NetBank - Support? Don't Bank On It!
Written: Apr 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great rates, lots of free features
Cons: Problems with internal communication, and support from hell
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| engwall's Full Review: NetBank |
There ain't no such thing as a free lunch, and the price you pay for NetBank's high interest rates is fairly steep, in my opinion. They're cutting corners big time on customer service; and after what happened to me, there is no way I'm entrusting NetBank with my hard-earned cash. Before I get into that, though, let me tell you what tempted me to give NetBank a try.
Rates
NetBank promises (and from what I can tell, delivers) 3% interest on their no-fee, no-minimum checking account. That is an astounding rate, and the rates on the rest of their accounts are equally impressive. Their money market is over 5% and their CDs *start* over 6%. These rates are very hard to beat.
Free Free Free
Not only is their basic checking account free, the checks are free as well. Ask for more checks, and they'll send 'em. No charge. Online Bill Pay? Unlimited and Free. ATM Card or VISA Check Card? Free (keep in mind, though, that you'll have to hunt for banks that will not tack on a charge to use their ATM machine). In a time when banks are sticking it to you left and right, it's nice to see a bank that provides so many services, gratis.
So, what's the catch?
Sound too good to be true? Well, if it were a perfect world, there'd be no problem with NetBank. In fact, if you could count on nothing going wrong, I'd say NetBank is the way to go. But it isn't a perfect world, and things do go wrong, and in such times you want to feel confident in your bank. That's where the cracks start to show in NetBank's shiny facade. Their customer support is downright terrible. SmartMoney rates NetBank's customer service dead last in their review of internet banks, and I've got the experience to back that up. The following is pretty long, so you might want to skip to the "Too Little, Too Late", but then you'll miss the good parts.
It starts simply enough...
I applied for an account at NetBank on a Friday night. Understandably, NetBank can't give you an account without doing a little background checking. You can't be too careful these days. Their application lets you know that they'll be verifying your employment, etc. and instructs you as to how to check on the status of your application online. A list of steps in the application process is shown, along with the date that they've been completed. When I pulled it up, it showed that my application was submitted and the date on which it was submitted. Pretty nice.
...but things go awry
Tuesday rolls around, and I decide to check in on NetBank to see how my application is going. I haven't received an e-mail from them yet, and I'm curious to find out how far along they are in the application process. Per the instructions, I go to the site and log in with my Social Security Number and password. No account under that number. Odd... I double-check that I'm logging in under the right area and try again. Still nothing. I double-check the instructions and try again. Nada. Did something go amiss? Did all my account information vanish over the weekend? Did their server go down? What happened?
Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dumber
I pulled up their toll-free customer service number and gave them a call. The customer service rep I got was not able to pull up my account information either. She put me on hold for several minutes and then came back and told me that everything was fine and if I didn't hear from them by Thursday to call in.
"Can you bring up my account?"
"No."
"Aren't I supposed to be able to check on my status?"
"You should get an e-mail by Thursday."
"But why can't I pull up the status, as the instructions say?"
"Accounting has your information, so it's not available."
Huh??? That made no sense to me. First, with electronic files, there's no reason to remove an account from the system to edit it. Second, they obviously put some thought into making account information available during the application process. I asked to speak to her supervisor. After another hold, she told me she'd need to transfer me to accounting.
The Ninth Circle Of Support Hell
Once in accounting, I spoke with an accounting rep that fed me a very similar line:
"We'll e-mail you by Thursday."
"You can see my account application?"
"Yes."
"Why isn't the status available online?"
"We'll *e-mail* you with our decision"
"Yes, I understand that. But I have instructions from your site that tell me how to view my application status. When will I be able to pull that up?"
(exasperated) "After we E-MAIL you!"
(getting upset) "Now, why would I care to see the status of my application after you've told me whether or not it has been approved? The site provides specific instructions for viewing the status of my application, and I was able to pull it up initially; now it doesn't even acknowledge that I exist."
(silence)... I continue:
"I can't believe this is the way it's intentionally designed. Either the instructions on the site are completely erroneous, or something has gone wrong that is preventing me from seeing my application status. I'd like to know which it is, and what can be done about it."
(silence)... I wait.
"Hello?"
(silence, but I can make out my rep in the background talking to someone else)... maybe she's getting someone to help... I wait.
"Hello?"
(I still hear her talking in the background, but she's talking about something else entirely)... I can't believe it. She put the phone down on me. She stopped listening entirely and just put the phone down on her desk. I wait, and listen to her chat away. For a full three minutes, at least, I wait. Finally, and without a word, she hangs up the phone on me.
Too little, too late
Furious, I called back. I quickly summarized my previous phone call to the support rep, who started to transfer me back to the accounting rep. I explained that I did not want to speak to that rep, but to her supervisor. I got transferred to another accounting rep, who explained that the supervisor wasn't in. He did give me the supervisor's name, number and extension, and when I described to him what had happened he told me that this was an ongoing problem that sometimes popped up. Sometimes after submitting an application, customers were unable to view the status. He explained that this had been going on since the company started, but he thought that problem had been fixed. At least *somebody* had a reasonable explanation.
Now, although it isn't great that they've got a bug in the application software, I actually would have accepted that had anyone offered it to me as an explanation. What bothered me was that a) no one else that I talked to knew about a problem that had been there from the beginning (and even the rep that did know about it had been misinformed about the status of the problem), and b) they were content to feed me a story that didn't even make sense. But what I couldn't believe is that I had been completely abandoned on the phone!
I called the supervisor later and got his voice mail. I summed up what had happened, and requested that he cancel my application. I told him that I wanted him to know why I was canceling my application so that they might try to prevent the same sort of thing happening to other customers. I left my number in case he had any questions. I have not heard from him, or from NetBank as to whether my account has been approved, declined, or to confirm the cancellation of my application.
The Bottom Line
I don't care how good a bank's rates are if I can't depend on them. NetBank obviously has serious issues with internal communication and with training of support staff, to say nothing of the reliability of their software. How can I trust that nothing like this would happen after I've entrusted them with actual cash? I'm not going to take that sort of risk with my money. Consider carefully whether you're willing to take that risk with yours.
Recommended:
No
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Epinions.com ID:
engwall
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Member: Keith Engwall
Location: Chicago, IL
Reviews written: 67
Trusted by: 67 members
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