 July 24, 2012 - 10:27am | When my youngest was born we had a situation where the teenager in the house dropped money everywhere (mostly pennies) and I was worried about the new baby swallowing one. Since the teen was rather dense and rebellous I taught Rachel who was age 3 to pick up all the money she found and put it in a 1 gallon wine bottle that I turned into a bank. After 3 yrs and 3/4 of a gallon of change the weight of the money broke the bottle so I figured it was time to cash it in. It ended up being $100! I figured that it was time to have the kids open bank accounts and learn about saving money. Time goes by and we get a plastic one gallon bank and then the kids get paid $20 each for helping the land lord and I say lets go to the bank and do a deposit (partly because I know the state has a law that inactive accounts become state property after 3 years). We get there I write the deposit slips and send each child up to the window to do their banking and low and behold the bank has wiped out their accounts with maintenance fees. You see they let us open up these accounts with less then the minimum deposite and then happily applied fees till they wiped out the girls' money. You should have see the heart broken look on they youngest childs face as she asked, "Where's my money?" They should have told us about the fees or offered the kids a banking product designed for them to learn about saving. So customer service is doing research to see what happened even though the teller already told me what happened and they have this chance to sort it out. I warned her I was what they call the rule of thirty in customer service- one bad customer experience and the average person will tell 30 people, Except the rule of thirty was invented before Face book and social media so I think I my value is much more than the rule of 30- and I bear grudges along time. There is a chain shoe store that I've been boycotting for 20 years over bad customer experience that didn't even happen to me, I just observed it. I only relented on the boycot with other franchises of that store after 12 years but haven't spent a dime in the original story in 20 years and that was huge mistake on their part as I now have kids, girls no less, and girls dont get by with just two pair of shoes. So papa bear is 5 kinds of pissed off and if the girls dont at least get their money back, preferably with 3 years interest and an apology I'm going to war. Going to strap on my 3rd degree black belt in telephone and email judo and burn up the social media on this. Including all the local TV stations that do the investigations suggested by views as well as at least one local radio station's morning show. And we may just make placards and go stand on the public side walk outside the bank and tell every passer by just what kind of crooks the bank is and how they rip off children. The fact that that bank sits right on Maverick Square which is a major square with a subway station and bus stop in East Boston is just gravey. Forget about the power of the youngest to put a little drama into the hurt look and look like she's at the edge of tears is going to get a reaction. yeah I'm pissed and the kids will get their money back or I'll exact a pound of flesh out of Soverign bank in bad publicity. So if you have a Sovereign or Santandar bank (one owns the other I guess) near you dont let your kids bank with them, better to put the money under the mattress or bury it in the back yard. Corporations suck! I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 24, 2012 - 11:10am | Wow, I hope you can get this sorted out. And glad to make the acqaitnance of another professional boycotter. I've been successfully avoiding Pizza Hut for ten yeas now because they were delivering undercooked doughy pizzas (I even caved a couple of times to give them another chance and they took the liberty of sending me away...their store hours on the door said open until ten but the employees insisted that weas pick up time not dine in time, and it was before 9:00 eah time), and Dominos made the list three years ago as well for delivering cold pizzas...the story on that is there are three stores within four miles of my house but the only one that delivers to my neighborhood is 9 miles away and it takes 30 minutes to travel. Corporate office couldn't give me a good explanation on that other than "policy" so I stated my policy: I'll never give them any more business again and spread the word concerning their ignorant delivery practices. Alsotold them to ask Pizza Hut how that policy has been working for the seven years (at the time) I'd been avoiding them. Problem is we live in a "quantity over quality" society so it really doesn't matter to them. But at least I can be satisfied with never having to deal with their stupidity ever again so it's win-win, as I really don't miss either place at all. |
