I’m a Chase customer who had been loyal, paid all his insufficient funds fees without complaining, maintain credit and checking accounts and even upgraded to their loyalty program for checking account holders, “Chase Rewards.” How do they reward loyal clients who hold trust in them? Sell customer information to third party companies and place obstacles to opt-out.
I’ve had a very poor experience with Chase because of their inept “Privacy Policy” that is being promoted as in the best interest of the consumer. This has all been allegedly from Deb Walden, Executive Vice President, Customer Experience. I sure hope she reads my blog and has the character and ethos to respond. 
First, I want to make it clear that I respect and applaud Chase for notifying their customers, and at that, via e-mail. Not many companies are obligated to inform their customers that they will unscrupulously change their legal agreements. Chase stepped it up by advising me and provided a FAQ about the changes. All this goodwill, shot down by the poor experience in opting out of having customer information sold.
I equate this experience to the level of shock that Vincent Ferrari experienced when he tried to cancel his AOL account a couple years ago.
In the FAQ provided, the frustration is in the long-winded Q&A as it pertains to how Chase intends to share your demographic, financial and other lead-generating information to their brands, affiliate brands and third parties who would love nothing more than to advertise to. It goes like this, raw from the email:
Q. What choices do I have about information sharing and use?
A. We offer you the following three choices about sharing information that identifies you:Choice #1. Third party sharing: You may tell us not to share information about you with non-financial companies outside of our family of companies. Even if you do tell us not to share, we may do so as required or permitted by law. Also if you have authorized us to share information in connection with a particular product or service, we will continue to share information about you in connection with that product or service. For example, you might have a credit card with one of our airline, retail or university partners that offers rewards programs.
and
Choice #2. Affiliate sharing: You may tell us not to share the following information about you within our family of companies:
Information from your applications to be used to determine your eligibility, such as your income.
Information from consumer credit reports, such as your credit history.
Information from sources used to verify information you provide us, such as outstanding loans or employment history.
Even if you do tell us not to share, we may share other types of information within our family. For example, we may share name and address, information about transactions or balances with us, as well as survey results.and
Choice #3. Affiliate marketing: You may tell us to limit our family of companies, such as our credit card, auto finance and securities affiliates, from marketing their products and services to you if you do not have an account or business relationship with them. These marketing offers are based on your personal information that our affiliate receives from another Chase company; this information includes your income, your account history with us and your credit history with us. Your choice to limit these marketing offers will apply for five years from when you tell us your choice. After five years, you will receive a renewal notice from us that will allow you to continue to limit our affiliate marketing.
Phew! That’s a whole lot of choices for consumers. It’s very detailed and illuminates just how desperate they are to shill their customer base over for a few bucks just to piss off customers. Note that there isn’t a simple “Don’t share any of my information to any third party companies or Chase’s marketing department.”
I digress. The email continues on –
Q. How do I tell you about my privacy choices?
A. You may contact us by:Calling us toll-free at 1-888-868-8618, or
For hearing impaired assistance, dialing 7-1-1, then 1-888-868-8618 and wait for operator assistance, or
Writing us at P.O. Box 260177, Baton Rouge, LA 70826-0177
They included an opt-out phone number. It’s directs callers to an IVR, and I didn’t have my card number handy so I thought would receive better, personalized service from a live person by pressing 0#. Little did I know, that this is all a part of the game.
I get connected, and oddly the agent didn’t have the ability to confirm existing customer information, he entered my information what seemed to be a god-awful CRM. For context as to why I am so livid at Chase, the conversation went like this:
Chase CSR: “Hello, thank you for calling Chase, how may I help you with your privacy choices?”
Me: “Hi, I’d like to opt-out of all marketing, internal, external, subsidiaries or parent companies or affiliate providers from JPMorgan-Chase bank.”
Chase CSR: “Okay, to do that I need to have your information. May I have your name … address … phone number … ”
Me: [Info provided]
Chase CSR: “Alright and finally now I get to collect your privacy preferences — ”
Me: “Ok…”
Chase CSR: “Which option do you want to select? — for opting out.”
Me: “WHAT?! So when I said I didn’t want to receive the marketing from Chase, partners, subsidiaries, affiliates or even Chase themselves — you need to know what option I want? I WANT NONE OF THEM!”
Chase CSR: “Sir, which option do you want? ”
Me: “Excuse me? So what part of that are you having trouble understanding? I believe when I said I do not want to receive any further marketing from Chase or their partner companies, that means to honor my choice instead of adding more friction to my customer request.”
