<-A Two-Bentley Day |Main|6:45->

Me v. Customer Service, Round 2143

June 8, 2009 10:58 PM

went to the bank the other day to deposit a check. I had seen a lot of ads and stuff for these new ATMs where you don't have to put your deposit in an envelope. Cool. So, assuming that this was the sort of ATM I was dealing with, I started my transaction without first putting my check in an envelope. Of course, I was completely thwarted by the ATM, which was not prepared to take my naked check. So my transaction timed out, I put the check in an envelope, and I started the whole thing again. This time, I was successful.

I came home and checked my balance. I saw that there was a credit for the amount of the check, a debit for the amount of the check, and another credit for the amount of the check. Though it didn't make any sense that it would work this way, I understood what it meant. But then I saw that there was a discrepancy between my "present balance" and my "available balance." Specifically, the discrepancy was in the amount of $291.00. That was not the amount of my deposited check. I quickly checked my "pending" transactions to see if they added up to $291.00, thereby explaining the difference. They did not.

I looked up the number for my local branches. I found the one for the branch I usually go to but, realizing that things might get ugly, I called another branch. I explained the situation to the woman that answered and asked if she or someone there might be able to explain the discrepancy to me. She said "Well, have you recently made a deposit?"
"Yes," I told her.
"That's probably it," she said.
"Oh yeah? But my deposit wasn't for $291."
"Oh right, I see that. Well, sometimes a percentage of the check is made available immediately, and then the rest becomes available after the check clears."
"That makes sense, except $291 isn't a round percentage of my deposit. It's not like it's 5 percent or 10 percent, you know?"
"Yeah, I see that. Well, then it must be the pending transactions."
"Yeah, but those don't add up to $291."
"It looks like one of these was a restaurant. Did you write a tip on top of the total?"
"Yes, but it still doesn't add up to $291."
"Huh. Let me get someone else--I don't usually deal with these sorts of situations."

So she got someone else. I could hear her talking to him in the background. They kept trying to come up with an answer but, eventually, they told me that they had no idea and that I should call the 800 number. I thanked them sincerely--they were polite and they tried to answer my question, even though they failed--and dialed the 800 number.

Things got sort of ugly at that point.

The woman I got was immediately confrontational. I calmly explained my problem. She said something like "Well, sometimes available and present balances are different. Just wait for things to clear." I told her that I understood that they're sometimes different, but that I would nonetheless appreciate it if she could explain to me why the difference between my two accounts made no sense. She refused to admit that there was a problem.
"Well, you recognize that there's a difference between the two balances?," I asked.
"Yeah, I see that."
"And what is that difference?"
"I don't know, sir, I'm not your bookkeeper."
"Ok, but you can subtract the two numbers, right?"
"I don't have a calculator, sir."
"I do. The difference is $291."
"Ok. So what's the problem, sir?"
"No one has been able to explain to me why that's the difference between the two balances."

Then she walked me through my recent transactions, having me subtract those transactions from my last known balance. We arrived at the larger of the two balances, which I knew to be correct. She seemed very satisfied with herself. But she had nothing to say when I asked her why the two balances were showing up as completely different. She put me on hold.

Eventually, she came back and gave me a little bit of an answer. When you deposit a check, it is apparently my bank's practice to make $100 instantly available. Since I made two deposits, I was automatically credited $200, even though the first deposit was immediately voided. The "present balance" was the amount of money I would have after the check cleared. The "available balance" was the my previous balance plus these two automatic credits. Again, the woman seemed pleased with herself. Then I pointed out that her explanation explained a large portion of the discrepancy between my balances, but still left a $9 difference unexplained. She literally said "Well, I know you're not going to go back and forth with me over $9." This set me off.

I told the woman that all of my money was in her bank--both my personal and business accounts. I told her that, while I was sure things would get sorted out eventually, I found it disturbing that neither she nor anyone else in her organization was able to give me a clear, concise explanation for the discrepancies in my balances created by their accounting practices. I told her that the discrepancy now might be $9, but that I had no reason to believe that it wouldn't be $900 in the future. She put me on hold again.

