I work as a computer consultant and as part of my work I have to travel heavily internationally.
During my last project in Europe, lasting from March to July of I worked through a small placement agency (as is unfortunately customary in the industry), that is based in Germany.
Said agency was operating an extremely slim margins, so the pay was low and slow in coming for everyone on the project. To partly compensate for this the agency agreed to provide rentals cars to the consultants on their corporate account. Meaning the agency would rent said cars on the agency's account, pay for them and provide them to the consultant (s) working on the project.
Since the project itself was located in Holland, close to the German border, someone had to go and pick up the car from the rental car agency named "Europcar".
On 3 occasions that "pickup guy" happened to be me. All I did was sign the pickup sheets, on each of which it was *clearly* written in German "Rechnung an Manss & Partner" - "Bill to Manss & Partner".
"Manss & Partner" being the name of that woefully underfunded placement agency.
Despite the project itself going very well, Manss & Partner finally run out of funds and stopped paying the consultants working on the project.
But said rental cars had already been paid for through the agency's corporate account with Europcar and thus I reasoned that I'd just add this (costly) experience to my "fool me once" folder and would move on with my life.
But I still had to get back to Germany to get my belongings and head to the airport to get Stateside.
So I picked up a car from Europcar for the 4th (!) time, but this time I really did rent it with my own Chase Debit Card.
It was a one day rental and I returned the car back the following day w/o incident.
But a few days later and to my utter dismay I found over $1700 in rental car charges had been placed on my Chase debit account.
I immediately contacted Europcar and they told me that they'd received a request by their corporate customer Manss & Partner to refund the money for all previous project related car rentals and when asked who was supposed to pay for these rentals now, Manss & Partner had given Europcar authorization to put all those charges, dating way back to April and May of '08, on my debit card.
And when I told Europcar that Manss & Partner had no business "authorizing" Europcar they could (ab) use the Debit Card info from my own personal rental to pay for transactions which had been ordered and already paid for by M & P month ago in the first place, Europcar's callous reply was "we've received the money for these charges from your bank and this transaction is now closed".
So I filed a fraud complaint with Chase Manhattan that very same day in August and once I had faxed in all the related paperwork it took Chase less than 3 days to conclude that those extra charges had indeed not been authorized by me. And ergo Chase reversed them and I left it at that - big mistake.
Because almost 3 month later in October I suddenly and w/o warning saw that over a thousand dollars was missing from my debit account with Chase.
So I checked things out - knowing that, given the current economy, I've long since stopped making any "big ticket item" purchases.
As I found out Chase had reversed their reversal and send the whole original amount in question back to Europcar.
When I furiously try to find out what happened I'm being told Chase's customer "help" line (800-935-9935) by some woman who would only identify herself with her first name (while I *always* have to give up every bit of private info right down to my Social Security #) that "the merchant provided proof to us that all those charges where authorized by you Mr. Frazer".
So I demanded to see said "proof" - knowing that I never singed a Debit/Credit card authorization and didn't even give Europcar my Debit Card info to begin with well until I had already stopped working for the whole outfit and wasn't driving any of those cars no more.
What I get send over from Chase were 8 pages of a "Frankenstein Fax" - single pages printed on different systems and obviously unrelated - of which only 2 contain my signature.
And those 2 pages were actually one and the same, as one was the "carbon copy" page of the same *single* car rental agreement.
And that car rental was not even my own 4th rental, which I'd come to regret by then - instead it was from one of the other 3 rentals which I had only picked up and it stated *clearly* in German that this car rental was to be paid for by Manss & Partner. - including their corporate billing account number.
I only signed on the dotted line there because I was the pick up guy, but I made darn sure that it said nowhere (!) on that form that I was the one who'd pay for any charges related to said rental.
And accordingly that one single rental agreement Europcar included doesn't contain *any* Debit Card info of mine either.
Last not least the amount listed on that one single car rental agreement was ~550 Euros.
That's roughly ~US$800 - yet Chase gave Europcar back the whole enchilada - wiping out my positive account balance of ~$400, in the process getting me stuck with a negative balance of almost $1400.-
Now a few month ago that setback wouldn't have been a total catastrophe for me, but combined with all my travel expenses and the fact that I didn't get paid for that Holland gig by M & P, this blow was now very serious for me.
So I made phone calls up and down the ladder at Chase Manhattan for days on end, telling the folks there to get someone to analyze the pages faxed over by Europcar who "can read German"!
Then the last nail in the coffin was a statement from someone manning the phone at Chase's Dispute Customer Claims Department (866-564-2262).
There I was told that "yes I can see what you are talking about Mr. Frazer, but they got your Debit Card number so you must have agreed to pay for those charges and we already send Europcar [back] the money, so there is nothing more we can do about this. Have a nice day!"
Right after this enlightening experience I filled a complaint with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency.
But as Mr. Maurice - one of their supervisors - revealed to me, other than playing paper tiger with the Big Banks the OCC can't really do much.
They can't and won't enforce rules that have been violated and every single communication takes weeks to complete and relies on the Bank's voluntary willingness to participate.
And even if the OCC should issue a finding in my favor, they can and will do *nothing* to enforce it!
I also have a 2nd (checking) account with Chase, and because I need to pay for urgent medical bills of mine by check, I left a few hundred dollars on that account.
But now I find out that Chase on their own and w/o ever bothering to tell me about it transferred all the funds from that account to my overdrawn debit account, not just causing the incoming check to bounce that was supposed to pay for my meds, but then they also charge me "returned item fees" and so I now have 2 (!) overdrawn accounts!
W/o my Asthma meds my lungs are a ticking time bomb, so I called Chase again and finally got a woman named "Jane" on the line.
And with my overdrawn debit account already having been put on "30 days notice" by Chase, that woman first agreed to transfer me to her supervisor, only to then tell me "there is nothing we can do for your Mr. Frazer and stop being to belligerent about this whole issue".
Now how would you feel if all you did was work hard all year long, you got nothing to show for, your own American (!) bank actively assists in some European shyster defrauding you and then they prevent you from getting your medicine and cause your 2nd account to go into "foreclosure mode", too.
And all this while those Wall Street Gangstas are being bailed out with your tax money and get million $ salaries each month!
These hoodlums in pin stripped suits don't give a damn what damages they cause on "street level" and that useless Office of the Comptroller tells me to use "Google" to find legal assistance for my case.
Right now I have to get by with odd jobs as no one is starting new IT projects in this country, but I can't wait month for a favorable OCC finding which will be unenforceable anyway.
I need help right now, Chase is about to close my accounts and mess up my Credit history for good.
In this economy I made it an issue not to run up Credit Card debts, I didn't take up irresponsible mortgages and I never spend more than I made.
But because of Chase Bank I'm now in the red and about to be hounded by Debt Collectors - while those bank shysters get billions of tax payer money stuffed up their rear.
There just has to be a self-help or non-for-profit group out there which I can turn to for legal advise or a lawyer willing to take my case w/o an immediate retainer.
I will find work again eventually, and this means that I will then be able to pay my legal bills.
But w/o my account I can't write checks and w/o that I can't get my medicine - or even buy a new plain ticket to get to another project.
One single Asthma attack right now and I'm on my way to the emergency room or the morgue - either scenario would cost me a lot more than I can afford. I need Heeelp here, please!!!
Chasesufferer
NYC, New York
U.S.A.
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