I’ll be mailing this tomorrow. Since I’ve never had an incident like this happen to me before, I’ve never felt the need to fire off an angry letter about it.
Take a look. Tell me what you think.
Well?
I’m not sure how to sign it or whether I should put my account information on it either.
Finally, I’m not really sure who to send it to.
If you have any suggestions, I’d be more than willing to change it. Should I shorten it? Be more mean?
Pretty shitty customer service, eh? Fucking banks.
Ahem.
I actually write letters like this for a living. (Really).
It needs tightened up a bit, but the jist is pretty good.
However, before you send it, I suggest contacting the branch manager, and ripping their face off. (Figuratively, of course).
If you like, e-mail me the letter, and I can make some editing changes. (Only if you like - as I said - I bitch-slap for a living).
Otherwise it looks good. I would include your accout info, as it will add credibility to your account. Also, I would attempt to get the name of the person who “helped” you. Finally, it wouldn’t hurt to demand a formal, written appology from that person - if only to make up for the embarasment you suffered.
This treatment is reprehensible - it should certainly be brought to the attention of higher ups in the bank.
Al.
I agree. After posting it and reading it a bit, I’ve noticed some obvious errors that need correcting and tightening up. I’ll do that in a bit and may take you up on your offer.
Incidentally, this happened this morning. Later in the afternoon, I went up the street and opened up a new account at Wells Fargo (I hate that stagecoach emblem thingy, but the place comes with good reviews).
After I had the new account up and running, I went back to the same US Bank branch and asked the same security guard where I should go to close out my account.
Some bitch!! He told me to go to the counter.
Well shoot! I wanted to bitch to someone.
But, it gets better, I decide to just close it and send a letter later so I went along with it and went to the teller.
There I was informed, that since I had an ATM deposit in transit, they couldn’t close out my account until tomorrow.
Fuckers!!
So, I get to go back tomorrow and try and get it closed.
You say talk to who? How? The security guard/gatekeeper isn’t letting me get close to anyone now (It’s amazing to me because I never once made a scene of even raised my voice. At most, I looked perturbed. I really don’t get it). But it’s apparent to me this guy isn’t going to do anything but redirect me to the counter.
How do I talk to the manager? And, as cool as it sounds, how do I go about asking for an apology? :: I never even imagined that, but what the hell, I’m game.
Ya want me to send my thugs over, hon? Things are pretty stale here.
Here’s the scoop:
Remember - the Manager WILL be interested in talking to you, because customer service is thier JOB.
When talking to the Manager - again be really polite. Bring your letter with you so you have something to refer to.
Most important DO NOT lose your temper - be polite and courtious at all times. Even if the teller is rude, or the guard - smile and continue on with your request. Eventually, they will get tired of you and ship you off to the manager.
Finally - to get the appology, just ask for it. "I feel I was treated unfairly by this person - I assume that it is not Bank "X"s policy to deal with customers this way. I would like a written appology, etc. etc.
Remember - these people are here to serve you, and regardless of your account balance, your job, your status, etc. you are entitled to fair service. If necessary, play the “In the future” card. ie. “I may only have a small balance now, but IN THE FUTURE, I will be buying a house, looking for a loan, etc. etc.” You get the idea.
Al.
Here’s a re-write I did (there were some minor word changes in places in addition to the more obvious edits-ignore the bolding, I was trying to track them but there were too many). You should find out exactly who to send it to, and yes, absolutely include your name and account numbers.
To Whom It May Concern:
As of ____, I am closing my account with your bank.
This isn’t an action I would normally take. However, your representatives have been so egregiously rude that I no longer feel comfortable doing my banking with you.
This morning I went to the US Bank branch in Uptown, Minneapolis, to inquire about a problem with my checking account. It was a simple bookkeeping error on my part that had sent my account into negative territory by five dollars. I deposited sufficient funds to cover the overdraft as soon as I discovered it.
