Bank suckage (Longish)

[Gerrinson]

A local bank has been running a promotion where they deposit $75.00 into your account if you're a new customer with a minimum deposit of $500 and if you have your direct deposit put into that account.

Since I moved, I no longer have a convenient location for my current bank and, although I'm keeping that account, I need something closer to home too. I decided to take advantage of their offer and left work early so I'd have time to stop. The branch near my apartment closes at 5:30 PM on Friday, according to the hours posted on the door.

I showed up at 4:45 PM, which is not early in the day but still well before closing. I walk in, there's one woman in a suit walking into what I assume is the ATM closet (as it's right behind the ATM) and two tellers. The offices are off to the side so I couldn't see if anyone was in there or not.

T1: Teller number 1 or Giggles
T2: Teller number 2
ABM: Assistant Branch Manager
Me: Potential customer

Me: (to the two tellers) Hi, I wanted to open a new account, whom would I need to speak to about that?

T1: Oh, that's Phil (name changed), but he's on lunch right now. *giggle*

T2: He won't be back until 5:30, but even if he was in he couldn't open a new account for you now, it's almost closing time.

Me: Oh, I thought you were open until 5:30, that's what the door said.

T1: Right, but even if he was here that's not enough time to open an account. *giggle*

Me: It takes more than 45 minutes to open a new account?

T2: Look, he's not here right now. You'll have to come back next week. He's out until Wednesday, so just come back next Wednesday.

Me: Ummm, seriously? I mean, I left work early to get here and you close at 4:00 on Wednesdays, there's just no way I can get here that early. Is there a manager here I could speak to?

T2: The Assistant Branch Manager is right there. (points behind me)

T1: *giggle*

I turn around and see the woman from the ATM closet, she stops to come over and see me.

ABM: Can I help you with something, sir?

Me: Yes, I wanted to open a new account, but I was told I have to see Phil who's out to lunch right now. Could you help me with this?

T1: *giggle*

ABM: No, only Phil can open accounts, there's nothing I can do.

Me: So, only the Branch Manager can open new accounts? (I honestly thought he'd be the Branch Manager if even the Assistant can't open an account)

T1: *giggle*

ABM: (rolling her eyes!) He's not the Branch Manager, but he's the only one who can open a new account. Even the Branch Manager can't open accounts for just anyone. Phil will be back Wednesday, just come back then. It's too late in the day even if he was here. There's nothing we can do for you today. Maybe you should try one of our other branches that's more convenient to your location.

T1: *giggle*

Me:

It didn't seem like there was any point to telling the idiots off, so I just turned and walked out. I did send an email to their corporate office about the service that I received, but I've heard nothing back as of yet. Doesn't really matter, as I decided the $75 isn't worth dealing with their employees.

There is another bank in that plaza, a bank that's new to the area. They were happy to open a new account with me on the spot, and the ABM at that branch stayed late with me to get it done, because there was another person ahead of me. I also related the story to her, and mentioned that I was much more satisfied with the quality of service she provided.

[GolfCart34]

At my bank tellers can't open new accounts. We will, however, get you a CSR or manager right away to help you out should you come in. If you show up 10 minutes before the bank closes then customer service might have to tell you to come back tomorrow to finish the opening (we'd at least start the paperwork and get the process started) but we'd be more than happy to help should you show up within reasonable time (which you obviously did).

It's not a quick thing to open account. Typically it can take 30-45 minutes for the entire process, however it's usually much quicker once you already have established accounts with the bank. The tellers where you went were completely unprofessional and I don't see any reason why they didn't or couldn't have more than one person trained to open accounts on duty at that time. Heck, even when I went to open an account at my dad's bank (he lives an hour and a half away and sometimes he gets checks for me, so now he can deposit them since he's a signer on my account there) it was a SUNDAY with a line out the door and they still were willing to help me with an account opening (this particular bank has Sunday hours at their grocery store branches, which are way better than their brick and mortar branches). I work for a bank so I know how things can be, so I understood if he had to go help another customer while papers were running.

Banks are supposed to be places to trust your money to. I'm wondering if that particular bank or branch is hurting for customers and trying to get them in however they can. If it were me I'd be walking out and finding another bank to go with since they obviously didn't care enough to try and get my business. Either that or try and find a local credit union since you already have an account at a regular bank. Credit union deposit rates are usually a bit better and they can really help you out should you ever need a loan. My bf uses a credit union about 700 miles from where we live now for his primary banking but he's also on my checking account at my bank should he need to cash a check or if he's strapped for cash and needs a few bucks (since there isn't a branch of his credit union anywhere near here).