July 24, 2012 - 12:12pm | Twenty years ago they invented the rule of 30 which stated that for one bad customer experience the average customer will tell 30 people. The rule of 30 is obsolete since the advent of social media. However, I doubt that social media will not make much of a dent in them for the reason you state, Shadow. I'm really hoping they tell me to pound sand because I'll be picketing them with the kids when I'm not in work and I may even get a wheel chair for the oldest who is going in for surgery tomorrow and is sure to be tickled pink to sit in a wheel chair holding a sign. Talk about a picture that will make- bank rips off crippled kid. Me continuously emailling all the TV news that do the viewer suggested investigations with attached pictures of me and the kids as well as schedules of when we'll be there and good God, the 6 yr old drama queen getting into the act- look out! Back in '97 my manager and I had a little falling our at Electrolux and we mutally agreed that I would leave. He whited out my SS# on my last contract and put in the number for the store to get credit. Took me 4 months to get paid my last $20 or $40 for that contract but I did. phones calls, emails, registered certified letters to the VP of the corporation in GA made every 3 days- yeah they figured they should pay me to get rid of me. Funny how fast I got a phone call from the district manager once the first letter hit the GA offices outlining all sorts of things being done that broke company policy- policies that states such practices were firing offenses. Yeah they tried to game me with well we can't pay you if you dont work for us so I had to agree to go back to work for them so I suggested I go to the office run by the manager that trained my manager. Except my manager had already bragged about all the dirty stuff he had learned from that guy so they all figured that I was stupid because this guy was a shyster to end all shysters. He started in with, "When you going to take a sales call?" and I said, "I've been waiting four months for $40, cant do any work till I get paid for previous work." So he paid me $40 out of petty cash and I said I'd be in tomorrow. Came in the next day and turned in the $1500 worth of demo machines still in the box. Told the manager to thank Paul for the $40. (Paul was the guy who ripped me off). I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
 July 24, 2012 - 12:51pm | Wow. The last time I heard of customer service like that at a bank, it had the words "of America" at the end of it's name... |
 July 25, 2012 - 5:20pm | Santandar runs an auto loan collection department too that has received vast complaints for customer abuse and questionable collections practices. I don't bank with them and thank God my car loan is with a larger more reputable company that has treated me with respect with zero problems so far (Though I know sooner or later I will have to deal with them on a problem and that will be the real test). |
July 25, 2012 - 11:50am | We had a used car lot here owned by a guy who would "finance anyone"...with a catch: at 5:01 he locked the office doors and called the repo man for any vehicle that had a missed payment that day. Even if you showed up with a payment at 5:01, the doors would remain locked. |
 July 26, 2012 - 7:58pm | Wow, that's pathethic. I hope you are able to get the money back. I suggest you see what credit unions you are eligible to join and check them out. They are much friendlier to individual customers and many offer accounts for children with no fees and a $5.00 minimum opening deposit. |
 July 30, 2012 - 2:51pm | Wow. The last time I heard of customer service like that at a bank, it had the words "of America" at the end of it's name... I had a credit card through that bank, was good for years until they declared they were going to start charging a user fee for the card. Dropped it like it was the plague. In every age, in every place, the deeds of men remain the same. |
July 30, 2012 - 6:24pm | Well the bank called me back to let me know that they were going to give the girls their money back so Dad will not have to go crazy on them. They lied and blamed the state which has a law that when an account sits dormant for 3 years the state gets the money. Thank you very much MA! But that is not the case as the time had not fully timed out. and the teller already dropped the beans that it was a maintenance fee. I torn between wanting to rub it in their noses that I know they lied and just taking the money and running to the nearest credit union. Do I look stupid like I'm going to miss a lie like that? Really, do I look stupid? If I wasn't so exhausted from all the extra effort to fix 3 different sets of food for one meal (Rachel's on Blenderized and I'm cutting back on fat) and do the wound care for my daughter as well as manage her meds and care, all while ignoring the wife's BS I guess I might have some energy to piss over the lie the bank tried to sell me. I think I will piss with them till the 6 yr old gets her apology. I already told her they lied so she's bound to ask pointed questions like, "Why did you take my money and lie about it?" and if they try to lie to her directly I'm lible to act up and verbally rip someone a new butt hole. I might not be a dralasite, vrusk or yazirian but I do play one in Star Frontiers! |
