hguyw
Recycles dryer sheets
- Joined
- Feb 9, 2008
- Messages
- 106
The Verizon thread reminded me of a customer service adventure I had a couple of years ago. I'll end it with a question that some of you folks may care to pontificate upon.
In December of 2007, I went online to pay my Capital One bill. The balance was just under $600. I had two accounts on file with them, M&T and my county employee's credit union account. I told them to take the payment from the CU account. Printed the receipt, filed it, done.
Two days later, I go online and check my M&T checking account and find it several hundred $$ overdrawn. What? What? Turns out CapOne had taken the $600 payment from the wrong account. I get out the payment receipt again and double checked...yep, it said they were to take it from the CU account.
So, it's 8PM and I call CapOne's customer service number. Of course, I end up speaking with someone on the other side of the planet. I could barely understand her and I'm not sure how well she understood me. Nothing she can do. I must have made the error, says she.
I go online and transfer enough money from M&T savings into checking to bring the account back into the black. The checking account was not one that I kept a lot of money in - it was used for gas, groceries, some Christmas shopping. IOW, lots of small local transactions.
Next morning, I head on down with my receipt and all to M&T bank. M&T was the 4th "owner" of my bank since I started there with my mortgage back in 1984. Anyhoo, I explain to Ms. M&T bank officer my problem. I show her my receipt...I did not do this...It's a mistake on CapOne's part. She said, "Well, it's not our fault." I said it's not my fault either. How much will the overdrafts total? She doesn't know. How many transactions in the account will "bounce"? She can't tell me. I again pointed out that it's not my fault, I'm not some deadbeat that bounces checks. Well, maybe I can get one of the OD fees cancelled. She disappears into the inner sanctum and comes back a few minutes later. Yes, her supervisor said they will credit my account for $18.(The first 3 overdrafts are $18 each, after that it's $32.) She lied. They never credited my account with anything.
I walked out of M&T, went home and started making phone calls. I found another credit union that offered all the services of the bank plus free Quicken downloads. (My county CU didn't offer electronic banking or downloads so I was on the verge of closing that one anyway. And Quicken downloads had been free at my old bank until M&T came along.) I immediately went to the new CU and opened new checking and savings accounts and after making sure there were no outstanding transactions I closed my M&T accounts a month later.
Now, how the thing got resolved. After I found a new CU, I called the NYS Attorney General's Office to complain about CapOne. They told me to call the NYS banking regulators who told me to call the Virginia banking regulators where CapOne was located. I called Virginia and the guy says he'll give me the number of CapOne. I asked if these was "customer service" overseas. Oh no ma'am, he says. These folks are lots higher on the food chain.
Turns out the number he gave me was CapOne corporate HQ. I braced myself for a nightmare of letters and copies and return receipt mailings trying to get some restitution. Nope. The nice CapOne lady, who was here in the good ole US of A, asked for the information on the receipt (transaction number), and the account/routing number of the M&T account for verification. She asked how I wanted to handle it. I told her the bill had been paid from the other account so we might as well leave it but I was getting dinged big time with overdraft fees because M&T had shuffled the transactions out of order, to bounce as many transactions as possible (8 all told). She said they'd credit my CC account for the full amount of the OD fees. We started with a guesstimate (since Ms. M&T couldn't tell me how much it would be) of $110. Well, that wasn't even close. I called Ms. CapOne back about a week later and told her the total OD fees were $214. So they still owed me $104. She said they'd credit me with $150 - the extra was to compensate for the inconvenience.
So in the end, I got a few extra bucks for my trouble and learned, within a month of M&T taking over my former bank, that they're sharks and there was no point in keeping my accounts there. (I could add some details about some other shenanigans they pulled with transactions appearing, clearing and then disappearing from my account, but this has gotten long enough.) And I earned a free $50 from the new CU for signing up for direct deposit. So, all's well that ends well.
So finally, my question: Why do you think more people don't just take their business elsewhere when they're jerked around by big banks? Most people have so many options in their area - and credit union memberships are so open now - why do they stay with a bank that's treating them badly? (Maybe fewer banks would be "too big to fail" if more folks would move their accounts.) My experience with M&T shuffling my transactions so they could suck 8 OD fees from my account instead of one, may not be illegal but it certainly is unethical - and it definitely isn't unique. Why do people put up with this cr*p from their bank?
