The big shareholders will of course have a direct line. The rest can eat cake. Yes I’m a bit, a bit more sinical than I usually am.
I’m a systems engineer for a large software development concern. I schedule, plan, budget, and design software. I have earned every bit of my cynicism about priorities, schedules, and which stakeholders matter and which ones don’t.
I’m sorry you’re learning this as a customer (see also “stakeholders who don’t matter”).
I went through that when I did tech support for a medical software company. They rolled out a new database system and heavily advertised it. Then when it got installed on customers’ servers, it didn’t work. The whole thing was broken.
Did they stop selling? Nope! They kept selling a broken product. Their hope was that the developers could fix it, but until then it was broken and there was no fix.
That was great time to be tech support. We had to keep our damn mouths shut and play make-believe, faking surprise that their system didn’t work and pretending that we were going to troubleshoot it. We could not let slip that we knew that they were all broken.
It felt so scummy, I hated lying to people as a job. I was so glad to leave that job when I got another opportunity.
I haven’t changed banks since 1992, but I’ve changed banks five times.
A couple of tech support folks let it slip through that it’s ‘broken’. I feel for tech support, I really really do. I’ve done it. One time when my system was down a constant complainer called me at 6:30 am. I saw who it was and just said “I KNOW” and hung up the phone. My wife was there in the complainers office with some other folks. Speaker phone. They still laugh about my response.
Last I heard, cashier’s checks are still a thing, no?
Coming from the other side - bringing in a new bank you’ve acquired sucks. Not just the logistics and integration, but all the Arthur Dents who spend six months using all of their old account information and profiles while loudly demanding to know why they can’t pay for stuff with info from a bank that doesn’t exist anymore and wanting to know why their account numbers are no longer just 5 digits.
Just checking - I’m assuming this is a US bank?
A US bank bought by a Canadian bank.
Bank of the West bought by Bank of Montreal (BMO).
It sounds to me that you’re a digital banking customer, doing most of your banking through the bank’s app or mobile/desktop web offering? Integrations are complex and in a perfect world everything runs smoothly. If your issue is you’re not able to logon to the new BMO app/website and view your accounts, transfer funds, etc. that is unfortunate but give it a bit of time for the bank’s to fix the issue. It is very possible that the bank was also unable to migrate your login credentials, specifically your password which is usually encrypted using a one-way hash. In this situation it usually requires a CSR or branch person to reset your password allowing you to create a new password that will be stored/encrypted under the new digital platform.
I am a “digital banking customer” myself and I am loathe to have to call the bank, go to a branch, or even use an ATM. I know it is an inconvenience. That said, if you’re concerned because you cannot see your accounts in digital banking you can certainly swing into a branch, check through an ATM, etc.
Lots of good info on this reddit discussion.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Banking/comments/16auvjo/bank_of_the_west_transition_to_bmo_is_a_disaster/
This explains it. It takes a extra time to convert US dollars into Canadian ones. 
They have tried to do that 3 times. Sent me a new temporary password. The temporary passwords they send do not work. So I can’t get in to reset it.
The system is totally jacked up.
Yep, we recently bought a house with cash using one. Easy peasy.
Likewise. The branch I use is a 45 minute drive away. Sort of cuts into my day. And I can’t imagine they can do anything in person that I can’t do over the phone.
They did tell me my balances over the phone, so they can get in. It appears the money is still there. I cannot get in, reset my password with the temp passwords they send. Nothing.
Looking forward to another day on the phone with them. This will be day 3. I’ve been told that many can’t access their accounts and the team is working on it.
Credit Unions.
'Nuff said.
… and yet people look at me weird for saying I have accounts at three separate banks AND keep some actual cash currency on hand!
Sorry to hear about the OP’s problems. I’ve had one of my banks bought out twice over the past 20 years and neither time did we have problems like the OP describes. In fact, the last time was near seamless and probably and example of how it should be done.
Don’t have much advice beyond maybe try to get the information you need at an actual physical branch location. And consider banking elsewhere.
TD Ameritrade was bought out by Schwab recently. The changeover from Ameritrade to an account at Schwab happened over Labor day weekend. The Ameritrade website went dark on Friday evening, and my Schwab account was live on Tuesday morning.
It went perfectly, all my account information was correct and accessible on Tuesday, and I was able to make transactions. I was very relieved.
So it can be done.
I was going to make some comment about bank mergers being something of a foreign experience for me, as the Canadian “Big 5” banks have been the Big 5 for several decades at this point, and so the vast majority of Canadians have never experienced their bank being acquired. So I was a bit surprised when BMO turned out to be involved in this story, though I’ve been aware that the Big 5 have been dabbling in the US market for a while - because there’s next to no opportunity for expansion by mergers or acquisitions within Canada. There was brief noise in '98 about BMO and RBC merging, and then TD and CIBC proposing the same, but the government of the day decided that the decrease in competition would be detrimental to consumers and forbade the mergers.
I don’t know about the 5-digit account # (I can see where that might be a problem, although assuming an account number is associated with a routing number I’m not sure it should be), but I’m using a routing number and account number on my main checking account that I was assigned 4 (or is 5?) mergers ago.
To be pedantic, a French bank bought by a Candian bank. Bank of the West was owned by BNP Parisbas.