Troubles with banks

We, my wife and I, have been having problems with banks ever since we moved out to the east coast.  In the mid-west, we had a bank that was okay, not anything exceptional, but we were always able to get our money out, if we had any to get out.

Since we have moved to the east coast we have opened up two different accounts, with two different banks.  For the sake of this blog, I will call one of them NoClu, and the other I will call QOD.  NoClu is an online bank account, with no branch close to us, and QOD is a local bank with branches all over the east coast.

We opened the NoClu free checking account first, which was bought by Flee bank because NoClu had gone under (that should have been the first clue), and everything seemed to be going smoothly.  About a week after we opened the account we got our checks, but we never received our debit cards nor our PINs for said cards.  This was important for my wife was set to go off to India for 6 months, and she didn’t have any way to retrieve money while there.

So, we called NoClu and they said they couldn’t do anything for the account had not been open for 30 days.  At hearing this we demanded to speak to the supervisor’s manager, who was able to get a new debit card expedited.  Thankfully, we got that card before she left.  The only problem was that we hadn’t received her PIN.

At this point, I still hadn’t received my card, nor my PIN.  So I called and requested a new card, and was willing to wait the 7-10 days that they quoted, which was about 3 weeks after I opened the account.  After about 2 weeks of not receiving the card, i called them back and asked about the status of the card.  The agent notified me that the card had not been ordered, but she saw the note that it was supposed to be ordered.

This pissed me off, so I demanded a supervisor and told them that it was freaking ridiculous that it hadn’t been ordered, and I wanted it expedited, because they has messed up and they knew it.  The supervisor wasn’t willing to do that, so I requested to have their manger call me back, which never happened.

After waiting a week I called back and decided to just go the normal route, and ordered a card.  They said that it would be 9-12 days because I was ordering a PIN with it.  That next weekend I checked my online account and noticed that the first card that I was supposed receive was still showing. 

I decided to call and see what was going on.  The first agent I talked to said that it had not been ordered, and there weren’t any notes saying that it should have been ordered.  This sent me over the edge.  I was so mad that I was using every curse word that I could think of.  I then demanded a supervisor.

The supervisor got on the line, and I notified her of the issue, and she said that all they could do is send out a card with the normal 9-12 days.  This wasn’t good enough for me.  I was bound and determined to get this done and to get a card that week, so I demanded a manger right then.  While waiting for a manager the supervisor said that the reason why I hadn’t received the card the first time I reordered, was that it was within the first thirty days of the account being open, and they can’t reissue a card within the first thirty days.  I told her that I was never notified of that, and that seemed retarded, because the literature says to call if we hadn’t received are cards within 10 days.

After awhile of waiting she told me that a manager wasn’t available but she would make sure that a manager would call me within 24 hours.  I agreed to that, and waited 24 hour. 

Of course, a manager didn’t call me back within 24 hours, so I called 26 hours after the last call.  I didn’t allow the first agent that I spoke to help me, because i knew an agent couldn’t do what I needed.  When I spoke to that agents supervisor she said that she would get me right to a manager, but in the mean time she would try to help me.

For once, she was able to do what I needed.  She said that she could expedite the card out to me and I would receive it by Wednesday of that week, which I did.  After she ordered the card, I still wanted to speak to the manager, because it should not have taken so long to get this done.

I wait 45 minutes on hold to get to a manager, but I actually get to one.  I know, it’s crazy. 

Once I was talking to him I relayed my story to him and everything that happened, and he apologized.  He also said that he would have a talk with supervisor who told me they could reorder a card with 30 days, because that hasn’t been the policy for about a year now.  I told him that they really need to work their internal communication and education of policies.

That however wasn’t the end of the story, because I had been told by the agents on the phone that I could either set a PIN in a branch or I could wait for them to send one.  Because of that I had decided to drive an hour and a half in order to deposit a check as well as get a PIN for my card.

Once I was there they deposited my check for me, but they weren’t able to setup a PIN for me.  All they could do is reorder one to be sent to my address, at which I have still to receive a PIN at, or they could reorder a new card that would be sent to my address, which of I would never receive.  I had already received my card after 2 months and I was not willing to have it canceled and be SOL again.

I stormed out of there, and told them they sucked.

That’s up to current date on the NoClu account.  I’m planning on continuing to fight with them, but I’m tired of it right now, and so will wait for a bit.

Now, the QOD bank is just as retarded, but it’s not as long of a story.

The QOD story starts in the middle part of May, when my wife set up the account up in New Jersey, before she left for India.

The guy, let’s call him Money, who set her account said that he would be able to get me on the account.  I called him up and setup a scheme for him to ship me the signature card.  I waited two weeks for it to show up (yes, I’m patient). I then called him and notified him that I hadn’t received any package from him, I had received other packages, but not his.

Money said that he had sent it, but there was something in his voice that made me think that he had completely forgotten about it.  He then said that he would mail it off that day, which was a Wednesday, and that I should receive on Friday.  This was exactly one week ago, and I still haven’t received any package from him. 

I called Money back today, and he was “with a client,” but he had given the receptionist a tracking number for the package, and said I should receive it today or tomorrow.  I thought at this point that it’s about time.  I hang up the phone, and once I have access to a computer I check the tracking number, and guess what?  You guess it.  It didn’t pull anything up.

I called back, and this time Money wasn’t “with a client.”  I then notified him that that tracking number hadn’t pulled anything up on the tracking website.  He said that of course it hadn’t, because it had just been picked up today. 

That is when I went off on Money.  I notified him that if he doesn’t get this straightened out I would have my wife close the account.  He then asked if I still wanted him to send the information to get me on the account.  Once he said that I couldn’t let him get of easy, because he had said that he hadn’t sent the needed paper work.  I let him know that he had just said that he hadn’t sent anything yet.  He then said that he didn’t need all this, because he was doing it as a favor to my wife.  I told him that I didn’t care, if it was a favor or not, because he had notified me that he would send the information.  (On a side not, why is it that people think that favors don’t need to be followed through on?)

I at this point I tell him that I need to speak to his manager, because I wasn’t going to deal with him anymore.  I said that I knew that he had lied to me and that I would not trust one word that he said to me.  He then tried to give me a 1-800 number to call, but I wouldn’t take that, because I wanted to make sure that I talked to his boss. 

We went back and forth, me saying that I don’t care how I end up talking to his boss, but I want to talk to his boss.  (I know you have to usually wait for a call back, especially in a situation like this.)  He kept saying that there was no way to get that done, but I kept overriding him and wouldn’t let him speak for about two minutes, because he kept trying to say the same thing he had already said.

With that I finally wore Money down, and he said he would do what he can to get his boss to call me, which I really don’t trust.  I told him that I expect a call within 48 hours, which is more than reasonable.

And that is the end of that tale up to this point.  If I don’t hear back from his supervisor within 48 hours, I am going to keep going until I speak with someone high enough to reprimand him, because the bank should know how crappy their employees are.

So I needed to get this off my chest for awhile, and I’m glad I did.  For those who read this please watch out for crappy banks, but then you never know until you’re in.

………………………………………to be continued…………………………………………