Consumer complaint received 2021-10-10
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: TX
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Problem with a lender or other company charging your account
Sub-issue: Transaction was not authorized

Complaint:
Hello, I am writing to you as a last ditch attempt hoping you or someone at Chase will take responsibility for the illegal ACH payments Chase allowed even though there was no authorization for them to do so and resolve an ongoing issue with that has yet to be resolved fairly or accurately for three years, before I contact regulatory authorities through an attorney. I have always lived paycheck to paycheck and have always paid up to hundreds in fees to Chase yearly, yet I was never treated so badly as I have been the last three years costing me thousands of dollars and mental and financial stress. 

All of my account and personal information can be found within my first attempt outside of Chase to resolve this matter RE Financial Protection Bureau case number XXXX. the last 4 of my account was XXXX On XX/XX/XXXX I verbally withdrew my authorization to XXXX XXXX XXXX/XXXX  XXXX XXXX for its access to my chase bank account. This entity recently settled with me via access financial  and Texas AG case XXXX in XXXX of XXXX regarding their illegal activities of which Chase became a part of. On the same day, In order to double secure my account from their access, I took out a stop payment at Chase Bank on this same loan for XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX  XXXX . I also informed the Chase CSR ( customer service representative ) that I had revoked authorization from anyone representing and including XXXX  XXXX XXXX  and that they nor any entity thereof were authorized to pull money from my account. When discussing the stop payment I informed the CSR that I had gotten the payday loan from a XXXX  XXXX XXXX  facility but that XXXX XXXX funding was on my authorization. He said that since XXXX  XXXX  funding was on my original authorization he would put that on the stop check but that it would cover XXXX  XXXX XXXX  as well since that was the physical place to whom I had signed the authorization. He did not request any information on my authorization revocation. He placed the stop payment amounts from {$1.00} to {$4000.00}. I was told that if they tried to take out money using different names to contact Chase and they would reverse it. I have taken out quite a few stop payments to pay off loans outside of them having access to my account and have never had the difficulty of Chase continuing to allow an unauthorized entity to take money out of my account however and whenever they wished, so I trusted what he said. 

After paying for stop payments from any entity representing XXXX  XXXX XXXX  aka XXXX  XXXX XXXX, On XX/XX/XXXX I was charged a {$34.00} fee by Chase to return a check number XXXX presented by XXXX  XXXX XXXX  aka XXXX  XXXX XXXX. On XX/XX/XXXX the entity presented unauthorized check # XXXX in the amount of XXXX with no prior notice to me which is illegal and to which they have admitted as such in my settlement with them resolved in XX/XX/XXXX. Chase paid this amount, overdrawing my account and also charged me another {$34.00} fee. Subsequent checks presented by this unauthorized entity were # XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of XXXX, # XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of XXXX # XXXX on XX/XX/XXXX in the amount of {$30.00}. 

None of these ach were presented as pending and I was not aware that it was legal for an entity to add check numbers to an ach authorization so I didnt catch some of them when it was done. Regardless, I emailed from my Chase account on XX/XX/XXXX and also called on XX/XX/XXXX to request them to reverse these unauthorized charges as well as the first large one as instructed by the original CSR. I was told by the CSR that they couldnt do anything about reversing it and I was forwarded to fraud where I was grilled and treated like a criminal regardless of the fact that at any time Chase could reverse the unauthorized charges according to my stop payment. 

I then asked to speak to a supervisor because I couldnt believe they were treating me this way. I was sent to a fraud specialist named XXXX rather than to a supervisor. XXXX and other fraud department personnel continued over subsequent calls to abuse me and bully me by gaslighting me about my original stop payment conversation, the lack of authorization and refused to close my account to switch it or give me any option whatsoever to keep this unauthorized entity from accessing my account. After many phone calls and complaints and because she was literally yelling at me, I finally asked to speak with XXXX manager. She told me she was the highest manager and that she had no supervisor. I have found since then through discussion with other more amicable chase collection agents that this was a lie. Some of the many ways she and her crew ( even overseas call centers ) bullied and gaslighted me, consisted of asking me if I owed the company, asking if I had signed anything with the company regardless of the fact that they knew I had revoked auth, telling me they had contracts with companies that didnt allow chase to stop payments to them (????? ). I told them each that I had revoked auth and that my business with that company was between myself and that company and not my bank. XXXX nor anyone in Chases fraud department seem to understand that they are required by law to protect my account from unauthorized entities regardless of what I initially agreed to with said company outside of chase. It seems to be just how Chase does business. They continued to refuse to honor either my stop check or revocation of authorization, the former by playing semantics with the names of the companies that are one in the same and the latter Im just baffled by and have no understanding of. In spite of their concern for XXXX  XXXX XXXX, they did not ask for what was on the contract as far as the authorization ( which as I found out later would have shown that I wasnt given a specified way to revoke authorization which made the original authorization I had signed null and void by law anyway ). I did tell them that according to my contract with the entity I had revoked authorization verbally. 

Subsequently Chase bank over drafted my account by the amount they paid to the unauthorized entity and then continued to add fees so I was unable to pay my bills without incurring late fees. I was unfortunately finally forced to move my income deposits to another bank. This ordeal caused me to be late on car and mortgage payments who charged late fees against the interest % on my loans and I finally had to do a mortgage modification that cost thousands to be added to my home loan. 

