Open letter to Chase Cards

Hello Chase team,

I have had many declined transactions over the last two days, and because of these I have called and spoken to Fraud Operations representatives six times in the last 48 hours.

Transactions that have been declined include:
Buying books from Amazon, which I have done month after month for some years
Paying for an online game, also something I do multiple times a month
Paying for rental equipment from a music store, also at least monthly for many months
Getting gas at a Shell station about a mile from my house that I’ve used many times before
Getting gas at a different Shell station, after calling earlier the same day to complain about my earlier rejection at Shell

This experience has been incredibly frustrating. In addition to spending over 80 minutes total talking to Chase Fraud Operations (or talking to automated prompts) I have also spent quite a lot of time dealing with merchants, asking them to try the transactions again, etc.

Every time I have called I have been assured that the problem should now be resolved, and I should resume using my card. At least 4 of those 6 times I have told the representative how frustrated I was getting at the ongoing failure to get the problem cleared up.

After six frustrating incidents, I still have not received an adequate explanation about what went wrong, why someone didn’t fix it sooner, why those transactions were suspicious in the first place, and what is being done to fix the problem so it doesn’t happen again.

Your Fraud Operations team has failed so seriously, that you have lost me as a customer. I will be closing my account as soon as I can move my transactions to another card. The reason I’m writing right now is to let you know why I’m frustrated, why I’m leaving Chase, and to give you one last opportunity to explain what went wrong and what you’re doing about it.

Here are the times I called (US-Pacific) in case you need to check your records to see why the problem wasn’t resolved successfully any of those times.
5/14 00:38 9 min amazon books
5/14 08:32 2 min amazon books, online game
5/14 08:37 5 min online game
5/14 08:56 5 min online game
5/14 17:00 10 min music store
5/15 10:19 8 min gas station
5/15 10:31 42 min gas station

P.S. In addition to being a loyal customer to both Chase and Amazon, I’m also an employee of Amazon. I’ll be letting my executive team know how poorly this situation was handled and how Chase has failed to make the situation right after repeated attempts.

Thanks for your time.

10 thoughts on “Open letter to Chase Cards

  1. klwalton

    Both Chase and Citibank have lost me as a customer, after 30 years in Citibank’s case, and 10 years in Chase’s case. I wonder if they think that people will forget, when the economy is better again, how *shittily* (yes, I know it’s not a word, but it seems to fit) they treated loyal customers at this time. I certainly won’t.

    Note that I have paid my bills on time, and I am nowhere near my credit limits, and yet they have jacked my interest rate up into usurious territory. I am *pissed*, and will pay them both off as soon as possible and close my accounts. Permanently. And, yes, I’ve contacted them about it.

      1. ex_ciannait

        Yup, Drew told Shittybank to go fuck themselves after they took away his 3.9% APR that they gave him to beg him to stay as a customer the month before. It’s funny, the card expired and the new one’s valid dates are 4/09 to 9/09. :-D

        I’m paying down my Chase balance. Drew opened a Schwab account to replace the Citi account. 2% cash in the Schwab account of your choice – ie, Money Market. I don’t know if IRAs are included.

        Also: Every time he’s called Schwab, for any reason, it’s been zero hold times and friendly, English-speaking people. That was a huge reason he went ahead with it.

        I’m just trying to shovel money at Chase as fast as I can. The interest rate that I have on it makes getting it down much more difficult.

  2. lwood

    My bank is small and local.

    They never invested in a subprime anything, or a derivative anything. They excel at customer service, and they pay me back for all the fees the other banks charge for the pleasure of their ATM’s.

    So, actually, they’re doing quite well, although I suspect they’ve taken a few hits simply because it’s bad for everyone at the moment.

    When Chase bought WaMu, I stumped for them for awhile, pointing out that this still likely wouldn’t go well…

    Anyway, I forget where you’re located. If you’re anywhere in the northern 510 (downtown Oakland through to Richmond, as well as a couple branches in 925), I wholly recommend them to you.

    If you’re not near me, I recommend looking for small, solvent banks or the more amenable credit unions, and seeing what they have to offer.

    — Lorrie

    1. nekodojo

      Thanks for the recommendation. I have been quite happy with my credit union… the only reason for using Chase so far has been the 1% reward back to me in the form of Amazon.com vouchers. But I’m pretty sure I can find another card that just gives me that 1% cash instead. DCU doesn’t, sadly. 1% is a fair amount for me… I usually pay my 4-5k balance in full every month.

      Thanks again for the reply… It is appreciated. I’ll keep LJ posted on what card I end up with :)

  3. alinsa

    This sounds not unlike my experiences with Bank of America, who seems to flag security problems basically every time I use one of my three (!! … because of fricking mergers) BofA cards. Granted, I don’t use them that often (probably once a month), but it’s for things like … purchases from the same Frys that I’ve made thousands of dollars of purchases from before with the same cards. The one that’s a mile from where I live.

    For your fun with Chase, right now it seems like they *want* to get rid of customers. Even for good customers (especially for good customers!) they’re jacking up interest rates and cutting credit lines, a lot of times on people that pay off their card in full every month, are never late, and never carry a balance (I guess they’re just not worth it without the interest fees…)

    So they may very well be *happy* you closed your account.

    1. nekodojo

      Yeah, during some of the 15 min I was on hold to talk to a “supervisor” the thought entered my head that this was possibly a way for them to shed unwanted customers… especially ones that pay in full every month and don’t pay interest, ever :)

      THanks for the reply!

  4. kethry

    WTH? Did they even give you a reason why this was happening?

    I use my credit union mastercard, it also has a 1% cashback, Let me know if you want the name etc.

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