Consumer complaint received 2019-05-06
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: VA
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:
On XX/XX/2019 a charge for {$1700.00} appeared on my Chase credit card for a purchase that Chase reported as " XXXX XXXX XXXX ''. I did not make or authorize this charge. Accordingly, I contacted Chase on XX/XX/XXXX or XXXX, immediately after I noticed this fraudulent charge on my account. 

Chase 's response was to initially investigate the charge, and because I am in the process of buying a house, I went ahead and paid the charge just so it did not show a balance and potentially affect my credit rating while I was being underwritten for a home mortgage. 

Chase then credited the charge back to me, and I thought that Chase had properly determined that the charge was fraudulent. However, when I called to have the money that I had paid be transferred to another credit card at Chase, Chase indicated that the charge was still under review and that the extra money I paid was stuck in my credit card account. 

Then on Friday, XX/XX/XXXX, Chase called me in the afternoon while I was at work, and told me that they had to debit the charge back to my account, because their research showed that I had used my Chase credit card with XXXX when I flew the airline last summer. I did in fact fly XXXX last summer, but I never authorized {$1700.00} charge that appeared on my account many months later, this past XXXX. Chase tried to tell me that this was a disputed charge and the issue was with me and XXXX. 

In my conversations with Chase, as summarized above, Chase kept me on the phone for hours and kept bouncing me back and forth between their fraud department and their disputed payments department. I had to talk to one Chase " investigator '' who was supposed to ask me some important questions. He asked me if I had a membership of any sort with XXXX or if I had authorized this charge. I reiterated no to both questions, as I had indicated many times to many people with whom I spoke at Chase. He then tried to call XXXX to ask them about the charge, and after keeping me on hold 15 or 20 minutes, he got back on the phone with me and said that XXXX unfortunately couldn't be reached. He never volunteered to have Chase call XXXX during normal business hours. He basically just tried to kick the liability back to me. 

Finally, on Friday afternoon, another Chase agent said she was submitting my " case '' to the " rebill '' department because Chase would have to further " investigate '' and potentially " rebill '' the transaction. The agent said this might take 30 days. 

The whole handling of this case amounts to Chase trying to concoct a reason to get off the hook for a fraud charge, for which Chase is clearly liable. I never bought an upgrade for XXXX this past XXXX and somehow someone else used my card number to do so. Chase is trying to say that this is some sort of a special circumstance because I used my credit card with XXXX last summer ; but the fact of the matter is Chase can't prove where the person who made the charge ended up getting my number. For instance, that fraudster could have been a restaurant where I used the card. Or it could have been some online source. For Chase to try to categorize this as a dispute and run me through the ringer on a major fraud charge is terrible. 

Now it is Sunday XXXX on XX/XX/2019 at XXXX XXXX ET and I just got off the phone with a Chase representative. This representative reconfirmed the above, which is that Chase refuses to call this charge a fraudulent charge. The Chase agent called it a disputed charge. This is criminal mis-categorization of a charge that was clearly fraudulent because I DID NOT MAKE THIS CHARGE. Chase is absolutely stepping on the consumer and trying to weasel out of its obligation. 

Moreover, this is clearly a policy and process at Chase, which means that it is being repeated over and over again, trying to weasel innocent consumers out of a cumulative of millions of dollars. I recommend a full scale investigation and the imposition of significant fines for this practice, similar to what was leveled on Chase for its many mortgage transgressions over the last decade. 

I have spent countless hours on the phone trying to resolve this with Chase and now I have had to spend more time summarizing this egregious episode with CFPB. Chase should be liable for compensating me for the time that I have had to spend to get my money back.

Company response to consumer: Closed with monetary relief