Eventually, she came back and told me that the extra $9 was a "courtesy" in case I used ATMs from banks other than mine. I didn't even know what that meant, but I accepted her explanation because I was sick of the conversation and I thin chelsadilla was sick of listening to it. So I asked her what my balances would be when all of these transactions fully posted. She said they would be "the same." When I pressed her as to which would be the same, she said both. Then she corrected herself and said the higher balance was correct. Then I hung up on her.

Am I the only one who thinks it's disturbing when a bank can't give a clear explanation for how they arrived at a given balance? Fuck, I hate banks.



3 Comments


mindy said:

Well except for the part that you took both a bank teller and a customer service rep to task for their lack of understanding of the intricacies of a deposit system. Im sure in their respective job roles they know the bare minimum to handle a customer questions or complaints, so you were effectively trying to squeeze water out of a rock; "the bank" couldnt not answer your question, but the poor woman you belittled on the phone was unable to. Not trying to be a dick here (regardless of my success with it) but you took these people to task over a mistake that started with you making an incorrect deposit at an ATM machine, where the rules for deposits & availability of funds is already odd due to the machine only being reconciled once, maybe twice, daily.

I can understand wanting the issue to be explained more adequately, and if it was an error a teller had made or if there was another concern about the check itself they may have been able to help you more, but the ATM factor must be considered and the human error that caused the prob in the first place. Bottom line if a discrepancy of $9 prior to the transactions clearing your account is that huge of a deal dont do ATM deposits, use a teller; it is far more accurate and leaves less room for mistakes, not to mention stop you from having to spend an evening on the phone with customer service reps who cant explain the deposit system for your bank.

Like i said, not trying to be a dick, but it bugs the hell out of me when i hear people attack customer service reps like they are the sole writers & enforcers of a company's policy. they are $9 an hour employees - the banking equivalent of a cashier. A cashier can tell you how much something costs but couldnt even begin to tell why it costs that much or how that price is assessed - a customer service rep is about the same thing. They cant tell you WHY the policies exist, or even how they work - they arent business majors or professional bankers - they only know the info in the training manual they had to read before they could start the job, know what im saying? To assume that no one can answer your questions, when you only spoke to 2 people both of whom were low on the information totem pole, is a tad absurd. i think your expectations of customer service reps are a bit high....the initial mistake was made by your assumption that a no envelope deposit was acceptable, it wasnt a mistake they made or could even correct. Go talk to your branch manager if you want specifics, or read your banks on line deposit policy.

June 9, 2009 6:59 AM



chelsadilla said:

i gotta side with mindy on this one, dude :) i still think it was weird that she couldn't help you out with the arithmetic side of things, but it wasn't this woman's fault that computers went screwy.

June 9, 2009 9:27 AM



justine said:

I hereby take your side on this one. You were polite to the people who were polite to you. You only got upset when the person acted like you were asking some sort of outrageous question -- which you surely weren't: if a bank should be able to do anything, it should be able to explain how your 'available balance' is determined. The unaccounted for $9 is the most disturbing part. What the hell is that? If it were $10, that would be much less disturbing. There is seemingly no plausible explanation for $9.

Maybe this is part of the current 'just make some shit up' trend in bank accounting. I recently had a similar conversation with several people at citibank -- they basically admitted that there is no way of explaining how citibank does various things, and that there is no way for a customer to verify that they are not getting ripped off.

In response to the posts above, it seems like if a person works somewhere and doesn't know how to help you with a reasonable request that it is clearly their job to help you with, that's often fine--no one can be expected to know everything, etc. (as you say) But it also seems like such people CAN be expected to be somewhat professional, and not to treat you like you are making some sort of unreasonable request.

When such people get defensive I've been trying to ask them whether they think my question is unreasonable, and whether they would want to know the same thing if they were in my position. Only the biggest idiots fail that test.

June 11, 2009 11:56 PM



Leave a comment


Type the characters you see in the picture above.