The Airing of Grievances

In the spirit of Festivus, I am going to air my grievances today. The particular target of my discontent is my bank, Chase.

Background: I received a large check from a brokerage account and deposited it via the drive-up ATM on Monday night. I generally use only the drive up ATM for all withdrawals and deposits because 1) the bank hours are not convenient for me to get into see a teller, and 2) because I like as little human interaction in my financial transactions as possible. It's not that I don't like tellers or bankers (I do the same for all my travel planning and anything else that can be done online), it's just that it's quicker to get in and out on my time schedule without having them ask for my ID and all the questions that go along with it. I also have found most of them to have a below average aptitude for customer service. I do as much of my banking online as I possibly can. I have never been overdrawn on my account - ever, in my life.

The next day (Tuesday), my online balance reflected the deposit, but was not yet available. No problem, I assumed that it would take a business day to clear. The next day (Wednesday) the total amount of the deposit plus the existing amount in the account showed up as available. I proceeded to pay off 2 loans, pay a large chunk of another loan balance, pay off my credit card, and open a new savings account to hold the amount of my medical deductible for next year. If you haven't yet guessed, I am overly sensitive about my finances and take all precautions to ensure their stability.

The next day (Thursday), my available balance showed negative. I thought there must be some mistake and sent an email to customer care to inquire. I also called the toll free number but was placed on hold and hung up, as I have better things to do than wait on hold.

Today (Friday), I opened my account online and saw that not only was it still showing negative, but that I now had 2 insufficient fund fees of $60 apiece. In addition, there will 3 more of these fees added as other scheduled payments will continue to bounce. I had a message in response to my email stating that the deposit had been placed on hold and wouldn't be released until 12/29/05, which means I will be overdrawn until then. I called customer care and the women, who was very helpful, tried to call the ATM division, but was placed on hold and could never get through. She advised me to go to a branch office. I did this and they could only tell me, again helpfully, that I had to go to the branch where I deposited the check because they might have a copy of the check and could get it released.

By now, I am not happy. Aren't these branches connected? Can't they communicate with each other? Why do I have to run all over town to get this resolved? Needless to say, I did go to the branch by my house. I was given a seat and a gentleman took my information. He told me, "You should assume that a large deposit will trigger a hold." I retorted, "In the future I will, but it's not my job as the customer to know this. It is your job as a provider of a service, and an expert in your industry, to tell me. I had no indication when I made the deposit that there would be a hold. I had no notification by email that there was a hold. I knew nothing of this problem, until I called you."

He slumped off to investigate and returned to inform me they had no image of the check and that they couldn't do anything for me. I would just have to wait until the hold was removed. He said they would reverse any NSF fees if it cleared. He also had the stones to give me a booklet of disclosures and informed me that if I had read it, I would have seen that deposits are subject to holds. I asked him if he had ever read it. He said yes. I asked if he had read every disclosure he had ever received on every credit card and account he had opened. He dodged it by saying that it wasn't his responsibility to make sure I read it. While that may be true in a legal sense, it's not customer-friendly. The second anyone who I am paying for a service tells me that something is not their responsibility, I am history.

I am not quibbling with the hold policy, but with the fact I had no notice of the hold and was told there was nothing they could do. As a person who works in a customer service industry, I know that you should never say no without saying yes.

Regardless of how this ends and no matter what Chase does to reverse fees, I am moving to a new bank.

Any suggestions?

Happy Festivus - Let the feats of strength commence!