Tossing you a softball today. Why do banks suck? Tell us your worst bank customer service stories.
Question of the Day, Dec 11
Tossing you a softball today. Why do banks suck? Tell us your worst bank customer service stories.
Sold some software to an Eastern European business. It’s customary to get the payment wired to my account.
I call Wells Fargo – check – no wire transfer. Keep checking. Customer is getting pissed. So I shipped the software (without the transfer) – they are solid citizens.
Finally get my bank statement – an there it is – the wire transfer. Later that week, I went to the bank for some other business and asked them about wire transfers to my account. They told me there were none! So I produced the statement – asked them about it. After about 10 minutes they said “Oh we didn’t know that we had to put leading zeros in the account number field.
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About 15 years ago:
I get a phone call from a stranger. He says he has my corporate statement from US Bank, it has my name, but his address! What a nice guy – he drops it off.
I go to US Bank. Tell them the address is wrong. I can’t change it. They produce a form – I will need my corporate charter, and both my partners signature to change the address. My first thought was to get pissed off. But then I had an idea: I asked the gal: I’d like to see the paperwork that was completed that changed my address.
After she was on the phone for about 15 minutes, she said they would change it back for me. How wonderful.
Maybe I’m the exception, but I’ve never had a problem from my bank and they have been very helpful when I’ve created a problem for myself (like making my business deposit to my personal account).
They even caught an attempted debit card fraud a number of years ago when someone was trying to charge hundreds of dollars worth of tennis balls to my card from Romania (they actually called me on my cell phone and asked me if I was in Romania using my debit card).
Banks suck because they profit from an inherently fraudulent system, fractional reserve banking. The whole concept of the system is fraudulent, and it doesn’t matter if Bank X has nice people or good customer service. That’s like a mafia enforcer who’s polite and well attired.
Miami bank: Store refused my check because the bank said I had insufficient funds. Went to bank and they said no idea why so I asked for $1,000 cash. Girl pushed $900 under window and I demanded my $100. They made me wait about an hour while they audited her window before they gave me my money. Bartow bank: Had a couple hundred dollars in my Pass Book when I got Drafted and was sent me to Europe for a couple years. When I got home, I went to get my money and they said they had started a $5 per month charge and my account was empty so FU GI. Monticello bank: On leave from Grand Forks, I bought 5 acres and agent got me a quick local bank loan. I made double payments and when it was almost paid off, I wrote the bank for the final payment amount. The response was way off so I called and was told my extra payments were “Back Loaded” which I’d never heard of before. It meant they put it in a savings account of about 0% interest and when that money was enough to pay the loan off I could get that money back. I never got screwed by that bank trick again.
A year or so before we got married my wife had financed the purchase of a new truck. She never missed any payments and after a few years I paid it off. I simply sent in the final payment (requested the payoff amount over the phone) and just waited to see what would happen. I expected to receive the title but after several weeks received nothing. I made a call to find out what the hold up was and was informed that according to their records we had failed to maintain insurance coverage for several different periods of time while they held the lien. Because of this they were forced to purchase (yeah right) insurance to protect their interest and we would be receiving a bill for this and upon payment they would release the title.
I asked for the dates of the supposed lapses in coverage and wrote them down. Neither of us have ever driven a single minute in our lives without insurance so I knew this was a bullshit scam. I put together a package of info that contained letters from the two insurance companies we had used for the entire loan period and mailed them via registered mail. A few days later the title arrived in the mail.
I’d love to know how many suckers get duped into paying that extra money. That’s my one and only horror story in dealing with banks. Most miltary bases have credit unions on them and nearly my entire financial existence has been served by credit unions since childhood. I don’t ever recall having a problem with any credit union.
Penn Head , think about it . The entire world banking system is a based upon deception. It is a scam and the people who own the banks know fiat currency is a curse upon mankind.They know it based upon lies and deception. Only God can know the amount of wealth stolen from nations enslaved to this Jewish debt monetary system. That’s why you never hear Mark Levin , Sean Hannity , Rush Limbaugh or any of the conservative radio personalities tell the truth about the banking system. Clear channel communications as well as Sirius satellite radio is owned by Jewish interest.
Jewish leftists progressives elites and their White Anglo Saxons progressives peers own most of the media . That’s the reason there is so much ignorance of our banking system.
Back on topic , never had a bad experience at a bank so far.I have embarrassed a couple of branch managers when I ask about the inherent thievery of the fiat money system. They don’t like to talk about it.
@bb, it’s like I have an echo. But yeah, I agree with what you said (echoed).
From a customer service / blatant fraud perspective, I have a variety of bad experiences with large commercial banks, and I use credit unions exclusively. I’ve still had minor bad experiences with credit unions, but they (usually) aren’t trying to rip you off in creative ways.
Favorite slime bank anecdote: About a decade ago, I had a credit card from an extremely large bank whose name includes “citi” or something like that. This was an early rewards card that paid ridiculous rewards – 5% on gas and groceries, 1% on anything else. I’m smart and responsible so I charged almost everything I bought on that card, paid off the balance in full each month and on time, and never paid any interest or fees. After maybe two years of doing this, I got a letter in the mail stating that my account was being terminated “due to the manner in which you have managed your account” or some vague, formal and coy-insulting description. Yeah, I was responsible and didn’t pay late fees, you bastards.
Actually my only experience with banks was in the UK where I had to have a Sterling account to pay my Sterling denominated bills and here in the states for my mortgages.
Although secretive, it’s the central bank that exerts undue influence and bankrupts us all 24/7/365.
