Complaint about Chase Bank, Tucson, Arizona

My father recently passed away, and today I received a check from his

insurance company for the death benefit. The amount was a mere fifteen

thousand dollars ($15,000), drawn on Chase Bank.

I went to a branch of Chase Bank in Arizona, where I was told that they were

a branch of the same national bank on which the check was drawn. However,

they refused to cash it.

First, they tried to pressure us into opening an account with them. We

repeatedly said that we weren't interested in opening an account there, as

we already have an established account at a competing bank.

Finally, the teller went for authorization. A few minutes later, a female

employee came over and told us she was not going to cash the check. She

again pressured us to open an account, saying that in such a case, then

honoring the check would be no problem. When we asked her if she would give

us the money upon opening the account, she said she would not. When asked

why, she said, "Well, insurance companies don't pay fast."

I asked her if there were funds in the account, and she assured us there

were but insisted that insurance companies didn't pay fast.

We asked for the manager and had to wait while he was located inside the

small branch office, either using the bathroom, eating lunch (probably

liquid) or who knows what. Finally, a smarmy little fellow named McKenna

deigned to speak with us. Naturally, he had already made up his mind before

even talking to us.

He was rude, going so far as to say that we were trying to dictate to him

how to run his bank. We merely stated that we did not believe the story the

woman had told us, and that we wanted him to put her claims in writing so

that we could take them to the insurance company and the Comptroller of the

Currency. He became increasingly cold--snooty, you might say--and refused

to do anything. He said, "Why don't you go to your own bank?"

We gave the only reasonable answer: "This check is drawn on THIS bank, and

we expect you to honor it."

He wasn't willing to do that, so we ended up having to leave. Once we got

to our own bank (Wells Fargo), we were told by a branch employee there that,

"Yes, Chase has a reputation for treating people that way."

Banks in general have way too much power, and each day it seems the

government deregulates them more and more. They do whatever they want and

answer to no one.

Wells Fargo initially told us they would hold the funds for ten business

days. After we pressed the operations officer (or whatever her title was),

she told us that she would check in three days to see if the funds had

cleared and we could call her then. That was after I reminded her that the

clearing house would need a maximum of two or three days to process a check

for that amount and make sure the bank had been paid.

People, we must not take banker arrogance lying down! The more we let banks

get away with jerking us around, the more encouraged they'll be to do it.

We must fight every attempt by every bank to rip us off. A ten business day

hold (approx 16 calendar days) is unreasonable and banks should not be

allowed to use that kind of dodge on domestic funds.

--Stocker Brown

Tucson, Arizona

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