I clicked on the application link, filled out the online upgrade application form, submitted it and was immediately approved and informed the new upgraded XXXX   Rewards Premier card was being mailed to me. A few days later while waiting for the card, I called CHASE to assure my upgraded card was under the {$150.00} statement credit and XXXX points promotional offer. I was informed it was not and it was instead under the XXXX points ( after {$2000.00} spending within 3 months ) promotional offer terms. I immediately informed them the new card was under the WRONG promotional offer and not under the promotion I had applied for. The CHASE card customer service representative said they will report my complaint. As no one called me, I reported it myself later the same day on my CHASE account web pages SECURE MESSAGE email system. They responded shortly by email and requested I submit proof of the {$150.00} statement credit and XXXX points promotion offer. I replied to that email and attached 4 photos ( .jpg files ) of the promotion offer. They then replied by email they needed for me to submit the promotion offer 's code and the personal ID in the offer. I informed them there was no such information on the promotion offer page that I had seen and that the TO APPLY link at the bottom of the promotion page probably has the information they wanted ( TO APPLY address link address has a code after the word PROMO ). They then replied they were sending my complaint to the CHASE Executive Office for resolution. Next day, I was contacted by telephone by XXXX of the CHASE Executive Office who diligently worked with me to resolve my problem by contacting their CHASE marketing department which, per XXXX, said they could not find such a promotional offer despite the photos I had sent, and therefore refused to honor it. On XX/XX/2018 I mailed the same emailed photos to XXXX as she wanted me to provide the needed proof of the promotion offer as she stated she is unable to obtain them from the CHASE marketing department personnel. 

XX/XX/2018 Telephone call from XXXX saying the Marketing Department looked at the promotion offer photos XXXXXX she sent to them after I had mailed them to her. She said the Marketing Department due to their internal policies refused to honor the promotion offer. As such, there is no reason for me to keep the Premier card and paying {$89.00} a year ( already billed to me ) so I asked her to immediately close/cancel the premier card and remove the {$89.00} annual fee charged as I have not used the card pending the resolution of this case. She agreed to do so and did cancel the premier card after crediting me {$89.00} to offset the {$89.00} annual fee charge. As I asked for a closing letter, she said she will send me one from the Chase Executive Office. As a final note, I asked that she note my comment that I feel I was a victim of a Bait And Switch scam by the Marketing Department. I have now cut up the premier card for security reasons. 

To me, I am a victim of a BAIT AND SWITCH SCAM TARGETED TO SENIORS ( I am XXXX years old ) by the CHASE marketing department , probably to meet their quota on new XXXX Rewards  Premier Card enrollment. 

I am reporting this incident to the CFPB in hopes you will investigate this incident and do whatever is necessary. I am attaching the photos of the CHASE upgrade promotional offer I signed up for. The date of the offer is shown on the upper left of the first photo.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation