Chase Bank

BEWARE! because my dad doesn’t speak and understand any English, they misleading my dad to get a life insurance account, he thought he got a CD account.

This past visit to the JP Morgan Chase Chinatown branch between Mott and Canal Street on Friday, June 26, 2015 was totally disappointing. I have been a long time Chase customer with several accounts and haven’t made a complaint at all. But this time, I felt discriminated the whole time that I was there. I went there on behalf on my brother to ask about a house mortgage loan. The person whom I spoke with was Yuki (Yuen King) Mui (NMLS ID: 628 374) and her un-​professionalism made me felt like my potential business with Chase was unwanted and not welcomed. The first question she asked was, «Do you know English?» in a manner that sounded like I was looked down upon. Even worst, she repeated the same question several times after I said yes. Is this the way Chase trained its employees to treat its customers? Of course, I know English. But even if I don’t, isn’t there a reason why people visit Chinatown branch, so they can be a familiar setting and communicate? Then she went on to ask how much mortgage, and I gave an amount. She gave me an attitude right away and said that’s so little! (So does this mean I should leave because my brother doesn’t need that much mortgage?). She even made a stupid comment, «IF YOUR BROTHER IS NOT EVEN HERE TO ASK FOR A MORTAGE, WHY ARE YOU IN SUCH A HURRY?» (Wow, what kind of service was that???). She then handed me all the papers and her business card, and said in a narcissistic way, «Call me Mrs. Mui.» In no circumstances should I have endured her unacceptable, unprofessional, narcissistic behavior! From the minute I was there until the time I left, she had no smile on her face — it was uncomfortable! She needs to be re-​trained, get a demotion or get fired.

Recent visit amended all past preconceptions.
Chase Private Client staff in the upper level at this Chinatown location served me and my party well with our personalized financial needs. They were not pushy nor aggressive. The manager offered us hot water as we wait for the private client advisor to serve us. Staff are fluent in Cantonese, Mandarin and of course English to serve the Chinese community of Chinatown Manhattan. During the 2015 Lunar New Year Ram celebrations I had the pleasure and great excitement of watching a lion dance inside this branch and prancing around the upper level coincidence with the thundering drums and cymbals!

Always friendly service. Workers are helpful and pleasant as you walk through the door.

Poor services and unprofessional «investment advisor» (Daniel Tai) … I really think Daniel Tai should be fired from Chase … he has attitude and he is so unprofessional! !!
When I left my previous company in March 2009, I took my 401K money and tried to open a roll over IRA account for a 5 year annuity contract. I met with the investment advisor, Daniel Tai, and he assisted me to complete all the paperwork and told me that the annuity would be in effective. Two years later, I went back to the same branch and inquired about my annuity contract, the investment advisor told me that there is NO annuity contract on my account. Then he tried to sell me some kind of products that can make more money than the annuity that I was planning to do. I told that advisor that it was not my intention. He then sent me home and asked me to proof I had a contract. I took out all my paperwork and went back to the branch to meet with the advisor, he made me waited for 2.5 hours, and he quickly looked at the forms and said «This is just an application, not the actual contract». I would assume the contract would be in effective once the application was processed by CHASE. Then the advisor started yell at me saying «You should know the different between an application and a contract, it is your responsibility to make sure everything was processed…» … I was shocked that I was treated like that by a service representative … All he wants me to do is to purchase whatever product he was trying to sell, he does not really care my situation …
STEP AWAY FROM THIS PERSON!

There are so many factors affecting my review of this bank but I’ll give it 2 stars instead of 1 because the helpful service representatives on the second floor in dealing with account configuration issues. My negative opinion of this branch mostly stems from their «investment advisor» who in my opinion is a shady salesperson.
I have an elderly relative who this «investment advisor» calls occasionally to try to get her to purchase some mutual funds. My relative is not very sophisticated in terms of these financial products so I read the mutual fund prospectus for her and described to her how the front load fees of these funds worked. Once she understood it, she passed on the sales pitch. Unfortunately, there was a day when she was at this branch to renew her CD that the representative convinced her to meet with the investment advisor in person. Swayed by his sales pitches on how a state bond mutual fund was as safe as a FDIC insured CD and yet provided better returns, she brought shares of this mutual fund. Needless to say, this fund perfomed quite poorly soon afterwards, especially when compared to the low interest CDs she used to have before. Nowdays, whenever this «investment advisor» calls or my relative plans to visit this branch for whatever reason, I just remind her of that ill fated fund.
I didn’t even find out about that fund purchase until after the cooling off period and there was a stiff penalty fee for selling early.

This place gives the Elderly the run around.
So horrible. I had to finally intervene myself when Grams told me that they were unwilling to let her close her CD.
First time, it seemed reasonable. She was a month early to evaluate her CD and they really can’t do anything. So a month later, she came back. This time she was a week early. FINE, even though they could have followed their OWN policy and taken a written agreement to be enacted within seven days, they chose instead to make this little old lady make yet another trip back into Manhattan from Queens. Grams told them that she lived in Queens and this was a major trip for her. They didn’t care to look any further than to tell her to come back in a week. Fine. THEN, on the day after the CD maturation date, they told her that she was TOO LATE? What happened to the ten day grace period? Isn’t that an industry standard? They told her to go home and that she missed the maturation date. What? SO I took the following day off and came down to this branch and told them that they are taking advantage of the elderly. I threatened to take all the names down and personally write a formal complaint to the corporate headquarters that they were giving the elderly the run around and this was the first example for them to investigate.
They allowed her to close the CD and we took her money elsewhere.

Pretty good and fast service despite what its location would lead you to believe.

When anyone casually mentions Mott Street in reference to Chinatown, the first thing I think of is this Chase branch. Chase did a great job in choosing a location to market it’s exposure where so many banks are competitive for Chinese business and brand awareness is what this bank is recognized for best.
Aside from that, this branch is what ultimately convinced me to open an account. The fact they were so good at answering my questions on the phone and so thorough with explanations, made it easy to pursue a relationship with them. Becoming a Chase customer was easy as pie, thanks largely to Assistant VP Ada Yuen and Banker Yong Ze Zhong who were instrumental in making this all happen. Both were polite and helpful the entire time. English and Chinese is not a problem here obviously, but to be able to service both sides adequately is always impressive to me.
The bank is usually pretty crowded after work and gets a heavy flow of folks on the weekends. Lines don’t last long here and their bank of ATMs is perfectly situated in a separate area to segment the crowd flow properly. Plus the location is super convenient for those of us who frequent Mott and probably 80% of the businesses here are strictly cash only.
It’s rare for me to give such high marks for a bank. But it’s true when I say my experiences here have been stellar and especially more relevant when I’ve experienced such subpar service at other banks within the neighborhood.