Posted on 10/19/2010 7:10:33 AM PDT by MissTed
When Tim Kindrick went into his bank on September 23, he thought it would be business as usual to deposit a $2,100 insurance check he and his wife received for water damage. Kindrich ultimately got the check deposited, but when he complained about how it was handled, First Citizens froze his debit card and said it didn’t want his business.
“It kind of floored me and my wife, the way we were treated,” says Kindrick, 45, who’s retired from the Army.
He’d been banking with the Forest Lakes branch of First Citizens— motto: “We value relationships”— for about three years, had over $20,000 in his account and had deposited three or four similar checks already this summer with a teller who knew him, he says.
This time, a different teller said she couldn’t deposit the check because it was made out to both Kindrick and his wife Natalie, and the account was in his name only.
Natalie Kindrick had endorsed the check, but not with the special endorsement adding “make payable to Tim Kindrick” the bank wanted, he says. And when Tim Kindrick asked to see the policy, he says the bank manager told him she didn’t have time to look for it, and that this policy was to protect his wife.
The manager called Natalie to confirm her signature on the check, according to Kindrick, and then deposited it. “To me, the accusation is I forged her name and tried to steal the money,” he says.
Still peeved, Kindrick wanted to talk to a supervisor to see a copy of the endorsement policy, and says he was told someone would call him. That didn’t happen, says Kindrick, until five days later, when Jeremy Cox, the area operations manager, called to say that Kindrick could never deposit another third-party check in his First Citizens account.
“When I told him that I wanted to talk to someone higher than him about the decision, he told me, ‘No, the buck stops here,’” says Kindrick.
Kindrick decided he needed a new bank, and when he told Cox, he says the bank rep immediately froze his debit card and said he had 10 days to close his account. “It wasn’t a right to bank with them, it was a privilege,” Kindrick alleges Cox told him.
And on that particular decision, Cox was able to provide the policy: Page 34 of the “Deposit Account Agreement,” which states that the account can be closed at anytime “with or without cause.”
“I’m flabbergasted,” says Kindrick, “and shocked when I requested to talk to a supervisor, and was told no.”
Cox did not return a phone call from the Hook.
“Unfortunately I’m not going to be able to say anything because this speaks to a specific client matter,” says First Citizens spokesman Frank Smith.
In general, does Raleigh-based First Citizens, which has 359 branches in eight states and the District of Columbia, drop clients if they complain too much or the bank finds them annoying?
“We can’t comment,” says Smith. “It’s due to federal privacy law.”
“I can’t even write a check right now,” says Kindrick, who says he fears a check would bounce if it didn’t clear before the 10 days he was given to park his money elsewhere were up. And without the debit card that he estimates using about 50 times a month, Kindrick had to drive to the bank to get money until he opened a new account.
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, which regulates First Citizens, has seen complaints about banks jump from 6,255 in 2008 to 8,289 in 2009.
And while there’s nothing to prevent a bank from ditching depositors, rejected clients can complain to the feds. “If they send in a written complaint, the FDIC will investigate,” says FDIC spokesman Greg Hernandez.
Meanwhile, Kindrick is still trying to figure out how asking to see a written policy led to First Citizens dumping him. Says Kindrick, “I feel very much like I was retaliated against.”
The only possible outcome where the whining would be even louder would be if the wife hadn’t given her permission to deposit the check in his account, and the bank let him do it without asking.
I’m just saying there are better ways of handling disgruntled customers with diplomacy and without rude behavior. This guys’ story is out there now and it can’t be at all good for business. Service is the key in retail, and these folks have dropped the ball. I would have closed my account on the spot and asked for my balance in cash. If this cat really had 20K in his account, it would not be a good day for the bank manager.
I presume however that you’ve had an account a while.
It all comes down to whose been sued for what and who won the suit.
Ping...
The account with my father had a big noise made in the bank between me and the manager, when I told her OK all my money is coming out of this bank now, she tried to backtrack and I told her she was not someone I wanted to do business with.....the teller whispered to me "I don't blame you". guess the new manager (female) was a bitch to those that worked in the bank also...
The last bank I fired was Bank of America....the bank I have now chuckled when I told them why I was opening an account with them.....the B of A in my home town had been fired by a couple of other customers at my new bank.
hubby and i fired BofA about 15 years ago... and i had been banking with them since i was 12-years old!
Three years ago one of my bank’s ATM’s ate my card. The next day I went in to try to get it back. They wanted 2 forms of ID and a fingerprint, although I had been banking at that branch for several years. I cheerfully complied and closed my checking account as soon as I could arrange for all of my electronic debits to be switched. I also had about $20,000 in several CDs with them. As each matured, I cashed them out and took my money elsewhere.
B of A sure sucks.....
Probably true. I can't imagine a business would shoot themselves in the foot over a single incident with a customer.
This guy needs to just move on to another bank and quit whining about it.
We changed banks.
Back in the dark ages we had physical signature cards in the branch. If that was where their account was held, and the amount wasn't huge, we would do it.
I’m not sure why, but I cringe when dealing with hotels, restaraunts, and other food service business owners.
I have a few that are reliable and pay their bills, but others are so bad, I would rather haggle with a Turkish rug vendor with a gun to my head.
You estimate the cost up front, then after the work is done, they refuse to pay, or they want “terms of payment”, or they offer you free food or some other such nonsense.
The other issue I have with them, is they will pay their bill with a credit card, then go and dispute the bill after they have signed off on it. This costs me a ton of money.
It is almost to the point where, unless unless I know you and your business, I don’t even respond to the call if you are a restaurant. If I don’t know you, I won’t respond unless I know your restaurant has been around a few years.
As a side note, this almost always happens with foreign owned restaurant owners (greeks, arabs, mexicans), not trying to sound racist, but I seldom have a problem with white and black owned mom & pop type hot dog and hamburger joints. Oh, pizza joints, they are bad too, no matter who owns them, you are almost assured of having payment problems.
So you assume it’s forged unless you witness the writer sign it?
That was pretty much it. I know that even now if there is a check payable to my husband I have to deposit it into our joint account and then withdraw from there. The bank will not cash the check because the check is “his”. Silly.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.