Consumer complaint received 2017-03-17
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: NY
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Account opening, closing, or management

Complaint:
I have small business checking/savings accounts with Chase Bank. While I have a complex story with multiple complaints, my immediate complaint is this : Chase Bank sent me a letter on XX/XX/2017 and told me on phone exactly weeks ago when I was in their branch that my accounts were restricted and are being closed. They said we 'd receive a check for our balance ( of over {$25000.00} ) by mail in 10 days. Two weeks later, I just got off the phone with them and they are refusing to tell me when we will receive our money or under what specific reasons they are holding or what law gives them the authority to do that. 

The whole saga started when I deposited XXXX checks on XX/XX/2017 worth over {$110000.00}. I was skeptical about checks clearing and asked the cashier at Chase branch. She scanned the checks and told me there was no " hold '' and that I should keep checking the " Available Balance '' to know when they have cleared. On XX/XX/2017, the amount of deposited checks showed under " Available Balance ''. Assuming that the checks were cleared, I initiated a few transactions, one of them being a {$75000.00} transfer to an external account. Chase processed the transfer but when I logged in next day to check something else, I found that all of the deposited checks had returned unpaid due to " Not Sufficient Funds ''. The account showed a negative balance. I frantically made calls to Chase to reverse the transfer and was told to call their " Wire Transfer Division ''. After trying several times and spending the long weekend stressed out ( I have never had my business or personal checks bounce, ever ; I have almost perfect XXXX score ), I got hold of someone after trying for an hour. They told me that they could n't reverse the transfer and they had frozen my account. I transferred the money to my another business account with Chase and had my wife go to a branch to manually transfer the money back to the original account. There were too many back and forth transactions in my attempts to resolve the problems but here is a simple version. No one in Chase branches have any authority and they are like human bots who are controlled by a computer algorithm and decisions are conveyed on phone by people who will give only their first name and would transfer me to different division. Also, every time I called - I called over a dozen times - I got a different answer to the same question. Two weeks, I talked to someone on phone and explained that I needed a check of {$10000.00} from my account to open a new account with another bank and resume my business. They told me to go to the branch, which I did. Again, the computer algorithm struck! First they told me I would have to go to a different branch. Reluctantly, I agreed but in a matter of minutes they told me they are closing my accounts and I will get a check for balance in 10 days. I received a letter dated XX/XX/2017 to that effect. After spending 45 minutes on phone with two different persons, no one will tell me when I will get my {$25000.00}, or why they are holding or what gives them the authority. This is a version of Big Brother controlling our lives, except it is not the government but Chase Bank!. It is frightening that Chase refused to accept the blame for the root cause : showing checks cleared when they were not and there was an astounding level of arrogance in how people talked to me. Despite numerous calls and visits to the branch, no one would take ownership of the issue to resolve the problems. They paid a lip service for apologizing to me for inconvenience and then proceeded to tell me they had closed my online access. So I can not download transactions or statements. The branch manager printed last 3 months ' statements and I was unceremoniously told to wait for a correspondence. I have spent my career as a CFO for 20 years, and I have never seen a bank behave so arrogantly. Chase used to be customer-friendly!

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation