CHASE BANK FOUNTAIN VIEW AND TANGLEWOOD , DESTINY WOAG and JOHN TAGIATIS UNPROFESSIONAL and the cashier HOLLY I have been banking with chase for at least 20 years at this same location. For my whole life. Houston Texas

Mr. Robert, I appreciate your time and many suggestions you made are very knowledgeable and good. But others I disagree with.

One thing you said that resonates is that everywhere businesses are no longer WANTING  to take checks, so the policy, evidently now is to inconvenience check writers as much as possible so checks will become obsolete. I understand the reality of that, but that does not mean I have to shut up and allow myself to be treated badly and arbitrarily by anyone. They would not answer questions honestly such as " Is this a new policy?" they said no, yet I have been allowed to initial my own checks when there is a mistake and have others do the same for 40 years of banking, 20 years at chase - and if you do not think being a decades old client matters in business then - yeah, you have some pretty uncompassionate people who agree with you. But I run a business successfully and that is not how we keep clients.

Also - we got the check writer on the phone, didn't matter. 20 years not one bounced check, or overdrawn, doesn't matter. They did not apologize, did not express any regret for inconvieniencing me. If in my business there had been a problem, I would have spoken to the person as ahuman being and said " We really value you as a client and I know this is frustrating, we really care, we are not able to ever again take a check where anything has been scratched out even if it initialized because the people in charge have changed the policy from the past, i am really sorry you did not know that, let me have someone get you a cup of coffee, do you take it black?. I am sorry we will not be able to take the check but we hope we can keep you as a customer, may we have someone walk you to the door? here is a phone number of the supervisors so you can obtain more info on any new policies- we regret this again - have a good day"

What is so hard about that? Just giving me a "deer in the headlight look" and repeating " this check is altered" as if I am a money launderer is not acceptable to me - if you think the emplyees at chase cannot do better than that you have a worse opinion of them than I do right now

your point about the ATM is very well taken - they used to have one, but it closed down, but yes, I will look into that. No one is obligated to be treated arbitrarily and rudely - it is in fact alright to stand up for yourself - write that down lol

First off the fact is that by your own admission the check is in fact "altered" by definition. In your case there isn't any indication from you of fraud, but it is still altered. It is up to the discression of a bank whether or not to accept the check or not. Even if Chase did accept it, the payee bank could have rejected it. Unless you have a history of returned checks, if the other bank rejected it the worst that probably would have happened is that you would have been assessed a Returned Check fee of around $30-$35..on that $100 check.

You may think your 20 year status as an account holder means something, but the fact is it doesn't in something like this. This isn't 20 years ago, this isn't 10 years ago, it isn't even 5 years ago. With the rise of electronic banking, the fact is that the use of checks is on the decline, and check fraud is more prevalent. There are several major stores that no longer even accept checks because of the increased fraud. In your case it wasn't something like a date being changed, or the addition or fixing of a couple of letters. In your case the entire name was lined out and re-written. 

No one on this site was there when you tried to deposit the check, so we have no idea if either you or the employees could have done a better job at communication. However, realize that other banks would have rejected it as well. I will also throw out something to think about. Would you feel this same way about a bank rejecting a check, if they had stopped a person who stole a check from you that you wrote to someone else and tried to cash it by changing the name and putting initials on it?

One thing I will tell you is that if the check was written on a Chase account as well, what they should have done is attempt to contact the account holder to verify they did write the check to you. If they did this they may not have even told you, and if they couldn't get a hold of the account holder they would just reject the check.

I will give you some suggestions, for now and in the future. First for now, if possible the easiest thing is to do is talk to your friend and get then to write you a new check. If that is not possible I would actually just deposit the check in an ATM at a different branch. If you do, it is probable that the altration won't even be noticed and the check would processed electronically. As long as the payee bank doesn't reject the check you should be fine. Then in the future if anyone writes you a check that is "altered" have them write you a new check.

I appreciate the time you took here, but I am sorry but I do not buy it. I have been a customer there for 20 years and if there is a reason of the type you gave THEY did not seem to find it important to tell me or explain it. They did not apologize or seem to care, they just kept sounding like robots saying " altered the check".  The idea that anyone would be subject to some Machiavellian arrest ,trauma, etc from a $100 check deposited in the neighborhood bank is at least giving me a much needed chuckle - thank!

This is happening to us now as well. Numerous times we've gotten checks made out to our nicknames, etc and now lately they can no longer be deposited.

BUT this is not the fault of these employees and in all fairness, regardless of the merits of your complaint against Chase, you really ought to post a followup apologizing to them.

The banks, all of them at this point it seems, are being forced to reject these checks due to Federal law enforcement pressure to combat money laundering.

You have a right to be pissed, but even if Chase the company still has some leeway to allow such checks through, their employees do not, unless Chase gives them that right.

Any of these 3 probably would have been fired had they accepted the check.

If you're lucky enough to find a branch where someone will take it, they will likely get it trouble and you might even be inviting a Federal siezure of your assets if the clearinghouse notifies them of the wierd looking check.

I'm on your side here to the extent it's been aggravating for us too, but don't tar and feather low paid branch staffers in a public forum like this for doing something they're now forced to do.