Hello from a very hot and sweaty Shenzhen, China!

Chase Bank locked us out of our account. I'm currently in China and we can't pay any vendors or really do much anything until this is resolved. I have about $500 USD cash equivalent in my pocket.

Short version: Was on the phone with Chase all last night and I could never reach someone who has the ability and willingness to solve the problem (unlock the account). I did explain that it was urgent to fix, but other than suggestions to abandon the project and travel half way around the world on my own dime, no one had anything to offer to actually fix things. The issue has been unfolding over a few days and they seem completely uninterested in actually solving it. So the only thing I can think of is escalating to social media and try to shame them into acting.

I'm hoping with the help of some bad press and a few internet pitchforks we can reach an executive higher up in the Chase structure. Get them to at least simulate a conscience long enough to unlock the account before the ~$500 USD equivalent in cash I have on me runs out. To be clear: I'm in no danger of starving, but the project is at a complete standstill until this gets resolved. So to everyone out there who has a bit of free time and doesn't mind calling out incompetence, please dust off those pitchforks and help spread the word (posts on social media seem to be pretty effective at this sort of thing) that Chase bank isn't capable of responding to serious issues in a timely and competent manner. The more of a stink we can raise the quicker this can be resolved and I can get back to yelling at keypad vendors.

We have a twitter account, though to be honest I'm still not sure exactly how twitter works. I've tweeted this to Chase support. Hopefully those of you on twitter who understand the platform better than I do can share it enough (retweet?) that they actually have to resolve the problem. Facebook shares or anything else that gets the issue out in front of people would probably help as well.

Thanks in advance for your help!

-Ben

CHASE BANK - We, like, ummm... help small businesses???? on Vimeo.

More detailed sequence of events:

• June 11 I logged in and sent a bank wire to China
  
• June 12th I noticed an email from the Chase fraud people saying the wire was canceled due to a "security review." Also now locked out of the online account with all the Kickstarter funds.
  
• Called the number in the email and started a verification process. They said I would need to physically go into a Chase branch and show some ID. I explained that I wasn't in the US and buying a ticket wasn't an option because 1) I'm locked out of my account, and 2) no, that's not reasonable.
  
• Finally they admitted that they could in fact do a different sort of verification. We went through that process and I could log in to the account again. I asked the service rep: "So now I can just try to send the same wire again? Just do exactly like I did before?" "Yes."
• I logged back in and sent the bank wire again.
  
• June 13th I noticed a second email from Chase saying the same thing as the last one: locked out again. Called the fraud department, went through the verification process again, except this time they say their hands are tied. Can't do anything unless someone from a physical branch location vouches for me and says it's OK.
  
• So I called a branch office and explained the situation. After a they understood, they registered an issue about the wire transfer on one of their internal systems and transferred me to someone who supposedly could get the online login working again. After 5 hours of circling the Chase phone system, the end result was nobody wanted to take responsibility for solving the problem. Everyone was "just doing their job, sir", and were "very sorry, but it's Friday and we're busy", but nobody would commit to actually doing anything about it. It was suggested several times that I should just walk into a Chase branch, even after I had explained where I was and the near complete lack of available funds.
  
• The only pending action it seems Chase has is something in process related to clearing up the wire. It was 4 in the morning here by the time I was getting this info, so it's not 100% clear as to what result that was supposed to achieve. As far as I can tell the only available solution to re-gaining our account access is still to fly back to the US.

In more interesting news:

Ramon Scheppers over at 8 bits of bun posted a review of one of the test units:
https://8bit-bun.nl/?Projects_%20_Supporting_%20_Wiphone