It just makes me really sad when bankers don't take their customers seriously and give them a hard time over the simplest things. These people don't realize that it costs something like 5 times more to get a new customer in the door than to keep an existing customer. I work for a community bank so we treat our customers like gold, especially since we understand that our job depends on their business. Does that mean that we give in when they make unreasonable demands? Absolutely not. But we are there for the customer and will make every attempt to help them whenever possible.

I've been seeing this exact same thing more and more often, and I don't know why. Even my branch, which has signs saying that they close at 5pm Monday through Thursday, and 6pm Fridays, does the same thing. Oh, you can go in and talk to the person sitting at the service desk, but the actual tellers will not help you. They are too busy counting out for the end of the day.

Hmm, makes me wonder about some of those cashier jobs that I had. We were expected to keep our tills opened until closing at 5:30 BEFORE counting out. Oh, we usually had our floats and credit receipts all counted out before then but we weren't allowed to refuse customers until we locked the doors at 5:30, or whatever time we closed. If we refused a customer we got in trouble...so why can banks do it?

I've noticed that too. Where I work we don't stop helping customers until the clock strikes the closing time (we're open 8-5 m-f and 8-12 on sat). If it's slow we'll start to count down our drawers early, but the minute a customer walks in we help them and finish balancing after closing. There's no excuse for tellers being counted out before the bank closes unless a particular teller is going home early. Basic jobs in the banking industry are not that difficult. Why quality customer service is lacking these day is beyond me.

[IceLee]

I'm sorry I dont have a similar experience but I'm rather annoyed with my bank... it seems everytime they make a mistake with my withdrawals (wrong amounts etc), they pop a fee on me for that mistake! Last week I requested a withdrawal of 440, loud and clear, the lady withdrew.... *drumroll* 140! wha? how does four hundred and fourty sound like one hundred and fourty? mind you, I also wrote it down as I requested the withdrawal as I'm deaf... needless to say, they placed two fees on my bank account in one day, taking money from my account when they're techinally not meant to (my taekwondo fee is in there, currently less than it shouldve been)

and once I discovered someone/some shop gave me a fake 50 dollar bill amoungst my cash, went to my bank, and when I reported it in, they said they will take that note to the federal police but they will not give me a proper 50 dollars back for being honsent!- It's a weird story, I was honsent and reported it straight away... but ended up losing money for it!

Needless to say, I'm tempted to go and see another bank now...

[GolfCart34]

ILast week I requested a withdrawal of 440, loud and clear, the lady withdrew.... *drumroll* 140! wha? how does four hundred and fourty sound like one hundred and fourty? mind you, I also wrote it down as I requested the withdrawal as I'm deaf... needless to say, they placed two fees on my bank account in one day, taking money from my account when they're techinally not meant to (my taekwondo fee is in there, currently less than it shouldve been)

and once I discovered someone/some shop gave me a fake 50 dollar bill amoungst my cash, went to my bank, and when I reported it in, they said they will take that note to the federal police but they will not give me a proper 50 dollars back for being honsent!- It's a weird story, I was honsent and reported it straight away... but ended up losing money for it!

Needless to say, I'm tempted to go and see another bank now...

For the first incident where they didn't give you the right amount of money... This is the exact reason why we have the customer fill out the slips and sign them. That way we can make sure the customer gets what they want. Ok, we do have a few deaf and a few really old customers who have troubles with slips, so we're more than happy to help them out. OF course, we also make sure to confirm several times that they want x amount out of their account. Really, it's not that hard to ask and confirm what the customer wants.

And I don't see any reason why the bank couldn't give you a new $50. Where I work we'd probably take the bill and the customer's info, give the new bill, and send the fake off to security and let them handle it.

I have accounts at two separate banks and a credit union. If I get pissed off at a particular branch I simply switch to another one. If I get pissed off with the bank in general I go somewhere else. Simple as that.

[IceLee]

Yeah, I was shocked by the teller not even thinking properly about the amount of cash I requested, my bank doesn't do slips but that is a good idea, and my family aswell as myself are still in disbelief by that bank's logic over the fifty dollars when they refused to give me a proper one- " We can't give you another fifty dollar in replacement because this did not come from our bank."

I am going to go and deal with my taekwondo instructor today.. *shudder* im hoping he wont go feral on me because of the sheer stupidty of my bank!

[bainsidhe]

And I don't see any reason why the bank couldn't give you a new $50. Where I work we'd probably take the bill and the customer's info, give the new bill, and send the fake off to security and let them handle it.

Wow, I'm actually pretty surprised by this comment. This just doesn't seem like good business sense, since the bank will then be out that money. The bank didn't provide the customer with it and legally, they cannot redistribute it and must contact authorities.

