Write off U.S. Bank! My contribution to the "ICBPOJWO write off" (A bank rant)
Written: Jun 15 '02 (Updated Jun 15 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: None, unless...nope, still none.
Cons: Actually I'd trust a "con" more than U.S. Bank
The Bottom Line: Poor customer service, inexcusable errors and countless rounds of phone tag make U.S. Bank a hazard to your wallet.
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| jenb123's Full Review: U.S. Bancorp |
Though the majority of my reviews have been positive, praising goods and services, I could not resist taking part in the "I Can't Believe I Bought This Piece of Junk" write-off. What better way to really get back into the swing of Epinions than having some fun ranting about something horrid...
Having already reviewed my junkiest purchases, I'm doing something a teensy bit different as I tell you the ridiculous tale of two banks, two loans and a million headaches. The experiences my husband and I have had with U.S. Bank in the past several years have been nothing short of a nightmare. I also need to mention that the other "bank from hell" we've dealt with has joined U.S. Bank. Yes, Firstar, quite possibly the least organized bank in the world is now also U.S Bank...The irony...
Fate brought us to U.S. Bank...TWICE.
Our dealings with U.S. Bank have been only with installment loans. In 1996, we bought a new Saturn and were financed by Firstar. By the time our loan was paid off, U.S. Bank had taken over. In 1998, we also purchased a second vehicle, a Ford which was financed by U.S. Bank prior to their merge with Firstar. (To avoid confusion, when referring to the two loans, I will use the make of the car being financed.)
We traded the Ford in last year, ending our dealings with U.S. Bank. Or so we thought. We'll get into that a bit later. Our Saturn was paid off in November of 2001, after U.S. Bank had taken over. We are still waiting for the title to the Saturn. I'll get into that later also. First, I need to give you an idea of how customer service works with the bank from hell.
They claim to guarantee satisfaction, but deliver aggravation...
U.S Bank is now using the old Firstar joke where they "guarantee five-star service." (excuse me while I laugh...then cry...Okay, I'm done.) I have been trying to figure out what they meant by five-star service. I have come up with a few theories about what these "five stars" refer to.
Five...
...is the number of hours spent arguing with morons each month.
...is the number of times you'll be put on hold when calling customer service.
...is the number of times you will be disconnected during the call.
...is the number of people who will tell you they need to transfer you to someone else, before disconnecting you.
...is the number of of excuses you'll get as to why you were disconnected.
...is the number of people who claim to be a supervisor when you demand to speak to one.
...is the number of people who refuse to connect you to their supervisor.
...is the number of times you need to re-explain your issue each time you call.
...is the number of times your payment will not be posted and you will incur late fees.
...is the number of people assigned to your account you will deal with but will no longer be with the company the next week
...is the number of automated calls to your house received between 8:00 am and 9:00 pm asking you to call them.
...is the number of times you will call back and get voicemail.
...is the number of people who will harass you after you've sent copies of cancelled checks proving you have made payments they say they haven't received.
...is the number of errors on my credit report because of bank errors that have yet to be corrected.
You are guaranteed...
...to deal with unprofessional personnel.
...to have payments returned to you after the bank closes PO boxes without giving a forwarding address.
...to be lied to.
...to be called a liar after being lied to.
...to have someone lie about calling you a liar after lying to you.
That should cover the "Five Star Service Guarantee" explanation. I'm being kind.
The Ford fiasco
When we traded the Ford in at a local Suzuki dealer, we had trouble getting financing. This was because of errors on our credit report from our Saturn loan.
Nevertheless, we purchased a Suzuki Esteem which is also something that makes me think “I Can’t Believe I Bought This Piece Of Junk” as well. Yes, there is a review about that.
But I digress...
Anyway, we did get financing and the dealer told us we were good to go. The Ford would be paid off per our trade-in agreement and we would no longer be dealing with U.S. Bank. Boy, were we in for a shock.
For some bizarre reason, even after the payoff was made, U.S. Bank called our house constantly. First they claimed not to have gotten the payoff. Then they refused to talk to me because the loan was in my husband's name. Then they told my husband he could give them permission to deal with me on these issues. He did. They still decided not to talk to me except to threaten me saying we still owed them something.
For some reason, AFTER the loan was paid off, they didn't post it right away. Though someone finally acknowledged receiving payment, somewhere in the middle of this nonsense they transferred our loan to Wells Fargo. They never told us, and suddenly Wells Fargo was harassing us, claiming that they were awaiting our payment. I had to talk to several people at both U.S. Bank and Wells Fargo before the problem was resolved.
Ironically, this fiasco briefly affected our credit as well, though when I disputed it, this particular error was fixed. But this was not the last we heard from U.S. Bank.
(If you're still with me, might I suggest you go grab a snack or a refreshing beverage? This gets more confusing and more aggravating.)
The Saturn situation...or bank employees from Uranus...
Our dealings with Firstar prior to the merging of morons had been less than pleasant. It came as no surprise when they became Dumb and Dumber....I mean U.S. Bank. Through the years we were paying off our loan with them, they had threatened repossession despite the fact they had received payment on time. There were times they didn't post the payment and I had to actually send them copies of cancelled checks. Never an apology, never an admission that they made an error. Just mysterious explanations that made no sense. Typically they would blame "their other office." Usually they would say "You must have talked to St. Louis, they got shut down."
(I actually spoke to Cincinnati and Milwaukee offices)
At another time, they were calling regularly saying they hadn't received two payments. I had actually written a check for two months, admitting one payment was two weeks late. Nonetheless, I had previously been assured one late payment wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. I checked with my own bank, they confirmed these particular checks had not come in yet. Then I got an envelope in the mail, it was my payment and was postmarked proving I had sent it when I said I did. There were stamps all over the envelope indicating that the first address, the PO Box printed on the sticky labels in my payment book, was no longer valid. It was then sent to another PO Box that also was closed. It took nearly a month before I got the check back.
I had to try and explain this to several people at the bank and ended up being told that if I sent the original envelope to prove my claim, they would reverse the late fees and my credit would not be affected. I sent the original envelope with the check to a physical address marked "attention" (as instructed) to the last person I'd spoken to.
Not long after that, I saw that the payment had cleared and figured all was well. I called to make sure everything was okay and was told that they never received the original envelope proving I had not been at fault. The check had been received and posted, but the envelope disappeared. Or actually they claimed the envelope was never sent, though they obviously received the check in the same package. Even after two years of arguing, the problem was not solved.
Fast forward to the end of the term. I called to see what my last payment would be and was given a total that blew my mind. There were late charges that were not justified and that they has sworn they would reverse. Our credit report reflected many of the errors made by the bank. The errors they swore they would fix. And the beginning of the nightmare really began.
Names, dates, documentation...nothing I provided helped my cause.
Do people ever talk to each other?
To make a long story short, the inflated final payment coupled with some unexpected hardships made it impossible to make the entire final payment. I was advised to contact one of the dozens of people who were said to be "in charge" of our account.
SIX WEEKS of leaving messages and receiving no human response got frustrating. I called repeatedly, always getting either disconnected or put on hold. If I even reached anyone's voicemail, I would leave a detailed message, but no one would call back. Okay, the automated computer voice advising me to call them kept my phone ringing, but ironically every time I called back, no one spoke to me.
I had been sending money to pay off the account as best I could. Despite having talked to no one, we managed to get the balance down considerably. Now, we only owed just over 300.00. We were also trying to catch up in many areas, including this loan.
Hoping to get an extension, I reached an actual human being who told me he was our account manager and that they would be flexible and would give us another month to pay them off. After all the aggravation they caused us, I was pleasantly surprised. I relaxed.
I then received a phone message demanding immediate payment. Of course I was unable to get a human being when I called back. When I finally spoke to this next representative, she claimed that the gentleman with whom I'd made payment arrangements was "new" and therefore I needed to pay by 8:00 pm. Not only that, but I was repeatedly insulted and even told to "go beg at church" for the money we needed. I kid you not. Never mind that we don't belong to a church.
Of course, this person flat out refused to allow us to speak to a supervisor, the whole five star excuse guarantee. She then told us a supervisor would call us the next evening. No one did. And the next night, there was a knock at the door from two men who had been sent to repossess the car. The repo guy was actually shocked at how little we owed and went on to show me how U.S. Bank had ordered the repossession prior to having even spoken to us.
Thankfully, my husband was not at home, he was driving the car. I was in shock. Since it was a Friday night and since the car was not there, the man told me that he would not make another attempt to take the car until Monday evening. It seems that the repossessor was more reasonable than the bank. We scraped the money together quickly.
When I finally spoke to the the bank again, they advised me I could bring a check to a local branch and the nightmare would be over. Of course it was not that simple.As I tried to pay, the obnoxious woman I'd been dealing with instructed the branch manager to make me go get cash despite previously being told a check was okay. Later, she called my home and left a message to call her. When I did, she hung up on me.
But wait, there's more...
More than six months after the Saturn was paid off, we still have not received a title for the car. I have called at least two dozen times and written no less than ten letters. I've heard excuse after excuse...I was even told they had no record of this loan at all. Then they "found" it, but I was passed from department to department.
Still, we wait for the paperwork necessary to obtain our title. U.S. Bank, five star guarantee my you-know-what.
Why you should avoid U.S. Bank at all costs...
Whether or not our experiences were typical of U.S. Bank installment loans, I certainly would never voluntarily bank with them. In fact, I guarantee it. Here is my version of the five star DISservice guarantee:
Your deposits will not be posted promptly, if at all.
You will be unable to reach anyone by phone or by email to address concerns.
You will be insulted and shocked at the irresponsible handling of your account and the excuses used to justify it.
No one actually communicates with one another making dealing with individuals difficult and problem solving impossible.
You will waste time and money trying to get the bank to do their job and to do it properly.
Customer Service is a joke, phone support is non-existent and accounts are not managed properly. U.S. Bank and Firstar were made for each other. I would never feel confident depositing money into a checking or savings account knowing how frequent mistakes are made and how poorly they are handled. The damage done to our credit and the verbal abuse we endured will have a lasting effect on our finances for years to come.
I will say that another family member had a checking account with U.S. Bank and reported repeated problems accessing her funds. There were posting errors and ATM difficulties making daily life stressful...oh well, who needs to eat, right?
Write off U.S. Bank!
Though this is the “I Can’t Believe I Bought This Piece Of Junk” write off and I didn't actually make a "purchase" so to speak, I still can't believe how horrible our experience has been and therefore find U.S. Bank to qualify as junk.
I urge you to avoid U.S. Bank at all costs. Their poor service could cost you...a lot.
This epinion is a part of the “I Can’t Believe I Bought This Piece Of Junk” write off. It’s been graciously hosted by Ariel10575, HawgWyld and Joubert. If you would like to visit the homepage of the write off, please direct your browser to the following site: http://www.geocities.com/ariel10575/epinions/ICBPOJWO.html
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Epinions.com ID:
jenb123
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Location: IL
Reviews written: 414
Trusted by: 506 members
About Me:
I'm tired
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