More customer service woes

More customer service woes

by SouthernFriedInfidel | Published on July 15th, 2008, 11:53 am | Life

So it's bad enough that my wife has suffered through a long series of disappointments with a credit card purchase. Now it appears to be my turn to get testy with some slightly bigger fish.

A couple of months back, my company's credit union put out an ad telling of a great deal they were offering (for a limited time) on home equity loans. Now, we had been getting a bit irritated with our bank (BB&T) regarding the way they serviced our second mortgage, so we decided that it was about time to switch banks and take out a new loan to pay off the BB&T loan.

Complicating our effort was the fact that when we took out our original home equity loan, the bank officer convinced us to open a home equity line of credit. Which we never used. But that line of credit actually placed a 3rd lien against our title, which the credit union said had to go before they could write a loan for us. So in early June, I toddled off to the ban to ask them to close up that line of credit and clear off the lien.

Well... funny story. BB&T has this thing about clearing out liens, it seems. Their standard operating procedures have this lien-releasing thing that they send out only once a month. And since I asked them to clear off my line of credit on like June 3... I had to wait about a complete month before I could hope to move forward on my new home equity loan. BTW, they aren't alone in this. I have heard that Wachovia does the same. I expect it's a common practice.

Today, I called to check on whether it is finally time to move on with my loan application. No dice. Apparently, BB&T forgot to release their second lien against my home. I'm currently waiting to hear back from these jokers. Their SOP is getting me just a bit ticked off. And my fuse is a heck of a lot shorter than my wife's. It's going to be a fun afternoon.

I hate banks in general. I'm with State Employees' Credit Union, and they've been great to me. But Wamu, Wachovia, Wells Fargo.... I've had them all.... and they're all completely inept at customer service of any kind. Working in the industry I'll vouch that credit unions generally are a cut above, but even then occasionally you get an idiot.

Just... wow. I got a hold of a guy at the bank, and he looked up the history of my dealings to get the line of credit lien released. "I see where the request was sent in on June the 5th. I can't say why it slipped through the cracks. I'll tell you what. I'll just put in another request to send in the release."

I said, "Um, no. It's been 6 weeks now, and I think I'd prefer you specifically check with your vault people to see what their records show. If they fouled up, they need to make it right THIS WEEK. I don't have time to wait and see if a second request will hit or miss."

So he said he will check around to see what he can find and let me know the complete story this afternoon or tomorrow morning. I'm not to the yelling stage yet. But it's only a matter of time.

Your forgot the secret words to get things done inside a bank....

Here, let me explain....

Say what you said before, but at the end of the sentence add "Or else."

Update.

Got a call from the local bank lady that I was talking with on this issue. She said that she had investigated, and verified that indeed the requested (and NEEDED!) release of lien had not been done last week. So she said that she was filling out the forms herself and would send them out as of this afternoon... and she says she'll put a copy of the forms in the mail to me.

So hey -- I guess I lit a fire of the appropriate heat at last. Without yelling. About bloody time.

Liv wrote:Your forgot the secret words to get things done inside a bank....

Here, let me explain....

Say what you said before, but at the end of the sentence add "Or else."

or else ... what?

Unless you have pictures like this of the bank President

an empty threat won't achieve anything

Or else I'll post your full name on Greensboring.....

Go on... Google it tomorrow bank whore!!!!

Were I near to my last straw with these folks, I'd be very tempted. However, on the whole, I've been extremely happy with BB&T's service, their tellers, the branch managers, etc. The result I got today helped a lot... once they saw that they had egg on their face, they took is personally and treated me the way I hoped they would.

That sort of thing goes a long way.