And you can take THAT to the bank.

I like to typically keep things light and airy on this site, blog about life, the kid, and my view of the world. I try to keep any true snark out of the game because I don't believe in bitch-slapping anyone across the cyber-face when that sentiment can come back directly to me. So, nowhere in this site will you find any kind of finger-pointing, name calling, or hatred.

Until now.

Let me set the scene for you. We banked with Washington Mutual, we were happy with Washington Mutual, we were not happy to see Washington Mutual succomb to the horrors of the banking world. When good ole' WaMu was taken over by Chase, we thought, well, this is a big bank, surely we should get the same kind of service with them as we had with our friendly folks at Washington Mutual. We've now been with Chase for about a month and a half.

On Friday, right before we left for our Labor Day ANNIVERSARY trip to Disney World, yeah, that part is important, John deposited cash at our local Fort Myers branch, cash we had saved up to use solely on Disney World. The amount of cash is not important, but it was significant enough to fund our weekend, our ENTIRE weekend. After his direct transaction with a teller, which also included a small check, he then checked online later to confirm the entire amount was pending. It was. And the teller had confirmed the entire amount would be available on Saturday morning. Good enough, right?

On Saturday, firmly esconsed in all things Disney and dropping some of the loose cash we had already budgeted to spend on fun stuff for the kid, John then checked our bank account again to confirm the amount and make sure we were on track. Again, this money was to be spent on our vacation, we had no intention of using anything else. Relaxing in our hotel room before dinner, he discovered, to his shock and my horror, that the pending status was wiped away, gone. And so was the money.

Like it never happened. Like he never went to the branch. Like he never spent hours on end fixing computers on the side to make the money in the first place.

Immediately, he called the Chase customer service line and spoke to the Claims department where they could not see any past pending transactions, only current pending transactions. Nor could they verify anything because, guess what? The money is gone! Harry Houdini's traces are not this clean!

The rep sidestepped and tried to transfer John to the local branch since this was a "local branch matter". At 5PM. On a Saturday. John figured out quickly that this would be a dead end and refused to be transferred.

"Get a supervisor," I ordered, sitting on the other hotel bed with Sprite as she played with her new souveniers, not noticing her father's voice raising in frustration or my hands now wringing frantically as I heard through John's responses that he was getting NOWHERE with the Claims rep.

"I don't think you understand, I deposited that money in our local branch yesterday. Cash! It was pending in my account as of yesterday. How could it just disappear? Can't you see anything on your side?.............. I understand the branch isn't open until Tuesday, but this money was supposed to fund our vacation that we're on NOW.... No, I'm not home, I'm on vacation, out of town..... No, I didn't intend to use any credit cards. That's why I deposited the money with you!"

I heard him go round and round with the rep. This rep was very polite, but did not sympathize with our plight of possibly being stranded on vacation without money, being that we trusted our money with this bank, and they completely fucked up. That's right. For the first time ever on this site, I'm breaking out the F-bomb. Because that's the best and only way to put it. They absolutely positively 100% fucked up. CHASE fucked up.

We hung up feeling distressed and livid. After calling some family, we found out this has happened to John's father before with the same bank not too long ago. Now, I can understand the big world ratio of one in a million customers, but John's DAD? This isn't a friend of a friend of a cousin's estranged roommate, this is the man behind John's existence. That ratio is a little too high for our comfort.

Luckily, John had a receipt which he brought to our local branch this morning. As soon as the doors opened, he was in the branch manager's office. She apologized profusely, STILL could not explain the disappearance of the money, gave a PROVISIONAL credit, and promised to get their research team on it immediately.. Er, the research team is the claims department, the very department that tried to dismiss this as a "local branch matter". The fact that the receipt was handed over to prove that the money was deposited and the verification that the money never posted to the account was not enough to give him the money free and clear.

