Consumer complaint received 2022-03-09
Product: Checking or savings account — Checking account
Issue: Managing an account — Deposits and withdrawals
Company: JPMORGAN CHASE & CO. (TX)

XX/XX/XXXX : My business partner and I opened a Business Checking, Savings, and Credit Card at our local Chase Bank located in XXXX XXXX XXXX. We told the financial sales representative that this would our first business account as an LLC and that we would soon be depositing a check by one of our clients in the following days. Opening the account ( s ) / credit card was simple enough and fairly easy. 

A week or so later, our client provided us our check so that we could deposit the funds into our account ( {$10000.00} ). My business partner deposited the check and was told that due to the amount, the check would be subject to a hold. We were anticipating this so this was not a problem. 7-10 business days later, when the funds were supposed to be released, we received a message from Chase Bank XXXX via email ) that our account has been frozen and the funds were not to be released. I then called Chase Bank customer service and the rep told me that the funds would not be released until Chase received further verification that this check was good to deposit. The verification they needed was a valid phone number for the business. Chase customer service would then call the company and speak to accounts payable and verify that these funds were truly intended for us. 

I then called my client and asked for the phone numbers for accounts payable, which they provided. I then called Chase Customer Service again and provided the phone numbers. Chase rejected these numbers saying that the could not call these numbers because they were not " landline '' numbers and that they can not verify them. I then spoke to my client and asked to landline numbers, but due the pandemic, they no longer had true landlines and instead received phone calls through their laptops for remote work purposes. I then called Chase back with this information and Chase still refused to speak to anyone from Accounts Payable since they ( Chase ) could not verify these numbers. 

Fast forward to today ( XX/XX/XXXX ) and we are still going in circles in Chase. Now Chase has closed our account and our funds have been suspend in some unknown Chase account. Chase still refuses to speak to our client or even XXXX XXXX ( the bank that which the check is drawn from ). We have also issued a complaint through Chase 's internal complaint department and yielded no results. Even when speaking to our local branch, they issued an internal complaint and that was met with silence. Despite calling numerous times, Chase is not even willing to return the check back to our client so that we can start the process over. At this time, we feel that they are holding our funds hostage. 

Our production has halted since we do not have access to our funds. We are also an Asian-American owned business, and we do feel that we experienced discrimination based off how unusually hard this process has been and their unwillingness to be helpful to us. This is hard to overlook, especially given the visibility or Coronavirus and it's origins. We feel that we have given them multiple points of verification, information, as well as documentation proving that this check and our business is valid, and they have refused them all. Chase has even given us contradictory information about how to resolve this matter, but it seems as if they are just giving us false hope just to keep us quiet. 


All we wish to do is to have our business keep running.