Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Why TD Bank Sucks Part 13

I ranted last week about some insane phone conversations I had with TD Bank while trying to get access to funds from the estate of my cousin, as my job as executor (personal representative is the legal term).

The saga continued, this time in a branch on Third Avenue where the customer service people are more like moles sitting in a chair, collecting a paycheck for saying things like, "what is the name of the person you spoke to at the 800 number?" and "I don't have that information, we need to speak directly to Debby."

First, have you EVER in your life got the name of the person you spoke to at the other end of an 800 number for a bank that has 1000 branches? And if you did, was that name something other than "Mary" or "John" or "Candy?" And second, Debby is dead, which is why I am calling. PAY ATTENTION you stupid fucking idiot.

It started on the phone with customer service, as I was trying to verify that the account has been closed (it was, finally) and where they sent the money (they have no idea). Since they couldn't tell me where the checks had been sent, and since they couldn't provide me with a statement of the account, the Supervisor told me she would "make a note" in the account so that when I went into the branch, they would know for sure that I was authorized on the account and could print me out a statement. Sounds reasonable, right?

But no, TD Bank branches apparently don't have access to the "notes in the record" like they do on the 800 number, and they aren't trained to tell me about it on the phone either. In this age of technology, each TD Bank branch is a separate entity and they haven't been trained to speak to each other or access each other's "notes." Instead of offering to call for me, the Customer Service Moron told me I should call her 800 number to see if I could find any information. I actually sat in front of the woman while I called her employer's 800 number to get verification from the "notes in my record." I think she was playing Solitaire while I was on hold.

The woman who answered the phone could see my name in the "notes" but couldn't authorize anything, for reasons that were not explainable. They would need to call someone at the branch! And even though earlier the same day, someone gave me information about the account, three hours later we were back to square one. I was sitting in a branch with a woman who said I had to speak to the person at the 800 number who presumably had access to the paperwork. As I screamed and argued about this, the battery of my phone died so I had to leave and go to a meeting about NOISE, which I was surely making in this bank branch. If I was a drunk bar goer, I would have fit right in, yelling into my cell phone, yelling at the people around me, pretty much having a nervous breakdown to avoid my impulse to strangle this woman in a cheap suit with oily hair. I should have called 311 to complain about myself.

Lesson #2: If you plan to die, and you care about your heirs, do not leave any money at TD Bank. They have no central office, no Trust Department, and no customer service.

Photo credit

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I work for TD and it disgusts me that you've received such crappy service. I'd like to believe this is the exception, and not the norm. I'm not in a position to help you with your situation, but I would like to offer you an apology.

Jill said...

Well thank you for the apology. I wasn't very nice to the lady in the bank, that's for sure.

TD Bank has a serious problem of not having a Trust Department to handle customers that have died, and they don't scan documents or provide shared information from branch to branch or from branch to phone.

And, like all call centers, their training is pitiful. If they had a department to handle deaths, this would have been centralized and easy. That is how every other financial institution I've dealt with during the past 3 months since my cousin died has it set up. TD Bank is the only one that operates so badly.

In fact, we were able to sell and close on her house and collect the money from two annuity and insurance policies faster than we were able to close this checking account.

Anonymous said...

My sister is also dealing with these idiots. Her husband died without an estate. He did however have a car loan through TDBank. He also had insurance that would pay the balance upon his death. Well, trying to find out how to do this when he does not have an executor is crazy! No one at the bank would talk to her, even though she was his wife. Come to find out, she needed to invoke her marital rights, ( which involved faxing documents to this stupid company twice, the first time they gave her the wrong dept, which when she called to find out why she hadn't heard anything from them they told her it was sent to the wrong dept, so she would have to re-fax the documents.If you knew they were sent to the wrong dept, could you not see your way out of getting off your LAZY ass and retrieving said documents???) Anyway, I digress,she finally found out that she had to call the car dealer that sold them the car. They had issued the insurance policy, so they were the ones who has to be notified.Long story short, they paid off the loan. Three weeks later she gets a call from TD Bank stating that there is a problem, my sister asks what the problem is, and the woman on the phone says she can't tell her what the problem is because it is confidential. Well since the person who took out the loan is dead, my sister asked this woman what she wanted to do about "the problem" when she wouldn't tell her what the problem was. My sister also informed her that she had confirmation that the loan was paid off. Well this crazy woman kept repeating that there was a problem that she couldn't discuss with her. My sister told her, (using not so nice language) to stop frigging calling her if she couldn't talk to her! Come to find out, they owe her 3 months of car payments that she made after her husband died. What a bunch of Fucking Idiots!!!!

Anonymous said...

They truly are a bunch of fucking idiot robots.

Anonymous said...

This bank is not where you want to do business. The customer service is horrible. The people who work there are inept at their jobs. If you have a problem they just pass you from person to person until you are so fed up you stop trying. Go to another bank and save yourself from a headache.

Anonymous said...

TD Bank sucks. The service is garbage. After the passing of my brother it took them months to liquidate the funds in the account. Do herself a favour and never bank with this institution there are a bunch of morons tht work there.

Arikcarlo said...

I just had a TD customer agent unilaterally and suddenly end our civil conversation about a complaint I had.

TD Bank sent me a TD Access card (debit card) although I cancelled my accounts with them many moons ago.

The TD agent was unable to check account information on me. How can you send someone a debit card and yet not keep account information on them??

She claimed it was a "glitch".

I cut the unwanted card into small pieces but kept the accompanying sheet. The agent did nothing to help me locate the bank card number on it though it must be there somewhere.

Utter hopeless inefficiency! SIGHT.