I can understand the bank's position. They wanted to know where the money went so they were tacking on a provision to the credit so they wouldn't just hand over money while they looked between their own couch cushions to find the dinero THEY dropped. But the bank should understand our position. That was OUR money you dropped. You owe us interest for the four days it took to credit the account correctly. You owe us for any interest this trip tacks onto our credit cards since we HAD TO RESORT to credit cards in order to EAT during our weekend. You owe us for the strain you put on our vacation and the new limits we had to set when that money was to guarantee there WOULD BE NO LIMITS. You owe us for the amount of times we had to tell our daughter "No" when she wanted something we couldn't buy since we were so worried about the "What if's" that could happen if you decided not to do anything about your screw up. I mean, you stole our money once already, right?

This should be seen as a warning to those who bank with Chase or are looking to open an account with them. THIS COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!!!!  We're researching new banks now to trust with our money.

Chase dropped the cash.

Chase dropped the ball.

Chase is a disgrace.

***Update! As John wrote in the comments, the missing transaction DID INDEED show up today in our account as if it just got lost on the way to the party with no explanation for its actions or why there's an additional 100 miles on the odometer. And the provisional credit is still there, so our account is still heavily unbalanced.
After speaking to one of the tellers, it turns out that all deposits, unless direct deposit, are entered into pending status for one business day with Chase. Cash does not qualify anything with this bank. Lesson learned.

Comments

[Jim Styro]

Thanks for posting this warning. I feel lucky that our dealings with the local credit union have been quite smooth - even when our debit card numbers got stolen last year. Which reminds me - I better balance the d*mn checking account!

[TJB]

I have my mortgage with Chase (they bought it from the original financier), and I've had nothing but problems with them. The latest being that I pay half my mortgage 2x a month on payday (cuts down on interest payments that way).
So last week I started getting collection calls. Besides being EXTREMELY rude (being a collection agent doesn't excuse you from being polite when I'm being polite and doesn't give you the right to call me a liar), they were not helpful at all. I finally got in touch with a customer service rep who assured me she would take care of it, but still couldn't explain what happened.
I thought everything was fine....till 4 days later when I received another collection call, from someone who was even ruder AND couldn't speak english (really? outsourcing collections to India now?). After being called a liar AGAIN, I told the lady where she could go and hung up. I then called customer service to get this squared away.
Luckily, I was able to get someone who spoke english and could help me, turns out for the last 2 months (yeah, I wasn't paying attention to my statement) they had applied my payments to the principal instead of my current statement. The guy I spoke to was nice enough and credited my account for the late fees and what not. But still, that's an hour or so of my life I will never have back. And don't even get me started on their loan modifications, which they don't do for people who really need it!
Ok, I'm done... Let this be a lesson to all, Chase is horrible to bank with.

[The Stiletto Mom]

They suck. We bank there and have had nothing but heartache with them. Thank you for posting this, reminds me I need to stop being lazy and switch banks!

[Mary Anne]

May Aunt-in-Law worked for WaMu in Florida, was pretty happy working for WaMu, not so much now that she's working for Chase.

How terrible is it that the scariest thing you can do with your money is to deal in cash? It is no wonder that everyone uses credit cards and unfortunate that so many end up going down that hole.
Glad it is working out, hope it didn't put too much of a damper on you weekend!

[Lisa @ Boondock Ramblings]

And Chase ain't gettin' my money.

(Actually, it is probably good we don't have any Chase banks around here. That I know of. Because if we did I wouldn't deal with them.)

We have a small town bank and so far they seem to be pretty good. Dang, I hope they stay that way!

keep us updated on this saga.

[kyooty]

Banking shouldn't be such hard work. I've been hearing a lot os "scary" CHASE stories. A friend got aletter about refinancing and had to pay 750 for the "deposit" and didn't get ti back right away, they are banking on you "forgetting" and them doing this to a bunch of people and getting interest on all those 750's

[Pippa]

ooh second post in a week about chase (different blogs of course) being rubbish and losing business. If I ever move from the UK Chase won't get my business.

