With the untimely demise of my favorite bank EVER - Washington Mutual - I've been forced to become a Chase user. Not liking their policies (and anyway their branches were too far away form my home - something I was willing to put up with when they were WaMu) I decided to shop around.
Doing a little research, Capital One's Free Rewards Checking (TM, R) seemed just fine for my needs - plus, the bank was really close to my apartment.
I went in two weeks ago, and the people were so nice and friendly. I had a great time setting everything up. So good, in fact, that I considered sending a letter of commendation to the "home office" about what awesome service I received.
Little did I realize I was about to learn a very valuable lesson about double-checking the information bankers put in to your account when they set it up.
See, when we were going through the process, the monitor was turned away, so I couldn't see what was going into my account details. Turns out, a lot of aggravation could have been avoided had I seen the banker enter an "8" instead of a "9" for one of the digits of my Social Security number.
I found out that this happened a couple days later when I received my permanent debit card in the mail and tried to activate it. When I got to the part that said, "Enter in the last four digits of your Social Security number", I did so, then was told, "This entry is invalid." So I tried again. Same thing.
So I called the customer service line. The assistant asked for my SSN. When I told her, she said, "You don't have an account with us."
Ummm... What?
But, she took my account number and was able to get my card activated, but revealed that my SSN was incorrect in their system. And that i would have to go back to the branch with my Social Security card (even though i didn't need ti to set up the account in the first place) to get it changed.
I went to the bank, still under the impression that this was a minor error, and would quickly fixed. The new banker I talked to took my Social Security card, entered in the correct information. "Oh, someone put an "8" where there's a "9" " she said. Clerical error. She then filled out a form and faxed it to the "home office". Then, she called the "home office" and - I heard her! - specifically asked, "Do I need to fax you a copy of the card". After a pause, she said, "Okay. So you DON'T need a copy of the card? Okay." She hung up, handed me my card, said the info would be fixed in "about an hour" and I left the bank.
Figuring that "about an hour" was pure hyperbole (how right I was!) I gave it a day, just to be sure. I tried to enroll in the online banking portion, but was, again, getting an "information incorrect". Cleverly, I entered in the INCORRECT SSN and was given the option to proceed with registration. Since I didn't want the wrong SSN associated with my account, I did not continue. but I was rather freaked out that someone else's SSN was linked to my account.
So I called customer service. Again. After explaining the situation, the rep put me on hold to call my branch. Once he was back, he informs me that I didn't let them make a copy of my Social Security card, and that they need to do that before they can fix my information. At this point, I got a little angry. I mean, here is a BANK - people I'm supposed to trust with my MONEY - messing up on small things, left and right. It doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the institution.
I explained to the guy that I heard the banker ask about making a copy, and she was told it wasn't necessary. I then conveyed my aggravation with the way this was being handled. "Can you see how this is infuriating?" I asked. To which he replied, "Is there anything else I can do for you Mr. Soymoygoo?"
I laughed at him over the phone and hung up.
I then went BACK to the branch and talked to a THIRD banker and explained everything that happened. "Oh, yes, we certainly need a copy... I don't know why we didn't get one, last time. haha!" she said.
So she made the copy and said, "That's it!" to which I said, "Are you sure?" She looked at me for a second. "Are you sure that's it? It was supposed to be 'it' last time, too, and I don't want to have to come back, again."
"Let me check with my supervisor" she said, and hurried off.
After a moment, she came back and said, "Yup! That's it!"
"Thanks. When can I expect the change to go through so I can start using the online banking?"
"Within an hour!"
"Uh-huh..." I said, and left.
Well, I gave it an hour... then I gave it another day on top of that, and I was still being denied from online access and my SSN has still not been changed.
I called the branch, again, and talked to the woman who helped me set up the account and told her that I'm still waiting for this correction that was supposed to take "about an hour" to go through. She said she'd look into it and call me back. After waiting for over FIVE HOURS, I started to think that maybe she's copied down my phone number incorrectly and decided to put in another call to my branch.
I ask for the woman who was helping me, and I'm told she went home. Awesome!
When asked if there is anything they can do, I begin to relate the story. The woman on the phone says, "Oh! Hi Jeff... yes, the paperwork had to be faxed over, that's what's taking so long." HUH?!?! I told her, "The paperwork was supposed to be faxed over already - on the day I came back so you could make the copy of my card. What paper work is THIS, now?"
"Oh! Well, the "home office"'s fax machine is broken (she laughs, I don't) so it had to be couriered over, this afternoon."
"So when is my account going to work?" I asked.
"They'll get the paperwork tomorrow."
"Uh-huh. Great! Thanks! I guess I'll check again tomorrow, then call you when it doesn't work?" Before she could answer, I plowed ahead, "This is not very confidence building in my outlook on the ability of your bank, you do realize that? Well, I'll try again tomorrow. Thanks."
The next morning I'm called by the banker who set up my account to tell me that everything has gone through and that my SSN has been fixed and that the online banking should work.
And it only took four bankers, three personal visits to the branch, four phone calls, and countless aggravation to get it all set up!
But, what's the moral of the story?
Whenever you're creating any sort of new account, force the person who is entering your information into the database to turn the screen so you can see what they're typing. If they refuse to do that, then ask them to read back what they've put in, after they've typed it in. Learn from my experience that resulted from NOT doing this. You'll save yourself multiple anger-inducing calls and lunch-hour-wasting trips to the bank.
