Consumer complaint received 2021-12-28
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: CA
Product: Checking or savings account
Sub-product: Checking account
Issue: Managing an account
Sub-issue: Deposits and withdrawals

Complaint:
On XX/XX/2021 shortly after midnight PST I attempted to make an online purchase with my perfectly valid Chase debit card, which I use all the time, and Chase bank declined the transaction. I attempted the transaction 3 times, all 3 attempts were made with 100 % valid card information. According to merchants website, Chase declined the transaction all 3 times, on the first attempt falsely stating security code was incorrect. This was time sensitive, limited international business opportunity the merchant had a sale on the item price and bulk purchases, had limited stock and this was brand new product to market, making its distribution time sensitive matter. Despite the fact, Chase bank declined the transaction to the merchant all 3 times, it actually still wrongfully debited my account and took the money twice from me on 2nd and 3rd purchase attempts.

I immediately contacted Chase customer support, and while they put the credit back in my account for the 2 wrongful account debits, they failed to do anything about the card being blocked. I was told only Chase fraud department can unblock the card, and I was told they are unavailable right now, and I need to call them another day, during their business hours. Waiting until anothe
r day in my circumstances was not an option. By illegally blocking me from accessing my own funds for no reason, and failing to have on-call support, which could resolve the issue in timely manner, Chase bank cost me a rare business opportunity and cost me money. This is also not the first time Chase had done this to me, the only difference is on previous occasions it was a matter of causing inconvenience by denying access to my own funds, but did not necessarily cause monetary losses or business opportunities. I was also informed by Chase customer service reps, who failed to unblock the card, Chase was supposed to send me a text message and an email, to confirm or deny the validity of the transaction Chase failed to send me any texts or emails as well, for all 3 attempts. 

Chase bank has deeply flawed fraud prevention system, which frequently false-flags as fraud and stops valid transactions, and despite that fact it fails to have 24/7 on-call support with access to remove these invalid card blocks for its customers. This results in customers being blocked from accessing their own money for extended period of time, such as 3-4 days in some cases, if the blocking incident occurs on Friday night or right before holidays, when their fraud department is closed. This is illegal, criminally negligent and in many life situations, like the one Im describing, where I lost money and business opportunity, can cause serious problems to a person/family, blocked from accessing their funds. Few examples : if Im away from home, this is the only card on me, and I need to buy food I would go hungry. If I need to buy a ticket to get home Id be stranded away from home potentially for days with no place to stay. If Im trying to check out of a hotel and pay my bill I wont be able to do so for days, and would probably get arrested, until Chase fraud departments business hours start and they unblock the card.

For this incident, I demand Chase bank compensates me for loss of money and business opportunity and unblocks the card ( it is still blocked from purchases from that merchant ). I DONT WANT TO HEAR NO apologies for the inconvenience this is NOT inconvenience, these are real monetary damages caused by Chase banks criminally negligent business practice, and an apology will NOT suffice. I also DONT WANT TO HEAR from Chase any explanations how this fraud prevention system is for customers protection nobody is arguing about a need to have fraud prevention in place, but since it is a hard fact their system is deeply flawed, and detects a lot of false positives having people stranded without their money for several days or many hours is illegal, criminally negligent, causes real damages and completely unacceptable. I demand Chase bank changes their business practices by having representatives on call 24/7, who have access to remove these invalid/illegal credit/debit card blocks within minutes, not days from the moment they occur.

If Chase fails to comply with these demands I will consider pursuing legal action against Chase for the damages it cost me this time. And if Chase fails to make any changes, and this continues to happen again in the future I will definitely explore all avenues to file a legal complaint against Chase for this criminally negligent, unlawful business conduct that is causing real damage, and will almost certainly withdraw all my funds, close all Chase accounts and leave the bank for good.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation