I recently graduated from college and accepted a position in a new town where my current bank was not in. I was very happy with my current bank but accepted the fact that I needed a new bank and chose Wachovia, based on the sheer number of branches in the area and the name itself. I figured it couldn't be that bad. I was wrong.
TO begin the whole sign-up process was a complete debacle. When investigating branch hours on their website, I saw an online checking sign-up. Being a web developer myself, I thought this would be an easy way to sign up for an account. Half way through the process the entire website crashed, everytime I repeated the sign up, it failed again. I recieved no confirmation that my account was setup, but I had gotten fairly far along in the process so I waited for a week. After a week I went into a branch and discovered I did have an account and it had several flaws on it already, I spent an hour with a rep and fixed them.
So when Friday rolls around I get my bi-weekly payroll check and decide to deposit it into my Wachovia account. All the branches were already closed on friday by the time I got out of work, so I elected to use the ATM machine for the deposit. The ATM machine was located physically in the wall of a branch, so I figured they would have no problem processing the check by Monday.
My balance as of Friday is $80.00 (My inital start balance) and I deposited $1,200. The ATM warns me my funds may not be avab till the next busy day, I say of course I understand that.
Monday rolls around, no action. I go to the grocery store and write a check for $62.00. Should be no problem, I still haev $80 in the account and my check should post by then.
Tuesday morning I wake up and check my account balance online, all my funds from the check have arrived, as I expected. Around lunch time I go to the Mac machine and pull out $40.00. It happly comes out with a little recipet proclaiming I have $1,100 something in my account. All is good.
That evening I come home and pay the majority of my bills electronically using my check card, on my very last bill, I get a message saying my card was declined. I figured it had something to do with using it online so much, but I check my account balance online anyhow. My account balance says I'm -$99. All of my bills show up, minus the grocery check. The deposit shows now ONLY on the posted balance but not in the avab balance (-$99). I'm frantic, I call their 24x7 number.
The first rep informs me that my check is placed on hold for 10 days. It is a payroll check, she says something about the size of the check as the reason. I hang up, do some research, find my MAC reciept and call up another rep. This rep explains they can hold my checks for a number of reasons even a payroll check. She can not muster a good reason as to why it showed up all day and then disappered during the night. She says I will be charged all the appicaple NSF fees. I ask if i should talk to the local branch and maybe they will be able to do something more aggresive rather than tell me I'm SOL. She says no, its hopeless.
I'm paid biweekly, and if Wachovia excepts me to be able to go 3 weeks and 3 days without pay because they won't accept a payroll check that is absolutely a rip off. Tomorrow I'll have to sneak out of work at some point and approach the branch manager which I'm feeling is going to be absolutely a waste of time, and in the end I'm probably going to get stuck with these Fees, which I would have never used the card if i wasn't able to confirm TWICE (online and mac) that I had ample balance to cover everything. No where on the mac machine or the deposit slip did it say anything about a ten day hold, just your normally next business day.
Suffice to say as soon as I get this whole thing worked out I will glady make a bi-weekly trip to my old bank to deposit my payroll accounts which they do instantly. I will have a huge smile on my face the entire trip.
I have no idea what kind of fees this is all going to result of, but in the end I may just take it as a lesson of how horrible wachovia is.
Just in closing the most amazing fact of it is, my payroll check comes from a company that does almost exclusive consulting work with Wachovia. So It's wachovia's money I'm trying to deposit.
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