I wanted to post this sooner but I had to calm down first. I know. It’s never stopped me before but I really wanted to take a breath on this one.
I had some accounts a TCF bank for a while. I would hear from people that they sucked but they had always treated me OK and they got the money back that I lost in an evil ass Chase ATM. But starting last year I began having more than the usual problem (female teller’s at my local branch being snotty with me for god knows what reason) with the TCF call center.
I called in one day to find out why there were 2 overdrafts on my account but the operator informed me that she wasn’t going to give me that information because it was obvious (by my deep voice) that i was a man and trying to fraudulently gain access to my own account. When I asked why she couldn’t just ask me the security question that I had set up on my account – she said “ma’am (remember she thinks i’m a man), you could have gotten that information from anywhere.
When I asked how I could prove that i was not only a woman but indeed me, she said i would have to go into a branch and prove to the manager i was a woman and then the manager would have to call the call center so that they could notate on my account that despite my deep voice – i was indeed a woman.
The request to speak to a supervisor only got me a nastier woman who mistook me for the bitch fucking her husband or something. That conversation did get a waive of one of the ATM fees a a lecture about how I need to keep better track of my finances because TCF could not be responsible for notifying me when my account was getting low and even though there were insufficient funds in the accounts (unbeknown to me) they would continue honoring and paying any and all charges that came into the account all the while racking up $34 a pop NSF fees.
I did ask about overdraft protection and was told that i could get that for $36 a month/per account (whether i was overdrawn or not). I also was given the address of a complaint department and I did write a scathing letter to them but never heard back. I’m thinking the address was a fake or they just don’t care.
But that situation only rates a kiss my ass.
What rates a kiss my ass in hell you ask?
Keep reading…
On 6/30/08 I went into my TCF branch to close all of my bank accounts. I was helped by the banks manager. On that day (to my knowledge) he closed those accounts. I was issued checks for the balances of all the accounts but one because i was told there was a pending charge on the account and that money would be left there to cover it.
On 7/3/08 i received a postcard in the mail from TCF saying that my account (that had the charge pending when i closed it) had a balance of -$36.00 because of insufficient funds to cover a $24.90 charge (the pending charge) plus an additional $34.00 for NSF. I thought it was an oversight and would reconcile itself.
On 7/11/08 I checked my account at my new bank to see if my payroll check had been direct deposited. I found out that despite putting in a request to change my direct deposit to a new back weeks prior, the the money was deposited into my closed TCF personal checking account. I told my human resources person immediately. They said it was too late to do anything that day but said they would get the money back from TCF and would deposit the money in my new account on Monday 7/14/08.
On 7/14/08 I checked my new account and saw the posting and thought this matter was settled but when I got home that evening there was another postcard in the mail from TCF, this time on my personal checking account saying that the account i believed to be closed now had a balance of $-200.00. After receiving this postcard I immediately called the call center (because TCF doesn’t have a direct number to the branch) and asked what was going on with these closed accounts. I was told that the one account was still open because I had NSF to cover the pending charge. When i tried to explain that the accounts were closed I was only met with, you’re not listening to me ma’am and its obvious that you don’t want my help. I asked for a supervisor and was told the same thing by them. The accounts were never closed. I had NSF on the accounts and that it was not possible to close accounts over the phone and that I had to go to a branch and I could not be given the name of the manager or the phone number of the branch but I could give them my number and someone would call me back.
By their attitude i didn’t believe anyone would call me back so I called them back. After a lecture about why they can’t give out the banks phone number i was told again to leave my name and phone number and someone would call me back. when i asked what my recourse was if no one called me back and i was told i could call the call center.
On 7/15/08 I called my new bank to see if they could offer any advice. They said the bank should be able to give me the number of a regional manager. I called the call center again was told that I had to go into the branch if I wanted any help so I left work early to get to the bank before it closed.
At the bank a customer service person reiterated all of the things I was told on the phone. The one account was overdrawn because of the pending charge. The personal checking and savings were open because they had existing transfers on the accounts. There was a record of the direct deposit coming in but then a record of it going back out. There was no record that I had ever closed any accounts with them, just that for some reason on 6/30/08 I zeroed out all of my accounts.
