Damn you, jr8! You beat me to it!
By, um, about twelve hours.
Crap.
Great rant, Jar. Truly classic stuff.
[sub]Um, marinated cauliflower?[/sub]
YES MARINATED CAULIFLOWER…
SNACK FOOD OF HELL.
Don’t make me kick your ass, too Lindy. I don’t want to have to do that.
Plus, I might like it! 
I spent thirty minutes on the phone today trying to clear up a simple error with my bank. Wound up stomping around the office shouting “Fucking banks are the last fucking refuge of the fucking incompetent!” This is day three of this wrangle, so I think I got out of it lightly. The last one took two weeks.
Every fuckup is guaranteed to take multiple phone calls and visits to the local branch, at least three directly contradictory statements from different people (the contradictions are, according to them, a result of my misunderstanding, not their ineptitude) and an absolute minimum of forty seven swear words. I will speak to three people at the bank branch and four at the call centre, all of whom seem to be named Carol, for some strange reason. It’s a bitch.
I think it’s actually somewhere in the fine print that bank staff will do this kind of thing to randomly chosen customers on a regular basis.
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I, as a master of poor penmanship, have, in my past, written "5"s that were mistaken for "12"s. It’s fairly hard to do, but if you make the top line near verticle and then still try to put the loop under it, it’s a passable twelve.
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Why do people put up with shitty banks? There are hundreds, nay thousands, of banks in the country, all connected via ATMs and the internet. Sure, finding the no-fee ATM may involve a little more work, but there are good banks/credit unions out there, any of which can handle your simple checking account. Currently, I’m using a bank who’s nearest branch is six hours away from me, and it’s been the best banking experience of my life.
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Never use a debit card when you can use a credit card. They’ll make the same mistakes, but you won’t have to let them hold your cash while they fix it.
-lv
“. . .leathery old bacon strip of a twat.”
mmm. Bacon.
I’m a Bank One customer too, and was a happy First Chicago customer until Bank One bought them out. :mad:
In contrast to the above story, after we’d returned home from a vacation, First Chicago called my husband and asked if a charge made on his debit/VISA card was valid - some employee apparently was disturbed at seeing a bill for a meal at a restaurant in Maui and decided to check up on it. He explained that we were on vacation, they said great, and we were happy that someone was being vigilant.
I can’t say I’ve been very happy with them since the buyout. I don’t even get any “free” withdrawals at other network ATMs any longer, now I get charged for each by Bank One in addition to any ATM transaction fee at the time of withdrawal.
Seconded. Both my current bank and my previous bank (I changed banks when I moved eight years ago) are local single-branch banks. Compared to a typical Large Bank, I have fewer restrictions on my account, I get a higher interest rate, I pay fewer fees, and I get better service. I have a problem, or I need some information, I call 'em up, explain what I want, boom! it gets done, I’m happy.
So if you’re pissed at BankOne or NationsBank or BankusGargantucus, screw em. Take your money to IttyBittyBank where they actually want your business.
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Guess what. It’s friday and this hasn’t been resolved.
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The ittybittybanks in a city like Chicago are so dominated by the big banks that it’s costly to belong to them. I used to belong to “Uptown National Bank” and it was a nightmare. Like no free checking, paying for DEPOSITS, paying for withdrawls, and no access to tellers. I think I’ll stick with BankOne and take the ‘free’ grief.
J
I used to bank with Dollar Bank until they 50-cented me to death one month. Because they make their online banking so difficult to initiate, I relied a lot on the telephone automated teller. I wasn’t aware that they had started charging 50 cents each time you call after the first x-times a month. Since I sometimes call from work, and have to hang up if a customer comes in, I found myself calling several times in a row. Now since I didn’t know about the charges, I wasn’t keeping track of how many times in a month I had to call…but I’m pretty positive it wasn’t the 31 times they apparently claim I did, since they charged me service fees of over $11…which caused me to be overdrawn, which caused a check to bounce, which cost me $29 in service fees, plus other assorted fees…I closed my account on their Customer Appreciation Day, and they didn’t even ask why I was closing it. I had a rant all prepared, too.
My wife had a raging battle with the incompetent dumbfucks at Nat West for over a year and never gave ground, to the point that when she walked into the local branch one of the managers would always go on break rather than face talking to her. Hee hee.
We ended up switching to an Internet bank and despite some initial misgivings have been extremely happy with them. Strange world.
We use First Internet Bank of Indiana, and they’ve been great. The most inconvenient part is making deposits by mail, but I have direct deposit of my paycheck, so that’s only for the occasional other checks that we receive. You can use any ATM, and they credit your account with the other bank’s ATM charges (up to $6/month).
Wow
I hated to see that end, Jar! 10/10
It may never end pegleg, here it is Monday, and STILL the problem has yet to be resolved.
My wrath…is nigh.