Consumer complaint received 2020-09-03
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: MS
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Other banking product or service
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Problem making or receiving payments

Complaint:
I am a XXXX XXXX  XXXX by trade. 

At the end of XXXX of this year my sister withdrew her retirement from the post office. This was given to her on a pre-paid debit card. She offered to use some of that money to pay off some of my companies high interest credit cards. I called my personal banker at Chase and told him exactly this. I was told that the best way to do this would be to run the debit card through the credit card processing system which i was already set up with and had already used many times before. I was told to make an invoice between my sister and I in case it was requested. This was done. The prepaid debit card had a {$5000.00} limit so between the dates of approx XXXX and XXXX the card was run three times for {$5000.00} and one times for {$3000.00}. These totaled to {$18000.00} which is the amount of the loan and the amount disclosed to my banker when i called to request instruction. I did exactly as I was instructed to do by Chase bank. 

On approx XXXX I began a minor renovation for a client to replace the siding on his home. He made an initial deposit of {$4000.00} for materials and then was to make a {$7000.00} payment upon completion which he did via a credit card and i ran using the Chase touch tone capture system. 

Chase bank is withholding this {$7000.00} final payment for actual services rendered because they say that my previous transaction of {$18000.00} was invalid because it is a loan to my company via a family member. I understand this defense if i was using this system to transfer my debt onto her SSN, but that is not the case. This is her cash. Chase does not care. They say that we violated contract and they are using this other persons money to preserve their right to loss, which just does not exist. I have no other transactions pending with them. They say that this information is included in my merchant agreement, which is a very long fine print legalese document which i have read and still don't understand what I have done wrong. Regardless of contract however, they took time to review this transaction and then released the funds to me which were then spent on their non refundable stated purpose. I was told to remedy this I could refund the {$18000.00} to my sisters debit card and they would reconsider. Aside from the impossibility of this, I acted in accordance with what my personal banker told me to do and Chase took the time to review this, missed an apparent error that only they are able to extract from the contract verbiage, and they waited an unreasonable amount of time and did not even approach me preemptively but instead waited until it was convenient to them to address the problem. Every single person I have had to tell this story to at Chase bank thinks is preposterous until they call the actual Paymentech portion of Chase bank and then they just cease reasonable communication and state that payment will not be made for less than 6 months and then I am getting indeterminate answers on where the money will go. I am closing my Chase account so it can not go there and I don't understand how they would put it back on my clients actual credit card but i know if they do he will have paid interest on {$7000.00} for 6 months. I am getting no answers from chase except to read my agreement which i have done and do not see where it says a family member can not run cash through this system for a 3 % processing fee. I feel it is also worth mentioning that Chase bank has extracted from my remaining funds the {$870.00} from my checking account which is the 3 % of {$18000.00} and {$11000.00} despite them not actually processing the entire amount to my account. They have further told us that they will not be refunding any of the processing amount. They have now closed my credit card processing account and i could not put the {$18000.00} back onto my sisters prepaid debit card if I wanted to. This loss of {$8000.00} completely unexpectedly in the middle of a pandemic is causing extreme stress to my ability to fund my business operations and I am out of options. I have escalated this as far as I can wrench phone numbers from people. Following is a timeline of events. 

On XXXX i called to chase mobile deposit phone number ( XXXX ) and inquired about the hold on the funds seeing as how i had been making deposits since the previous thursday and they usually only have a one day hold. I was told my funds were in review and they would be released after. They were released the start of business the following day. 

On approx XXXX I ran a renovation customers credit card through the chase touch tone capture system as i normally would in the amount of {$7000.00}. This was a final payment on an {$11000.00} total invoice. The other {$4000.00} of the job was also on the same card and run through the same system and was released on the XXXX with the other {$18000.00}. ( The initial {$4000.00} was an upfront material cost for work that began approx XXXX and the remaining {$7000.00} in limbo is the remaining payment due to me from my client ) On XXXX I began to call the chase mobile deposit number and inquire if the funds were available. I was told the transaction was in risk review. I said ok and hung ended the call. I understand the need for this. 

On XXXX, now a work week later, I called and asked for information and was told that it was still in risk review. I was transferred to risk review and was told i would receive call backs with information. No call was received. 

on XXXX in the morning i began to call and was told that the risk department is only open from XXXX XXXX ) XXXX to XXXX. So i called back several times later in the day and got no help. 

on XXXX I again began calling. I spent approximately 2 hours per day on the phone with the different departments of the chase merchant services department to only be bounced between phone numbers that no one responded to and when they did they bounced me to another line. This went on everyday for approx 2 hours of actual spent time per day until the friday of XXXX. 

on XXXX I was able to get ahold of my personal banker because he seemed to be the only person that actually cared enough to pay attention to the issue beyond the first few sentences and he advised me he would be taking charge of the situation. 

On XXXX My personal banker called me back and was able to get his branch manager to issue a formal complaint up their chain of command. 

on XXXX we were told by the chase corporate complaint department that our concern was being reviewed and issued an analyst. It would be done that day. It was not done that day. 

On XXXX we were told we would be given an analyst. We were not given an analyst. 

on XXXX we were given an analyst and told it could take a couple of days. 

on XXXX we heard from our analyst and they would review. 

on XXXX we are told that in fact Chase would be holding our {$7000.00} for 6 months at which point they were indeterminate about where it would go. There only response is " we will hold it incase there are chargebacks or other incurred expenses. '' My client has already has this {$7000.00} taken off of their card and so I am unable to get him to have his bank dispute the charges. We tried that as well. This {$7000.00} is being held by chase with no risk to them. My Merchant Id number is XXXX

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief