Consumer complaint received 2016-09-16
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: FL
Product: Bank account or service
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
Chase created what they call a SUSPENSE ACCOUNT and moved our funds into that account without our knowledge. When items in the account I did n't know existed were returned, we were charged back and since I did not know the account existed we had no way of serving our customers. I have suffered economic, emotional and professional damage as a direct result. 

We were told about this NEW MATTER, the existance of this account & that there were chargebacks in it on XXXX XXXX after weeks of calls to get status updates on our " real '' account. 

There is still no clear mechanism to get updates on the SUSPENSE ACCOUNT. 

This situation bears an ominous similarity to the current situation involving XXXX XXXX except in this case the mysterious account was created not to generate employee bonuses but for Chase to escape obligation under the Deposit Account Agreement and thus float a large pool of money to invest. 

The present situation is that our money is an account we did not sign up for that offers no statements, no ability to monitor or any basic service which a business requires. 

Chase informed me that " my '' account I found out about today is not governed by any mutual Agreement but is in a kind of lawless limbo. 

Who would sign up for an account for which you get no statement, no notifications of returns and no ability to monitor. Is such an account even FDIC insured? 

I have gone from having an account that I could get information about online in less than a minute to a totally opaque account. 

BACKGROUND Our company ( XXXX ) makes only XXXX large deposit per month, always on XX/XX/XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX at XXXX we deposited {$34000.00} Less than one hour later, our account was frozen. Coincidence? We were told that Chase wanted to close our account despite the fact that we maintained a large balance and never had an overdraft. Chase is permitted to do this because the Deposit Account Agreement governing our account says it can be closed by either party for " any reason or no reason. '' The problem with this is that the same agreement says on Pg 25 that all funds will be available to us " no later than the 7th business day '' after deposit. 

In order not to be bound any longer by this clause of the Deposit Agreement our money was moved to a SUSPENSE ACCOUNT that is completely opaque to us. 

On XX/XX/XXXX a customer of ours stopped payment on a check. She did this because she lost our phone number and wanted her system fixed. When we did not call her, she stopped payment on another on XX/XX/XXXX and again XX/XX/XXXX. During the previous 2 months I had placed at least 20 calls to customer service to find out if there were returns. Each time I was assured there were not and this was notated in the system. The agents were not aware of the SUSPENSE ACCOUNT. I was shocked to learn today about these returns. As a result of our business not responding due to Chase 's conduct and deceit we are out {$1000.00}. 

I was informed by Chase that under no circumstances that our money will be held longer than 90 days from the last return item. That is reassuring but we also are trying to run our business. 

CLOSING OUR ACCOUNT DOES N'T ABSOLVE CHASE OF ITS FIDUCIARY, LEGAL & ETHICAL OBLIGATIONS. 

I would have found out sooner about these items but in a letter I received from XXXX XXXX I was invited to call her, made repeated calls & only got through after a month. Apparently the sentence about calling is a robopaste to appease CFPB. Chase should institute a policy to return calls or send an email saying they wo n't call within X hours. It is bad faith to give out a phone number and not maintain it professionally. 

On the following screen under desired resolution I have numbered the items of my concern. Please respond in that format.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation