US Bank and Bad Customer Service

As a business owner I need to have business accounts. I suppose there are ways around this but I prefer to have accounts in my businesses names so that people can write checks to the business and not to me personally.

I have been a US Bank customer since before US Bank was a well known bank. I was originally a Downey Savings customer, I loved them, but US Bank bought them out and thus I became a US Bank customer.

My branch is the Los Alamitos Branch in California. I use to frequent the branch often. I liked the tellers and the manager was a peach. He was very kind and whenever I needed help with something he was always eager to help. I'm the type of customer that accepts her errors and takes the consequences without complaint but will fight for what's right when it is someone Else's error that affects her money.

Sadly, after many years of great customer service my favorite branch manager was transferred to a bigger and better job in the company. He is sorely missed. The new manager step into place and we all could not be more in jeopardy for it.

Over a year ago I signed up for a credit card service with the bank. The rep that I was working with explained a financial procedure incorrectly that put my account into an overdraft state. I spoke to the rep several times in the course of months to get the situation fixed and eventually the rep dropped the ball and my account was closed. Prior to the closing of the account I went into the branch to speak with my branch rep that opened the account to get her assistance. I showed the proof and correspondence with the original rep and any other proof I had that the error was not mine. My rep had an attitude of, "This is your fault. Our reps are perfect." She was no help and got frustrated with me because I would not drop the issue and just pay the crazy amount of money that the bank charged in overdraft fees. I refuse to pay for someone Else's mistakes. So she sent me to the manager.

Oh my, what a combative woman she was. This woman and my rep did blamed me, didn't believe me and all but said, "You are a liar sucks to be you. Pay up!" In phone conversations when I would not let her bully me into paying and disputed her claims that it was my fault by bringing forth the truth of the situation, she would hang up on me. After many months of going back and forth she finally gave in and reopened my account. I made an effort to not do business with this woman because she was so rude.

Just recently I walked into a branch to make a routine deposit. I never use this particular account expect to pay my taxes and another business subscription. Every month I deposit $50 into the account which usually leaves about a dollar leftover. I never use the account and there are no fees for the account so it is no big deal. As a teller looked at my account she informed me that I was overdrawn due to a $8.00 analysis fee. I inquired what it was and she said she never saw it before and had no idea. She told me I needed to go to my branch to have them figure it out. Ugh!

I called the branch and spoke to one of my tellers. I couldn't drive there with the car acting up. Besides, it's an $8.00 charge I didn't authorize, it really shouldn't be that difficult for them to figure out where it came from. It is a bank charge after all. I spoke with the girl and told her the situation. She agreed she didn't know what it was for and told me she would take care of it and call me back. A week went by and no call.

I called and spoke with another teller. I explained the situation and we had a little disagreement on why my account was overdrawn. I explained that, had the bank not put the $8.00 charge on my account, the account would be positive. Once I beat the light into his brain and common sense kicked in he realized I was right and couldn't figure out the charge and told me he would handle it, take care of the charges and call me back.

Another week went by no call. Grrrrrr! If I could drive down there I would and by this point would raise hell however, the car is not in great condition so I pick up my phone. Really, a phone call should be all it would take. WTH? I called back and low and behold I got the previous teller I spoke too. He remembered the conversation, told me he couldn't figure it out and transferred me to someone else. I spoke to a very nice gentleman that I had worked with once before. He too could not figure it out and told me he would take care of it and call me back so I could come in and close out the account.

Another week and no call. Now I'm getting pissed. The charges are piling up and they keep dropping the ball. It's to late to drive over so I call. I speak to the original teller that opened this account. She knows I don't take any mess when it comes to my accounts so I tell her the tale. She immediately transfers me to the manager, "Damn it". The manager gets on the phone and before I could say boo she is talking about a different account and begins to chastise me as if I were a child. She blamed me and told me I waited to long to address the problem. When I finally got a chance to speak I explained to her that I called in immediately when I found out about the charge. I should not have had to go to her because her employees all told me they would handle it and call me back, that is their jobs after all. If they could not figure it out it was their job and obligation to a long standing customer to go to the manager to figure out the situation and then get back to the customer before things got out of hand. She was not having any of that. She still blamed me and told me she didn't want to have the conversation, pay the $300+ dollars and then come close the account.

Well, if any of you know me I didn't stand for that. I continued to remind her that I would not pay for something I did not do and she needed to speak to her employees about why they didn't do their job. She got frustrated with me and told me to pay and hung up the phone. Yes, the manager of a big bank hung up the phone on a customer because the customer would not lay down and do what she wanted. I was not only pissed but appalled.

I picked up my phone and began calling the 800 number. Now if you don't know anything about how US Bank works, they don't work together. If you have a problem calling the 800 number does nothing. They will tell you to go to your branch. If you go to any branch other than your own and have a problem, they tell you to go to your branch. In the old days you could go to any branch of a bank and get a problem solved, but not with US Bank. Your branch that opened the account are the only people that can do anything.

I told the 800 number the situation and what just happened and asked to get someone that would be over this woman because I refuse to deal with her anymore. The small business people on the phone were gracious and apologized and were very helpful. They both told me they would report her and one of them told me he would speak with her and her district manager personally to handle her behavior because it was unacceptable. He gave me all the numbers to the departments I needed to speak too to fix the problem and bid me a happy good night.

I have since spoken to the departments and have found that the account is closed and I'm on the hook for the charges. I've been given another number to call and was told I needed to go to my branch to get this fixed. Really! I called the number given to me and found myself leaving a message. There was no return call so I called again. I spoke to a nice lady who informed me that they don't reverse charges in her department. She said they only took payments and gave settlements. She originally told me she had no idea what the charge was for and told me she had never seen it before. Funny how this keeps coming out of the mouths of every employee with this bank. When I asked her did that mean the only way to handle the situation and get it fixed was to go to my branch managers boss and have him fix it, she refused to confirm or deny if that was my only recourse. Really! Come on now how hard is it to say, "Yes Ma'am! This is your only recourse or just pay us the money and go away." This gets better and better. How do businesses with this kind of practice stay in business? Oh I remember, people never speak up anymore about how they have been treated by others. I'm not one of those people hence this blog post. Now I sit writing an email to the branch manager's boss. I'll send him a nice email asking him to take over and fix this issue. I will inform him about the inappropriate behavior of his employee and urge him to step up and fix their mistakes.

What happened to the customer is always right? What happened to common respect for someone that has given you business for years? What happened to simple common respect? I am always surprised at people in the business world that treat customers like liars, cheats and thieves just so they can make a couple more bucks, as if they are the only game in town. This situation is not over for me yet. I plan to have it handle no later than tomorrow and I will give you an update.

How do you feel about customer service practices today? Do you find that more and more you encounter rude and disrespectful customer service when you patronage a company? Tell me your tales of extreme bad customer service.