Consumer complaint received 2023-03-13
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO.
State: MD
Product: Credit card or prepaid card
Sub-product: General-purpose credit card or charge card
Issue: Problem with a purchase shown on your statement
Sub-issue: Credit card company isn't resolving a dispute about a purchase on your statement

Complaint:
I was fraudulently charged {$3700.00} by XXXX XXXX for merchandise, taxes, and a delivery fee with a promise that it would deliver the item ( a turquoise damask rug ) by XXXX XXXX Tuesday, XX/XX/, that it failed to deliver. Since XXXX XXXX refused to provide a specific appointment time for the delivery, I told it that it would need to call me at least 60 to 30 minutes before it wanted to deliver the rug to ensure that I could take delivery when it wanted to bring it ; at no time did I agree to wait for 3 or more hours for a supposed delivery that, in fact, did not occur. On the contrary, I repeatedly told numerous agents for XXXX XXXX that it would need to call at least 60-30 minutes before it wanted to deliver the rug sometime between XXXX XXXX  and XXXX XXXX. XXXX XXXX failed to notify me in a reasonable manner, calling 10 minutes before it wanted to bring the rug, then their deliveryman refused to answer calls or texts at the number hed called me on ( XXXX ), while other reps provided false and misleading information, asking me to text its delivery person when I could receive the rug. Yet when I complied with XXXX XXXX request ( made by XXXX XXXX of the XXXX, VA store ), and texted that I could take delivery on the rug, XXXX XXXX responded by saying that it would not deliver the rug, contrary to its prior advertised commitment as part of the sale, despite the fact that I told it that I could not receive the rug after XXXX XXXX, the time it was supposed to deliver it by. Among other things, XXXX XXXX said that the delivery people needed to do their job and asked me to text the deliveryman when I could receive the rug. However, XXXX XXXX deliveryman ignored both telephone calls and texts, displaying and confirming the companys pattern of evasion and one-way communications that are consistent with its intentional, habitual, financial bullying and abuse. There was not even a machine-based answering device or voice mail at the telephone number used by the delivery man ; he just allowed it to ring and ring minutes after hed called me 10 minutes before he wanted to deliver it to announce his demand and intention to do so. 

Since XX/XX/, XXXX XXXX cajoled, badgered and bullied payment in full for the item, with a delivery fee and taxes added on, over a month before it promised to deliver it. The FTC, the CFPB, state, and other regulators should prevent and effectively sanction the pay-in-full-on-demand-get-later-maybe abuse that is XXXX XXXX modus operandi and commonplace among an increasing number of retailers, an abuse that worsened greatly during the covid pandemic. XXXX XXXX is among the worst offenders of this kind of scam. Chases enabling complicity in these predatory abuses from which it profits and its aggressively defending them for the sake of its tawdry gain, make it jointly responsible for them. 

When I called my Chase Freedom Unlimited VISA on XXXX XXXX after XXXX XXXX refused to deliver the rug it had promised, to receive full and timely credit for the scam, Chase refused to issue it. It continues, undeterred, its deeply engrained pattern of posting debits in lightning speed on this card, while obstructing, delaying and avoiding issuing credits due in anything comparable to the alacrity with which it gouges its customers with illicit charges. In typical fashion, its representative also lied, asked the same questions over and over again without noting the clear and simple answers repeatedly provided, wasted time ad nauseum, then lied by saying she would transfer me to someone else to whom I would not have to repeat the same information, yet again. When the second person came on the line after the transfer made by the first rep, she said the call came through as though from the outside, that she did not receive any facts or needed information from the previous representative as I was told by the first that she would, and that the second would have to have everything repeated. Then the second person said she could see that a partial credit had been issued by the first representative, but the second rep said she had no way of knowing who the first rep was and that she certainly did not have any way to receive the actual facts needed, again, for the credit. The CFPB should listen to the recordings of these representatives calls to see just how ridiculous they are. Finally, the second rep declared that a credit might be issued, maybe, depending on what XXXX XXXX said, and that, in any case, it would take weeks to months for the entire credit to come through, if at all, and/or be finalized. 

Chases enabling and defending its partners abuses for its own illicit gain, to include but not limited to enabling its retail partners to command significant amounts of cash or credits in mutually extorted interest-free loans for their ill-gotten cash flow and operating expenses on the backs of consumers and small business owners who are extorted to pay for them, is intolerable. So why does the CFPB, the FTC, and other regulators tolerate such predation by habitual, repeat offenders such as Chase and XXXX XXXX? Why is Chase allowed, once again, such huge discrepancies in how quickly it posts debits versus how quickly it issues overdue credits? What are XXXX  of dollars in payments from me to XXXX XXXX supposed to be for at this point, except mutual, self-evident condemnation by such well known, co-perpetrators of this kind of pay-in-full-on-demand-get-later-maybe scam? XXXX XXXX would not even allow me to obtain its merchandise at any of its stores or warehouses. There is no normative alternative in which a customer buys something at a retail location and possesses, immediately and directly, the purchased goods that are bought. The extortionary delivery fees are simply a way that XXXX XXXX and Chase collude to push obvious and reasonable operating expenses of the retailer, of getting its merchandise to public stores for purchase, onto the backs of Chases credit card users. 

Chases position is absurd but clearly demonstrates its profiteering from commonplace frauds and scams. Why are regulators not preventing this kind of routine fleecing by merchants and their bankers? 

Please force Chase to issue a full and immediate credit to my credit card for this habitual scam immediately. Please sanction it and VISA so that neither may profit but only earn penalties in the well worn, pay-in-full-on-demand-get-later-maybe market predation that has increased and strengthened so many toxic, inflated and dysfunctional markets for consumers and small business owners alike. Please investigate other similar kinds of abuses by Chase and its corporate partners, monitor it indefinitely for its illicit activity with XXXX XXXX and do something effective to put an end to it once and for all.

Company response to consumer: Closed with explanation