BONUS BANK FAILSTORY:
This doesn't involve Chase, but another huge bank with over $50 billion in assets.
I got this e-mail a few days ago:
From:
REWARDS.Headquarters@******.com
To: <my email address>
Date: Sept 29, 7:15am PDT
Subject: Return Order# 105****** Item Return Confirmation
September 29, 2015
Dear TODD WITTELES:
We have received your returned merchandise from order #105******. If your return is for credit, your account will be credited the next business day. Returns for exchange will be released to our distribution center for fulfillment. You may view your order and return details by accessing My Orders on your awards website.
If you have further questions about this return, you may contact our Customer Service department, toll-free at 1-877-***-**** from 7:00 A.M. - 7:00 P.M. Central Time, Monday through Friday.
Sincerely,
REWARDS Headquarters
Please do not reply to this email.
Looks like some kind of phishing bullshit, right? Keep in mind that it's been months since I have returned anything anywhere.
Notice the company identifies itself as REWARDS HEADQUARTERS, refers to "your awards website" without naming it, and does not state any information specific to my "return" or what company they represent.
Was pretty sure this was a scam, so I called it from a throwaway number and questioned it. They wouldn't tell me anything at first, and asked for my address to "verify my identity".
Yeah, right.
So I then told them I'm not telling them a thing until they tell me who they are. We went back and forth on this for a few minutes, until I thought to give them that reference number. So I gave them that, and they told me that this was in regards to a certain bank, where I actually do have an account.
And while I hadn't returned anything there, I did redeem points a few days before that to get a credit card bonus back to my statement.
I asked the company on the phone to tell me about this "return" (which I still didn't understand), and they had no information. They transferred me instead to the bank's main phone #, who also knew nothing about it.
Then I went back to the bank's website and found that my $250 in bonus rewards had been "returned" (canceled) for no apparent reason, and that disaster of an e-mail above was their way of informing me.
Nobody could solve this, and nobody could figure out why this was happening.
Finally I spoke to my branch's manager, who was horrified when he saw the scammy-looking e-mail and couldn't believe what was going on.
Apparently they hired some shadeball third party company to process these "rewards" (even though this was a credit back to their OWN accounts, so hiring a third party doesn't make any sense), and they didn't realize that this fail was occurring.
So now a huge issue about this is getting raised way up the chain of command at the company, and now they are running around like chickens with their heads cut off, trying to rectify this situation (the general problem, not mine specifically) before it becomes a major embarrassment for them. I was asked for a copy of the e-mail I received so they can basically bring it to the third party company as evidence they are fucking up, and either fire them or force major changes.
Keep in mind that this isn't some tiny local bank,
but a big international one with over $50 billion in assets. They are just kinda new to the credit card thing, and they assigned morons to put the whole thing together.
I won't name the bank just yet.