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]