This defines most banks attitudes. In my experience the big banking conglomerations are all like this. You know the ones, you have problems keeping the name straight because they change it every few weeks. I refer to them generically as Nocturnalaviationbancorp. I used to do my banking with a couple of such.
I now deal with a small town bank. Their branch is a half mile from my home. They recently celebrated their 70th anniversary. I have no doubt that they will be in business for at least 70 more. The staff, from the branch manager to the newest teller is uniformly friendly and helpful. This is true even with the main branch. Many of the tellers remember my daughters from when I would bring them in while doing my banking. Those daughters are now customers there, too. Every other customer I have ever talked to is equally satisfied with their service.
Millions of Americans are customers of big banks like Bank of America, which spends over half a billion dollars a year on advertising (over $600 million, actually) to try to induce new sheep to be sheared.
Once you're a customer, they then cheat you every chance they can, and generally treat you like dung. Despite all the BoA customers I know, not one of those customers ever chose BoA because of its customer service. (That would be like picking Abdul al-Masri as your tour guide).
Bank of America, too, started as a small bank (for immigrants from Italy, on the West Coast). The current managers forgot that, never bothered to learn, or (and this is most likely) simply don't give a damn.
I heard a BoA radio ad today, boasting about their savings account. The rapid-speaking Fine Print Guy at the end spilled the account's APR, which the slower-talking announcer called "competitive": 0.2%. Not two percent. Two-tenths of a percent.
It sounds like this British bank in this thread also studied at the "Up Your Nose" school of customer service.
Like internet spammers and scam artists, the big banks have basically become another criminal enterprise, but one like gambling that is now such big organized crime that it can hire lawyers to rewrite its crimes into legality.
d.o.l.
Criminal Number 18F