U.S. Bank / USBancorp ripoff, scandalous, abusive, incompetent, fraudulent, unethical conduct cheated employees and screwed the customers even more Based In Minneapolis; Operates Nationwide based in Minnesota; operates nationwide...
Our U.S. Bank Nightmare: The Five Star Screwing
In October, soon after the takeover of the "original" US Bank, we made a simple transfer of funds at a US Bank ATM from our savings account to our checking account. About ten days later we were notified by the bank that one of our checks had "bounced". When US Bank "customer service" was contacted, they advised that the ATM transfer had never been processed. Thus started our nightmare.
The bank proceeded to bounce every check written after the ATM funds transfer, a whole month's worth, and then charge various overdraft and penalty fees against our accounts. We eventually advised the bank that the problem was their error, that we expected FULL restitution for all funds improperly removed from our accounts, and that we would be assessing our own "penalty fees" against the bank for each check that was inappropriately overdrafted or returned NSF.
The bank ignored us for more than 30 days, although by law, their own policy, and the customer agreement, they were supposed to respond to us within 10 days. Eventually, US Bank had expropriated some $ 100 from our accounts in penalty fees. We advised the bank that we were exercising a right of set-off (as defined in the customer agreement) against our CreditLine account until such time as restitution was made and all legal matters (including the penalties we assessed against US Bank) had been resolved.
The US Bank response was, in an unsigned letter, "sorry for the inconvenience", but there is nothing you can do about it and we are not going to pay restitution or penalties.
A court summons was served on Mr. John Grundhofer (then-CEO) a week before Christmas. Within 2 days, US Bank began calling us on a regular basis (2 - 3 times per week) demanding payment on the CreditLine account. Given that legal action had been initiated such demands were inappropriate, and possibly in violation of various federal or state laws.
We went to trial in February, and won hands-down. The judge ruled that the customer agreement was reciprocal, and awarded us full restitution of fees imposed by US Bank, plus the amount of penalty fees that we had assessed against the bank. The judge gave a stern lecture to the bank's representative regarding what he considered "highly unprofessional conduct" on the part of US Bank.
We advised US Bank, immediately after the trial, that we would pay them the full balance of the CreditLine account, when they satisfied the judgement, providing that they had not adversely impacted our credit. It was a "no cost/no embarrassment" option. But, they ignored it.
US Bank finally satisfied the court judgement in March. When we checked our credit reports, there it was: They first started posting derogatory information days after the lawsuit was filed, and then, without advance notice or demand, "charged-off" the account as bad debt just days after we won the trial.
We notified the US Bank in May that the set off CreditLine account was in dispute, and attempted further negotiated settlement. Again, they ignored us.in fact, they didn't respond to the dispute notice until 3 months later: well after the required 30 day response limit.
To add insult to injury, they tried to sell the account to a collection agency in June, even though the account was in dispute, and they had yet to respond to the dispute notification [the collection company promptly gave the account back to them when the were advised of what was going on]. And, they continued to report the account as "charged off as bad debt", without indication of consumer dispute.
After months of attempting to resolve this issue with the bank, we had to file a federal lawsuit against US Bank (fair credit), to protect our ourselves and our credit history. U.S. Bank responded by using every tactic possible to extend the process and make it more costly to us. We settled the case with them in early 2002. We "won" in terms of getting our credit history unsullied. We "lost" to the extent that it cost us a bundle in legal fees and costs. The really sad thing is what they finally did in March they could have and should have done way back at the beginning of the problem 3 years earlier.
For more information about what U.S. Bank did to us, PLUS other peoples' U.S. Bank horror stories, the truth about the "Five Star Guarantee", and information on and links to customer complaints, employee abuse, scandals, fraud, alleged discrimination, embezzlement, lawsuits, and regulatory fines involving U.S. Bank and USBancorp, see
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