All fine so far; I went below the limit and I’m more than willing to pay whatever associated fees are imposed on me for my mistake. My concern was the outstanding checks and credit card purchases that were still in transit . Trying to find out what was being processed, and what fees would be accruing because of these transactions, was difficult, to say the least.
To begin with, the penalties for being overdrawn were not imposed for two days.* In that time, my account not only showed positive funds, but was also willing to dispense funds to me regardless of the penalty fines that had already been assessed against my account. * -** NOTE: Chris, I do not understand this passage **
That wasn’t the case, as I now know, because I kept falling into negative territory on the ** days following ** and kept being fined more as the delayed penalties were being imposed.
Still, regardless of my disagreement at this policy, it wasn’t anything I was too particularly upset about.
But this morning changed all that.
I went into your branch office in Uptown under the impression that I could talk to one of your representatives and he/she could be able to determine what charges were currently outstanding, and what amount I needed to deposit to stop my hemorrhaging account.
Upon entering the bank I approached the security guard to ask him where I needed to sign up to talk to a representative. He felt the need to grill me about it when it was clear he was in no position to assist me.
After sitting in the waiting area for approximately ten minutes, a representative came out and asked me what I wanted (Unfortunately she wasn’t wearing a nametag, nor did she introduce herself to me, so I wasn’t able to get her name). In front of a half-dozen customers waiting in line for open tellers -all of about five feet away- she proceeded to try and resolve the problem right then and there.
That wasn’t anything I was willing to, or wanting to, talk to anyone but my bank representative about- especially not the people in line actively listening in on my conversation. It’s embarrassing to me, to say the least.
But what followed was even worse.
After I detailed the issue I had she rudely informed me “I’m not going to look up your account right now". Somewhat surprised, I asked her why. She tersely replied, “Call customer service. That’s what they do.”
This is the bank where almost a year ago I walking in with a check and a desire to open up two accounts. At that point, I was dealt with kindly and politely. Now, when I’m simply inquiring about my account, I’m being told they’re not interested in helping me.
As you might imagine, I find that kind of customer service not only incredibly insensitive and rude.
I am appalled at level of “service” I received. You can rest assured that I will not hesitate to tell my friends, my family, and even strangers on the internet just exactly what poor service I received from your bank in the hopes that it may deter them from bringing you their business.
Yes put your account info on there. If anything, they can look up your account and see the situation for themselves.
Let me be blunt with you. Cancelling out an account that’s hovering just a tad above or below zero makes pretty much no difference to that bank. You’re a blip on their radar. They don’t care about your business.
That absolutely, positively does NOT excuse that representative’s behavior. I’m just telling you the reality of the situation though.
What will make a difference is word of mouth. Play it up some more. But lose a bit of the vindictive touch you’ve given. As if, if you don’t get an apology right now, you’ll scream from the rooftops that they done you wrong.
Just my suggestion.
Not yet Audrey, let’s see what they do. I mean, its not time to send in the big guns just yet. -smile-
Thanks though.
For now, since I’m seeing more and more mistakes with the original letter and even my follow-up post (I still must be pissed about all this) I’m going to go ahead and e-mail it to Alice.
That’d be great if you could tighten it up. That certainly wasn’t what I was expecting. If you think it’s something easy to do, then great! If it’d be a bitch to correct, don’t- I certainly don’t want to put anyone out. Besides, I can correct it in the morning and fire it off later in the day.
The point I’m trying to make, basically, is that I know it’s somewhat rough. But, I always make the mistake of correcting and re-correcting the original so much that the gist gets lost in the edits. It’s something I’ve done ever since I’ve been writing.
Anyrate, I’ll send it off to 'ya. If you decide to re-arrange and tighten it, I’ll re-post it and see what the others think.
Chris, for what it’s worth, I’ve had nothing but problems with US Bank. They got MrRobyn’s SSN wrong on the paperwork, took over a year to correct it, even though he complained about it several times. Then, when they got around to doing the paperwork to correct it, they took me off the account, which meant that they refused to honor several checks I wrote. We FINALLY got that resolved through an act of friggin’ Congress.
