Over at the Huffington Post, retired teacher Ernest Nitzberg blogged about the experience that made him sever his 44-year banking relationship with Chase. He writes that Chase accuses him of using a debit card that he was never issued to buy $6200 worth of merchandise that he was unlikely to want or need. Makes perfect sense to us, too.

I contacted Chase the day after I received my statement. I pointed out that I had not received a debit card and that it was completely out of character and history for a 78-year-old single man recently out of open heart surgery with no children or grandchildren of Toys R Us age and not in need of a Shalom dress or any of the items that Juicy Couture makes to buy that much crap in one day. I was assured that everything would be put right. After forms were completed and sent to Chase’s fraud unit and a report made to the police, I waited to have my faith in Chase’s fidelity to our long relationship restored. I trusted Chase to do the right thing by me.

A police investigation showed a woman in a hoodie with a scarf over her face at the ATM using my never-received debit card…immediately, I called Chase’s claims department. They kindly informed me that I would not get my money back because, according to their algorithms, I fit the profile of a credit card cheat. Mind you, I am, once again, a 78-year-old retired New York City public school teacher with no criminal record; but according to Chase, I was the most likely suspect. When asked about the woman with the hoodie and the scarf, Chase suggested that she probably was my accomplice.

After weeks of trying to plead my case while professing my innocence and fidelity to Chase, I was rudely told by the people at Chase’s Claims Department in Texas that the case was closed and that I should not bother to call them any more.

Were he a Consumerist reader writing to us for help, we would point Ernest toward the potentially helpful representative at Chase’s executive customer service department whose contact information we posted yesterday.

The $6200 Insult: How Chase Manhattan Convinced Me to Finally Move My Money [Huffington Post]

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