Persnickety said:
“I got a letter in the mail stating that my account was being terminated “due to the manner in which you have managed your account” or some vague, formal and coy-insulting description.”
I had the same thing happen to me with three different bank issued credit cards. I never paid any interest or fees so terminating my accounts was just good business on their part. I didn’t mind using their money for free and getting paid on top of it while it lasted. Funny thing is that has never happened to me with a credit union credit card.
BB&T tried to charge me an overdraft fee even though I had setup an overdraft protection account. I ranted and raved over the phone about it and they dropped the fee. Douchebags.
Yes – that little guy is me. Disillusioned from the beginning.
I had U.S. Bank slap a bullshit fee on a CD I had with them in the MIDDLE of the term! It would have resulted in a negative interest rate. Local branch had to call corporate while I waited. The teller was embarrassed and should have been. Bottom line, they “waived” the fee as a “courtesy”. And I yanked that money out at maturity.
Worst problem I ever had with a Bank was Chase. I bought a 3 year old house that originally sold for $500k for $283k in 2008. Originated through Quicken Loans who are also assholes and incompetent. Bottom line, Quicken didn’t calculate the escrow required so they gave me a false payment amount at the outset. Chase assumes servicing about 10 months later and I get an escrow statement informing me I’ll need to pay an extra $900 a month for the next year, then an extra $300 for the remainder of the 30 year term.
Despite numerous calls to their “executive management”, letters (including registered letters), visits to a local branch, consultation with a attorney (who was forced to repay his retainer), they didn’t offer any other solution but to pay up the amount demanded. I refused and they foreclosed.
I did manage to get a settlement from the phony “review”, but nothing close to what I lost. I’ll never do biz with either company again.
Webster bank in CT sucks donkey balls. In the 80’s I did business with a nice little bank that got bought out by Webster. I was in L.A. when the switch happened and they turned off my ATM card. I didn’t have a clue until I went to get my money and was refused. I had backup credit cards, but I had about 45K in the bank without anyway to get at it and I was pissed. The fuckwit I dealt with over the phone helpfully said that they sent my new card to my home address. I helpfully pointed out that what fucking good was it when I was 3,000 miles away.
I was gone on that trip for another two weeks, fuming and planning the tirade of vulgar filth I was going to scream into the ears of the shitbird at the bank when I got back. This was righteous, this was vengeance and this was MINE!
When I finally got back to the terminal and parked my truck I dove into my pickup. Dale Earnhardt would have been proud of the way I drove to that bank, while all the way picturing the pudgy, balding bank manager that was about to have a new asshole reamed.
I strode into the bank, demanded to talk to the manager and got sent to the assistant manager because he was out that day. I walked into the office and sitting there was the sweetest, most angelic faced girl I’ve ever seen. She couldn’t have been very old, but she looked like she was 14. And she had little pig tails. I swear to god she had pigtails tied with rose colored ribbons.
She looked up at me from her desk and said “May I help you, Sir?” in a thin, musical little girl voice that evoked images of elves dancing with the dew fairies in some god damn disney movie.
All the hate and rage ran out of me leaving me a hollow shell of a man. I slumped in a chair and mumbled and whined about what happened like some petulant child, while she ooo’d and ahhh’d over my tale of misery, which now somehow sounded trite and petty. The galling part was that I started feeling guilty about bringing up such ugliness to a veritable angel who is the very symbol of innocence and purity.
I went home and got drunk. Later that night, I roared my vulgar filth at a phantom bank manager in my living room while I stumbled around the house cursing my rotten luck. Why o why did it have to be her? Why not some hateful bitch with an attitude or a loser fatfuck fagboy?
Webster bank in CT sucks.
When we were first starting out and money was tight I went and got my wife’s paycheck from her at work at noon when they passed them out. Took it down to the bank to deposit it into our joint account and they refused to accept it because she had not endorsed it. I pointed out to the teller that that I was not asking for cash back and that I had deposited many checks like that every two weeks for several years, some even with that teller. Ended up calling the manager over and they stood pat on their policy so I asked the account balance, figured out which checks were still outstanding and wrote one final check for cash to close the account.
@Lysander: everything in Connecticut sucks. EVERYTHING.
@Lysander, that’s some funny shit. Shortly after high school I had an old 1969 Ford Fairlane. One day a guy in a brand new GMC Jimmy made an illegal left hand turn in front of me and I t-boned his ass doing about 45 or so. I could clearly see I had totaled his new 4WD because the front and rear passenger compartments were only about 3 feet wide. From inside I could not assess the damage to my car but I was instantly pissed off because I loved that car and could not afford to replace it. I came up with a furious diatribe before I even got out of my car that I intended to unleash on this moron.
I got out and walked around to the drivers side of his Jimmy just in time to watch him begin to emerge. He continued to emerge for some time and it seemed like minutes went by before he finally finished emerging. Not if the numbers are accurate but his shoulders were about four feet wide and he was about eight feet tall. Even in the business suit he was wearing I could tell that he would put Schwarzenegger’s physique to shame. He blocked out the Sun and it felt cool in the shade he created. At the time I weighed about 120lbs and had to run around in the shower to get wet. All I managed to squeak out was “Are you ok?”.
My Fairlane had a hand sized crease in the front edge of the hood, the right fender was loose and slid back about a quarter inch and the fan shroud broke. The grill wasn’t even damaged! The insurance company totaled it, wrote me check for more than I paid for it and let me keep it with a clean title. I repositioned the fender, repaired the fan shroud and drove it until I moved to the UK. I flat out RUINED that Jimmy!