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The most important lesson learned here is not to ever deal with retail banking at the branch. Not only do they not care they aren’t given the authority or auton

The most important lesson learned here is not to ever deal with retail banking at the branch. Not only do they not care they aren’t given the authority or autonomy to help you. By trying to do this at multiple branches across the country OP likely made the problem worse as those actions raise suspicions even more. With that much money after the first day of inaction by support he should have CC’d every department from legal@ to the C-suite.

oasisbob 2y ago
This may vary a lot by bank. At the small regional bank I used to work for accounts were assigned a home branch, typically where the account was first opened, and that branch had enhanced responsibilities in terms of servicing and maintaining the relationship. Chase is big enough that their KYC fallout queues probably have an entire team working them, and it wouldn't matter who else you CC on the email. ("Hey Joe, come quick! Just got an email from someone claiming they need their money we just froze...")
- calmbonsai 2y ago
  Can confirm KYC really helps (in reverse) at small/regional banks. Shout-out to Midfirst Bank https://www.midfirst.com/about-us https://www.midfirst.com/about-us for walking the walk. I deliberately flow a higher percentage of transactions through my, literally 10 min walk away, regional bank branch. I also occasionally (~once/month), literally walk into the lobby (shocking I know) to say "hi!" when withdrawing cash at the ATM for travel. They know me by name & face. I'm not just a number to the tellers, the manager, and the vp, and likewise back to them. Shockingly, I get fees waived for wires the occasional cashier's check, and am appraised of anything else going on with the website, upcoming services, and pending transactions (even at high relative holding percentages from one-time routes) flow through like butter. Relationship banking at its finest.
- 650REDHAIR 2y ago
  But this isn’t a KYC issue and clearly escalating worked. Any time I’ve ever had issues that weren’t resolved within 24hrs by t1 support I’ve sent a succinct, mostly emotionless email to anyone I could find and it’s worked every time. Phone companies, banks, hell even the government.
- crote 2y ago
  > Chase is big enough that their KYC fallout queues probably have an entire team working them, and it wouldn't matter who else you CC on the email. The trick is to become so incredibly annoying that some CxO / VP is going to bump you ahead in the queue and assign a dedicated customer experience manager. Personally, if a bank were to steal $180.000 of my money, a few weeks in I'd probably start considering sticking "Chase is a criminal organization" posters on the doors of their regional headquarters, or getting tickets to industry events just so I can ask them at the Q&A where my money is. They may think "computer says no" is an acceptable answer, but that doesn't mean I can't make their life a living hell too - so why not make my problem our problem?
  - mandibles 2y ago
    > Chase is a criminal organization This should be your operating assumption from Day 1.
  - 77pt77 2y ago
    >The trick is to become so incredibly annoying that some CxO / VP is going to bump you ahead in the queue and assign a dedicated customer experience manager. Hard to be annoying when they can just completely ignore and redirect it to /dev/null
    - forgetfreeman 2y ago
      It gets a lot easier to be annoying when you add meatspace antics to your portfolio.
      - 77pt77 2y ago
        > Yes officer, this neerdowell right here.
        crote 2y ago
        There's quite a lot you can do which isn't illegal, but is incredibly annoying. Such as renting a billboard on the CxOs daily commute route or near their golf club. They might be able to personally ignore me, but can they also ignore their golf buddies asking questions about it?
mminer237 2y ago
It's definitely exacerbated by being a big bank though. If I have a problem with my local bank, I can literally walk into the branch and probably just talk to a VP about it straight-away if needed.
- syntheticnature 2y ago
  Yes, though banks use "VP" in a title the same way "Senior" is used in software.
  - bluGill 2y ago
    This is a legal thing - a vice president or above is required to sign off on a large loan (like a house loan which isn't all that big to a bank). Thus banks give lots of people vice president titles, but those people don't have any authority except to give the large loans. They get an impressive title though.
- smeej 2y ago
  This is even more true at a local credit union. Add in the co-op network of credit unions, where you can go to any branch of any of the member unions (50k+ branches last time I checked, but it's been awhile) and it's hard for me to understand why people bother with these big banks.
  - nraynaud 2y ago
    When I looked at local credit unions in Arizona, none of them would be able to deal with international transactions.
  - skybrian 2y ago
    Sometimes your credit union turns out to be Patelco and you get locked out for a while [1]. Since we can't vet a bank's IT infrastructure, having multiple bank accounts seems like the only way to guard against certain risks. [1] https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/patelco-credit-union-data-breach/ https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews...
jxnlco 2y ago
yeah it was hard to fit in my travel schedule, i totally agree it was a terrible experience losing contact and starting over with many people
throwway120385 2y ago
I would've had a lawyer on retainer within the first week and had them in touch with the legal department until I got my check. We've had similar weird issues with our home address and the mortgage company that suddenly got cleared up when we put our lawyer in touch with their lawyer and there turned out to be a very simple form and process for changing the address of the property.
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
jonnycomputer 2y ago
I'm going to have to say that getting a lawyer on board with that much money after the second obstacle would be first priority.

