Partially upheld: Service failures generally complaint against J.P. Morgan Europe Limited trading as Chase

Decision detail

Summary

Mr B, who has a health condition requiring written rather than phone communication, contacted Chase via chat to report a scam. Despite repeatedly telling Chase's agents he did not speak on the phone and was very unwell with stress, the agents persisted in requesting phone calls and left a voicemail. Chase initially offered £25 compensation, which the investigator increased to £50. The ombudsman upheld the complaint in part, finding Chase failed to accommodate Mr B's known needs but determining that £50 was fair compensation for service failures that occurred over a few hours via webchat and were quickly resolved.

The Ombudsman's reasoning

The ombudsman found that Chase failed to respect Mr B's known communication preferences and added to his distress by repeatedly attempting to secure a phone conversation despite his explicit requests for written contact. While the ombudsman agreed compensation was warranted, they determined that £50 was appropriate given the issues occurred over only a few hours via webchat and were resolved quickly. The ombudsman was careful to separate the distress caused by the original scam from that caused by Chase's poor service handling.

How this compares

Source

Read the original decision on the Financial Ombudsman Service website