Something similar to this story happened with my bank accounts about thirty years ago. Apparently, there was a woman in my city with the same last name, first initial, and birthdate. She moved somewhere else, and the bank moved all my accounts with her, as well as my husband’s since we had a joint account apart from our individual accounts.

It took me a lot of aggravation to get them to correct it, and when they finally sent me the bank statements I had missed, they had a note attached saying that I should have informed them that I had moved. Grrrrr!

I did read them the riot act on that, but other than an excuse, nothing was done.

Related:
Incredibly Unreassuring Insurance

There is a rule of thumb that if you do something right, then a person who sees it will tell three others — but if you do something wrong, they will tell ten. After reading so many Not Always Right stories of how nasty people are, I decided to be one of the three.

I get a call from my bank. After going through all the security procedures:

Bank: “Have you been to Argentina in the past month?”

Me: “I haven’t been out of my state in over a year.”

Bank: “We’re sorry, but it appears that someone has used your debit card number to buy about $60 worth of clothes in South America. We see this when they try to use a small amount first to see if it will go through. We’ll cancel the card and credit the amount back to your account.”

Me: “Thank you for keeping an eye on my account!”

Silence.

Me: “Hello. Are you there?”

Bank: “Sorry, I was just surprised. A lot of people swear at us when we tell them news like this.”

So, in deciding to be one of the three, a few weeks later, I call the customer service number of my bank and ask for the fraud department. When the lady answers and inquires as to my problem:

Me: “I simply wanted to thank you all for your diligence in keeping an eye on my account.”

Again, silence.

Fraud Department: “Thank you for the kind words!”

She sounded like she was nearly starting to tear up. Earlier that day, someone verbally ripped into her. Trying to help and protect your bank information, and you rip them apart! I will continue to try to be one of the three going forward!

When I was a teller people would constantly say they wanted to close their accounts to try to get their own way:

Me: *Happily calling their bluff, pulling out a withdrawal slip.* “Would you like your funds in a cashier’s check or cash?”

Customer: *Changing their tune.* “Oh… well… I don’t think we need to do that.”

But one time:

Me: “Would you like your funds in a cashier’s check or cash?”

Stubborn Customer: “…Cashier’s check.” 

He came back the next day to re-open his account with those checks.

I work for a major graphic design agency, and my direct client is a big financial institution. A lot of the work consists of designing landing pages for them using a very limited list of elements, colors, images, and layouts. It’s up to me to use the existing files to create something to their liking every time.

We have been working on a specific site for weeks. The internal art team loved every version of the project presented to them, and I received comments like, “We love the direction this is going,” and, “Great job,” and, “You’re almost there.”

Today, I was happily working on the last set of tweaks to the site with a few hours to spare before the final presentation to the customer. 

I got an email from the external art director, who is the only direct link to the client and has been part of all previous meetings.

Client: “Hi! Great job on the design so far. Only one small detail I forgot to mention: the client doesn’t want to use any existing assets, colors, or layouts for this project. It needs to look more ‘premium’, ‘fancy’, and ‘special’. Oh, and the presentation meeting will be one hour earlier.”

I work for a big bank that has locations all over New York City and a few other areas across the country. This call happened several years ago when I was working overnights. Usually, the calls came from international account holders or people on the far west coast. This call was from an ATM at a New York branch.

Me: “Thank you for calling [Bank]. My name is [My Name]; how can I help you today?”

Customer: “I just withdrew $40.00 from the ATM, but the receipt shows that $80.00 was taken out. What is going on?”

Me: “I’m very sorry to hear about that issue. Let me bring up your account and see if I can figure out what is going on.”

I got the client’s account information and identified the caller per normal

Me: “So, I am looking at today’s activity and I do see the ATM withdrawal that you just completed a few minutes ago. According to the computer, a withdrawal of $40.00 was taken out.”

Customer: “But the receipt I have shows $80.00 was taken out. What is going on?”

Me: “Just to make sure I am following everything fully, you went to the ATM and requested $40.00, and the ATM gave you $40.00 as you requested, but the receipt you received shows $80.00 being debited. Do I have that right?”

Customer: “Yes, exactly. What is wrong with your system? Why would it withdraw $80.00 from my account when I only requested $40.00? How stupid is your system?”

Me: “Well, I can only go by what I am looking at now, and it does show that only $40.00 was debited from your account and that is the only transaction you did today. Nothing else is coming out of your account.”

Customer: “When I had a problem last time, they did some sort of investigation. Why can’t you do that now?”

Me: “If there was a difference in the amount received versus the amount requested, then we could submit an investigation. But you requested $40.00 and received $40.00, so there is nothing to investigate.”

Customer: “But why does this receipt show that you withdrew $80.00 from my account? I just don’t understand why you can’t send someone out to fix this issue.”

Me: “Let me check one final thing with you. Do you still have the receipt in your hand?”

Customer: “Yes, why? I already told you the receipt shows $80.00 was taken out but I only got $40.00. You still owe me $40.00 more.”

Me: “If you requested $40.00, you received $40.00, and your account was only debited $40.00, there is no discrepancy. But the reason I asked if you have the receipt is that on the receipt, it should show the last four digits of the ATM/debit card used for the withdrawal. Do those numbers match the last four digits on your card?”

Customer: *Click*

I guess not…