And you thought casino support was bad...

[spearmaster]

I thought some of you might enjoy this - proves that it's not only casino support which is clueless...

I had a problem with one of my credit cards - I have requested that all my credit cards at various banks NOT be allowed to go over limit because I am usually out of the country (ie. in Thailand) and that I would NOT pay any over limit charges. Every bank agreed - except apparently Chase.

I called, and got customer support, which to the best of my knowledge appears to be in India at least for telephone support, though all the online representatives look to be based in the US. Needless to say I got absolutely no satisfaction, so I went to the online support facility and complained.

I said on Dec. 21:

I have repeatedly requested that Chase DENY all purchases which will take me over limit as I do NOT want any overlimit charges - yet it is clear that Chase are unable to provide this service. So yet again I have been charged an over limit fee.

Every other credit card I have allows the system to block any charge which will take the card over limit. It is extremely disappointing that Chase cannot or WILL not do the same.

Furthermore, a request to reschedule payment as I am overseas and unable to move money in my accounts also does not appear to be possible even after speaking with your support people.

Unless this can be resolved QUICKLY, please do NOT accept any further charges on this card - as soon as the balance is paid off I will close this card as it has proven to be more hassle than it is worth.

Needless to say I was pissed off having to protect my credit rating because of Chase's apparent inability to follow a simple request.

Their response:

Dear (Spearmaster):

As your credit card company, we value your business and want you to be completely satisfied with your credit card account. We apologize for the delay in responding to your inquiries.

To ensure your satisfaction, we have reviewed your account and our our records do not indicate a previous request processed to prevent your account from going over your credit limit.

As a courtesy we have credited your account for the over limit fee posting on December 11, 2006 in the amount of $39.00 and a late fee posting to your account in December 20, 2006 in the amount of $39.00 due to payment
rescheduling difficulties. You will see these credits on one of your next two billing statements.

Unfortunately at this time your account has a security hold and online access is not available. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

Please be assured that you are able to use your account for overseas purchases. At the same time, overseas purchases can be considered high-risk transactions which may make us watch the account close to monitor for
fraudulent activity. We cannot guarantee that every purchase you make overseas will go through without verification. However, you may call our Customer Security Department and inform them that you will be traveling and
the can adjust the account accordingly to prepare your account for overseas charges.

In order to verify your charges please contact our Security department at
1-800-686-5657. To call us collect outside of the U.S., simply dial the WorldPhone(MCI) toll-free access number for the country you are calling from, and tell the operator that you wish to make a collect call to the
United States to phone number 302-594-8200.

A list of WorldPhone toll-free access numbers is available
at

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Online access will be available within 3-5 business days once the security hold has been removed from your account. Once your online access has been restored you may process a payment and resubmit a request to prevent your account from going over the credit limit.

Once we make the necessary adjustments to prevent your account balance from exceeding your credit limit please be assured that we will not authorize new transactions that will cause your account balance to exceed that limit.

It is important to note, however, that other situations may arise that can cause your account balance to exceed its limit. We regret that we are unable to prevent these following situations from occurring:

* Fees and finance are applied to your account;
* a previously authorized and recurring transaction is applied to your account, such as monthly fees for Internet service;
* A merchant does not request an authorization prior to processing a new transaction--this can occur when the merchant's authorization equipment is not working or when a foreign transaction is made.

If you have concerns regarding any other issue, please contact Cardmember Services at 800-436-7939.

Sincerely,

Ok - so I thought everything was solved, charges removed, etc. Account to be accessible online within 3-5 business days. Just to make sure, I ask to confirm some information.

This is at least the second, if not third, time that I
have spoken with Chase about this issue - and each time nothing happened - then when I talked with support 4-5 days ago, they insisted that it was simply not possible to do so.

All the charges are mine if they come from Thailand because that is where I spend most of the year. Support did ask me some of these questions previously - if that is ok then please open up the account so I can make payments.

If you still require me to call in then respond to this message and I will call you as soon as I get a chance as I am currently travelling. Thanks for looking into this for me.

So I'm expecting further instructions from Chase - at last, I am going to get all of this behind me... or so I thought.

As your credit card company, we value your business and want you to be completely satisfied with your credit card account. You recently inquired about a credit card transaction that was declined.

We reviewed your account for any situation that would result in a charge being declined. Your account shows no reason for such action, and we are unable to determine exactly why the problem occurred. We regret the
inconvenience that it caused.

A charge may be declined because the processing terminal sends information that we could not match to our files. That may have happened in your case.

Other reasons why a retail purchase, cash advance, or convenience check might be declined are as follows:

1. The full minimum payment was not received by the due date.
2. The charge is not typical of the cardmember's spending history.
3. The amount of the charge is greater than the amount of available credit.

If a charge is declined in the future, please call the toll-free customer service number on your card while you are still at the merchant's location. We will then be able to determine the reason and, perhaps, give a verbal
approval over the phone.

If you have any further questions, please reply using the Secure Message Center.

Thank you,

Well, good, sort of. There wasn't a charge which took me overlimit after all. But my question wasn't answered. And each time, it has been a different person - seems they can't route questions to the same person even with internal message coding.

Hi to whomever answers this - I am not inquiring about a declined charge. I was responding to the last reply sent to me - please acknowledge, or if you can't see the past replies, let me know and I will copy them directly into the next message.

Their response:

Our records indicate that you spoke to our Security
Department on 12/18/2006 regarding a temporary hold on your account. Although the temporary hold was removed, access to your online account may take three to five daysto restore. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause you.

If you have any further questions, please reply using the
Secure Message Center.

Thank you,

Well ok. I guess they can review history after all. Looks like I have to wait the 3-5 working days referred to in the first message.

Seeing that it's also Christmas, I give a few extra days because I can't tell for sure which days they work and which days they don't.

By yesterday, I have no response. Definitely more than 3-5 working days.

I note that my account is still not available, and that it
has been more than 3-5 business days. Please advise.

Got their response today. Needless to say I was surprised by the response.

Our records indicate as of todays date 12/31/06, your account is overlimit.

Overlimit fees may be assessed to your account in accordance with your cardmember agreement. The overlimit amount can be caused by fees, finance charges, or other charges owed on your account that were authorized for
payment by the bank. Your account will not be available for your use while it is over the credit limit.

Please note that we may allow you to go over your credit limit. It is the cardholder's responsibility to make charges according to the credit limit available on the account. If you would like us to block the authorization
of any further purchases that may cause your account balance to exceed the credit limit, please send an e-mail request with your reply.

Please note that this action will not prevent applicable fees or finance charges from increasing your balance owed to an amount over the credit line.

If you have any further questions, please reply using the Secure Message Center.

Thank you,

*sigh*... back to square one!

So I responded.

What the hell... do you guys read the HISTORY?

Go back and read the LAST 5 MESSAGES between myself and support. Please resolve as according to message of 12/21 ASAP.

Unlock my account so I can service it. Remove fees as promised. If you cannot do this, PLEASE REFER TO YOUR SUPERVISOR, do NOT give me IRRELEVANT ANSWERS.

I can tell you what I would do if this happened to me at a casino. The exact thing I am going to do when I get this settled with Chase - close my account.

Never mind that Chase is one of the largest banks in the world. Their customer support is no more competent than some online casino support teams.