Once, for some silly reason, they put a hold on MrR’s paycheck. Why, I don’t know, since it was a computer-generated check that was clearly marked “payroll”. The moron who did this did not bother to inform him that she was putting a hold on it. Consequently, our rent check bounced. We went to the bank to resolve the problem, and the cunt teller, who couldn’t have been more than 18, was flirting with some guy in line while she was talking to us. I lost it. I got in her face, and called customer service later that day to complain about her unprofessional behavior. She must have gotten her ass chewed, because she was awfully nice to me after that. Either that, or she didn’t want me in her face again. Either way, it was a good thing.
I don’t blame you for switching.
Robin
I took it upon myself to do that before anyone else posted, and I see that I still left in some boo-boos.
Anyway, I didn’t mean to be rude myself, I just thought I’d give you a hand with making it tighter.
stoid
Alright, hang on a second, posts are coming in fast and furious now. Give me a second and I’ll have an updated post to the last one.
Ah man, previews are showing even more stuff.
Give me a second and I’ll start answering stuff.
My pleasure.
I’m exceedingly bitchy when I want to be (In a very subtle way, of course.)
OK. I think I’m caught up.
** alice_in_wonderland**-
I like your strategy. I’m nice to a fault sometimes (Honest, I am) so the being nice part I’ll get down just fine.
The problem is, I never run into these situations and I’m essentially lost when something like this happens.
Still, I like your approach and will do it.
Stoid-
Include account number… check.
What I’m getting at is that the bank would credit my account and then treat it like everything was fine. I kept getting caught not knowing that they were already assessing fines against me for the next day and they weren’t showing up on the slip.
It’s confusing, but I’ll try to explain it-
What was happening was that I was depositing money into the account, but the fines hadn’t been implemented yet. So, I’m looking at the account online and at the atm and seeing the same positive balance. Because of that, I’m thinking ‘cool’, that check for ten dollars tomorrow will easily be covered by the thirty that’s currently sitting in there.
But what would happen would be that the bank would deduct the twenty-eight dollar fine from me the next day and then process the check for ten… but now there wasn’t enough money in the account to cover that check! So, they’d start fining me again and again and again, always in the same order.
I got caught in a killer loop of catch-up and the bank was doing everything in their power to keep it going.
What they could have done was deduct that check from the thirty and then assess the fines after that- then I wouldn’t be fined anything because I didn’t bounce anything. But they didn’t, they assessed the fines and then processed the check.
Confusing to explain, but a sneaky ass ploy on the part of my bank to keep charging me fines. I was seriously caught.
In terms of your re-write?
I like it. If you’d like to do it and post it here, Alice, I’d have no problem either. Maybe it’d help someone else too… I don’t know.
But if you want to, go right ahead.
Enderw24-
Good points.
I know they won’t be too upset at me leaving. But up until recently, my balance hovered well above this for over a year now.
Again, it’s bit complicated to explain without getting into detail and things I don’t necessarily want out on a message board (It’s all up and up, but it has to do with trusts and whatnot). Basically, I slowly let it get down without much thought or worry. If they were making much money off of me at that amount, compared to the current amount, then I sure didn’t notice it.
Besides, it seems to me the bank is making some serious cash off of me right now. A hell of a lot more than if I had a small car loan or some such thing through them.
I’ve paid nearly a hundred and fifty dollars in fines alone in only a week.
MsRobyn-
I’m sorry to hear that. Up until today I’d had nothing but good service and relations with that bank.
Some of things they did bothered me, but nothing like this.
So… you gonna change? Huh? Come on…. Change!!!
I want a tidal wave of people canceling shit with them.
Stoid again-
You’re not being bitchy at all, as far as I’m concerned.
About all I want is a relatively good letter to them documenting my concerns and my complaints. I’d hate to spend time typing something out and sending it in only to have it so hostile and rude that they throw it away without thought.
