Wow, what can I say? I visited Dickson over the Thanksgiving Holiday and stopped by the Main Office to open an account. The person that helped me was Mary Eubank. She seemed O.K. When she was opening my account, but the nightmare began after I got back home.
I'm 41 years old and I have been dealing with banks for many years. I even worked for a Credit Union a couple of years ago, so I am familiar with bank transactions, policies and how decisions are made within the infrastructure of a bank.
This bank, however, takes the cake. Shortly after I arrive home, I get a notice in the mail entitled "Action Taken", and notice told me that I couldn't have a Bank of Dickson Check Debit Card. After I got over the shock of receiving this notice, I composed myself and wrote a polite letter to Tommy Nicks asking him to review the matter and intervene. After all, I got a "Form Letter" from Mr. Nicks thanking me for opening an account, and that same letter said to contact him if there was ever anything that could be done to make my banking experience better at good ole' Bank of Dickson.
I did not hear back from Tommy right-away, so I called and left a message for him to call me back regarding the letter I faxed to him over the weekend. An hour or so later Tommy called and said "I called you back out of courtesy, but I'm not an Appellate Judge, and I CAN'T reverse or override my employees decisions. Also, why should the Bank have policies if it's not going to abide by them?"
In the first place, Tommy has to be the most sanctimonious and arrogant banker, dealing in retail banking, that I have ever met. It's ludicrous on its face for him to say he has no authority to make a decision that is different than his subordinates' decisions. It also stretches credulity, that he would pretend that he has never reviewed a decision after receiving a complaint from a bank customer, and then later-on made some sort of accommodation for that customer.
As far as the Appellate Judge part, that comment was just designed to make me feel bad about making the request. It's an old, discourteous and divisive trick, which is as transparent as it is rude. C'mon Tommy, your people screwed-up. You don't have any substantial exposure in issuing VISA Debit Cards. You should not even be reviewing Consumer Reports to make a decision about issuing one or not issuing one.
The fact of the matter is, that you don't understand the product, the risks, and your customers. I LEFT THE BANK AFTER THIS EPISODE, BUT NOT BEFORE I WAS "HELD-UP" FOR $20 in check printing charges the bank should have offered to absorb, and not before I had to impose upon friends to make a small deposit to cover the closing check, because Mary Eubank said it was OK to bring the account to zero (she never took into consideration the check printing charge when giving me this instruction).
I also am still waiting for a return call from her (after making three long-distance calls) so that there could be some closure to this matter. I was told she was in meetings all day. You must be working her too hard Tommy! Anyway, Bank of Dickson is a joke (a rather bad one) and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Its competition opened accounts and VISA Check Cards for me over the telephone.
How sad this is! It was never represented that their services were hinged on review of Consumer Reports and since they chose not to provide the service, my cost of doing business with them should have been $0.
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