Okay, so after being shat upon by our mid-sized bank, we shopped around and found a new, little bank right here in town. They offered MUCH better rates on savings and CD interest, the people were nice and customer service-oriented, and we were just generally thrilled to be dealing with them rather than the Evil Mid-sized Bank.
That was in September…we’ve cruised along in financial bliss unil last week. Little Bank In Town was scooped up by Big Fucking Bank - Charter One.
So far, they’ve:
Sent us new checks that have only Mr. K’s name on them.
Upon bringing this mistake to their attention, they assured me they would have the new checks on my doorstep by early this week. Didn’t happen.
A second call revealed that they never placed the correction order. I had them place another correction order and they said they were sending new checks out 2nd day delivery. That was Wednesday. Turns out I’m not getting them til the 30th (and I’m not holding my breath on that, either).
I always call the bank on Saturday to make sure the automatic deposits hit. This morning’s call revealed that they don’t have my new account in the system.
A call to customer service showed that my checking and savings accounts actually do have my name on them, but I can’t do any banking until sometime later today because they haven’t activated the accounts. No way to know if the deposits hit, so I have to wait until my scheduled GARDENING time to do my BANKING. They have no idea if my CD is fucked up because that account isn’t connected to the debit cards they sent me, which is the only way customer service could tell if my name even appears on the accounts. No word on when the CD account will be activated.
Customer service doesn’t have a line to dial out (yeah…I believe that) so they can’t call ME when everything is straightened out. I have to call THEM back.
I purposely didn’t want to fuck with the bullshit that is the Big Bank™. But I figured I’d give them a chance because I didn’t want to go through the hassle of changing banks again. But at this point I’m so annoyed with the lack of organization and customer service that I think I’m going to pull out once my CD is mature.
In the meantime, they can all slurp down a big steamin’ bowl of syphilistic Mongolian afterbirth. Ya cocksuckers.
Sounds like the classic line from a CALL CENTER. Yep, bet your bank customer service isn’t even in your local area, they are probably in India or Canada or somewhere like that. Inbound call center reps don’t make outbound calls, they are too busy taking inbound complaint calls because their bank keeps screwing up!!! Ain’ t that sweet!
My bank is a tiny little (I think they have maybe 2 grocery branches in addition to the main bank) privately owned bank in a small town right outside of Kansas City, where I worked over a decade ago. While I’ve lived in places as varied as Phoenix and New Orleans since opening that account, I have never moved my account to a new bank. While there have apparently been attempts to buy them out, and I don’t believe they’ve ruled out the possibility (money is still money), I think they’re insistent that it remain a “local” bank in service level, if that should happen.
When I lived there, and used to go in or call the bank, I was greeted by or spoke to Betty, respectively. When I call today, Betty is still the person answering the phone.
If you ever find such a bank, with its own Betty, don’t leave it.
Here, here. I will be in the market for a new bank as well. I tried to deposit a large check in my current bank today. This is a little, local mom and pop bank. I wanted to put most in my checking and the remainder in my savings. I know I had let my savings atrophy in this bank because it doesn’t pay squat in interest.
I was told that I could consider a thousand active right away, then ten percent of the deposit in five days and the balance would be available to me in 11 working days. (This was a check from a big name investment firm, not a personal check). Then I was told that my savings account had been closed some time ago. Because they automatically deduct five bucks a month “upkeep” or some such fee on accounts less than $250. They had deducted five bucks for a bunch of months until that used up all my money, then closed the account. The last straw was I also wanted some cash back, and they’d only let me take what was already in the checking account. The teller then told me the rest couldn’t be touched for 11 days (forgetting the 5 days for 10% business she had told me before).
“I think I’ll just deposit this at another bank.” was my response.
So I took it to the credit union that has my interest bearing savings account and put it in there. When I asked if it was all available right away the teller looked like I was nuts, and said of course.
a) Because there are still circumstances where occasional payments or credits are either a nuisance or impossible to set up by direct deposit or electronic bill payment.
b) Because some people (e.g. me) don’t like the idea of Pre-Authorized Debits because they don’t want any possibility of debits occuring at unexpected times or in unexpected amounts.
I think you may mean phoning up a human to ask for a balance. If that’s the case, no I don’t do that. However, I do occasionally phone up the 800 number associated with my bank card when I feel like checking my balance without turning on my computer; it’s a not-too-bad automated system (I have both the 800 number and my bank card number [but NOT my PIN ] on my phone’s speed dial, so it’s quick to get in).
Some small stores don’t accept credit or debit cards. It’s shocking, I know, but there ya go.
I’m tempted to go back to paper checks for my Verizon payments. It’s been two billing cycles and they still aren’t taking the payment from the correct account.
Just playing devil’s advocate here, but I’ve worked in call centers where we weren’t able to make outbound calls. And in other call centers, even if we could make outbound calls, we didn’t have a system in place for following up on a particular customer’s issue. Not that that’s at all okay, but the CSR may not have been lying to you.
Dude! I thought I had my “Betty.” Then that whore sold out to that pimp muthafuckah and never looked back. I went to the bank today. I got lots of warm fuzzies, but they told me I basically don’t have an account today. I did, however find out that the automatic deposits hit. I guess that’s something.
Oh, no doubt. I get this every time I request customer service. I’m sure a “customer service” manager could have made the call from the fabulous office that is off limits to the worker bees. I’m pissed off that I have to chase shit for a bank move that I didn’t want to make in the first place.
You…didn’t know? There hasn’t BEEN a Bank of America since 1998. When Nationsbank bought BofA and moved its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina, Bank of America ceased to exist. Nationsbank changed its name and adopted BofA’s original charter, but it is NOT the bank founded by A.P. Giannini.
] on my phone’s speed dial, so it’s quick to get in).