Consumer complaint received 2023-07-22
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: AZ
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Closing an account
Sub-issue: Funds not received from closed account

Complaint:
I am a franchisee of a chain of stem cell clinics called XXXX XXXX. As a franchisee, my own business entity name is required to have a name that is different than " XXXX XXXX. '' My entity is XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX. I opened a Chase business checking account. Many of my patients are very old. Some are in their XXXX. They have trouble hearing. They see " XXXX XXXX '' on the signage and write their checks Pay To The Order Of XXXX XXXX. I instructed my employees to always make sure they write XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  but employees make mistakes. My employees deposited checks into the checking account with Pay To names ranging from " XXXX XXXX '', " XXXX '', " XXXX XXXX XXXX. '' Again, many of these people are hard of hearing. Chase did not reach out to me for the simple explanation that this is merely a DBA ( doing business as ) and instead shut down the account without warning. We recovered from that by opening an account at a much better bank, but chase froze the {$17000.00} that was in the account. First they said they would send a check. That check never came, so I inquired further and they said the funds are frozen until all the check writers verify that they intended to write the checks. There are XXXX people, with XXXX checks. They demanded each one of these people visit their local Chase branch, despite only one of them being a Chase customer, and talk to a banker to resolve the issue. Chase bankers are mostly very inexperienced people who have no idea what to do. These XXXX, XXXX XXXX XXXX patients have great trouble getting around and a trip to the bank is a struggle for them. Despite this, they did it, only to be confronted by bankers that had no clue what to do, even though I gave them written instructions and explanations of the situation. Finally the story changed and Chase said do not send these people to the branch, instead call XXXX, which is Chase compliance. Since the account closed at the end of XXXX / early XXXX, I have called multiple times a day every day. It has been almost 3 months of calling, trying to catch these people when they are available, since most do not have a cell phone. Chase insists that they reach out to these people and that they use a number that they can somehow " verify '' for these people despite them not being Chase customers. They will not accept the phone numbers I have for these people, on which I am easily able to contact them. Finally, today, XX/XX/XXXX, I called the number and the rep was able to verify the check for the very last person who needed verification, XXXX XXXX. Upon doing so, the rep said that all XXXX of the checks / XXXX people were now verified and the funds would be available. He said he unfroze the account and he was going to mail me the check. But, as I said, Chase bankers are unqualified for their roles, and Chase had the wrong mailing address for me. They instead had the address of the West Virginia XXXX of XXXX. This is because the business is registered with the XXXX XXXX and the address for the XXXX XXXX appears on its letterhead. So the incompetent banker used this address instead of my entity 's address. The Chase rep on the phone proceeded to change the mailing address to the proper address, which is XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX, XXXX XXXX  XXXX XXXX As he was doing so, the call dropped. Chase has a policy of not calling people back. So I had to start over. I called the Chase compliance number again and got a rep who, after XXXX minutes, still could not comprehend what I was talking about. I hung up and called again. I got another rep who put me on hold for XXXX hours while she " investigated ''. Upon returning, she told me that actually XXXX of the XXXX checks were still unverified. I was shocked, because again, I have called every day for the past 3 months and I am intimately aware of who is and is not verified, and exactly the time that they were verified. And only XXXX hours prior, I was on the phone with a rep who said he had unfrozen the account and was just getting the right address so he could mail the check. The answer is different every time with Chase. Phone calls are a dice roll. I insisted on speaking with a supervisor. I waited another hour, and the supervisor said the same thing. He listed the names of the " unverified '' people : XXXX XXXX, XXXX XXXX, and XXXX XXXX. This was shocking, since I specifically remembered exactly when and how these people were verified. For example XXXX XXXX was verified on XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX eastern. I specifically remember it because XXXX is a chase accountholder. He had a request on his account not to be called. We had to request that he call Chase, ask to temporarily be removed from the do not call list, and then tell us so that he could receive the call and verify the check. Amazingly, he did all of this for us, and Chase was able to call and verify at that time. But now they say, actually he wasn't verified. I told the rep tonight to check the notes on XX/XX/XXXX. He confirmed he did see it was noted that Chase made contact with XXXX and verified that he wrote the check, but then this verification was later rejected by back office because the phone number is " not verified. '' In fact, he said they do not have a verified phone number for XXXX. I asked : " So he is a chase customer but you do not have a phone number for him? '' The rep said yes. Absurd. The number on which he was reached was XXXX, which is his phone number. I clarified with the rep if the issue is truly that he does not have a verified phone number, or instead just that he has reinstated the call block request. The rep said that he does not have a verified number. I said how do we get a verified number? The rep said it is impossible. So Chase confirms that what they are asking me to do is a literal impossibility. I have complied to the maximum extent, and yet they still hold my money. Calling and making requests of these people has resulted in financial loss and destroyed the reputation of my business locally. Having {$17000.00} frozen almost put us out of business as well. Chase does not care and admits that their requests are impossible. XXXX XXXX is the same situation as XXXX. The notes show she was indeed contacted, at XXXX, and she did verify the check, but the phone number is just " not good enough. '' The third person XXXX XXXX, has a number we can use apparently, but is currently not picking up the phone. I will attempt again tomorrow, when I am sure I will get completely different information, and upon XXXX 's verifying the check for a second time and then calling and swearing at my employees for the hassle, Chase will make up some other excuse not to verify him. The last Chase rep I spoke with tonight on XX/XX/XXXX was named XXXX, and he refused to tell me where I can make a formal complaint against Chase. I told him that he knows where, and he is required to tell me where, but still he refused. So I told him I would make sure to include his name in my complaint. 

I need my funds back. This is outright fraud and theft and has caused me great financial and reputational losses. Chase openly admits that what they are asking for is impossible and that they will hold my money perpetually. There needs to be an alternate avenue to resolving this, like for example acknowledging that the customers that confirmed they were verified, that the notes show were verified, ARE IN FACT VERIFIED. 

XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX Account Number XXXX My name is XXXX XXXX XXXX being stolen by Chase : XXXX XXXX {$5000.00} XXXX XXXX {$2000.00} XXXX XXXX {$870.00} XXXX XXXX {$2000.00} XXXX XXXX {$8000.00} XXXX XXXX {$1000.00} XXXX XXXX {$2500.00} Also I would like to note that although Chase admits XXXX of these XXXX people are verified ( and until the very last phone call I had, said that all XXXX of the XXXX people are verified ), they refuse to release any funds until every single check is verified. This is blatantly illegal.

Company response to consumer: Closed with non-monetary relief