Consumer complaint received 2022-07-20
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: DC
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Banking errors

Complaint:
I was written a check by my boss on XX/XX/2022 for an amount of {$1900.00}, and I attempted to deposit it on XX/XX/2022. He wrote it extremely poorly, so Chase Bank flagged it as an altered check. Instead of flagging just the check/bouncing it, or even notifying me that there was an issue, they restricted my entire account. I called them back on XX/XX/2022 in the evening after noticing that my account had been restricted. The representative of Chase Bank that I spoke with assured me that all I had to do was wait 5 business days from the initial deposit and if it was a " good check '' ( as he put it ) then everything would be fine and the restrictions on my account would be lifted. He told me that all the funds in question would be in my account by XX/XX/2022. I checked my account on that day and the funds had been deposited. The next day ( XX/XX/2022 ), I noticed that Chase had closed my account and withdrawn all of my money, aside from {$270.00} ( cash ) which I had just deposited into the account through an ATM. I called them again that night irate, and they told me that they closed my account and withdrew my funds themselves because I had failed to contact them within 10 days to resolve the issue. That was completely not true as I did try to reach out to them and after being passed around between multiple representatives I was told that all I had to do was sit and wait till the 5th bushiness day was up, which is what I did. He then hung up on me without helping me resolve this issue. I could not call back again as they were then closed at that point. I had to call back again the next morning on Saturday ( XX/XX/2022 ) at XXXX XXXX  to discuss to figure out what was going on and why they closed my account. The person I spoke with said they were having issues with verifying who was writing me the check. He told me because I did not reach out within 10 days they closed my account. I told him that was absolutely not true. He also told me that part of the issue with verifying the check was that if I looked at the check I would see that the check says that the company and bank from which the funds were coming from was located in XXXX. That is not what was on the check. The address on the check was in XXXX, Pennsylvania. He then spoke with their " backroom '' and eventually got approval to reach out to my boss directly and verify all the information with him. They did so and were able to get in contact with him. My boss verified everything with them, and the Chase representative then told me that everything had been verified and that he would go ahead and reopen my account and that all my funds would be returned by XXXX XXXX on Monday XX/XX/2022. I asked him thoroughly whether the request would start being processed on Monday ( XX/XX/2022 ) or if it would be finalized and if all the money in my account ( including the original check in question for {$1900.00} ) would be back in my account or all of my money that was previously in my account aside from the {$1900.00} would be back in the account. He told me that my account would be reopened and ALL of my money would be back in my account ( including the {$1900.00} ). I checked on Monday ( XX/XX/2022 ) and nothing had changed, so I called back again at the end of the day and asked again what was going on and why they hadn't reopened my account and put my money back in it. The representative I spoke with told me that their " backroom '' was reviewing the request but that it would actually take time to fully process it and that it would be done by today ( Wednesday XX/XX/2022 ) at XXXX XXXX and to call back again if it wasn't due to their being another issue. This means that I was given misinformation yet again by the representatives about when the issue would be resolved by. I called back again today as I saw that my account had finally been reopened, but not all my money had been put back in it. All of my money aside from the {$1900.00} had been returned to my account. So, I called back again today ( XX/XX/2022 ) around XXXX XXXX to see what the issue was now. The representative told me she did not know why the rest of my money had not yet been returned to me but that it would take time and tried to assure me that it would eventually be back in my account and to just wait. She would not give me an estimated time frame of when my money would be returned to me as she was not able to see that information, so I asked to speak with her supervisor who would be able to provide me with this information. While doing so, she had the audacity to tell me that they were doing me a favor by reopening my account and returning my money to me after she had just admitted that they were at fault for all of this. She connected me with her supervisor who told me that my remaining money was being held and suspended by them and that a request to have my money returned to me still hadn't been filled out and submitted yet, so if I didn't call to check in again on what was going on, it likely would never have been sent. I checked with my boss before making this call and he told me that the money had still not been returned to his account either, meaning that Chase would have kept the money. The supervisor then kept me on the phone while she filled out the request and submitted it. When she had finished, she told me that it may take up to Wednesday ( XX/XX/2022 ) for all of my money to finally be returned to me. 

Throughout this whole process, they gave me no warnings or notifications that this was occurring and I had to rely on myself noticing these things happening to reach out and figure out what was going on. They also continued to provide me with misinformation every step of the way. I had to call and speak with them a total of 5 times over two weeks to make progress. For the past two weeks, they closed my account, and I did not have access to any of my money. They had the audacity to say they were doing me a favor by helping me out after admitting that this was all their fault. AND, it will still be " at most '' another full week before I have access to all of my funds.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief