Deceptive Call System and Huge Fees
Written: Nov 20 '05
|
Product Rating:
|
|
| Customer Service: |
 |
|
| Web Site Experience: |
|
|
|
Pros: They had a good rate
Cons: High and Unreasonable Fees, Deceptive Phone System, Outsourced Customer Service, Push a Culture of Debt
The Bottom Line: Avoid this company. They look out for number one and you are not it.
|
|
|
| alricsca's Full Review: Fifth Third Bank |
The first time it happened I was late on a payment because my bill pay did mess up and I did not catch it in time. What made it awful was their phone system which should have warned me about a late payment but instead kept calling and hanging up on me several times. It finally called and did get through which was when I found out what happened. They said, "Sorry that happens with their system sometimes" and they said that they would reimburse the 50 dollar late fee on the 10 dollar payment this time. Yep 10 dollar bill vs 50 late fee! How nice of them. Well then came the second time about half a year later. This time I moved. I did send in the paper change of address form they attach to every bill, well apparently they never got it and they do not forward bills so about 15 days into the next bill cycle when I did not get a new bill I called. They told me I should always call them when moving, the lady I talked to implied the paper forms do not work often. Well fine, so at the same time I used their automatic phone system to check how much I owed so I could pay. It said I had a 60 dollar balance that was due December 3. Which was a nearly month away. I foolishly thought, as is often the case with my bills, I must have had another no minimum month. I thought nothing of it. Well once again I get a call, this time it gets through and they leave a message for me to call back. I call and get shunted to a call center in India, this was based on the thick accents or the person I was talking to, where a gentlemen proceed to tell me that I am delinquent on my account and how would I like to pay it. This makes me a bit suspicious I might be being conned so I tell him I will pay it on line, and I then call the bank directly just to be sure it was a real debt. I used their automatic system again and it still said I owed money as of Dec 3, no mention of an over due balance. I am now worried this is wrong so I use their system again and this time I select to talk to a representative about payment. Well guess what? I get sent back to India where another person this time a woman tells me, I see you called already and am I ready to pay my delinquent bill now. At this point I am getting agitated I tell her I would have payed it already but the phone system told me I owed money in Dec 3 and that it quite common for me to get a no payment month. I said I am willing to pay but I am upset that I checked their system twice and it implied I owed nothing. She at first tried to say their system would not say that. I then assured her, I was more than able to pay now and that I am mainly upset the system did say I had an over due balance and why would I bother telling her this if it were not true as I intended to pay. She then said she was not able to handle this type of issue and that I could be forward to another representative after I pay my bill. There was an edge to her voice and she had implied I was lying, so at this point I was furious as it was clear to me that she had no other purpose at all but to collect my money. I told her I would need to pay by check, I would have payed with my bill pay but just my luck my online connection went out that morning, she said that was fine but that it would be $12.75 fee to do this on top of the late fee. Now you got to understand to enter a check number by hand does the same thing as when it is mailed in both cases they enter the routing number and the amount paper stopped being sent a long time ago. This fee made no sense but at this point I just wanted it payed of, I hate being late. She then said, okay that will be "60" dollars in addition to the fee", I said "No I want to pay the whole balance." She seemed taken a back by this and said I only owed $60 bucks and that is all I needed to pay. It was then clear to me that they really wanted me to pay the minimum which after the late fee would be 10 bucks. So once again I was being charged outrageously and what made it worse is that they purposely wanted me to keep a balance bad enough they trained their reps to push it. Well I made her take the whole amount. I then got a note saying this happened how much the fee were and that my delinquent balanced was payed. How nice, "My delinquent amount." It is clear to me this bank likes to scam fees from you. Their system is set up to make it easy to fall prey to them and they push really hard to have you ride a minimum which in my opinion is a sleazy practice. They also treat you like a criminal when they communicate with you. Their language screams of user y. Do not get me wrong I know they want to make money but an honest and fair company can do this just the same. Had I been warned, the fees been nominal and the persons I spoke with polite and professional I would have probably payed much less and they would still be collecting interest. Well, to make a long story short, I am writing this on the weekend. On Monday I am canceling the card. I just wanted the world to know how this bank treated me. In my opinion they are not a company with which I would do business.
Recommended:
No
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
alricsca
|
|
Reviews written: 1
Trusted by: 0 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.