Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Banks Suck

I opened a new checking account with a local bank about two months ago because of the great deal they offered university employees. Part of this deal was that I would get the service offered in their premium checking account and a waiver of monthly maintenance fees and a minimum balance as long as I was having some of my paychecks direct deposited into the account.
I just checked my balance online and see that last week they hit me for a $15 monthly maintenance fee, which is not supposed to happen. I called the toll-free number and got some call center person in Pennsylvania who said she had no record there of any special deal I was supposed to be getting. I called my school's human resources office and asked if the deal with the bank had been rescinded. The guy I spoke to said he was in charge of the employee discounts webpage and that he didn't see that bank on there and didn't recall taking anything down recently, but he didn't remember it being there anyway. I explained that the bank in question just had a big presence at the HR Benefits Fair earlier this month. He transferred my call to someone else's voice mail. Bump. deadend.
I just called the local branch of the bank and dialed the extension of the banker who opened my account. I figure she should be able to tell me what's going on. Of course, I got her voicemail as well.
I hate how businesses promise service to get your money and then once they have it treat you like crap. Fortunately for me (and unfortunately for them) I haven't yet done anything about moving my other financial dealings to this particular bank. I'm going to have to rethink whether I even want to do that now.

Update: Just got a call from my local banker who told me I will be getting the maintenance fee returned to me account and who also apologized that the mistake happened in the first place. She also told me how she will be fixing it.
Today's lesson is--
Local service=good. Big anonymous call center service=crap.

1 comment:

Heidi said...

until next month.