Going back to the store where the phoney bill came from probably wouldn't work, but it could be tried. I know my store has had at least one customer come back saying we gave him a counterfeit $20 bill and our store basically told him no dice. We don't know who he is and, even if he is upset, we are not in the business of just giving money away. We would be eating that loss and have no way of proving we really supplied him with that bill.

[GolfCart34]

Wow, I'm actually pretty surprised by this comment. This just doesn't seem like good business sense, since the bank will then be out that money. The bank didn't provide the customer with it and legally, they cannot redistribute it and must contact authorities.

We get bad bills all the time, be them mutilated currency or counterfeit. It's actually not a loss for the bank, rather a loss for the distributor who sent the bills in the first place. While we haven't dealt with a counterfeit yet, we have dealt with several bills that were mutilated and unfit to be sent out with customers. I once got $500 in mutilated currency from the distributor. Was the bank out $500? Not really. We just sent them the bad bills and they gave us good ones back.

[boringscreenname]

I've stopped using traditional banks completely for this reason. I bought a pre-paid Visa card, and then set up direct deposit on it. Much easier than dealing with the bank, and I don't have to deal with any fees, so it's worth it to me.

I used to have an account with Chase, but I closed it because they pissed me off. One time they refused to cash my payroll check because I didn't have enough money in my account to cover the entire thing. I'm so sorry I don't just have $900 lying around in my account all the time. The weird thing is I'd cashed checks from this company at the bank before, and no one had a problem with it, and it wasn't a matter of the company writiing bad checks or anything like that just my bank.

Then I had a teller refuse to accept my ID claiming it was expired, so I just walked out. For the record, she misread my ID, it said it would expire on my 21st birthday which I pointed out to her and she refused to listen.

Then my bank decides to start putting random holds, on various amounts of my money. They wouldn't even notify me when it happened, and couldn't give me a reason for the holds either.

[marasbaras]

I've had good luck with my banking. I normally have bad luck in other stores.

[IceLee]

Off topic, but good news regarding taekwondo fee, my grandmother insisted on loaning me it, saying that she'd rather I be able to pay it off in full and my instructor was not even one teeny tiny bit pissed at me, he understood my suitation and knew how I felt about the bank, and graciously accepted the cash (he had enforced the direct debit rule last month hence another thing I was worried about tonight). Definetly changing banks though!

[csdrone]

A counterfeit bill would not be replaced: Mutilated currency is swapped but counterfeit is not replaced. The Secret Service is given the bill and a report. The teller would be fired if they knowingly gave the bill back to you or swapped it for a good bill.

[trunks2k]

heh. when I opened my checking account at my bank, I got there shortly before closing and apologetically asked to open an account since I really needed to be able to paycheck. The teller opened happily stayed late to open the account for me.

You'd expect a banker to WANT to stay late to open a new account. That's how the bank makes money anyways.

[wagegoth]

Seriously, if your bank is treating you badly, go somewhere else. There are plenty of other banks out there, even small towns usually have more than one. I do almost all my banking online, I have direct deposit and bill pay, so I seldom even go to the branch, although I do appreciate the way I'm treated when I do show up in person.

Remember, it's your money, not theirs. You are, essentially, loaning them your money. They use your money as a base to make loans and investments, and collect income from the interest, so they make money on your money, more than just the fees they collect. Of course, this is why some banks have tended to favor large, business accounts over small, individual accounts, but if they do, take your business elsewhere.

[jfreak125]

I've had good luck with BofA, heh they came to my employer to open accounts fore us, took only about ten minutes to set up. anytime i've needed anything, they take care of it immediately and quickly..Need deposit tickets?? Ok, on their way, should have em in 3 days... I moved right after opening the acct, they shipped me replacement checks with the new address for no charge.... no hassles either. they come into my workplace every couple months to sign up new employees and always bring cookies and candy to us....

[Tuxian]

I bank with Whitney, and I have to say, I was extremely happy today because of it.

Why?

I've had this account for the last 7 years (opened it in fall of 2000). When I started, it was a basic account, no big frills (I was starting college at the time, just needed an account to have access to money while at school). I had a 5-free-check limit per month, and a $6 montly service charge. I didn't mind that, thought it was fairly reasonable.

Today, I went to cash a check I got from a relative for Christmas. And the teller says to me, "Oh, I see you do a lot of online bill paying, and you get direct deposit from your job. We can change your account over and eliminate that $6 charge, and you get free online billpay through our website, and you get a free check card." So, I signed up. I was highly impressed with that teller, since no one else had even bothered to tell me that was an option. Barring any serious screwups, Whitney can expect to have my business for a long, long time.