Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Banking...does anyone else come across these issues?
So I have to ask? Have any of you, my friends, found the same level of service in your bank? 1 year ago, Scott and I joined our bank accounts. Easier to add myself to his account, Scott and I met at lunch early last spring. We headed over to his bank and Scott signed all the appropriate paperwork to approve me as his "joint account". We kept his checking account but added two savings accounts at the same time. One savings account would be tied to our checking for "overdraft" protection. The other savings would be for our wedding account. This proved to be too much for the bank supervisor. It took me 3 weeks of waiting, and then 2 phone calls to finally get some checks and my ATM card. Then, in our newness of getting used to each other's spending habits, we over drew on our checking account. I transfered money from the savings account to the checking account to be safe, but I was a day late. I wasn't really worried because we had plenty of money in our savings account to cover the overdraft. HA! Fees and Fees later, I realized that our checking wasn't connected to our savings. Another phone call to fix this issue. It wasn't fixed. I had to call a month later with an angry voice to get this issue finally resolved. A few weeks later, I used my ATM card to withdraw money. this time, i wanted to withdraw from my savings account. No such luck. Our ATM cards were never programmed to work on our savings account, only our checking. I ask myself...isn't this a question that the supervisor in the bank should ASK their clients before assuming that they don't want the ATM card attached to their savings account? Oh well. 8 months went by and no more issues until, yet again, I needed to change the account. This time, my name change. I showed up to the bank with my marriage license in hand and asked to change my last name on the account. The lady, a different supervisor, took all my paperwork and made copies. Then she told me that my husband would have to sign off on this change. Because we had a joint account. How dumb is that? NO, Scott doesn't want me to have his name, which is why I spent 3 hours changing it at the DMV! So I run over to Scott's workplace and have him sign 3 copies. I run back to the bank and she says, "great, we're all set". Umm, hold on. So I ask her, "Well, are you going to order me a new ATM card and order us new checks?". She says, "oh yes. not a problem." So I ask her, "do you need any more information from me? I'd like the checks to say, Scott and Jaime Girouard on one line, please". She replies, "Oh, well, typically, they put each of your names on separate lines on the checks. " That's annoying. I know I've seen checks with the names on one line. But of course, I give in, like always, and reply, "Please make sure Scott's name is on the first line then. Do I need to write this down somewhere?" Because I'm standing there, not even invited to sit down, and she's not taking notes, and she looks lost in space. But she assures me she's all set. Maybe she's smart and efficient, and I won't doubt her. Until 3 weeks pass by and I run into some issues with using my ATM card at the stores because my name on my license is different than my old name on the card. So I call the bank. Wondering how long it typically takes to receive new checks and a new ATM card. The woman on the other end tells me 7 to 10 business days. Well, it's been 17 business days. So I ask her to check on my order. What she tells me doesn't surprise me. My ATM card and checks were never ordered. I'm so angry. What is wrong with these people? So she makes sure my new name is in teh system, and surprise! It is. So she ordered checks to be sent overnight. Then she tells me that I can drive to the Cromwell location and get my ATM card immediately because they have a machine there that spits them out. Yeah! So tell me...why wasn't I told this 3 weeks ago, when I was at the Cromwell location ordering my new ATM card and my new checks? I don't understand why a person has to go through so many hoops. I'm not taking out a small business loan for $500k!! My husband, who's wicked smart, and works right around the corner from that bank, goes to check the bank for me, to see if he can get my ATM card and avoid the excess drive. They tell him ONLY that he's not able to do it, I have to come in myself. So I have to make ANOTHER drive to Cromwell. I get to the bank and the teller, who Scott talked to 1 hour earlier, tells me that I'm at the wrong location. Even though if you access my bank online, there is only ONE Cromwell location, I guess there are two. She tells me to take Route 3 to the Main Street Cromwell location, where the ATM Card making machine is available. I am completely confused. Route 3 takes me into Main Street Middletown, not Cromwell. And as far as I'm concerned, there is no other Cromwell location, so I have no idea what to do. Scott gets the phone number for the Main Street Middletown bank and I call them to ask for directions. That's where I find out that there is truly another Cromwell location and she tells me that I need to take Route 372 to 99 to get to the bank. These directions work out fine and once at the bank, the process of getting a new ATM card is ALMOST done. The teller here can't find me in the system using my new name. She searches for me via SS number. I'm now Jaime N GOROUARD. But yet my husband, and joint owner of the account is GIROUARD. The intelligence is outstanding. The teller fixes my name in the system and checks on my order, because I certainly don't want my checks coming in as Jaime GOROUARD. The checks are fine, she assures me. She prints out my new ATM card in minutes and has me test the card in the ATM machine. I wait some more because another teller JUST took the ATM machine offline. After testing the ATM card, I'm good to go and I'm happy to have my name changed with the bank. Today, in the mail, I receive my new checks. 2 boxes! One box, with a starting number of 1100 says Jaime N Girouard. Perfect! Yeah! The next box, again, with a starting number of 1100 (pretty stupid!), says Jaime N Ouellette. Please tell me I'm not alone in the world with these types of issues!
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4 comments:
oh no, it's just you!! Just kidding. you do have the extremes in most circumstances, though. I will give you that!!
anonymous is Leslie
Ahhh, Jaime! Only you can make me laugh this hard with such frustrating situations...you're not alone, but I must say, you do take things to the extreme!
oops! that anonymous was Dawn
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