[Middle-Aged-Woman]

Try a credit union this time. You aren't a member, you are a shareholder.

[A Tired Wife]

I am so sorry that you had to deal with this on your vacation. I hope you've all found a way to put it to the side for now and not let it completely ruin your vacation.

[Michele]

I've been banking with Chase for years and have never had a problem. Just lucky I guess. I'm pretty sure my number is up any day though.

[jenni]

that is so sucky!

[Belle]

Seriously - they owe you interest!

[Nel]

I am in the same boat as you. I was with WaMu for years and now my accounts are at Chase and I HATE CHASE. They haven screwed up that majorly for me yet, but every time I walk into their doors, some annoying banker tries to sell me something. All I want is a check or to make a deposit and they are trying to cell me CD's or IRA's or something. It drives me crazy.

[Casey]

Oh that's so frustrating. I can tell how pissed you are since you dropped the f bomb (way to go!). I hate that banks we know and trust are closing left and right and we're stuck with whoever takes them over. That happened to us recently too. Here's hoping those jerkfaces clear this up soon!

[Robin]

Since when do you have to wait for cash to POST? Isn't cash an automatic deposit? There shouldn't be anything pending. I don't get it.
Banks in general suck. They're the epicenter of this whole recession. The whole bailout thing is a total joke.
Sorry that this happened to you.

[Cameron]

Banks blow....each and every one of them to varying degrees.

The bank we deal with is a small local one, and they suck too. They're online banking is atrocious, the balance is never accurate, it's basically a guessing game as to how much money is REALLY in our checking account at any given time.

[Krystal]

All I can say is that I use wachovia and have not had problems with them...when i deposit cash, it is in automatically....so sorry you had to go through that...we had a similar issue with a credit card that we paid off in time for a disney trip as well...needless to say it takes the happines out of the happiest place on earth.

[Arwen]

That's really scary.

We've been getting increasingly unhappy with our bank (not to mention any names, but the initials are WF). They've been tacking more fees on and moving money around without permission. We're trying to move everything into our Credit Union accounts instead.

I'm thinking of using today's post for this week's Spin Cycle, because it fits. What do you think?

[hubbyjohn]

Update: Looked at our account this morning, and guess who decided to show up --- my cash deposit from Friday. We're gonna be moving over to a credit union as most people I share the story with recommend. Thanks all for your comments. Next step: writing a letter to them for the interest they owe us!

[Sprite's Keeper]

Those damn cash deposits. Always late to the party and they never bring chips..

[mrs mogul]

That completely sucks! I'm afraid now b/c my mortgage was just purchased by Chase from the original lender.

[Erin@TheLocals Love It]

Man that sucks big time. Sorry it had to happen. Especially during a vacation.

[bessie.viola]

Yes, absolutely switch to a credit union. My local one is fantastic - I've had issues, but they're always resolved immediately & with apologies. I've always been happy with them.

SUCKS that your vacation became so stressful though. That is unforgivable.

[Laufa]

We have had Chase too, they bought out our bank (different than Wash Mu). I have hated them for years, but have too many direct deposits going into them. They are a terrible banking company and suck as a credit card company also.
Glad everything was worked out, sorry you had the craziness of the disappearing money.

[Jan]

Oh, don't get me started on Chase. It's the one credit card we are desperately trying to get completely paid off long before the rest because I am sick to effing death of having conversations with their collections department. This has happened not once, but TWICE. They call me, asking where my payment is. I tell them, I mailed it in 10 days before it was due. They say they haven't received it. I look online and there the payment, picture of the canceled check and all, sits. I tell them it has cleared the bank. They say they have no record. I have to give them my bank information OVER THE PHONE so they can take MORE money out of my checking account, then pay to have a copy of the endorsed, canceled check mailed to me so I can mail it to them to prove that they are either incompetent, bleeding assholes or scum-sucking scam artists extorting double payments from their customers.

Never again. Just...never.