[I become furious at this point]
Chase CSR: “Sorry, I need to know which option you wish to elect from the email you received. ”
Me: “Fuck, you’re kidding, right? This is such B.S.; I called this number to opt-out, shouldn’t that be enough for consumers to protect their privacy? Seriously, before this experience, I actually respected Chase.”
Chase CSR: “Please select from option 1, 2 or 3.”
Me: “Christ! Hold on as I read the email and find out how I won’t be raped by Chase…”
Chase CSR: “No problem, I’ll be right here. ”
At this point, the email is even more difficult to read since I am looking for distinction from the three “choices.” After thoroughly reviewing the choices, it does not disclose that they are all voluntary and can be combined into one ‘choice.’ So, like most people, I was confused by this and expected a customer service rep to perhaps make that decision for me based on my explanation.
Me: “Alright, I’m still thoroughly confused here. This really is a poor experience. But I figure I’ll give it a shot…”
Chase CSR: “Ok, what option do you want to choose?”
Me: “Can I elect to opt out of all three of them?”
Chase CSR: “Sir, I can’t help you with this. I need you to specifically say which options to opt out of. They make me do this, sorry.”
Me: “Ok … um … I would like to opt out of option one, option two and option three. Did that work? ”
Chase CSR: “Thanks, I put down here that you opted out of option one, two and three. One moment as I finalize this.”
Me: “Alright, look, I apologize for going off on you earlier — I didn’t realize this was a scripted game that Chase is doing to screw customers over. I know you’re a cog in a very large machine but if you have any chance to inform management about this, please do so. I hope this call is being recorded so perhaps executive escalations can call me and make the right decision on behalf of their users. Either way, I plan to blog this truly remarkable experience.”
Chase CSR: “Yeah, I’ve been getting calls like this all day.”
Me: “I would suggest to the company that if the gave me some value for being marketed to, such as a free tips on saving money, or a discount on services, or a break on fees on my account, I would whole-heartedly opt in. But seriously, volunteering my customer information without my permission is such B.S. And to place multiple barriers to opt-out is asking for me to defect to another bank.”
Chase CSR: “Alright, you’re all set. Thanks for calling Chase.”
Me: “Yeah, the pleasure is all yours.”
This is a great example of why making sound privacy policies which respect the needs and interests of customers is a pre-requisite if companies wish to earn their trust. Will I ever apply for a loan through Chase? No. This experience has burned me to the point where I’m even considering switching financial institutions altogether. I don’t fault the rep, he was actually relatively patient himself despite being in the crossfire between process and policy between the company and the consumer.
This seems to be the trend of American big business. I know that as more places become desperate and sell their customers’ information without their direct consent, I will call them out and let people know about it. Chase, you are not forgiven.
My goal in writing this is two-fold. I want Chase customers to be aware of their privacy choices and to be able to elect to opt-out without getting the run-around like I did. I want Chase to hear my plea to make their privacy policy better for consumers. I know they aren’t listening. They are just as bad as the government, there’s likely not a price for failure.
What are your thoughts? I’m interested to hear what you think of this situation.
~Joe
[Image by TheTruthAbout... on Flickr]
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So Joe you seem like a smart guy with your blog and all you make it sound so hard.. All I did was call the phone number on the back of my Chase card.. 1-800-945-2000 and asked to be removed from mailing and not share my info.. it was about a 2-3 min phone call… why wait to get to a rep was longer tha the actual call.. the Rep thanked me and asked if I would like a letter confermig that request and about a week later I get a letter conferming my removal from mailings…. WOW that was not hard
Joe,
You bring up some great points here. It sounds like Chase is playing games with their customers by making it difficult to opt out. It's not the first time a large corporation has done this, particularly Chase. What's wonderful about our free market is that we have the option to choose our banks based on our own personal preferences. I have chosen to leave Chase due to related customer service issues.
Wow, what a POS policy. First of all, they should give you the option to opt out online, instead of wasting your time calling into some customer disservice rep or sending in a letter.
I am a Chase customer and I opted out of all information sharing long ago, but perhaps it's time that I call to make sure that I'm still opted out.
STOP TRYING TO SCREW YOUR CUSTOMERS CHASE!
