Consumer complaint received 2024-03-01
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Banking errors
Company: Chime Financial Inc (SC)

Summary : I signed up for US {$200.00} cash-bonus from Chime. Chime only gave me US {$100.00} cash-bonus. I emailed Chime customer service many times. Then Chime gave me one of the most aggravating, mind-bogglingly stupid run-arounds that I have ever experienced. 
-- -- -- -- -- - This whole entire process with Chime after initially opening my account has been absolutely aggravating n infuriating. I wish there were some way to forward to CFPB : every single one of my emails that I sent to Chime, every single email I have gotten from Chime, and all of it in chronological order. So that CFPB can see how aggravating n infuriating it has been. 

Chime I had an acquaintance 's referral link to sign up for a Chime account. I took a screenshot of the Chime website where they were temporarily offering US {$200.00} promotional cash bonus rather than their usual US {$100.00} promotional cash bonus. Same as the usual promo, this one also required a referral link from an existing Chime customer, which I did use. I did not take a screenshot of terms + conditions, but I did follow all of them : 1 ) use a Referrers referral link to sign up for a new Chime account.

2 ) the referrer must be eligible for the Chime " spot me '' program ( Referrer has to be eligible, otherwise they would not have a referral link to give out in the first place ).

3 ) receive one direct-deposit of at least US {$200.00} from my job into my Chime account within forty-five ( 45 ) days of signing up for the acct.
4 ) activate my Chime debit card within fourteen ( 14 ) days of receiving my direct-deposit. 


I also received an email from Chime on XX/XX/2023 that also offered US {$200.00} promotional cash bonus. This one has terms +conditions that are clear n short, and has much less strict requirements. I have a screenshot of this, if needed. This email only said that I had to use a referral link to sign up for the Chime acct, and that I need to receive one direct-deposit of at least US {$200.00}. I got a reminder email of this on XX/XX/2023. Obviously I have fulfilled these requirements. Since this personalized targeted email has fewer requirements, I believe it is fair to follow that. 

I set up direct-deposit with my job, and I had a direct-deposit of US {$200.00} into my Chime account on XX/XX/2023. Same day, I received a cash-bonus of US {$100.00} into my Chime account. I thought that was odd since Chime was supposed to give me a total US {$200.00} cashbonus. I wondered if maybe they might give me another US {$100.00} cashbonus later. Spoiler : no other US {$100.00} ever came. 

On XX/XX/2023 I emailed Chime customer service and asked about this. I immediately got a response email with a link to a live chat. I chatted with a Chime employee for a while and they told me that they will be able to get me my remaining US {$100.00} that was due to me, soon. Spoiler : still no other US {$100.00} ever came. 

On XX/XX/2023 I emailed Chime customer service and asked about this, again. This began the thing that would eventually become one of the most aggravating interactions with a bank ( financial institution? ) that I have ever had. 

I noticed that every time I got an email from Chime it came from a different employee. No big deal ; it's quite common for different employees to work on the same customer-complaint. However, every single Chime email ( each from different employee ) asked for the same basic information over n over again : referrer 's name and referrer 's email address.

I dutifully responded to each Chime email and provided the requested information. I assumed that, like all big companies, there must be some sort of ticket/reference system in place to handle customer complaints, that keeps all of my emails and chime 's emails to me together since they are all regarding the same exact complaint/case/ticket. Why would there not be a system for this at Chime? 

I figured they were just gathering as much information as possible. Honestly, here is what I thought : I thought Chime was on a fishing expedition. I thought they were sneakily trying to trip me up, trying to catch me in a " lie '' of some sort so that they could find some excuse some loophole, so that they would not have to pay me the remaining US {$100.00} that they had agreed to pay me. 

Eventually, I figured out that Chime has NO system of any kind for keeping a customer complaint/case file together. Evidently Chime has NO system in place that keeps all of the emails together from the same customer-complaint. I already saw from the beginning that each of my emails goes to a completely different Chime employee. 

But moreover, It has now become evident that each individual Chime employee has no access to any of my prior or later emails except for the one that happened to be queued to them. Apparently any given employee has no way of knowing that I have already been sending emails. So what was happening at Chime was that every single employee was seeing only one email from me. So because they have no access to any of my emails, each employee is thinking that the one email queued to them is the first ever email I have sent to Chime. Each given employee seems to be under the impression that any one given email they receive from me -- is the only email I have ever sent to Chime. 

So each given employee dutifully thinks this is a brand-new customer-complaint/case. And they think they have to start from the beginning and ask me for basic information -- referrer 's name, referrer 's small address. 

This is the only possible reasonable explanation for why, every single freakin time that I replied to a Chime email, the response that Chime sent me in reply to my response -- asked for basic information all over again. 

A " reply '' or " response '' by definition is not the beginning of something. It is by definition, an ongoing situation. It is never THE beginning of a conversation. Yet every single time I sent a reply email to a Chime email, it seemed to re-start the whole process. 

Many, many iterations of emails later, a Chime employee gave a reference number. I thought, what the heck?? They are just now giving me a reference number? So.. that is something they do? And it is in fact information they are supposed to put in emails? 

This made me notice there was an absence of any reference number all this time. So why didn't anyone give me a reference number from the very beginning? Thats not the customer 's job to assign a reference number to a case. It's the company 's job to make sure the customer-complaint-case has a reference number. 

So I replied to that reference-number-containing email. And Yet a different Chime employee replied to my reply. And get this -- this employee gave me a different reference number. Why in the world is this other employee giving me a different reference number? That indicates the same thing as before -- Chime evidently has absolutely NO ticketing/complaint system in place. 

I responded to both of these reference # -containing emails. And Lo and behold, my emails were shunted to yet different Chime employees. I know this because I received very aggravating emails from each of these reference # -giving-employees : emails saying that since ( they were under the impression that ) I did not respond, they will close the case.