Chase Bank Sucks and should be FIRED

Does anyone who was born before the seventies lament the lack of customer service in the world today. I will pay extra for good customer service and it is truly a lost art. That is why, when I returned from Central America and found Washington Mutual I was happy. They actually had good customer service. They cared when you were in crisis and needed their help.

Well, as we all know, WAMU is no longer with us and has been replaced by that behemoth Chase. A few days ago they changed their system to Chase permanently and all signs of WAMU were lost. Take what happened to me today for example.

I deposited my check from my job as a teacher. I get paid once a month so it is rather a large sum and I am going through a divorce and I recently changed checking accounts. So, for about two months I have been stuck in the cycle of waiting on my paychecks in the mail and then depositing them in the branch.

Today, my check came and I took it to the bank to deposit it. I have done this in one form or fashion for the last seven years. It is a government check and I realize that that is not saying much these days. I deposited it and the first thing that I noticed was that there was no balance on the receipt. That should have caused me to pause, but I was in a hurry. I went and took care of some business in Los Angeles and was headed to sit and have dinner with two friends when I decided that I should get some cash. I bought a car recently, so I was low on cash before my deposit.  I put my card into the ATM at Chase in downtown Los Angeles and it said insufficient funds.

I immediately called Chase customer service. Now, if something like this had happened before with WAMU, it would have been fixed before I hung up the phone. However, Chase’s customer service people have a script and no matter how often you call them they give you the same patronizing corporate dribble.

The minions at Chase told me that there was nothing they could do for me and—one of them even said this—“we are not Washington Mutual anymore.” I spoke with a supervisor, whom I told, that I only needed a little cash available for the night and she gave me the same dribble.

I admit that by this time I was very peeved and my tone was not as professional as I would like, however, what horrible service. A customer—7 years—asks you to make a slight concession and you can only spout scripted baloney to them. Customer service means that sometimes you have to think outside of the box. Chase is so wrapped up in the box that their employees are like robots.

It’s a shame that WAMU had to disappear, but you would think that Chase would understand that customer service was why many of us went to WAMU in the first place. I would rather have the customer service people in India, who at least try to be friendly and accommodating than those at Chase whose brains have been taken out and replaced with sound bites. I’ll be changing banks this week. I’m looking for service and the smile.