Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Customer Service Island Style aka None part Duex

So my second rant. While Deb was home last week she wrote a large check from our account here at Banco Popular to our account in West Virginia. With out going into to much detail it was basically moving the money we were going to use to buy a boat last month. When that deal fell through it was time to put the money back were it belonged. Simple enough she dropped off a check while she was there.
So yesterday she was balancing the check books and realized the money had been "reversed" into our account here. Well this can't be good. So this morning I started calling the bank to try to find out what was going on. Well the first call I was "disconnected" after a long time on hold then I called back and was transferred into a voice menu in Spanish after being on hold for a long time. I had to disconnect my self from that, then after another long hold I got a lady on the phone in broken English mixed with Spanish she informed me that the check had been "reversed".
Well now we are getting some where. So I explained to her that I knew that I wanted to know what that meant and if it meant what I thought, why was it done. So after more hold time she informs me that my wife's signature had been rejected. So now I am really happy, our bank in the states has posted this check to our account and now some retard in St Thomas has bounced it and sent it back. So I talk my way into a supervisor, more hold time, then she calls the branch manager in St Thomas, and now we are on a conference call.
I express in no uncertain terms my severe disappointment with this whole mess. This check if it were really fraudulent would have be a felony. So they made no attempt to contact me or my wife and simply rejected the check and sent it back to the US in the normal mail, WTF. The branch manager assures me that the girl that did the "signature verification" tried to contact us but couldn't get in touch. Now those of you that know us know that we are about as easy to get a hold of as any one on the planet. Cell phones genetically attached and constant email. I am actually embarrassed sometimes at the level of connectivity we have. So bottom line they have a check that they suspect is a felony level fraud and they can't get a hold of the account holder, I am thinking calling the police should have been the next step. They sent the check back on the 29th and haven't made any attempt since then to contact us. They put no hold on our account. I just don't get it. You don't want to think the worst but It likely boils down to some one in the branch with a little authority making life difficult for fun. At the very least she is grossly negligent and at best just mean and stupid.
Regardless this shows a total lack of respect for their customers, from both a security standpoint and a customer service stand point. I will be going into the branch when I calm down to talk to the branch manager about whether or not we have a future relationship at this bank.
As for the other end our Bank in the States, I called my personal banker, explained the situation they put a flag on the account to send the check back and that whole conversation lasted five minutes.
Jay

1 comment:

Capt. Josh said...

just wait until you meet the friendly folks over at ScotiaBank. I have had an account with them for just shy of 4 years and still do not have checks that have my correct name or address. Obviously I keep filling out the forms wrong.

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