Consumer complaint received 2023-10-26
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Opening an account — Unable to open an account
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (IA)

On XX/XX/2023 me and my Principal, XXXX XXXX, pursuant to a Statutory Power of Attorney under the Iowa Uniform Power of Attorney Act went to the Chase Bank branch located at XXXX XXXX XXXX XXXX in XXXX XXXX, IA to have Power of Attorney documents notarized and to open an account in his name and when taken back to the bankers office the banker promptly began opening the account for XXXX XXXX. This wouldn't have been a problem because under the Iowa Uniform Power of Attorney Act I only need the acknowledged Power of Attorney Forms in order to transact on his account under Iowa law. Of course the banker explained that their policy was to send the Power of Attorney to their legal counsel for review and that they had to wait for their legal counsel to approve the Power of Attorney and then add it to the account. In the mean time the banker suggested creating a joint account so that I could access the account if necessary while we await for their attorney 's to decide whether to accept the Power of Attorney or not. Obviously, this was an issue as it violates the Iowa Uniform Power of Attorney Act on several levels and as as result the branch manager was brought into the discussion to further attempt to bully and insist that their policies would have to followed regardless of the law. During this interaction the branch manager, XXXX XXXX brought other employees into the discussion to further bully and intimidate me into complying with what they wanted to do. One of these employees was Executive Director/Marketing Manager XXXX XXXX who came into the office with a lot of misinformation and only sought to escalate matters further and on several occasions falsely accused me of being rude and disrespectful to her and her employees to the point where it can be argued that she engaged in XXXX discrimination. When informed that the law obviously trumps the company policies she promptly retorted that this was not true and that it was the other way around. At some point I began recording because of the route things had been taken and I have it on recording where I was falsely accused of being rude and disrespectful numerous times as well as XXXX XXXX at least admitting and defending her stance that the banks policies superseded the laws among other things including the fact that it was only I, myself, who took the time to try and deescalate and get the conversation back on track and I pointed out several times that they were simply wasting our time as well as made numerous requests for them to contact legal due to the situation which ultimately only got interpreted as a desire for me to lodge a complaint by XXXX XXXX. Ultimately, XXXX XXXX did notarize the Power of Attorney putting into full effect but because of the time XXXX XXXX insisted that we had to come back another time to open the account but was adamant that we would have to comply with the banks unlawful procedure. As a result I lodged a corporate complaint only to discover that branch employees had lodged complaints on my behalf ahead of me in a clear attempt to get their version of the facts heard before mine in a clear attempt to garner favor from corporate and/or the investigations team. On XX/XX/2023 I spoke with XXXX who had been assigned to handle my complaint and she instructed me to contact a branch to set an appointment to have the account setup but could not guarantee that I would not continue to run into problems despite claiming that the issue was addressed and that the branch was advised of the proper policy as it pertains to Power of Attorney 's in the State of Iowa but for whatever reason when I requested that she disclose that policy she asserted that she was allegedly not allowed to disclose the banks " proprietary '' policy. Of course that wouldn't fly in a court of law and I am fully aware that banks notoriously have this issue and it does sadly result in legal action at the expense of the bank and an order mandating that the bank accept the Power of Attorney. I did reach out to the branch to see about scheduling the appointment for the account opening and did inquire as to what they were informed of and of course I did not get the bankers name but when she insisted that she had to transfer me to XXXX XXXX I asked for her name once more and she refused stating that she did not feel comfortable providing me her name obviously as I had already indicated that I would be reaching back out to XXXX to report the interaction. Eventually she hung up prompting me to call back and this time I reached " XXXX '' who upon discovering what I was trying to do informed me that I had to wait for XXXX XXXX to call me back and that they were informed by XXXX XXXX to not take my calls and to make me wait for a call back that may or may not happen. This was clear retaliation for my complaint and as a result I contacted XXXX back immediately so that this could be added to the investigation and properly addressed. At this point XXXX advised that I just wait for a lady named XXXX to contact me again as she had attempted to contact me last week before she went out of the office explaining why she has not returned my calls. XXXX did inform me that she would reach out to XXXX to ensure that XXXX knew that I had to try to respond to her voicemail and to make sure that I had a good number for her. While I waited I decided to try me luck with the other two local branches and only discovered that both branches were only aware of the policy stating that they had to have the Power of Attorney approved by their legal counsel. XXXX at the XXXX XXXX XXXX branch was far more respectful than anyone else that I have spoken to on the branch level thus far and he was very apologetic for my experience and did state that he would reach out to their legal departement to see what they should be doing. He also provided me his email address so that I could send him a copy of the Iowa Uniform Power of Attorney found in the Iowa Code so that he had it when he spoke with them and could hopefully address the issues at hand. Either way this shouldn't have taken this much to get someone to finally contact the legal department to ensure they were in compliance with the law. Furthermore, I can't stress enough how much risk the alleged current policy places on employees as Iowa law permits an agent and/or principal to sue not just the bank/business entity but the individual who refuses to accept the Power of Attorney themselves and so at the very least this is extremely reckless on the banks end.