It’s always been my thought that a good and concise letter or complaint, reasonably made, is far more effective than bitching and flying off the handle.
Alice-
Subtly bitch? Coooool.
a) What do you want out of this? It sounds like you’ve already moved your account and really just want to rub their face in it. That’s fine, but if I were you, I’d consider staying if they give you something. I mean to be frank, why send them anything or waste your time telling them off if you don’t want anything from them?
b) Your letter is way too long. Ultimately, I think you have three beefs: the guard pried into your business, the rep embarrassed you in public, and the rep was rude and unhelpful to you. I would cut the letter down to 3-5 paragraphs and only talk about those points. The length of the letter dilutes the message.
c) Your letter makes it sound like your account isn’t a very valuable one. You delved into the fact that your account was overdrawn (it sounds like several times, but I didn’t understand that part). Accounts that are frequently overdrawn aren’t exciting customers for the bank, so they may look at your letter and say “Deadbeat. Good riddence.” I’m not saying you are a deadbeat. I’m just saying you should portray your account with the bank as a solid relationship that they destroyed by their callousness.
d) I would throw in a paragraph about how you have talked to another bank or two. And tell them what a pleasure it was dealing with them, how customer friendly they were, how much you enjoyed talking with them.
e) Do your best to get the rep and the guards names. This is key.
f) I just want to reiterate point #a. If you get personal satisfaction from ranting to the bank via letter or in person, more power to you. But for me, I see it as a waste of energy. If you’re going to rant to them, do it with a purpose: threaten to leave, and see what the offer you to stay. If it’s not enough, leave. But at least try to get something out of it above an apology.
Ok - here’s my rendition…
Dear [insert name here]:
This letter is written to bring to your attention to an incident that happened at your branch earlier today, October 18, 2001.
This morning I personally went to the US Bank branch in Uptown, Minneapolis, to inquire on a recent problem with my checking account. The problem was a book keeping error on my part that I was visiting the branch to correct. Additionally, there were a number of outstanding transactions on my account about which I wanted to inquire.
After sitting in the waiting area for approximately ten minutes, a representative came out and asked me what I wanted. This person was not wearing a nametag and failed to introduce herself to me. In front of a number of other customers waiting in line, this representative began discussing my personal financial information. This was a completely inappropriate action for this representative to take. It was unprofessional, and an embarrassment to me - a customer of your bank. This person’s unprofessionalism continued, as I was informed that she was not willing to access my account to provide the information I needed. Further, she informed me that any concerns would have to be addressed by the Phone system.
This treatment is appalling. I find it unfathomable that this is the level of customer service advocated by your bank. My concerns were not addressed, my privacy was not protected, and by business was not respected. I am owed a formal, written apology by your institution for the abominable way I was treated by your representative.
I am providing you, the Branch Manager, this opportunity to retain my business and provide that apology. I have discussed this situation with a number of friends and colleagues, who are also awaiting the outcome.
Sincerely,
Cnote Chris
Acct # 383838383
I think that should just about do it.
And make that MY business, instead of BY business.
oops.
alice_in_wonderland, that is an excellent letter. Two points:
a) I would add the guard prying into his personal affairs.
c) I would want more than a letter of apology. Frankly I wouldn’t ask for anything. I would just say I’m talking to other banks and preparing to move my account. Let them suggest recompense.
Oh, and the last paragraph: A better line is:
I have discussed this situation with a number of friends and colleagues who are also customers of your bank. I’ll be sure to make them aware of the outcome of this situation.
Implying they’ll lose more than CNoteChris’s account.
Bill - good point on the last paragraph.
However, I wouldn’t include any more details - let Chris provide those when he (it IS he I hope) talks in person to the manager.
I think the lack of professionalism on the part of the bank woman, and the disregard for privacy are the two most heinous items - everything else is just icing on the cake.