After many phone calls and complaints by me : on XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX and other peers of hers, on XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX a private line banker, on XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX to dispute my fraud claim denial, on XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX regarding XXXX and the fraud departments bullying tactics and refusal to help me close my account off from this unauthorized entity, and finally on XX/XX/XXXX with XXXX who was an escalation supervisor, and on many collection phone calls which I answered and consistently told the story to, they continually refuse to honor my stop payment and what I had been told or the authorization revocation. 

In XX/XX/XXXX I complained with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau case number XXXX as this illegal activity continues to cost me more and more since it has been reported to XXXX XXXX and other reporting agencies and banking report entities. I have been turned down by insurance companies for my home and my car in spite of always paying on time and not having claims in my home and charged more for what I could get because of Chases unwillingness to admit they illegally refused to honor my stop payment and authorization pull. 

Unfortunately I did not have my numbers correct on the original complaint as it had been years since this had occurred and I suffer from XXXX XXXX XXXX for XXXX from the military making it impossibly difficult to continue to get this flack and these accusations from Chase and still stand up for myself. However, a woman named XXXX who took on my case called me and we discussed the proper dates and amounts of what had happened- so XXXX is well acquainted with the actual dates and Chases refusal to honor my stop payment or to find some way to stop this unauthorized foray into my account. I thought I had finally reached someone at chase that would see how unethical and even illegal what these employees did was. Unfortunately, the end of her investigation she called and asked me if I had recordings of the calls I had made because I had directed them in my complaint to THEIR recordings which I thought they probably had. Rather than go by the dates and amounts she and I had discussed, in her response XXXX overlooked completely the call notes which she had at her disposal regarding what was done to me by Chases fraud department - even going so far as to say that she could not give me any information regarding the many phone calls I made so that I could correct the information because legally that information belongs to Chase after I called her to ask her why she had ignored all the info I had given her and that we had gone over together. I had told her specifically that the stop payment CSR had put XXXX XXXX  XXXX on it with the understanding that they are also XXXX  XXXX XXXX, yet in her response she pretended that we had never had the conversation and responded to my complaint saying they refused my requested resolution Bc I never requested a stop payment. The lack of authorization of the entity into my account wasnt even approached by her. This is how the bullying, gaslighting and avoidance tactics by Chase Bank continued even now. Her response letter also said : We take complaints regarding employee conduct seriously. We do not tolerate any type of behavior that is contrary to our policy and corporate culture. ; this must mean that Chase bank has a culture of avoiding their mistakes and covering for the bank and other employees who continue to illegally not honor a stop payment and non authorized money grabs that they were continually informed about. To add insult to injury, even though I didnt mention it before, Chase paid these unauthorized checks knowing that the actual money to cover them would not be in my account ( as I was using my debit card ) and charged me for their mistakes along with redundant fees. How else would my account be thousands in the negative? 


Dates and Charges On XX/XX/XXXX my stop payment fee was paid for XXXX XXXX  XXXX aka XXXX  XXXX XXXX. {$30.00} I also told them of my authorization revocation for XXXX XXXX XXXX aka XXXX XXXX  XXXX  On XX/XX/XXXX I was charged a return fee of {$34.00} for a check presented by XXXX XXXX  XXXX aka XXXX  XXXX XXXX. This fee caused two other fees for card purchases that would have not been charged if the unauthorized check had been appropriately put under the stop payment. Chase charged me two more {$34.00} fees totaling {$100.00} in unfair illegal fees. 

On my XXXX XXXX XX/XX/XXXX statement, there is an ironic note saying that starting the next month we would be able to change our checking account number when our account has been compromised. I not only was not offered this, I was treated like a criminal by XXXX and Chases fraud department and not allowed to do anything to stop these outrageous fees and unauthorized check presentations to my account. During this month the afore mentioned checks were presented to my account as XXXX  XXXX XXXX  who is also XXXX XXXX  XXXX to the total of XXXX causing {$170.00} in fees and my inability to pay my mortgage payment. 

I moved my income to another bank account as Chase reps continuously refused to honor my stop payment or my authorization revocation. In XXXX Chase charged me again an nsf for this same company of {$34.00} and a {$6.00} fee bc I was forced to stop deposits to this account with rogue unauthorized presentations. In XXXX I was charged another {$34.00} fee for yet another unauthorized presentation to my account and when I called to once again see if Chase would own up to their illegal activities I was refunded three {$34.00} fees totaling {$100.00} and my negative balance was written off and still reported negatively to credit reporting companies, XXXX XXXX and banking reporters. At this time I offered to pay them {$180.00} and settle this, still hoping to keep my decades long account but I was refused. 

In all Chase paid out a total of XXXX illegally to XXXX XXXX XXXX  making my account negative that amount and charged me a total of {$370.00} ( minus a later {$100.00} fee reversal ) making a sum of {$270.00}. The total of unauthorized payments and fees adds up to XXXX. Chase claims I owe them XXXX which when the illegal activities are reversed means I would have owed them XXXX which I told them Id pay and they refused my offer. 
End notes I have attached a copy I sent myself of my original attempt to do what the CSR told me to do and have the phone records of when I called and how long I spoke with both chase and XXXX  XXXX XXXX  XXXX  XXXX, as well as the many times Chase called me and I spoke with them regarding this if needed. 

Thanks for any help

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation