More than 7 years ago I opened a SunTrust checking account, transferred my IRA to be managed by SunTrust, and opened a SunTrust Visa. I was recently divorced from a financial advisor and was looking for a company and customer service I could trust. I then financed a home mortgage of more than $350,000 and, after that, a car loan of $30,000 with SunTrust.
My problems first started when they began depositing my car payment, for three consecutive months, into the account of JC Penney's. It was a ridiculous mistake by SunTrust. I was writing the checks with all of the account information clearly visible and with a payment coupon.
SunTrust reported my account as 90 days delinquent to all of the credit agencies. After hours on the phone, I was finally able to get someone to admit this was a SunTrust error: the money for the payment was clearly removed, on time, from my checking account and not credited to my SunTrust car payment.
Months after damaging my credit rating, they finally straightened out their error and sent me an apology letter. They refused to do anything for my damaged credit. I had to contact the credit agencies and file reports, and then SunTrust denied to the credit agencies that it was their error and said the delinquency was accurate. Unbelievable! It took me 6 years and many phone calls and letters to finally have this taken off my credit report. 100% SunTrust error!!!
0% SunTrust customer service!!!
0% SunTrust accountability!!!
I paid off my mortgage and car loan before I even had my credit cleared, and I should have left then, but I had bill pay set up and my IRA was still stuck in a very expensive fund that I would be penalized for moving.
SunTrust customer service failure, demonstration number two: I called my financial advisor, Sabina Lien, at SunTrust to ask how much longer I had to stay in a low-performing fund before I could transfer my money without penalty. In the 7 years she has managed my IRA, she has called me twice! Her assistant's answer was that it was another year.
A couple of weeks later I was closing on a land deal and needed to deposit a $50,000 check and wire the money for closing. I went to the new branch in Baldwin Park near my home in Baldwin Park, where I have been banking since it opened 3 years ago, to make the transaction. The man who works at a desk at that bank said he could not allow me to make a deposit and wire the money out before the money cleared, which takes several days. He said he did not know me and I could be perpetrating a fraud. I asked him to look at my account, where I have been making deposits on a yearly basis into the checking account in excess of $150,000 without ever a problem. Not good enough; he did not "know" me. I said to look at my banking address, a million-dollar home half a mile from this bank. "Sorry," I could be moving tomorrow. I then said I have much more than this check in my investment account. He called Sabina Lien, and she told him I was thinking of transferring my account, so not to allow the transaction! I actually had to go to another bank, one I do not even bank at, to complete the transaction by the end of the day so my deal would not fall apart.
Meanwhile, I received a letter about my SunTrust credit card, which I had used for overdraft protection and which carried an $18,000 balance at a very low interest rate of 1.9%. A letter from the credit card company said that after reviewing my credit rating (the only negative item was the SunTrust error), they were changing my interest rate to 16.9%. I had never gone over the limit or made a late payment; it was 100% because of my credit rating.
If I did not want to pay that, I could "opt out" in writing and never put another charge on the card again. If there was ever a charge, the entire balance would immediately go to 16.9%. So I took the card off my checking account overdraft protection and was left without a safety net.
Of course you know what comes next. I had checks pass through my bill pay account the night before my automatic payroll deposit, resulting in hundreds of dollars in NSF fees. I explained to the customer service representative that this entire situation was created by a SunTrust error from the beginning. She said, "I understand your frustration, but there is nothing I can do." I then talked to a supervisor named Scott Hillburn, who gave me the same line, which I am sure is written down on a sheet of paper that he reads his replies from: "It is not SunTrust's fault." I then asked if this was worth losing a customer over, and he replied yes! SunTrust does not care about its customers! SunTrust does not know the meaning of customer service!
SunTrust is an arrogant, self-righteous banking institution that does not know the meaning of customer service. No one should ever trust SunTrust for any banking needs.
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