I knew I should have closed my PNC bank account after I began to use it as it was not my primary bank account and dealt with issue after issue and less than competent staff and "customer service" representatives. But after they finally resolved my issue, I decided to give them another chance rather than open a new bank account since I would be moving more than 5 hours away from the nearest location of my primary bank.
I received a check for $2000.00 and a money order for $302.49 of Thursday 7/23. I drove to my primary bank location to deposit the items on Friday 7/24, only to find that building under construction and my bank gone. Luckily I looked across the street and there was a PNC bank. I felt relieved, mainly because I did not have to give up my DC parking space that already had 10 minutes on the meter (of my money)! I deposited both items at 5:00 pm and went on about my day. I called all of my financial institutions that night to write my account information in ledgers as I was moving the next day and would not be near a computer for the rest of the weekend. As expected, I only had $1.45 in my PNC account, the balance that it had been for some time.
On Saturday 7/25 (also my birthday) I began the burdensome task of packing my things. I was also transporting other acquaintances to the airport and train stations as they were also moving. I called PNC again to see if any funds were available. For some reason I was connected to a live human, and I merely asked her for my account information. She told me both me balance and available balance as $2303.94. I was excited that the items cleared so fast, but was driving. When I returned to my apartment I called back the automated line to write down my information. The automated line said, your balance is $2,303.94, all of which is available for withdrawal.
I thought this was great, I could take care of my banking before I moved and not have to worry about it over the remainder of weekend (my birthday again). So I logged into my laptop and went to my online PNC account page. The online summary also showed my ledger information, with my available balance being $2,303.94. I completed the following transactions all before 3:00 pm: paid a credit card bill online for $496, and put a transfer of funds from PNC to my primary bank account for $1,711.33, which should have left me with $100.00 in my PNC account. I logged out of my laptop, and packed the rest of my things in my car and moved out of DC.
I stopped along the way and made 3 purchases with my PNC check card. I reached my moving destination that night and slept soundly. I did not use my card on Sunday 7/26. On Monday, 7/27, I went to the grocery store and used my card for $12. On Tuesday 7/28 I was settled, and decided to check my PNC account to see the status of my transfer, this was around 5:30 pm. My account was showing -$118. I found this odd, and went to my transactions page and pending transactions page, where I saw 4 miscellaneous charges for $34 to $36 each. I thought someone had gotten my account information as this has happened to several in my group when they have used their cards to purchase passes for the DC metro system.
I called PNC bank at 5:35. The call lasted for close to 2 hours and went something like this:
The first gentleman I spoke to was a Jim Clark (actual name) and was less than competent, maybe it was his first day on the job. I asked him what those charges were, and he told me they were overdraft fees. I inquired about the overdraft fees because I should not have been over drafted and explained to him the series of bank events. He seemed confused and had me on hold for a total of 30 min, where he would check back in and ask me a question and then put me on hold again, chuckling under his breath throughout When he came back to the phone he said, well I am not seeing that there was any malfunction with the phone system. I said that is understandable, but I was also told my balance information, to which he replied, I can't speak for what someone else told you. I asked him to please transfer me to someone else (as I could see that his poor brain was terribly over worked.) He says, who would you like to speak to?
Now I have been in customer service for some time and when someone asks you in your place of work to be transferred it is understood that you want to speak to a higher up. I didn't know I needed to have a roster of names of all the workers in the PNC call center before I could be transferred, so I asked him to transfer me to someone more competent than yourself. He laughed again and said hold on. The idiot transferred me not to a person but to the call center main line (where I had to do the hold for the next available rep thing all over again) in an effort to dismiss himself of the issue. As luck would have it, when a person answered my call again, it was Jim Clark! I laughed, and said, didn't I just speak to you? He seemed shocked and flabbergasted and stumbled and said, haha maybe we all sound alike here, let me transfer you. I asked him how he knew I wanted to be transferred and he said, well may be I was just speaking to you, I was talking to a lady earlier... Certifiable dumbass. But I was transferred to the next Mensa contender, a Ms. Robin Peirce (actual name).
Ms. Peirce was the supervisor but liked to be called the account manager specialist in order to cover up her ghetto persona and overall lack of intelligence or skill. She asked what the issue was. I asked her whether they communicate with each other or make notes of call issues on accounts so that people do not have to explain the same story over and over again. She said that was up to the representative. Great business practice PNC - those that do not want to make note of an unhappy customer do not have to and our issue gets lost and forgotten about. I explained to her the story. My issue was this: I understood that these items may have took a while to clear and actually did not clear until the morning of the 28th as I was told by these people, but how can the customer be at fault if 3 separate bank sources on Saturday the 25th identified to me that my available amount was $2,303.94. Her response was that the bank doesn't make errors. Riiiiight, because that would be unfathomable. So I asked her for information on my account: what the balances were on certain days, what put me in overdraft, etc. She gave me a different answer for each question, even contradicting what she has stated previously and contradicting what I was told by Mr. Clark. I asked her to please transfer to someone in corporate, to which the ghetto came out. She responded with what must be PNC common practice, who would you like to speak to? I said, 'you work there tell me. She said that she could not transfer me because the office was closed and that they would not be able to help me anyways. Then she told me I would have to right a letter because they do not take calls.
Fine, I knew I was not getting anywhere with these people. So I ended the call after mentioning that PNC must be hurting otherwise to sink to such means in order to get money. So I wrote two letters and an email to PNC and stewed on the issue al night. I was charged 4 times and overdraft fee, and I knew that they also charged per day a fee for how long your account has been overdraft. I woke up Wednesday 7/29 and made a call to PNC at 7:33 am. This time I actually got an intelligent person that wanted to, by God, serve the customer. She listened to my issue, but I really called to ask her if she could put a freeze on my account so that I could handle this dispute without getting continuous charges. She said that that could not be done over the phone, and that I would have to go to the branch I opened the account with. I told her that branch was in PA and I was in VA and driving 5 hours for an answer that could be no' makes no sense. So she gave me the branch telephone number. So apparently it can be done over the phone, but the corporate call center cannot do it? Seems stupid, but I was willing to call. She seemed so helpful, so I decided to ask her some questions about my account. I asked her is she could give me my balance information as noted for the days of 7/24-7/27. She did. But the weekend days she said they do not keep information on those days. That really had me with a question mark. I explained to her my issue once more and let her know the balance information I was given on Saturday, but that they can not tell me. So I asked her how then can PNC tell me I was lying or making this up if they do not have record of my balances on those days at all. She scratched her head for a minute and notified me that she was seeing some errors on my account and that what I was saying did make sense. She put me on hold briefly, and came back to the phone. She said, now don't have a heart attack, but you are right! There was a system error.
I thanked her for actually listening and taking the time to find out that there was a problem. She said she would refund the overdraft fees and stop any continuous overdraft charges. It took me three separate people to actually get help at PNC bank and admit their error and reverse the outrageous charges. Even then, the representative that helped me had to end my call because her and her supervisor had to argue with the fee people on why they needed to remove my charges. I've had it with PNC bank and am closing the account. They obviously do not have a common business practice, do not keep or hire competent and informed staff, and are fee crazy without admitting fault. They just want and need money however they can get it and could care less about the customers that keep the bank open. I don't care if my primary bank will now be close to 10 hours away, I am keeping it over PNC.
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