I was getting tired of this and asked what it what it would take to close the accounts a second time. I was now told that would be a problem because the closed checking account was now -$250. The other checking was +$14 and the savings was +$196. So if i would pay the -$250 it would put the account back in good standing and they could help me close the accounts for real this time.
I refused to give anyone any money. I did not know why the accounts were open or why money was being transfered. They said there were automatic transfers set up on my account and then explained to me what automatic meant and asked me if someone had fraudulantly accessed my accounts and made these transfers. I tried to explain again that I believed the accounts were closed because i had closed them with the manager of the bank. I had not made any transactions and was not aware that transfers set up by myself and the bank would still be active after the accounts were closed.
Eventually a supervisor came over to see what the problem was. The fact that I believed that I had closed accounts were lost on everyone. The supervisor explained this was not a time for finger pointing and if I would settle up on these accounts they could actually close them this time for real. She also informed me that it wasn’t the pending charge that caused all of these problems but a $4.00 charge from TCF for using a non-TCF ATM that posted after I had thought I closed accounts. She said she could take care of everything and reverse the other banking fees if I paid $2.00 for the ATM fees. I did.
The supervisor then walked me through every screen on the accounts i had previously closed to show me that they were at $0 and that they were marked not to accept anymore transactions of any kind. She apologized for me having to go through all this. We shook hands. I left the bank.
On 7/16/08 I was leaving work and the human resources person said that he’d have to talk to me in the morning because the check processing company said it never got the money back from the TCF and when they tried they were told the account had NSF. I thought he was joking. He said that he wasn’t.
When I got home it was too late to go to the bank. I went online to see if could still access my TCF accounts. The accounts were listed as closed but all had money in them that (minus TCF NSF fees) added up to the amount of my payroll check that my job thought they had reversed.
According to TCF, despite what I was told at the bank, saw on their screen and saw online in my bank account, the payroll check was never reversed back to my job, it was reposted to me (yet again) i’m guessing after I left the bank on 7/15/08 because the supervisor and teller seemed to be unaware of the funds being in the bank at the time. And now since the officially closed account had a positive balance it reactivated the transfers and opened the other two closed accounts again. When the payroll office tried to get the money back a second time, it no longer had the full amount in the single account so the “bounced” the transaction and charged the account another $34 NSF fee.
UGH!
I didn’t see any point in calling the call center because no one from the bank had ever called me back on my initial inquiry. Not knowing what to do I called the call center and asked what I should do if I believe someone is committing fraud on my account. They gave me the number of the Federal Trade Commission (1-877-438-4338). They took a complaint from me and suggested I call the Regulatory Commission for Banks (1-877-793-3470). I called that number and was told that TCF’s official name had an NA after it and they gave me the number to contact the Comptroller of the Currency Administator of National Banks. All of the organizations suggested that I file a complaint even if the issue is resolved because it just really sounded suspicious.
Contacing the comptrollers office got me the number of the Senior Vice President of Branch Support Services at TCF, Jennifer Doherty (630-286-5989). That number got me her assistant Her assistant put me in contact with Valerie Flores (630-286-5883) who indeed gave me a call back. Valerie listened and tried to resolve the problem.
She was able to remove all the fees and take the money out of all of the accounts and return the payroll check to my closed personal checking account but not to my companies payroll department. She said that TCF could issue me a check for the amount of the payroll check, that i could then deposit that in my new bank account and then i could write a check to reimburse my company for the money or i could find my checks for the closed account and write a check to my payroll department.
I am not willing to do this. That money does not belong to me. I received my payroll deposit from my job at my new bank. The money that they are talking about was accepted by TCF on a closed account. Even if it wasn’t “actually” closed the first time, it was closed the 2nd time when they accepted the money again. The money belongs to my job. TCF took it from my job. TCF should have to return it to them.
Valerie said she would have to look into that. She called me back with the number of the Regional Manager of my TCF branch. She said his name was Dan and his number was 773-525-9020 and that he would be waiting for my call to resolve this situation.
I called Dan immediately. There is apparently more than one Dan. We found the right Dan but he did not answer the phone. I called back later and someone answered the phone and said they hadn’t seen Dan. I left a message on his voice mail but have not heard back from him. I am going to try to call Dan back now.
I will let you know what happened.