Jimmy Knoxville —
The point was that Chase took the first step in telling me about their privacy changes, then I reacted as they told me to. Then when I did, they make it a real hassle to opt-out. I believe when you opt out of marketing through the back of the card, that merely opts you out of marketing from that one relationship, versus, say, sharing your information with every other company who wants to buy your info for the lowest price.
Thanks for the feedback, in the future, I'll be sure I call that number on the back to opt-out; but that still doesn't excuse Chase from making my opt-out request harder than basic training for the Army.
~Joe
Chad,
Exactly. Soon after I iron out a few issues with my account in general, I may make the jump to one of those Internet-based banks which have significantly less overhead so they pass the savings on to me. I wanted to alert others who might have otherwise ignored this email that was sent to customers and let them know the probable experience they might have.
~Joe
Thanks, Wes. I am all in favor of online opt-outs. It costs them nothing to operate and is a more consistent experience. If I read all the privacy disclosures correctly, Chase re-opts in all customers to sharing their information every five years. So you might have to opt-out again.
This is yet again, another attempt at squeezing a few extra dollars on the backs of customers instead of well, earning them.
~Joe
I have been a chase customer for years now, and don’t think I even received the email you are referencing! As a credit card, savings, and checking customer that is signed up for email and text alerts, I am very concerned that they may be selling my information. I will have to go search my junk boxes for this email.
However, I do have something to say about the Chase customer service experience in general. I applaud chase on trying to protect their customers, but recently my cc was put of “security freeze” due to a legitimate purchase, and then I was locked out of MY OWN account for THREE DAYS. Good thing I have alternate ways of handling my fiances and didn’t have to depend on my CC.. something that not all chase customers may have in place.
To add insult to injury, the first 3 times I called they couldn’t tell me anything: not why the card wasn’t working, not how to correct the issue. They only told me to wait for some mysterious security confirmation phone call. When that call did finally come THREE DAYS later… I was left on hold by Rick the “unit specialist” for 17 minutes… then hung up on….
I think I should say that again. They left me on hold for 17 minutes, then discontinued my call.
When I called them back and finally got someone who would talk to me about the security information, all they could offer me is the promise of a written apology coming by mail in who-knows-how long.
I think all current and potential chase customers should be aware that their supposed “Customer Service” is going down the drain and quickly.
Ah, Joe, this is the situation I had. Seriously, dude, I don't fight fair, and I know folks in Goddard's office REALLY well, and I know exactly what they need, Monday by 3pm est…is my deadline to have my $$ refunded.
Thanks Joe!
Due to reading this my experience went very smoothly.
I started by entering my card number but got thrown into a operator response queue due to some reason.
They asked for my name and address. Gave them the info.
Told them I wanted to OPT OUT. They asked me which choices I was shown.
I told them one,two,three. They asked which I wanted to choose and I chose one,two,three.
Bada Bing Done.
You saved me all sorts of confusion and stress. If I knew you I would buy you a beer
Glad my experience helped. That was the purpose of my writing it up.
You're correct that the free market allows us choice. However, it is important as consumers, we alert others to the privacy risks and barriers to managing privacy. The marketing efforts of Chase have failed on me and I would not want my information used in a way that would otherwise send me more advertising.
This attempt at empowering consumers failed and serves as a great question for all users of the banking companies in the US.
What bugs me most … Chase was good to me, I liked their branding … now that is all thrown out the window from this poor experience. That's all I'm saying.
I guess you've noticed their new online policy in which to access your account from a different computer than the one you normally use, you must have them email you a pass coade every single time. Now this is a hassle, but I'll roll with it. The problem is that the email address they had for me was out of date. So before I could access my account online from my new comp, I had to call them and update my email address. Seems like that should be easy enough, right? I called with my account number, my name, my birthdate, social security- all that. But this wasn't enough. They needed me to answer a series of identification questions.
Before we go on, let me say that my mortgage is with Chase (was with WaMu). For the purpose of this comment, let's say I own a house in Tulsa and my name is Anne Marie Lee. My father's name is Robert Frances Lee and he was born in July.
So the first question is: Which city does Marie Lee own a home? A) Tulsa B) Houston C) New York D) I don't know anyone named Marie Lee.
Well that's sort of confusing because Marie is my middle name and Lee is my last name and I do own a home in Tulsa. I explained this to the customer service rep, but he/she played the same infuriating script game that you encountered. “Ma'am- I need you to select either A B C or D”. I didn't know if they had made a mistake (did they get my first and middle name mixed up?) or were they trying to catch me in a trick question? And of course, the customer service rep would not help. So whatever. I chose option D. “I don't know anyone named Marie Lee” which was a strange thing to say about myself.