Also, the guard may have been instructed to get basic info in order to better direct customers - I’m not convinced that he was in the wrong here, whereas the bank woman clearly was. No need to water down the complaint with Possible infractions, when there are more than enough real infractions to make the point.
Al.
Bill H-
A) What do you want out of this? It sounds like you’ve already moved your account and really just want to rub their face in it. That’s fine, but if I were you, I’d consider staying if they give you something.
The only thing I want to get out of this is some kind of satisfaction in them knowing that I got sick of their bullshit and wasn’t scared to move on and close up shop with them.
Personally, I think way to many people take shit like this and don’t do anything about it because it’s a pain. Well, I had the time and the gumpshun to say “fuck it! I tired of this crap!”
B) Your letter is way too long.
Got it. I appears that Alice has done a nice re-write. I haven’t gotten there just yet, but I’ll venture to guess that it’ll be the one I use.
**C) Your letter makes it sound like your account isn’t a very valuable one. You delved into the fact that your account was overdrawn (it sounds like several times, but I didn’t understand that part). **
For the most part, my account has always been fine. There’s been times where a check or two has bounced, but over the course of over a year, the total number is around five, at best.
And I’d seriously disagree with you that they look at this like a dead-beat thing. I think they look at this as a money making scheme… especially when I keep paying the fines, remaining quiet about it, and continue to be in good graces with them.
Seriously, they’re making far more money off of me in this situation, a situation I was willing to resolve up until this mornings incident I might add, then if I never bounced a check in my life.
What were or are they making off of a two-thousand dollar account that has no fees and never goes over the limit? Not much. And I’d suspect I use that account the same way others do too, that is, the small amount thing.
D) I would throw in a paragraph about how you have talked to another bank or two.
Will do.
As I was filling out the paperwork at Wells Fargo, the lady asked me what brought me there or some such thing. I basically gave her a very condensed version of the above, with the added note that I was sick of it and wanted to change banks (With that woman, at Wells, I wasn’t about to mentioned the negative balance thing. I’m not that dumb).
She was surprised and almost happy to hear about my situation. Well, not happy, maybe more re-assuring. She talked about how banks are being bought up these days and how in the process their customer service can take a nose-dive because of that fact. Then she went on to talk about how it wouldn’t happen at her bank etc. etc. etc…
Anyrate, I could see that she was taking it all in, however, and not in the normal, ‘this guys got a beef thing’. Again, I was dressed up nicely and in a relatively good mood- I’m sure it surprised her that my bank was jerking me around. At least that’s how I interpreted the conversation.
E) Do your best to get the rep and the guards names. This is key.
Will do… but how?
Just walk up and ask them? I thought I was trying to be nice, not vindictive?
**F) threaten to leave, and see what the offer you to stay. **
Believe me, if I get something out of it, I keep it open. I’m not about to be against that. I’ll just take what they offer and start banking at the new one regardless. Stick ‘em even more, in a way.
** alice_in_wonderland**-
Oooohhh! I like that!!
Sorry Bill, but regardless of what happens tomorrow, that letter is going to go off!!
Thanks, and Thanks Alice. I like it.
:: I’m seeing new things upon preview… Jesus you guys are fast ::
Bill H-
Hmmm. That’s a good point about the guard. And I like the idea of waiting to see what they have to offer.
But, but, this part is the letter part.
I doubt much will happen out of the letter. Maybe it’ll give that branch a bad mark the next time some higher up comes to see what they’re up to. Maybe it won’t… I don’t know.
The whole point of the letter is to get higher ups to take notice, or at least get someone reading a bitch about their services.
Something may come of it.
But in terms of the in-person trip tomorrow, I’m not holding my breath. I really doubt they’ll be too upset by my leaving.
I’ll do what others here are saying, but if they don’t offer anything to keep me, then I’ll close the account and then send off the letter.
Or, are you saying I should go in tomorrow, bitch, and see what happens there, and if it’s not up to par, shoot off the letter and see what comes of that?
Kind of a two-prong approach?