In December of 2007, I went online to pay my Capital One bill. The balance was just under $600. I had two accounts on file with them, M&T and my county employee's credit union account. I told them to take the payment from the CU account. Printed the receipt, filed it, done.
Two days later, I go online and check my M&T checking account and find it several hundred $$ overdrawn. What? What? Turns out CapOne had taken the $600 payment from the wrong account. I get out the payment receipt again and double checked...yep, it said they were to take it from the CU account.
So, it's 8PM and I call CapOne's customer service number. Of course, I end up speaking with someone on the other side of the planet. I could barely understand her and I'm not sure how well she understood me. Nothing she can do. I must have made the error, says she.
I go online and transfer enough money from M&T savings into checking to bring the account back into the black. The checking account was not one that I kept a lot of money in - it was used for gas, groceries, some Christmas shopping. IOW, lots of small local transactions.
Next morning, I head on down with my receipt and all to M&T bank. M&T was the 4th "owner" of my bank since I started there with my mortgage back in 1984. Anyhoo, I explain to Ms. M&T bank officer my problem. I show her my receipt...I did not do this...It's a mistake on CapOne's part. She said, "Well, it's not our fault." I said it's not my fault either. How much will the overdrafts total? She doesn't know. How many transactions in the account will "bounce"? She can't tell me. I again pointed out that it's not my fault, I'm not some deadbeat that bounces checks. Well, maybe I can get one of the OD fees cancelled. She disappears into the inner sanctum and comes back a few minutes later. Yes, her supervisor said they will credit my account for $18.(The first 3 overdrafts are $18 each, after that it's $32.) She lied. They never credited my account with anything.
I walked out of M&T, went home and started making phone calls. I found another credit union that offered all the services of the bank plus free Quicken downloads. (My county CU didn't offer electronic banking or downloads so I was on the verge of closing that one anyway. And Quicken downloads had been free at my old bank until M&T came along.) I immediately went to the new CU and opened new checking and savings accounts and after making sure there were no outstanding transactions I closed my M&T accounts a month later.
Now, how the thing got resolved. After I found a new CU, I called the NYS Attorney General's Office to complain about CapOne. They told me to call the NYS banking regulators who told me to call the Virginia banking regulators where CapOne was located. I called Virginia and the guy says he'll give me the number of CapOne. I asked if these was "customer service" overseas. Oh no ma'am, he says. These folks are lots higher on the food chain.
Turns out the number he gave me was CapOne corporate HQ. I braced myself for a nightmare of letters and copies and return receipt mailings trying to get some restitution. Nope. The nice CapOne lady, who was here in the good ole US of A, asked for the information on the receipt (transaction number), and the account/routing number of the M&T account for verification. She asked how I wanted to handle it. I told her the bill had been paid from the other account so we might as well leave it but I was getting dinged big time with overdraft fees because M&T had shuffled the transactions out of order, to bounce as many transactions as possible (8 all told). She said they'd credit my CC account for the full amount of the OD fees. We started with a guesstimate (since Ms. M&T couldn't tell me how much it would be) of $110. Well, that wasn't even close. I called Ms. CapOne back about a week later and told her the total OD fees were $214. So they still owed me $104. She said they'd credit me with $150 - the extra was to compensate for the inconvenience.
So in the end, I got a few extra bucks for my trouble and learned, within a month of M&T taking over my former bank, that they're sharks and there was no point in keeping my accounts there. (I could add some details about some other shenanigans they pulled with transactions appearing, clearing and then disappearing from my account, but this has gotten long enough.) And I earned a free $50 from the new CU for signing up for direct deposit. So, all's well that ends well.
So finally, my question: Why do you think more people don't just take their business elsewhere when they're jerked around by big banks? Most people have so many options in their area - and credit union memberships are so open now - why do they stay with a bank that's treating them badly? (Maybe fewer banks would be "too big to fail" if more folks would move their accounts.) My experience with M&T shuffling my transactions so they could suck 8 OD fees from my account instead of one, may not be illegal but it certainly is unethical - and it definitely isn't unique. Why do people put up with this cr*p from their bank?
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