Question Two- (and this is the one that really gets me panties in a knot) – “What month was Frances Lee born in? A) June B) July C) September D) I don't know anyone named Frances Lee”
It makes me angry just typing it. In the first place, my father's full name is Robert Frances Lee but absolutely NO ONE has ever called him that. He goes by “Frances Lee” exclusively. So I don't know if I'm supposed to say that I don't know anyone by the name of “Frances Lee” when that is my father's name! But probably they are trying to play the trick question game again. I explain the situation to the customer service rep who will not help me and must stick to the script- I am only allowed to say ABC or D and nothing else.
The second problem I have with this is that I'm a 33 year old married adult with a mortgage and a bank account completely seperate from my father who lives in a different state. His name is absolutely NOWHERE on my account. They must have done a public record search to determine who my father is and what month he was born. Now, isn't that a little insane? Do you know how many millions of people there are out there who don't have any idea what month their father was born? Many people don't even know their father. What the hell does this question prove about my identity?
In fact, it seems like such an insane way to prove someone's identity that I decided that sometime back a long, long time ago, I must have actually selected this question as a security question to prove my identity. Perhaps long ago, they asked me to write a question that would prove who I am, you know how email sometimes does that if you forget your password? “What was the name of your kindergarten teacher?” or something. Well, I reasoned, I must have chosen “What month was Frances Lee born?” as a security question years back and forgotten. That seemed like the only reasonable explanation, so I chose, “B July”. My father is Frances Lee and he is born in July.
But no. The correct answer was “D – I don't know anyone named Frances Lee”. So to prove my identity with Chase, I have to pretend that I don't know my father. Humph. I asked where they got this information, and the customer service rep explained that it was a matter of public record. So, insane as it sounds, Chase has pulled up random public record information and then asks you tricky questions about it in order to prove who you are despite the fact that the information might have nothing to do with you at all and might be about your family members and might use their names incorrectly.
And for that reason, I was not allowed to change my email address or access my account online.
Can you believe it???
Thanks for this post. I'd lost the letter I got from Chase and was able to use the phone number here and some of the text to swim through the opt-out fairly quickly and painlessly. I was able to say “I'd like to opt out of all three” and they processed it without pushback.
I just had the very same experience. Whatever happened to 'the customer is always right”? Guess that went out when the banks took over the country. Why should WE have to opt out? The banks should need our PERMISSION to “share” our information. However, there are 600 lobbying organizations for the banks in congress. Creating this law was child's play.
I just had the very same experience. Whatever happened to 'the customer is always right”? Guess that went out when the banks took over the country. Why should WE have to opt out? The banks should need our PERMISSION to “share” our information. However, there are 600 lobbying organizations for the banks in congress. Creating this law was child's play.
Chase is the most fucked up banking institution I've dealt with. I'm a controller for a mid size company and have dealt with 30+ banks personally and for business.
Ever since the banks went belly up a few years ago, “risk management” decide to find new ways to generate revenue in anticipation of passed legistlation in 2010.
In 2008-2009, banks realed in credit lines. Not uncommon to have a $7K balance on a $10K limit lowered to about $7200. Fantasic, that just lowered your credit score because you debt to credit ration increased.
They then jack interest rates way up. Not uncommon to see 9.9% increased to 22% or 15% to 27%. That's with customers that paid on time and more than the minimum. Ironically, they sent letters asking to call them if you did NOT want the interest rate hike. Well, I called them and told them I wanted my 9.9% rate to remain, I have a very high credit score of 800+. They told me they could not honor my existing rate. Pay the balance in full or my new rate would be 22%. Unbelievable! I paid the balance in full and they proceed decrease my limit from $18K to $9K????
800+ credit score, zero balance and they cut my credit line in half. WAMU, Providian, and Chase affiliates are criminals to me.
Modern day loan sharks. They prostitued the banking industry when times were good. Giving everyone huge amounts of credit. They whored themselves when subprime mortgages made them billions. Then the subprime industry collapse and now they punish the same people that made them billions.
These guys do not let go of these fees without a fight.
Real easy – i called (after reading this blog) and within a minute I was talking w/a rep who asked what my choice was, i said 1 and 2 and 3, she confirmed all three, done. bloggy nice bloggy.
You probably GAVE that permission when you signed the credit card application. Did you read the fine print?
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