oasisbob 2y ago

This may vary a lot by bank. At the small regional bank I used to work for accounts were assigned a home branch, typically where the account was first opened, and that branch had enhanced responsibilities in terms of servicing and maintaining the relationship. Chase is big enough that their KYC fallout queues probably have an entire team working them, and it wouldn't matter who else you CC on the email. ("Hey Joe, come quick! Just got an email from someone claiming they need their money we just froze...")

calmbonsai 2y ago
Can confirm KYC really helps (in reverse) at small/regional banks. Shout-out to Midfirst Bank https://www.midfirst.com/about-us https://www.midfirst.com/about-us for walking the walk. I deliberately flow a higher percentage of transactions through my, literally 10 min walk away, regional bank branch. I also occasionally (~once/month), literally walk into the lobby (shocking I know) to say "hi!" when withdrawing cash at the ATM for travel. They know me by name & face. I'm not just a number to the tellers, the manager, and the vp, and likewise back to them. Shockingly, I get fees waived for wires the occasional cashier's check, and am appraised of anything else going on with the website, upcoming services, and pending transactions (even at high relative holding percentages from one-time routes) flow through like butter. Relationship banking at its finest.
650REDHAIR 2y ago
But this isn’t a KYC issue and clearly escalating worked. Any time I’ve ever had issues that weren’t resolved within 24hrs by t1 support I’ve sent a succinct, mostly emotionless email to anyone I could find and it’s worked every time. Phone companies, banks, hell even the government.
crote 2y ago
> Chase is big enough that their KYC fallout queues probably have an entire team working them, and it wouldn't matter who else you CC on the email. The trick is to become so incredibly annoying that some CxO / VP is going to bump you ahead in the queue and assign a dedicated customer experience manager. Personally, if a bank were to steal $180.000 of my money, a few weeks in I'd probably start considering sticking "Chase is a criminal organization" posters on the doors of their regional headquarters, or getting tickets to industry events just so I can ask them at the Q&A where my money is. They may think "computer says no" is an acceptable answer, but that doesn't mean I can't make their life a living hell too - so why not make my problem our problem?
- mandibles 2y ago
  > Chase is a criminal organization This should be your operating assumption from Day 1.
- 77pt77 2y ago
  >The trick is to become so incredibly annoying that some CxO / VP is going to bump you ahead in the queue and assign a dedicated customer experience manager. Hard to be annoying when they can just completely ignore and redirect it to /dev/null
  - forgetfreeman 2y ago
    It gets a lot easier to be annoying when you add meatspace antics to your portfolio.
    - 77pt77 2y ago
      > Yes officer, this neerdowell right here.
      - crote 2y ago
        There's quite a lot you can do which isn't illegal, but is incredibly annoying. Such as renting a billboard on the CxOs daily commute route or near their golf club. They might be able to personally ignore me, but can they also ignore their golf buddies asking questions about it?

mminer237 2y ago

It's definitely exacerbated by being a big bank though. If I have a problem with my local bank, I can literally walk into the branch and probably just talk to a VP about it straight-away if needed.

syntheticnature 2y ago
Yes, though banks use "VP" in a title the same way "Senior" is used in software.
- bluGill 2y ago
  This is a legal thing - a vice president or above is required to sign off on a large loan (like a house loan which isn't all that big to a bank). Thus banks give lots of people vice president titles, but those people don't have any authority except to give the large loans. They get an impressive title though.
smeej 2y ago
This is even more true at a local credit union. Add in the co-op network of credit unions, where you can go to any branch of any of the member unions (50k+ branches last time I checked, but it's been awhile) and it's hard for me to understand why people bother with these big banks.
- nraynaud 2y ago
  When I looked at local credit unions in Arizona, none of them would be able to deal with international transactions.
- skybrian 2y ago
  Sometimes your credit union turns out to be Patelco and you get locked out for a while [1]. Since we can't vet a bank's IT infrastructure, having multiple bank accounts seems like the only way to guard against certain risks. [1] https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews/patelco-credit-union-data-breach/ https://www.northbaybusinessjournal.com/article/industrynews...

jxnlco 2y ago

yeah it was hard to fit in my travel schedule, i totally agree it was a terrible experience losing contact and starting over with many people

throwway120385 2y ago

I would've had a lawyer on retainer within the first week and had them in touch with the legal department until I got my check. We've had similar weird issues with our home address and the mortgage company that suddenly got cleared up when we put our lawyer in touch with their lawyer and there turned out to be a very simple form and process for changing the address of the property.

deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

jonnycomputer 2y ago

I'm going to have to say that getting a lawyer on board with that much money after the second obstacle would be first priority.