This past Christmas I became the target for some identity thieves. They targeted my bank account with Suntrust and withdrew several thousand dollars using a fake identification card from a state that I never lived in. While getting this cleared up, Suntrust bank and its staff were terribly unhelpful. They tied up all of my financial resources for about two weeks through Christmas. Continuing to do business with Suntrust after this poor service was a total mistake.
On several occasions I met in person with Armond G*, an assistant branch manager at the Dunwoody branch. I closed the account that had the fraud done to it and was told by Armond that the account was closed and that there was a freeze on the account. He stated explicitly that the old and new accounts were in no way connected and that no transactions would be honored through the old account.
Several days later, the money that was frozen in the old account was released and transferred to the new account. I immediately withdrew all of the money because I lacked confidence in Suntrust with regards to their willingness and ability to protect my financial resources. A few days later, a bill payment that was set up nearly a month before in the old account was sent to the new account for processing. This bill payment bounced because there was no money in the account.
Sometime after this payment was not honored, I requested Armond to remove both the NSF fee and some fees related to the fraud from the new account. He agreed to do so and stated that he would call me a few days later when he had done this. I never heard back from Armond but I did later notice that he credited the fees related to the fraudulent checks.
Several weeks later, I began corresponding with Armond by e-mail so that I would have a record of our contact. I would e-mail him and would not reply for a few days and state that he had been too busy to respond to my request promptly.in his final e-mail, Armond refused to credit the NSF fee because he felt that it was not a bank error. He went on to state that he might have been able to help me if I had only contacted him sooner. (I have copies of all e-mail correspondence.) My initial request to remove the fees occurred less than two weeks after they charged the fee.
Armond misled me by omitting the fact that any outstanding bill pay items from the old account would be forwarded to the new account. The result is an NSF fee that he will not remove. Armond provided me with terrible customer service and misinformation that led to me paying a late fee. Armond and Suntrust have decided to further victimize a long-term customer that was already in a tough spot because of the fraud.
I am filing a complaint with the BBB, submitting a copy of this to as many Suntrust representatives as I can, posting this on message boards, and alerting friends and family of Suntrusts reprehensible business practices. As soon as practical, I will take my business to another bank. I firmly believe that Suntrust owes me this fee and an apology.
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