Consumer complaint received 2018-05-03
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: AZ
Product: Debt collection
Sub-product: I do not know
Issue: Attempts to collect debt not owed
Sub-issue: Debt is not yours

Complaint:
In XX/XX/XXXX a close family friend, XXXX XXXX XXXX ( XXXX ), asked me to help her with her finances. She was about XXXX years old then. She gave me Power of Attorney to help her pay bills and to purchase groceries. That power of attorney was registered with her local bank, Chase. In XX/XX/XXXX XXXX passed away. My Power of Attorney was only legal while she was living. Her nephew, XXXX XXXX, who had been living with her for about a year and a half took over the estate after her death. I explained to him that he needed to take care of a few of the financial things for her estate. He said he was going to deal with all of that. He didnt. In XX/XX/XXXX I was reviewing my credit card account on line. I have a couple of cards with Chase. I noticed that there was an additional account attached to my login. I immediately called the Chase credit card department to find out what was going on. I was told that this was the bank account of XXXX XXXX XXXX and asked if I knew her. I told them yes, while she was alive I held Power of Attorney for her. I informed them that she had passed away. They said I needed to go to the local branch of Chase to get his taken care of. I went to the local branch and informed them that this account should not be attached to my account because I had no association with the family any longer. I told them XXXX XXXX had passed away about two years before this visit. They contacted their securities people. The banker told me that there was nothing they could do with the information I gave them because I no longer had any legal right to any information associated with this account. She also said that the bank could not detach XXXX XXXX account from my account until the estate provided them with a certified death certificate. The bank needed to contact the estate. They suggested I hide the account. Hiding the account is an option on your accounts list, so you wont see that account when you log in. I did just that and heard nothing more about it until XX/XX/XXXX. In XX/XX/XXXX I received a large package of documents from Chase bank. This package contained reclamation paperwork from the United States Office of Personnel Management a  department within the federal government that manages retirements and insurance. They had apparently just been notified that XXXX XXXX had passed away in XX/XX/XXXX and they wanted all of the retirement pay they had deposited into her account back from the time she had passed away. When Chase returned the money they returned all except {$21000.00}. That money was not in the account. The estate had allowed XXXX XXXX retirement to continue paying the mortgage and utility bills. Chase notified the United States Office of Personnel Management that they were {$21000.00} short and the incorrectly informed them that I was the one that had withdrawn the money. I took this whole package to the Local Chase bank. I spoke with a XXXX XXXX, at the time I was under the impression that he was a bank manager. As I have since found out he was just a bank representative. He told me that I should never have received this package because I was longer legally attached to the account in question. He also contacted his securities folks and they told him the same thing. He said the bank could not provide me with any information on this account because I had no legal right to the account. He said I should write a letter to the United States Office of Personnel Management and explain the situation. He further stated that if the United States Office of Personnel Management wanted any information that they would have to go through the legal channels and request it from Chase. I wrote a letter explaining that to the United States Office of Personnel Management. I heard no more from them or Chase bank until about the last of XX/XX/XXXX. I got a copy of the same package I had received from Chase in XX/XX/XXXX except this time it was from the United States Office of Personnel Management. The package had all of the same things the one from Chase bank did. I immediately took it to the local branch of Chase and asked to talk to the manager. I instead ended up working with XXXX. I do not know his last name. I explained the whole story to him. He said he would see what he could do to get his fixed. It took him about three days then he called me and said there was nothing he could do because the account was so old he could not find any information. He suggested I call the XXXX number on the back of my credit card and see if I could get a hold of someone there that would help me. I did what he suggested. After about three days of getting nowhere with that the last people I contacted told me that I needed to resolve this issue at the local branch.. In the mean time I wrote another letter to United States Office of Personnel Management. Explaining the situation again. They responded this time and basically said nothing I could say or do was going to stop them. The only entity that could stop this process was the financial institution that first incorrectly notified them that I had taken the money ( Chase Bank ). Chase would have to write them a letter on bank letter head exonerating me from this issue. I then went back to the local branch of Chase. Again I asked for the bank manager. She was too busy to help me at the time so she sent me off with XXXX. XXXX said she would see what she could do. I specifically explained to that the United States Office of Personnel Management has said nothing anybody says will stop their actions. That the United States Office of Personnel Management needed a letter from Chase on their letterhead exonerating me or they were going to proceed with their actions. XXXX said she understood but needed to still check some things out. I waited a week and had not received a phone call so I went to the bank and asked if she had heard anything. She said she had not heard anything. I then waited another week and a few days. No call. So I once again went into the bank to ask if she had heard anything. She once again said she had not heard anything. She said she would call me. I asked that we make an appointment and sit down to discuss this. She said no she would call me. Two days later she called and said she could not get any information because the account was so old. She forwarded me to another department of Chase thinking that they would be better able to assist me. I talked with XXXX in this department and was told all I needed to do was write a letter to the United States Office of Personnel Management tell them the situation and everything would be fine. I explained to XXXX that I had already done that twice and the United States Office of Personnel Management had already told me that Chase needed to write the letter not me. They needed to hear from Chase, because Chase was the entity that had incorrectly accused me of taking the money. She put me on hold for a bit then returned and asked to hold while she transferred me to the Descendant Processing Department. In this department I talked with a young man named XXXX. I explained the situation and he looked up the records. He informed that the local Chase branch had access to the same records he was looking at. He and asked why I had not dealt with them, I assured him I had tried. He told me he could not go into details because I was not legally part of that account but that he saw regular withdrawals going out of the account. I told him yes they were mortgage and utilities that were never stopped by the estate. He said yes that is what they were. I asked if he could provide a letter explaining that. He said his department did not do that sort of thing. I asked if he had a supervisor that could direct the local bank manager to write a letter. He said his supervisor had no authority over the local branch. He suggested that I contact their executive branch and gave me the address to write to them. I had already spoke to that department almost a month ago and they had told me that I should have all the records and I needed to send those to the United States Office of Personnel Management. At this point I decided that I was simply getting the run around from Chase. No single department of Chase wants to take responsibility for telling the United States Office of Personnel Management that they made a mistake in telling them I had taken the money. So I decide to contact you folks.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation