Consumer complaint received 2020-02-28
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: FL
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
My father died in XXXX XXXX. I took his death certificate to Chase Bank in XXXX, FL on XX/XX/XXXX to have his name removed from our joint account. 

Here is the accounting of what has gone on : XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX went to Chase Bank located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX to open lock box and have my father removed from bank accounts. I was on the accounts with him. 

I was told that I couldnt get into safe deposit box because he was deceased Im joint account holder. I presented FL statute that shows I was allowed to get into secure box. The woman said Ill have to check on that. She came back and said I was allowed to get into lockbox. She stated she was from NY not to long ago and didnt know the law. That was not correct I dealt with her about 9 months ago. 

We were introduced to XXXX XXXX who was to help us with the changing of names on accounts. A death certificate was presented to Ms. XXXX and she could see that I was on all of the accounts. I also had POA on the accounts which Chase Bank placed on the accounts even though I was a joint owner. 

Ms. XXXX had to check with the back office regarding the name changes She proceeded to tell my husband and I that she had another appt and we would have to come back on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX. She would have all paper work ready XXXX XXXX   I received a phone call from Ms. XXXX stating that she had paperwork ready. She then proceeded to tell me that she accidentally put my name in as the deceased NOT MY FATHER. She found the mistake but didnt know if my ATM card would work. 


XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX XXXX 

Ms. XXXX proceeded to have me sign 2 POA terminations. Why? The POA died when my dad died on XX/XX/XXXX. 

While there I checked my mobile app to see if everything was correct. The one checking account disappeared. When she entered the POS termination my name was removed from the account and shouldnt have been. I was a joint account holder. She couldnt find the account I had to give her a debit card so she could type the numbers in to see if the account was still there. 

She said she had to leave because she was 15 minutes late for an appt and it was a hour drive for her. She chatted a lot while we there about other things that had nothing to do with our banking and then said she had run out of time. She said she would call me today ( XXXX ) after she again called the back office to see if she could get my name put back on the account. 

XX/XX/XXXX I called Ms. XXXX at about XXXX to ask her if she got things straightened out. She said it would be today or tomorrow. I told her it would be today. This was ridiculous. I checked my accounts at XXXX and found this : MY SOCIAL SECURITY CHECK HAD BEEN TAKEN OUT OF MY ACCOUNT LEAVING MY ACCOUNT IN THE NEGATIVE My OTHER account owned solely by me had a NEGATIVE {>= $1,000,000} BALANCE I immediately called Ms. XXXX and she had to call the back office to get it straightened out. She called back and said it had been straightened out. 



I asked if Social Security now has me as deceased. She didnt know. 

I went to use my ATM Card and it was denied. I had to call Ms. XXXX again and she said a freeze had been put on the card. I had to prove who I was. RIDICULOUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 


XX/XX/XXXX Ms. XXXX called and said that Chase had let SS know that this was a mistake on their part. She said I could call SS to verify that I wasnt declared dead. I had already called this a.m. and knew that so far everything with SS was ok. 

I said I wanted a letter from her or the bank stating that this was an error on their part in claiming me as the decedent. She said she couldnt provide a letter like that. I asked if an attorney got involved would they write the letter. She said so you want me to escalate this. I said escalate it to what? She said escalate this to our legal dept so that your attorney can talk to the legal dept. I told her I didnt say that and I want some type of documentation showing that Chase Bank was at fault for starting the procedure with SS. 

XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX called bank manager for branch. She said problem would have to go to executive dept for a letter. She applauded Ms. XXXX for taking responsibility. 
She said it was a computer software problem and that it was a new system. The computer had nothing to do with it the wrong name was input. 
Kept calling me dear and very condescending. 

XX/XX/XXXX I call Chase and got an executive department. Spoke with XXXX XXXX XXXX Told him XXXX XXXX was supposed to have submitted a request. He didnt say if she had or had not. Told him how we were dismissed by Ms. XXXX twice because she had other appts. Said that the branch would be questioned. Said it could be around XXXX XXXX before I hear anything. It went to an analyst XX/XX/XXXX Placed order with a Chase credit card. Rcvd email XXXX XXXX  could not accept order. Pick another way to pay for the order. 

XX/XX/XXXX Called Chase.Credit card is frozen. She put me thru to estates dept. Closed til Monday XX/XX/XXXX called Decedent Estate Dept Said credit card is supposed to issue a letter apologizing for error. I asked if it would be specific that the banker had made an error. She said no. She sent a request to research team to see if they can send a letter acknowledging bank error in declaring me dead. 

XX/XX/XXXX Credit card department XXXX card will be re-opened. Will take 24 48 hours. A letter will be issued from CC dept stating error in closing the account. Deceased notification was placed on card. 
She checked to make sure that there were no other decedent tabs on any of the other accounts. 

XX/XX/XXXX XXXX Executive Dept Chase Bank called me and said the she understood my concern. Her mother had just died in XXXX and she knew what I was going thru. She said she would send a letter explaining that Chase was at fault. She said I would receive the letter in 7 to 10 business days which I should have had by XX/XX/XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX Received a phone call from XXXX She said so you want a letter to explain it was banks fault? What happened to conversation from XX/XX/XXXX? 

XX/XX/XXXX Received 2 letters from 1. XXXX XX/XX/XXXX We removed the deceased status on your account. 
Thank you contacting us about the incorrect information on your account. We apologize for this and have removed the deceased status from the following account credit card, Consumer deposit. 
Please keep this letter for your records. 

2. We received notification that a deposit was made to account ending in for the benefit of XXXX XXXX after their date of death. We returned all available post-death deposits This is my father 's account. 

XX/XX/XXXX My SS benefit was not deposited. 
Called XXXX XXXX about the SS mess and why wasnt this fixed? She said she was going to call XXXX XXXX in the am to see what happened. I am very irritated!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Said she would try 3 way call with SS. Said she would call by XXXX. 

XX/XX/XXXX XXXX XXXX called at XXXX. Said she was on hold trying for hour to talk to someone in ACH and didnt have time to hold any longer. She had other situations that she needed to handle. Said she would send me a new Debit card. She said she would call me on Monday. I asked her for what? She said to make sure I got the debit card. She never offered to continue to find out why my SS deposit never made it into my checking account. She said she had emailed Ms. XXXX regarding the SS deposit. 



Miss XXXX called in afternoon and said she thought everything was resolved and had closed the complaint on XX/XX/XXXX. She said it was for the credit card that had been frozen. She never had addressed any other of my concerns regarding checking account and SS, wrong name on beneficiary update and frozen ATM card. She said she would try to figure out way to find out why the SS deposit did not go into my account. 

I called the Decedent office at Chase and spoke to XXXX and she checked with ACH as to why my SS deposit didnt go in. There was a code on my checking account not to accept any deposits into the account. I found this out in a matter of 10 minutes. I asked XXXX about the letter that said deposit in my name had been sent back to SSA. She said that this should be changed to my fathers name as the beneficiary update letter from Chase. I also asked who put the hold on accepting deposits into my account. She didnt like me asking questions. As I was trying to talk to her at the end she hung up on me. She never said can I help you with anything else or thank you. Just hung up. 

I sent an email with this diary up to XX/XX/XXXX to XXXX XXXX ( President of Chase Bank ) email. I received a call from XXXX an assistant to Mr. XXXX in the Executive Dept and she said she would drill down deeper to see what was going on. She had my diary in front of her so shes up to date to the XXXX. She said that she hasn't worked with an account where the bank has declared someone dead. Only has worked with accounts when SS has declared person dead. 

XX/XX/XXXX I called XXXX to tell her I left out the part about XXXX XXXX having too much to do and couldnt hold any longer for the ACH department. She had been holding for 30 minutes. I told XXXX I had got the info in about a 10 minute call to Decedent Dept. and they checked with ACH department. 

XXXX asked me to email her the beneficiary letter stating I was dead and also the treasury dept notice that the money had been pulled out of my dad 's account.. 

XX/XX/XXXX Still no deposit from SS in my checking account XX/XX/XXXX Still no deposit from SS Received sorry for the error letter from Chase Bank XXXX from Executive dept called. 
The Error letter is not correct. 

XXXX tried to tell me that my dad 's SS benefit was my Dads check was taken out of his account on XX/XX/XXXX. 

XXXX said the branch in XXXX would give me {$200.00} for my inconvenience. I told her I wanted {$500.00} for my legwork. She said I didnt have to do legwork and I told her that no one is keeping in touch with me and I did not know what was going on. Said my SS benefit has to be reprocessed. 

I sent XXXX and email and listed at least 9 phone calls that I had to make regarding this problem. As an example the bank manager XXXX XXXX called me on XX/XX/XXXX and said she waited hour with Chase to find out why the SS had not been put in my account and that she hung up because she had other fires to put out. 

XXXX is supposed to revamp the letter with the errors in it corrected. I asked that my fathers name be put on the letter. She said she couldnt do it but would have to check due to privacy laws. 

XX/XX/XXXX I sent an email to XXXX and told her that I want my fathers name on the letter. 

Sent a rebuttal to OCC. 

XX/XX/XXXX - still no SS deposit in my account.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation